Why should a church have a small group ministry?

"If we walk in the light, as he is the light, we have fellowship one with another" (1 John 1:7). Fellowship and companionship with other Christians are also vital for feeding and developing the divine life. The new nature desires fellowship and companionship with God and with fellow believers Association with fel low Christians draws out the new nature and strengthens the divine desires. "Two are better than one . . . for if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow" (Eccl. 4:9-10). If one is weak in the faith and liable to fall, companion ship with stronger Christians will lift him up and strengthen him. "Iron sharpeneth iron; so man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend" (Prov. 27:17). This is especially true in Christian companionship.

We are told in Hebrews 10:24-25 to "Consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together." By associating with other Christians we stir up each other unto love and good works and in attending Christian meetings our souls are fed together and built up in the faith. When two or three gather together unto the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, He is there in their midst (Matt 18:20), and special blessings are obtained thereby which strengthen and develop the new nature. Therefore fellowship in the light with other Christians is vital for the Christian life.

It is not a question of coming to hear a preacher or teacher. They have a common interest, a common bond, a common theme and object—Christ Himself; and they edify and encourage one another in Him.

The apostles’ “word,” their doctrine or teaching, had been believed, resulting in the formation of a fellowship, the gathering of a company, who outwardly expressed their identity with each other by breaking bread and praying together. This fellowship became a powerful testimony to the world; for the first time there existed a perfectly unselfish company, having mutual care and tender consideration for each other; knit together in heart and soul, seeking each other’s spiritual welfare and caring for each other’s bodily needs.

Where there is a healthy spiritual state in the saints — where the flock of Christ is fed, and whore they can retire from the chilling influences of this world, and be in the enjoyment of heavenly things, there the graces, feelings, and tastes of the Lord Jesus are in activity, and there is mutual support and a godly character amongst the saints. No Christian can stand alone, the opposition is too strong, the devil's system is all around, and the workings of the flesh easily carry one away, hence the great importance of meeting together.

And so the more Christians meet together in a right way, according to God’s Word and principles, the healthier for them. A sheep separated from the flock is generally a sickly sheep. Scripture expects believers to have fellowship and be helpers of each other’s faith.

Coupled with the apostles' doctrine is fellowship. Fellowship is a beautiful word, and one of peculiar significance to the church of God. Briefly it just means that everyone who is in the church of God has a common interest and a common title founded upon the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hence those who are in the church of God are irresistibly drawn together; and the Holy Spirit works in them all for the spiritual well-being of the community as a whole.

Meet as often as possible with your friends and companions for prayer, and converse with them about the Lord's things and His interests. This will be a means of strength. The Lord has instituted Christian fellowship as an important help to our spiritual growth and blessing (Jude 20, 21). But I would again emphasize the statement: Choose companions who are decidedly for Christ.

But it does now exist, and the souls before us were brought into it on that memorable day. "And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers." Stedfast continuance is good. To some Paul had to say, "Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?" (Gal. 5:7). Not so in Jerusalem on the Pentecostal day. There are four things to be noticed here. (1) "The apostles' doctrine." What else did they, or do we, want? Apostolic doctrine is the standard and test of truth as John declares, "We are of God: he that knows God hears us; he that is not of God hears not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error" (1 John 4:6). Are we prepared to bring all our ways and the teaching we accept to this test? Tradition is of but little worth, however ancient and widely received; what was "from the beginning" alone has a claim upon our souls. (2) "Fellowship." What a mercy that we are not called to walk alone! In a hostile world, what a relief to the heart that God has given us the fellowship of saints! Do we value it sufficiently? No saint is self-sufficient; we all need what God has for us by means of our brethren. But our fellowship must be holy. Better far to walk alone than compromise the Lord's name. In such a case His grace will be made sufficient for the soul, as many can testify; but such is not the ordinary Christian path, but fellowship. (3) "The breaking of bread." This had clearly a larger place in the Christianity of those days than now. While continuing daily in the temple, they broke bread "at home" on (at least) the first day of the week (Acts 20). Love was too fresh to be satisfied with a monthly or quarterly remembrance of Christ. In our day the very name is well-nigh lost, to say nothing of the reality. What are the sounds around us? One tells us of the mass, another of the sacrament; but how often do we hear God's titles, "the breaking of bread," and "the Lord's supper?" (4) "The prayers." They felt the solemnity of their position in the midst of enemies, and valued united prayer. When the apostles were "let go" in Acts 4, they at once sought out "their own company," and together they gave themselves to prayer. Do we feel our need? It is sorrowful to see saints, who are regular in their attendance at the Lord's table, indifferent to the prayer-meeting. What can be said of their condition of soul?

Nor were the gracious activities of personal charity to be their only care. It is in the assemblies of His saints that God is more abundantly glorified, when the once-purged worshippers present, with unity of mind and voice, their adoration to the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. By assembling together they acknowledged openly their common hope before the world, as well as to each other. In the priestly ministry of Jesus there was made a gracious and adequate provision for the faultiness and poverty of their corporate worship. As the Minister of God's true sanctuary, He delights to render, in the acceptable fragrance of His own perfections, the prayers and praises of His people here below. He bears the iniquity of their holy things. But from the beginning of the Gospel, impediments to genuine social worship have abounded. Satan abhors it, and has not ceased to labour for the hindrance, and, if possible, the prevention, of a practice which, when faithfully observed, affords the most effective testimony to the truth which he desires to destroy (John 17:21; 1 Cor. 14:23-25). The chief practical obstacle to Christian fellowship is natural selfishness. While our thoughts are upon heavenly things, and our hearts are filled with Him who is the substance of our promised hope, we are disposed instinctively for fellowship with those who are partakers of like precious faith. But because spiritual worship is a thing of faith alone, the counteractive working of the natural will is at all times ready to weaken and degrade it. A true sense of common danger as well as of common blessing, draws together those whose desire is toward the living God. A sense of personal weakness, when combined with simple trust in Jesus, impels the sheep who know His voice to flow together to their appointed place of safety and refreshment (Matt. 18:20). But when faith, through lack of exercise, becomes enfeebled, and human motives, as a natural consequence, begin again to govern the believer in his ways, he will have less interest in these demonstrative expressions of the common joy. Pretexts might easily suggest themselves to one who only looked to Jesus as his ultimate escape from wrath, of weight enough to justify him in a more private and exclusive walk. This was early exemplified in the Church of God. Already a systematic absence from all social worship was the manner of some (verse 25).

It is impossible that any member of the body can walk healthfully alone. When any choose to do so, it is because there is something wrong in the state of their souls; for we are members one of another, and can no more do without each other's service, than one member of the human body can dispense with the assistance of the others. Those who have cultivated this fellowship have proved its blessedness. Nothing, surely, can more completely deny the ground of the church of God, than the habit of going on in the various details of life, outside the public gathering together of the saints, independently of the other members of the body. Such a state of things is to be deplored, not only as dishonouring to the Lord, but as damaging to souls. It is, however, to be feared, that many, who have sat at the Lord's table for a course of years, have known but little, or nothing, of this practical fellowship in the Spirit. Such things ought not to be. When saints of old were in primitive freshness and fervour, when "great grace was upon them all," we know how lovingly the fellowship extended itself, even to the things of this life. We read, They were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness. And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and one soul; neither said any of them that the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common … neither was there any among them that lacked … and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need." (Acts 4:31-37.)