What about the mega-church model of small group ministries?

I once worked in an office that was quite caught up in a then well-known book. The E-Myth was a business book, written by Michael Gerber. His thesis, as I recall, was that successful businesses are those that learn to franchise themselves, after turning themselves into turnkey operations. The receptionist, like most people at the office, was reading the book, and she asked for my opinion. I opined in this manner, “I suspect, as with most business books, that whatever good one may find therein is common sense. Whatever one may find that is not common sense is likely not very good.”

The same holds true for the church, and her sundry strategies pouring forth from the program factory. Consider the altar call. Precious few of us, I suspect, would want to defend the whole clichéd, “the busses will wait while we play fifteen more verse of Just as I Am.” But, a case might be made for say, calling on the congregation to repent and believe. A case could be made for giving opportunity for people to come into the kingdom publicly, and for others to recommit their lives. A case could be made for coming forward for prayer. When you look at it this way, suddenly it looks both like Sovereign Grace Fellowship where I serve, and like the ancient church. We have an “altar call” every week, and everyone, after hearing gospel preaching, comes forward. We call it celebrating the Lord’s Supper.

I had a similar experience in a church I was a part of earlier in my life. I was heading for the sanctuary, only to have an earnest young man, caught up in the grip of some evangelical program, ask me an odd question. “Do you,” he asked, “have an accountability group?” I smiled and said to him, “Well, I have friends, if that’s what you mean” and went on into worship. There is no idea so simple and straightforward that we evangelicals can’t build a program out of it.

Mega-churches, of course, didn’t invent friendships. They didn’t invent the plain biblical notion that we are to encourage one another on to good works. They didn’t invent the idea that we are to confess our sins one to another. They didn’t invent the idea that we are called to love our neighbors. From my perspective these things come together not in this or that program, but in local churches that are small enough for genuine relationships.

In like manner, we have no need for “small group ministries.” What we need is a joyful commitment to the practice of hospitality. We should invite folks into our homes, and visit the homes of others. There should be no rules for this, no “dinner coordinator” that makes each family play musical chairs with each other family, all while carrying around a casserole if your last name begins with A through G, and a dessert if R through Z. Instead we ought to share table fellowship freely and happily.

I suspect that when mega-churches build these programs what they are trying to do is undo their own nature, to in some way stop being a mega-church. I am sympathetic to that sentiment. My suggestion, however, would be not to build more programs, but to build fewer mega-churches. When we simply obey what God has revealed to us, we have no need to make up programs along the way. And we find blessing.