Outside In
by Jim Poole
Excerpted from Willow Creek Magazine, Summer 2008

“Hey, I knew we were running late, but I didn’t think we were that late.”

Kristi and I were running up the steps because we were, y’know, late, and coming down the stairs was a guy to whom Kristi was directing her remark.

“Hey, Dude!” Kristi can be outspoken on occasion, “Is it over? Is it breaking up already?”

“Oh, uh, no.” The guy seemed startled that a stranger would be talking to him. He looked up and added, “It’s just getting started I think.”

“Well, then, you’re going the wrong way!” Kristi persisted.

“Oh, uh, well I don’t think I’m supposed to be there — you’re asking about the church group, right” He was second-guessing what was happening at the moment. He wore his coat zipped all the way up to his chin, though it was unseasonably warm, and his baseball cap was pulled down low.

“Yeah, yeah, it’s a community group kickoff,” Kristi confirmed. “And whaddaya mean you’re not supposed to be there?”

“Well, everybody else’s bringing in a dish to pass and I don’t have … ”

“Oh, rubbish, the potluck thing is just optional, just for the regulars. C’mon, let’s go in … ”

“Seems like everyone is a regular in there,” he managed a chuckle, “I just heard about this deal this afternoon … ”

“Well, it’s not like there were any formal invitations or anything,” I tried to joke.

He then held up a postcard with a graphic that depicted a formal type invitation. “They handed this to me at the door … just to me. I think everyone else knows each other … ”

Kristi interjected, “Well, what’s your name?”

“Will.”

“Hey, I’ve got a little nephew named Will,” I offered as a way to connect. “You kinda remind me of him: he didn’t want to go to his Sunday School classroom because he didn’t know any of the other kids there and …”

They both just looked at me with blank stares. Then Kristi slugged me in the arm.

“Don’t pay any attention to him. I’m Kristi and he’s a blockhead. So now you know us, let’s go in, whaddaya say?”

Kristi won Will over and introduced him to other people in the community group. He discovered several others who were there for the first time and who didn’t know anyone else either. Some even joked about being intimidated about entering the room where it looked like everyone already knew everyone else and were having a great time as old friends, when in fact it turns out half the people there were newcomers.

When you’re on the outside looking in, things can often appear to be closed and exclusive and unfamiliar and intimidating. It’s not until you’re brought inside that the scales fall away from your eyes and you see things with more clarity. Like how everyone wants to have community, a place where everyone knows your name ... and how it seems like that kind of community is ever so elusive ... and how it just takes someone to kindly usher us in from the outside.

Life Together:A Shared Life

By: Rick Warren

How wonderful it is, how pleasant, for God’s people to live together in harmony! Psalms 133:1 (TEV)
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God intends for us to experience life together. The Bible calls this shared experience fellowship.

Today, however, the word has lost most of its biblical meaning. Fellowship now usually refers to casual conversation, socializing, food, and fun.

The question, “Where do you fellowship?” means “Where do you attend church?” “Stay after for fellowship” usually means “Wait for refreshments.”

Real fellowship is so much more than just showing up at services. It is experiencing life together. It includes unselfish loving, honest sharing, practical serving, sacrificial giving, sympathetic comforting, and all the other “one another” commands found in the New Testament.

When it comes to fellowship, size matters: smaller is better. You can worship with a crowd, but you can’t fellowship with one.

Once a group becomes larger than about ten people, someone stops participating—usually the quietest person—and a few people will dominate the group.

Jesus ministered in the context of a small group of disciples. He could have chosen more, but he knew twelve is about the maximum size you can have in a small group if everyone is to participate. The body of Christ, like your own body, is really a collection of many small cells. The life of the body of Christ, like your body, is contained in the cells.

For this reason, every Christian needs to be involved in a small group within their church, whether is it a home fellowship group, a Sunday school class, or a Bible study. This is where real community takes place, not in the big gatherings.

If you think of your church as a ship, the small groups are the lifeboats attached to it. God has made an incredible promise about small groups of believers: “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst” (Matthew 18:20 NASB).