Group Behaviour ‘ACTS’ Out from ‘Genesis’ to the ‘Present’

Relationship vs Championship

So why do believers meet regularly? Have we stop to consider, why do we come together to meet in small group? Are we not already seeing one another in church on Sunday?

Looking at Acts 2:46, “Every day they continued to meet together . . . ate together . . .”

The believers in the first century did not set out to win the championship. They did not set goals for themselves in order to gather together. Coming together to meet was not to aim for some kind of target or objective. They did not even have evangelism or multiplication in mind. No one, not even the apostle encourage the daily meeting for the purpose of multiplying.

The main purpose for the apostles and early believers meeting daily is to build relationship. They are now a “new tribe” of Israel. Born after much birth pain, with the first-born, Jesus. They meet daily to encourage each other. Not to increase their numbers. Israel now has 13 tribes, not just 12 tribes, so to speak. They are a new addition to the family. Thought they may be consider outcast. Therefore, meeting together is important in order to encourage each other. Building relationship, forming the new family unit needs the gathering of its members.

“. . . Meet together . . . ate together . . .” result in the “STRENGTHENING OF THEIR RELATIONSHIP.”

 

Individual or Group or Community

Individual Characteristic: I see, I decide, I take, etc.
Group Characteristic: Objective, Competitive, Supportive, etc.
Community Characteristic: Survival, Relational, Social, etc.

In the Garden of Eden, all three characteristics are displaced in the lives of the human ancestor. Adam and Eve are truly individuals. They make their own decisions. Eve decides to eat the fruit from the Tree of Good and Evil. It is not a group decision, neither is it a family (community) decision. It was her own individual decision.

Yet, the group behaviour is right there in the Garden, because Adam was not far away from Eve. He was near enough to share the fruit, but far enough to stop her from taking the fruit. So Adam is supportive of Eve taking the fruit, yet competitive to point the finger at Eve. “It was the WOMAN.”

God works within a community. A family. With God, it is relational, not regulator. God sees the eternal not the temporal. Though Eve is the one who makes the decision to eat of the ‘wrong fruit’, the consequence belong to the community, the family, not just the individual. God drive both of them out of the Garden of Eden.

It is also clear that Abraham’s flows to Lot, who was in his community while in Egypt. Jacob’s blessing flows to Laban, while staying and working for Laban. Achan kept the spoils from Jericho, but the suffering in upon the Israelite camp in the battle of Ai.

 Community Responsibility.

"To be an Israelite (or Christian) means you are not an individual with a separate destiny, but an individual with a corporate (or community) destiny.”[1]

The challenge: “Being a responsible individual within the κοινωνία[2].”

 

Be-Facilitating

Prince Hamlet lament: “To Be, or Not to Be”[3]; Facilitator comment: “To Be, is To Be”
Be Available - is to be inconvenience
Believe - is to trust God and members
Be Considerate - is to understand
Be Dedicated - is to care
Be Encourage - is to motivate
Be Flexible - is to be compassionate
Be Prepared - is to be ready
Be Relevant - is to be applicable
Be Self-control - is to check our words
Be Upgraded - is to improve

Having empowered by the Holy Spirit, the Facilitator can BE.

Demands on the Facilitator is heavy, equals that of the Pastor . . .
Goals of the Facilitator is growth, both spiritual and numerical  . . .
Joy of the Facilitator is priceless, members bearing the fruit of the Spirit . . .
Glory of the Facilitator is reproduce, reproducing another new group . . .

Although the Demands on the Facilitator is heavy and the Goals are huge, but the Joy is fulfilling and the Glory is beautiful.

God be blessed. Amen.

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[1] Benard J. Lee and Michael A. Cowan, Dangerous Memories (Kansas City: Sheed and Ward, 1986), 147–148.

[2] “Κοινωνία” Greek word meaning “Fellowship” or “Community”.

[3]William Shakespeare, Hamlet.