In his classic book, Life Together, the late Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, The Christian needs another Christian who speaks God's word to him. He needs him again and again when he becomes uncertain and discouraged, for by himself he cannot help himself. He needs his brother as a bearer and proclaimer of the divine word of salvation. Coming up on Living on the Edge, Chip will unpack the influence and necessity of Christian community. I'm Dave Druy.
Thanks for joining us for this special program and I'd like to welcome in our Bible teacher, Chip Ingram, to give us a bit of context for this message today. Thanks, Dave. If you've listened to Living on the Edge for a very long time, you've heard us talk about BIO, B-I-O. It's an acronym, it's for life. Throughout church history or today, you meet a man or a woman that is a lot like Jesus, and I will tell you for sure, three things are happening in their life in their practice.
They come before God regularly, probably daily. And then they're doing life I, in community. They're connected to other believers. There's support, there's accountability, there's real love. And finally, on mission.
The heartbeat of this ministry is believers not just hearing God's word, but actually living it out. That's absolutely right, Chip. And because we are focusing in on the I of that acronym today, I wanted to share an email we received that really drives home the importance of being in community with other believers. Here's what a listener named James wrote. Over the last six months, I've been part of two Living on the Edge group studies at church.
I deeply appreciate your emphasis on the importance of a solid relationship with God over doing Christian things. Your teaching has challenged me and changed my life. I continue to do my best to live as a Romans 12 Christian and trust God to work in and through me to accomplish his purposes. Such an encouraging story, Chip.
Well, there's a few things that motivate me like when men step up the way James has. And James, way to go into every James out there, because you're living in a world that is diabolically opposed to everything that God wants to do. And when you get in the Word, When you get into a small group with authentic community and then you mobilize like this man is, the world changes. And, you know, sometimes we forget that it takes time, it's organic. And, you know, I think of 1996, we were on two radio stations and we just had a dream to help some people.
And then, you know, now, what is it, 900 radio stations or so, and then TV around the world. But I'm probably most encouraged by all the small groups that grew out of that. Did you notice what he said? I did two studies. This is what's happening because he's connected, he's growing, and applying.
And we developed those studies because people gave generously. And I just want to say thank you to those of you that have partnered with us in the past. And I would like to ask you, if you have not done that, would you partner with us? It's just an amazing time. God is working.
We just need to see more James in more homes. We need to see more small groups and more churches living it out, serving their community, and we can get there together. Let's do it. Good word, Chip.
Well, if you want to help us create small group materials and get believers into authentic community, pray about becoming a financial partner. Your gifts fuel our growing library of resources to help Christians really live like Christians. Visit livingonthege.org or call 888 333-6003 to give a gift today. That's 888-333-6003 or go to livingontheedge.org. And thanks in advance for doing whatever God leads you to do.
Okay, let's get started. Here now is Chip with today's talk, Why You Need a Small Group. I was reading an article recently that talked about the very, very best communicators. And Steve Jobs, who started Apple, said, information tells. stories sell.
And what he was saying there was, we can give people 10 reasons, 15 reasons, here's all the data. And oftentimes it doesn't make a big difference in their life, but there's something about a story that Captures our imagination, that connects to not just our head, but to our heart. Let me give you a story that I hope will grab your heart and maybe really encourage you. Teresa and I were in a big, big transition in our life. We had moved to Texas.
We had two little boys. I was just starting seminary. And we found a local church there in the Dallas area. And this church had a couple thousand people. We came from West Virginia where a mega church was 250 or 300 people.
It was very warm. The preaching was excellent. The worship was excellent. We would drop off our kids and it was just exciting and they loved to go to church. And the first time we were there, people invited us over to their home.
We had a meal. We ate ice cream. I mean, if you were trying to create an experience, we'd say, that's what a church ought to do, it would be that. And I will never forget, maybe it was six weeks or eight weeks in of these wonderful after wonderful after wonderful after wonderful experiences at church. We were opening the door, and I had my hand on one of the handles, and Teresa did on the other, and our eyes met, and I turned to her and I said, Do you want to go to church today?
And she said, No. I said, you know, neither do I. And there was a Wendy's across the street, and said, Let's go get a cup of coffee. And we sat down. And we tried to figure out This is prob lady.
One of the best churches. Best services. Most friendly. Very biblical. that we'd ever been to.
So what's wrong? Why do I not want to go to church? We were being taught, we learned a lot. but we were ministering to no one. Nobody knows us.
We don't know anybody else. There was no intimacy. No one in the church really felt close. Nothing more than casual hellos and passing concerns. We were relationally high.
and dry. And I remember praying and I got up one morning and I thought to myself, I knew that leaders, whether it's a pastor or business owner, were looking for people that wanted to make a difference, that were willing to step in and serve. And so I got a three by five card out and I wrote my name and some contact information and then very brief bullet points of I've led a college ministry and I've done this and I was involved in this, involved in that. And then I went to the church office during the week and I said, could I have an appointment with the pastor? You know, it's a big church and I'll never get there.
And she smiled and looked on some calendars and then she gave me a date. And he had me meet at a restaurant. It was just like a diner, nothing fancy. And so we both sat down and Part of what I wanted to do was talk about where we might fit in the church. And we had lunch and we talked and he asked me a few questions about my 3x5 card and this and that.
Two days later, I got a call from the church and they said, hey, we have a large high school ministry. And would you and your wife be willing to kind of help team up with the group that's there? There's a couple couples that are working there and figure out maybe what role you could have. And yes, absolutely. And I taught here and there, and we connected with the church.
We connected with those kids. It was like two months later. He said, hey, we have a big vacancy. We don't really have much of a college ministry. Would you be willing to kind of step in and lead that?
And my wife and I said yes. And we had the time of our life going to seminary, leading this ministry. And as we would meet together, I would disciple them and Teresa the girls. And we would spend some time eating and sharing. Sharing, worshiping with the guitar, and help the young guys learn how to communicate their faith and build bridges and love people.
And I look back, and all of a sudden, our world completely changed. I had all this pressure. I was working full-time, going to seminary full-time, and the highlight of my week was these 10 or 12 college students who really love God, who were hungry, and we were a part of their life. And, you know, we had a baby during that time, and they just all gathered around us. And the group grew like crazy.
And yes, it was a lot of hours, but I don't know if I could have made it through seminary apart from that group. And someone asked me, How do you do so much? And I thought, I'm learning so much, Greek, and Hebrew and theology, and every book of the Bible, the joy of teaching every week that college group. And if you don't give it out somewhere, you go crazy. And two things happened.
We were using our gifts, we were building deep. Authentic relationships, and we got to be a part of people's lives changing. I had been a basketball coach and led a college ministry on the side as a lay person, and I knew about developing small groups and discipling men, and I praised God for the bricklayer who discipled me. But I had never done it when there was that much pressure. I'd never done it when it was my lifeline.
And it gave me a completely different view of the church. Today, like never before, more people are not going to a local church. A lot of people have kind of left the church after COVID and. For some very good reasons and for some not so good reasons, a lot of people are just online. Others, you know, you go to church and you hear someone speak and there's singing and there's some worship and then you get up and make some small talk and you leave.
And these ideas of life change and joy and peace and feeling connected and they just are not a part of a lot of very genuine, sincere Christians' lives. See, the church isn't that building and the church isn't what I'm getting out of it as a consumer. The church is the living, supernatural body of Jesus. That's vital and it's organic, and it's about people, and it's about being connected. It's not going and listening to a message and evaluating that, and maybe even putting it into practice.
That's a very important part of it. I mean, I hope it's an important part of it because I've spent decades of my life studying hard, praying hard, preparing messages to feed God's people. But what the Bible teaches is that we can't put it into practice alone. To be loved and to belong and to change and to feel God's love and to be used by Him and to discover spiritual gifts. That can't happen by watching online.
This is not a guilt trip. This is you're missing out. That can't happen by simply going to church. And I don't mean this as a bad word, but by being just a consumer. You have to move.
to being a participant. You're listening to Living on the Edge. And before we continue today's program, let me ask you, are you in a small group? If so, are you looking for a new study to do together this year?
Well, join us after this message to learn more about our library of resources that's sure to help you and your group grow in your faith together. But for now, here's Chip to continue his talk. I'm reading a book on the emotions. It's by a theologian, and he's a counselor and has lots of degrees. But he talks about the deepest longings.
Desires inside every human heart is number one to be connected relationally with other people and number two your life making a difference. When you go to work, when you go to church, when you wake up. It's that idea of having purpose and meaning that what you actually do Is making a difference. Apart from that, we lose hope, we lose meaning. We see it happening in young people, in the next generation, because once you lose absolute truth and once you have no spiritual, religious orientation, well, that means there's no why I am here.
And so often They don't experience that when they visit a church, if they ever do visit a church. And the great majority of young people that have left the church is because they haven't been connected. And that longing and that belonging has not happened. It's been, I hear someone talk about Jesus, they tell me what Jesus did, they tell me how I'm supposed to live, they tell me my morals need to be X, Y, and Z. And when I go home or when I see my parents who say they're followers of Jesus, I don't see a lot of difference in their life.
And I am being exposed to media and movies and a culture that's bombarding me each and every day that says life really has no meaning. You are whatever you feel. And in all that confusion, They struggle. What I really want to say is Jesus really cares about you. He loves you.
I mean, he really loves you and he's for you. And we all have some common needs, and those common needs they can't ever be satisfied by what can come across the screen, they can't be satisfied by even doing a good job or having a great career or even marrying the right person, Loneliness and Depression. The number one health issues in our world can only be solved by deep, enriching, honest, authentic relationships. and all of us are so insecure, and all of us have so many defense mechanisms, and all of us are so afraid that people will get to know who we really are. We spend so much time posing in relationships.
And Jesus so longs for us. To come in honesty and authenticity and transparency. And that can't happen in a large group, whether it's 100 or 500 or 5,000 worshiping together. That large group worship service has a very, very vital and important place, but our personal relationships require the container. of a small group.
Okay. Psychologists tell us the only way to overcome the stress and pressure of life is some sort of small, supportive group. We kind of laugh sometimes. You get a little bit older and if you look at teens in a high school and you get the sports group and they dress this way and sort of the music type group and they look this way and the more nerdy people look this way and you know sometimes we can laugh and say that's what kids do, but we want to belong. I mean, it's inherent in every single human being.
And whether you're 60 years old and on big Harley-Davidson motorcycles with long hair, or whether you're preppy looking, or whether you're a software developer, or whether you play softball on the weekends with this group, we all are looking for groups and belongings. And then we dress in ways and we speak in ways that we are desperate for people to say. I want to be in this group because I'm desperate. for someone to know me and I can know others in a meaningful way. Our greatest desire is to be known and to discover who we are and that our life has meaning and value and that we're to have that in love and acceptance with other people.
Where and how do you get that? What I know is that there's a small percentage of followers of Christ, and there's a small percentage of people who go to church regularly that are in what I would call an authentic, deep, relational, small group. This fall, we're going to really cast a vision to say. you need to be in a small group. We're going to talk about all of our small group resources that we make, some things that every believer needs to study.
We have it on video, and we have it in different formats. And you can tell me, well, my church really doesn't provide that. I'm going to say, fine, you start one. I will tell you this, instead of just giving you some great content and having you watch a video or study something on your own, I will lead the small group. You put the video on.
Teaching's only about 25 minutes. I'll lead the first few minutes of that group. You don't have to be alone. If you just open your home, invite some friends, and you would be shocked. If you said to a group of people, my house, we're going to do this, it's eight weeks or whatever, and why don't you come?
Ask one person, hey, would you mind maybe bringing some drinks and a few snacks? And you just do that together. And yeah, it's awkward the first week or two, but in all of our small group resources that we make, in the back of them, we give you, hey, here's how to set up. Here's how to kind of lead and facilitate things. Here's a few things not to do.
And I just can't tell you how critical and important this is. We've just launched hundreds of thousands of groups all across America and places around the world. And we help people get connected. We help people belong. We help people discover that God will show up in it.
And I told you, you know, we've been doing lots and lots of teaching and we just taught through the entire book of Philippians. And what I want to encourage you is, is hearing about that is good, but getting that kind of information and then a discussion where you share. And where yes, the truth of that becomes at the core of meeting, but then you begin to share your life. and your struggles and your ups. and your downs, and you begin to really authentically and openly pray for one another.
And as you begin to go on that journey, God will show up. I remember I was coming off of one of my many back surgeries, and I realized that my attempts getting back with it were not doing well. And I'm kind of cheap, so I didn't want to pay a personal trainer. But I realized I've got to get strong again, and I'm not doing well on my own. And so there was a place I didn't know anybody there, and I pulled in and said hi to the guy and told him what I needed to do.
And he said, Well, this last person's done. Let me do a little interview. And he got a clipboard out and asked me a bunch of questions. And we got through, I don't know, maybe 10, 12 questions, 15 minutes. And he looked at me and said, You sound very familiar.
I said, well, what do you mean I sound familiar? He goes, well, I've heard your voice. And then he kind of looked down at the clipboard. He goes, Are you Chip Ingram, like the guy that's on the radio? I said, Well, yeah.
And he broke out in this big smile and I said, You got to be kidding me. And he then began to tell me his story. It's one of the most powerful stories I've ever heard and we have now been friends well over ten years since. And he told me the story of being involved in full-time Christian work and having a huge moral failure. lost his family.
Later, he married the woman that he was having the affair with, had a couple kids with her, and he lived in that life for well over a decade. And then God got a hold of his heart. And I had met him shortly after he had really come back to the Lord, a really deep repentance. He had gone back and rebuilt bridges and apologies and was making amends, was living in a very, very difficult situation. You can imagine the struggles, the guilt, the shame, the issues he had to overcome.
In the midst of all this, we would work out three times a week, and he was a great trainer, and I was making progress, and we shared a lot. And as we talked month after month after month, I realized that there was something missing. I said, Do you know why you can't get over the hump? You need a group, man. No one can do this alone.
You're the most disciplined person I know. You're in the scriptures. You're praying. You're making every effort. You can't do this alone.
You need a small group. And he goes, Oh, my schedule, I can't do this. I can't do that. I'm working multiple times and doing this and doing that. And I had a buddy at a church who's doing a real early morning small group with 6, 15, 300, 400 guys were coming to it.
And then they would break into groups. I said, You need to go to that. He's a good friend. He's a great teacher. You'll meet great men there.
The guy rearranges the schedule. And that was the beginning of life. Of the Spirit of God using other men, of being understood, of being loved, of realizing he wasn't alone. And that was for two years or so. And then pretty soon they were taking a big, big break for like months.
And his group didn't want to take a break. And so he kept going and he led it. And then after that, there was another guy that had a friend, and so he starts another group. All these years later, he leads about four different groups. He has led more people to Christ, his 88-year-old father and like 90-year-old mother.
And if you really think about it, the people that really want to change have learned this. And whether it's AA or Weight Watchers or Gamblers Anonymous or Teen Challenge Drug Rehab or Smokers That Want to Quit, any group of people. have found the secret of life change, they realize. You gotta do it in a group. You gotta have real people that get to know you and you know them.
And so here's my play. You need a small group. And if you don't have one, launch one. You don't know how? We'll help you.
But Christians need to live like Christians. for their good and for the glory of God. And Christians cannot live like Christians apart from authentic community. An authentic community happens In the context or the container of a small group. And that's my prayer, that's my longing for you.
This fall, don't let one more fall go. Don't let importance of meetings or of life or of travel or schedule or school or family or anything. Make sure, whether it's a men's group, a women's group, a couple's group. whether it's every week or every other week. Teresa and I have an unusual group.
We actually meet once a month and we have a dinner with people of similar life stage. We just had one last night. It went four hours. And because of our schedules, it's hard to get together, and once a month may not be enough for many. Regularity is better.
But these are mature people in our life stage. And we eat and we go to a different house each time and then we share deeply for three or four hours and we bring each other up to date. And it is an evening that I look forward to every 30 days. And I don't work with any of them. I don't report to any of them.
These are friends and when I show up, I'm nothing more or nothing less than just Chip, Teresa's husband. And we have an openness and a transparency. that sustains me and is changing my life. I so long for that for you. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram.
I'm Dave Druy, and I hope you were encouraged and motivated by this special message from Chip, why you need a small group. Chip's back with me in studio now, and Chip, it's pretty obvious from this program why we as followers of Christ need community and how necessary small groups are. I mean, they can forever change someone's life and help all of us mature spiritually. And as you mentioned today, we have a growing library of study guides and video resources for small groups.
So take a minute, if you would, and highlight a few our listeners should check out.
Well, Dave, we all have special times in our life where there's either crisis or we know we need to improve our parenting, our marriage, or there's some emotional issues. And as people go through, there's plenty of small group resources like that. But what I think is missing is what historically has been called a catechism. A catechism is a well-ordered process of truth. By which you go through it systematically and intentionally in order to become more and more like Jesus and to fulfill more and more what Jesus has called us to do.
And so, if you follow Jesus' life, his actual chronological life, the first thing is he defined what a disciple is. And so, the very first study I encourage people to do is true spirituality, becoming a Romans 12 Christian. It'll let them know this is what it means to be a follower of Jesus. The second thing Jesus did is he took them through various experiences to reveal who God was like. What is God really like?
And so, our second study, it's called The Real God. And in that, we study the attributes of God and how to get them from your head into your heart. The third thing that Jesus did is he helped them understand how life change really occurs? How do you put it into practice? We have a study from Ephesians chapter 4 called Transformed: the Miracle.
Of life change. And then the fourth one I'll give you, because I don't want to lay it all out, is that when you take these kinds of steps, all hell breaks loose. I don't mean that as a cuss word. What I mean is it's challenging, it's difficult. There's spiritual warfare.
And that's our study from Ephesians chapter 6. It's called The Invisible War: What every Believer Needs to Know About Satan, Demons, and Spiritual Warfare.
So let me encourage you: unless there's a critical need, a high-felt need, Consider studying in order the catechism the way Jesus taught his disciples.
Well, to learn more about the studies Chip mentioned or any of our other small groups, go to livingonthege.org or call us at 888-333-6003. And let me tell you, these materials are so easy to use. Chip provides the teaching. Then you'll have time to discuss what you've heard alongside our helpful study guides. We even offer some insights for leaders on how to care for and guide their groups as well.
So if you're not in a small group yet or are looking for something new to study, check out our resources. And for a limited time, we've discounted all our small group tools. Visit livingontheedge.org or call us at 888-333-6003 to learn more. App listeners tap special offers.
Well, from all of us here, I'm Dave Druy, thanking you for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge, and I hope you'll join us again next time.
