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Resources for Small Groups - A Church Without Walls
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Purpose
To consider where your church could begin to have a presence beyond the walls of the building in which you worship.
What to do
Introduction
1. Just for fun (but with a serious point), ask the group to imagine that the building in which the church worships has been struck by lightning. Obviously your vicar or pastor has gone too far this time! For a few weeks, until everyone is sure they are safe, you can’t meet in any of the buildings that the church owns. Your group has been given the task of finding somewhere new to meet.
Firstly, draw up a list of some of the things that will be important in your decision. Should it be a place where the congregation is on show, or where they are very private? Must you have electricity, or can you manage without? Will you need somewhere separate for children, or will you all worship together? Somewhere to have refreshments, or to play music? When you have worked out the constraints, start identifying some locations in the neighbourhood.
Then introduce a new complication. All the buildings in the neighbourhood are fully booked for the next few weeks. There is no choice – you have to meet in the open air! Have a discussion about where you would select. And then decide whether this would be a disaster or an opportunity.
Bible study
2. Invite someone to read Acts 16:11-15 (below). Before you do so, introduce it by explaining that in the Mediterranean at the time of Jesus a synagogue had to have at least ten men before it was allowed to meet in a building (even if there were dozens of women and children). The synagogue in Philippi was not that big, so you are about to discover where they met. The ‘we’ you hear about in the reading refers to Paul and his companions, who were on a journey to tell people in the major towns around the Mediterranean the good news about Jesus.
From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, and the next day on to Neapolis. From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days.
On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshipper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message. When she and the members of her household were baptised, she invited us to her home. ‘If you consider me a believer in the Lord,’ she said, ‘come and stay at my house.’ And she persuaded us.
3. Getting out into the community more- encourage churches to think about how to reach beyond their walls in order to bring good news to the community. In what sense did Paul and his companions fulfil the challenge to get out more? In what sense was the synagogue at Philippi getting out more? After Lydia came to a Christian faith, did she show any sign of wanting to get out more?
As a post script, point out that Lydia came from Thyatira. Might she have been the one who took the good news back to her home town? Read Revelation 2:18,19 to find out what the result was.
To the … church in Thyatira write: These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.
You and your church
4. Turn your attention back from Philippi to your own neighbourhood. Where are the places that people in the area naturally gather? The church building is one, obviously, but there are many others. Ask one of the group to make a list of the suggestions people make on a big piece of wallpaper. (If they are stuck, suggest a local pub, sports centre, park or school to help them begin to think.) When the list is complete, go through them one at a time asking: ‘How much do Christians from this church interact with people at this location? A lot, a little, or not at all?’
Focus on the ones which you designated: ‘A lot’. What could the Christians do in these places in order to announce the good news of Jesus there – either through the things they do or through the things they say? Point out that what you are discussing is the equivalent of what happened in Philippi many years ago.
5. Give everyone a photocopy of one of Church Army's action sheets. There are five of these, and each tells the story of what one of Church Army’s evangelists has been doing in order to reach the community beyond the walls of the church. In each case the action they took is simple and could be copied in any church in the country. Find them by going to Action Ideas, and choose one (or more) likely to appeal to the group.
Give the group a chance to read the action sheet. Does it remind them in any way of Lydia in Philippi? If something like this happened in the neighbourhood of your church, how would you feel? Enthusiastic, anxious, embarrassed, or …?
Prayer
6. In a time of prayer, lift to God one at a time the places you have mentioned on your list, and the people who gather there. Pray that they will hear the good news of Jesus, and pray about your own church’s part in bringing that about.
Peter Graystone
Church Army
Peter Graystone works for Church Army, developing fresh expressions of Christian community that allow the good news of Jesus to reach beyond the walls of churches in new and relevant ways. His previous ministry has been with Christian Aid and Scripture Union, and he is the author of many books, including the bestselling "Detox Your Spiritual Life in 40 Days"- available from Canterbury press at www.scm-canterburypress.co.uk
