“I don’t need anyone!” are words typically uttered by those of us who have been wounded through relationships. How do I know? Because it is the opposite of how we were created. God formed us with a built-in dependency on other humans. No man is an island. Paul shows the nonsense of our tendency to think that we are not mutually dependent on each other:

The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” (1 Corinthians 12:21)

We truly need each other, and in a congregation of 500 plus people it is easy to hide, isn’t it? Many of us feel an urge to avoid intimacy. We can be terrified of being discovered; of people finding out about our struggles. But more often than not, it is in a small group that we find people willing to fight for us – and we find freedom.

The Bible uses the phrase one another over 50 times!

• Love one another
• Pray one for another
• Accept one another
• Build up one another

Amazingly it doesn’t say avoid one another or hide from one another. We are called to play a role of encouragement in each other’s life. Again – we can’t do it in the midst of 500 people, but we can in the midst of ten.

In a small group every member can function in his gifting.

When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation all of these must be done for the strengthening of the church. (1 Corinthians 14:26)

You may not be ready to lead worship or prophesy in the midst of the whole congregation, but in a small group you can hone your gifting. The early believers followed the practice of both meeting corporately in large gatherings and house to house.

Yeshua had his twelve. King David had his mighty men. In the movie Braveheart, William Wallace built an army around a group of like-minded friends. Frodo begins his trek to destroy the ring with a fellowship of nine. And even though he finishes with just Sam at his side, the covenantal, honest friendship they built rivals the connections between David and Jonathan.

Community LIFE groups are here to serve you. It is there that true shepherding takes place – not only from the leader, but one to another. Take advantage of them. Push past any fear or uncomfortable feeling. So many have found that in the small group setting there is freedom, victory, friendship and so much more.