NEWS - Explosive potential

Roger Thoman writes 'The Simple Church Journal', a blog about simple, organic church life.

His most recent post examines the potential for mission which he argues is inherent in small, organic forms of meeting.

Roger asks

Could a small (but growing) movement of simple/organic church-lifers lead to a revolutionary impact upon world missions? There is something deep inside of me that says the answer to this question could be a resounding “YES.”

I agree with him! Something deep inside of me resonates with that loud, exclamatory 'Yes!' My own experience recently has been that the very smallest forms of church life are generally the easiest to spread and the hardest to stamp out. They tend to be deeply relational, focussed, and zealous in everything they do. They tend to consist of people who listen to the Spirit because they want to hear his voice and follow his direction and receive his encouragement. Small groups often reach out to the world, not to suck people in to the group but to birth new groups. How exciting is that?!

Roger is right to imagine how these small expressions of church might transform societies and cultures. They have the potential to do exactly that.

But small groups can run aground and stick fast just like larger groups can. It's not size that causes a boat to hit a reef or sandbar, it's navigating into shallow water. As long as we float deep in the things of the Lord supported only by the water we will go where the wind of the Spirit takes us. But the moment we take our eyes off Yahshua and fix them instead on growth in numbers, church finances, patterns of worship, forms of church governance, offices, structure, and the rest we are bound to stick fast and stop travelling.

Although this can (and does) happen to groups of any size, there is no doubt in my mind that smaller groups are less likely to be trapped and more likely to be refloatable in the event they do run aground.

And the smallest of all (CO2) is perhaps the most nimble of the lot. After all, what are the chances of running aground in an inflatable ring?