My journey towards Faith and Politics continues. My wife and I did visit the mega-church in our area and found it to be very acceptable for our purposes if God leads that way. They have three services on Sunday and I’m guessing at least 3,000 members. (Probably more.) Oddly enough, I could actually go to their eight a.m. service and still make the service where I’m going now. And that is my plan.

The main reason I’m exploring this church has to do with finding what we call “Small Groups”. Where I currently go, no one actually goes there from Whitestown where I live. They have Small Groups and I lead one, but my recent vision to have a Faith and Politics group is a horse of a whole different color! Not sure how my current church will feel about that, and besides, I’d really like this group to be where I live.

There are many reasons to have Small Groups meeting everywhere. ONE: It’s the way the early church did it for about 300 years, and look what they accomplished! Small Groups can saturate a city, state, and country! They meet in homes, coffee shops, parks, and whatever! Even in the big church building, but it’s a small group. I believe by combining what the early church did along with the large group meetings, we have a powerful one-two spiritual punch! The Small Groups are the salt shaken from the big container, saturating the steak you’re about to eat.

TWO: It’s very hard to become a brother or sister in Sunday morning services. What do I mean by that? We are to be as brothers and sisters to each other, and that is a “closeness” not easily obtained in a crowd. Small Groups allow us to really get to know each other and become close-knit family. We might even be invited into someone’s home! And share food! This is the level of fellowship the early church had and was expected to never lose, but it did get lost. That has really hurt us. Small Groups are changing that.

THREE: They offer more ministry opportunity for those gifted to minister. For too long church became a one man show. Church is not about a superstar other than Christ. Now we have many anointed people for teaching, mentoring, discipling, and sub-shepherding. It’s an exciting thing!

FOUR: Small Groups can pick a certain theme or topic. Such as, Faith and Politics. Or going deeper into the Sunday Sermon. I know one group who are motorcycle guys. They share a love of Christ, ministry, and motorcycles! It’s awesome!

FIVE: If the culture of our country ever does turn drastically against us, we will have connections to people we know and trust. If the church doors are ever forced closed, we still have small churches we can go to, churches that are not so easily shut down, as they are our homes, a barn, cars circled in a parking lot, whatever!

These are just some things off the top of my head. The advantages are so many it’s hard to list them all. They are also very cheap to operate! People already live in their home and pay its expenses anyway. Group Leaders do not do it for money, it’s all volunteer. You can choose one close and save gas money. Many many advantages, Just like what Jesus did!

If you have not known this is all going on, and your church is not into it, I highly recommend getting into it. It will bless you in many ways. My group of 8-10 guys used to meet in homes, but currently meeting in the church at 9 a.m. on Saturday mornings. We socialize for a while with coffee and doughnuts, and then get into God’s word and see where it takes us. Everyone is welcome to comment and share, and we do. Total time of 60-90 minutes and we’re ready for the rest of our day, charged up and knowing we’re not in this alone. If one of our guys is having a challenge, we’ve got his back with prayer, friendship, and whatever we might be able to do. Again, it’s awesome.

So… I checked if this church had Small Groups and they did. I got information and discovered there are “nine” men’s groups in my small town! Nine! Along with women’s groups, married, singles, and etc. I found great potential. Now I need to explore more. I’ll attend two churches for a time. I’ll visit some of these Small Groups and see if anything clicks. In the meantime, I’ll explore the potential at my current church as well. Who knows? Maybe God will open two doors! I’m retired and could easily do it. It would be fun.

I’m also still reading Xi Van Fleet’s book: “Mao’s America” and I have a book on the way, written by the father of Senator Ted Cruz, and it’s all about Church, Politics, and what God’s Word says about it. He’s a great preacher and very educated on this subject. This will be a fun group once it is established. There will never be a lack of things to discuss, pray about, and go to action!

My personal journey of Faith and Politics continues and I will try to update as more unfolds. As always, your comments are very welcome.