08.19.07
Small Group Plan - August 19, 2007
“When God Draws A Crowd”
Ancient Future Faith
Small Group Plan
August 19, 2007
Dear Group Leader…
Sociologist Gustave Le Bon has written in his classic work, The Crowd:
Isolated, he may be a cultivated individual; in a crowd, he is a barbarian … An individual in a crowd is a grain of sand amid other grains of sand, which the wind stirs up at will. (pg. 32-33)
Whether it’s a pep rally, a revival or a lynch mob, the morality of an individual can easily be diluted by a crowd. And character and morality is the difference between a crowd and a community.
OPEN IT / INTRODUCE IT …
· Think of one of the largest crowds you have ever been in. Were you comfortable or uncomfortable? Explain.
· When you think of group size, what is a comfortable size for you? Explain.
· When someone talks of the “crowd mentality” what do they mean?
· Why do the moods of crowds shift so easily?
LOOK AT IT / STUDY IT …
Luke 5:1, 15, 19, 29
1 Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the people crowding around him and listening to the word of God … 15 Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses … 19 When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus … 29 Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them.
· Did Jesus ever “play” to the crowds? Why or why not?
· Was His focus more on individuals or groups? Explain.
· How did Jesus change the Twelve from a crowd to a community?
Acts 2:42
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
Acts 11:26
So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called christians first at Antioch.
Acts 21:27, 32, 34
27 When the seven days were nearly over, some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul at the temple. They stirred up the whole crowd and seized him … 32 He at once took some officers and soldiers and ran down to the crowd. When the rioters saw the commander and his soldiers, they stopped beating Paul … 34 Some in the crowd shouted one thing and some another,
· How is a church not like a crowd at all?
· Why is there order in the groups in Acts 2 & 11, but not in Acts 21?
· How does “devotion” (2:42) mark the difference between the crowd and the community?
· Whereas crowds have no focus, what is the focus of the community (11:26)?
USE IT / APPLY IT …
· Why is diversity so important to God?
· What is the difference between the negative “peer pressure” of a crowd and the positive “accountability” of a community?
· How could a church lose its “community” character and act more like a crowd?
· How can a church be proactive and nurture its community and family character?
· Give your small group community time to share joys, needs and concerns, and then lift them up to God in prayer.