Why are they called GROWTH Groups?

Weekly gath­er­ings of church people in their homes can go by many names. You may have heard them called “Home Group”, “Bible Study”, or “Cell Group”. The name denotes the pur­pose and emphasis.

KBC gath­er­ings are spe­cific­ally called GROWTH Groups. In 2010, this name will take on greater sig­ni­fic­ance as we fur­ther increase the focus of our groups, the skills of our lead­ers, and the unity of our con­greg­a­tion. We meet together in groups because there are aspects of Chris­tian liv­ing that can­not be provided in a large pub­lic church ser­vice, but are required if a per­son and con­greg­a­tion are to become spir­itu­ally healthy.

The reason we call them GROWTH Groups is as follows:

1. Groups are not meant solely for com­munity and con­nec­tion.
   Our gath­er­ings are not just “Home Groups”.You don’t need to be in a church to get con­nec­tion with oth­ers, you can do that through a sports or social club. Chris­tian groups are to provide Chris­tian dis­tinct­ives. They are a place where God’s people get together and be about God’s busi­ness, whether that be care, prayer, out­reach or learn­ing. Per­sonal con­nec­tion is needed, that’s why groups are such a great forum, but without growth and out­reach we soon become unpro­duct­ive and stale in our spir­itu­al­ity (2 Peter 1:8)
2. Groups are not meant solely for intro­spec­tion or Bible Study.
   Our gath­er­ings are not just “Bible Stud­ies”. If all we seek is know­ledge about the Bible then we may be bet­ter served by attend­ing one of the great Bible and Min­istry Col­leges in our region. Their teach­ers are bet­ter qual­i­fied and their teach­ing is more com­pre­hens­ive. Know­ledge of the scrip­tures is valu­able, but if not coupled with action and out­reach, even truth can lead us into imbal­ance. (John 5:39)
3. All the func­tions of KBC groups should con­trib­ute to our per­sonal growth.
   At times we should emphas­ise love and care for each other. If done well it helps people grow through their tri­als, since care is a part of good dis­ciple­ship. At other times we should reach out to the lost, and that helps people grow in their aware­ness and exper­i­ence of God. Every per­son is on a spir­itual jour­ney of growth, and every Chris­tian activ­ity feeds that pro­cess in some way. 

But the term “GROWTH” is even more loaded than that. GROWTH is an acronym which con­tains all the ele­ments required if people are to exist in an envir­on­ment that is con­ju­cive to their ongo­ing devel­op­ment. Like any liv­ing thing, if we are not grow­ing we are in some way dying. Yet real and last­ing devel­op­ment requires a num­ber of ele­ments to be in place:

• Grace: Receiv­ing from God an people what we cant provide ourselves.
  We simply can’t live the Chris­tian life fully without God’s pro­vi­sion. We need His help through the Holy Spirit and God’s people.
• Rela­tion­ships: Con­nect­ing mean­ing­fully in healthy rela­tion­ships.
  We should all have spir­itual ment­ors, peers and those we feed in to. People need people at vary­ing levels of intim­acy and connection.
• Own­er­ship: Recog­nising my part to play in growth.
  We all must under­stand our per­sonal respons­ib­il­ity to obey God, and the con­tri­bu­tion we have made to our present life situation.
• Wis­dom: Hear­ing and apply­ing truth to life.
  Know­ledge is a won­der­ful gift. But apply­ing that know­ledge in a way that affects our life and that of oth­ers is even greater. 
• Time: Allow­ing the pro­cess of growth to hap­pen gradu­ally.
  Daily dis­cip­lines and routines provide incre­mental and sus­tain­able devel­op­ment for us. Dis­ciples are made daily, not in a day.
• Health: Assess­ing pro­gress and main­tain­ing bal­ance spir­itu­ally, men­tally, emo­tion­ally and phys­ic­ally.
  Our groups are a great set­ting to be able to give ourselves spir­itual health checks on a reg­u­lar basis. We have many tools avail­able to lead­ers through­out our web­site which equip you to do this. 

GROWTH Groups who have a prop­erly trained leader in place provide a won­der­ful forum for true Chris­tian com­munity. By defin­ing these ele­ments of a healthy group, you as a leader can now focus your efforts and the group’s activ­it­ies to provide these ingredi­ents. We provide (through STEP 4) com­pre­hens­ive train­ing for group lead­ers and dis­ciplers in cre­at­ing and main­tain­ing an envir­on­ment such as this. We also have com­pre­hens­ive GROWTH plans avail­able for any­one in your group that is pre­pared to own their per­sonal spir­itual journey.