“Pastor, I don’t want to offend you, but I have something very important to say to you.”
I shifted my stance uncomfortably and then responded, “Please, share with me.”
Laura took a deep breath, then paused as she tried to swallow her emotions. “I want you to know that I don’t care about the church service anymore. I could care less if you or someone else is preaching. I come on Sabbath morning for one reason only.” She paused again as she pointed to the door of the elders’ room that was right behind the sanctuary platform. A few people trickled out of the room, slowly walking and quietly talking with each other as they made their way into the sanctuary after the last Sabbath School bell had rung. Laura continued: “I wake up every day thinking about how excited I am for Sabbath to get here so I can . . .” She stared at the floor, her bottom lip quivering. She quickly looked up and pointed to the six people exiting the elders’ room. “. . . so I can meet with them. I have never experienced anything like this in my life.”
Laura had joined one of the new small group Sabbath Schools that had recently been launched in the Apopka Seventh-day Adventist Church. As the pastoral staff and elders had talked and prayed about how we could get church members to grow deeper in their relationship with God and with each other, we kept coming back around to the idea of small groups. With everyone leading busy lives and the challenges surrounding childcare in a small group setting, we decided that Sabbath morning Sabbath School time was perfect for launching adult small group Bible studies in our church.
We decided not to disrupt the existing classes, but to start groups that were completely new with the hope of attracting existing church members who weren’t currently attending Sabbath School. Our desire was that anyone who joined one of the groups, whether church members, visitors, or the unchurched, would experience the study and application of God’s Word with others in a way that was truly transformational. We wanted everyone who came to our church to fall deeply in love with Jesus and with other members in the group. As I looked at the tears in Laura’s eyes, I knew God was doing something through her small group experience that He had done in mine. Instead of offending me, she affirmed one of my growing convictions as a young pastor: small groups are not only biblical—they are truly transformational and should be present in every outreach-focused Seventh-day Adventist church.
Small Groups Are Biblical
It all made theological sense when I first heard in my college classes about how biblical small groups are. My theology classes with Derek Morris, Ron Clouzet, Jack Blanco, and others opened my eyes to how often, in both the Old and New Testaments, believers formed small groups to spiritually support one another and to work for expanding God’s kingdom on earth.
The establishment and organization of small groups in Bible times wasn’t by chance. God is the original small group, and He designed that humans, who are created in His image, should relate to each other in the same way that God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit relate to one another—in perfect love, unity, and purpose of action. The family unit of father, mother, and children became the first human small group that God established to be the foundational building block of society and is still the backbone of communities and nations today.
Later, when the children of Israel were freed from bondage in Egypt, Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, advised him, with God’s approval, to divide the nation into groups of 10 (Ex. 18:21). In the New Testament the importance and impact of small groups expanded as Jesus laid the foundation of His church with a group of 12. Within the larger group of 12 disciples there was a smaller group of three who received special mentoring and attention.
After the ascension of Christ, the small group model continued in the form of a house church movement, which grew the early church from 120 to thousands of believers in a short period of time. How did this happen? By incorporating the core elements found in Acts 2:42—elements that make small groups both attractive and transformational: “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.”
Small groups have lost none of their effectiveness today.
Small Groups Are Transformational
Bible study. Fellowship. Food. Prayer. These four core elements, when combined with humble hearts and an openness to know God’s will, make an eternal impact in the lives of those who experience them together in a small group setting. Shortly after arriving in Palau as missionaries, my wife and I felt impressed to start a small group Bible study in our home on Friday evenings. We invited several local Adventist families and the student missionaries who lived on the campus of Palau Mission Academy. Every Friday evening we stuck to the Acts 2:42 core four and shared food, faith, and fellowship as we opened God’s Word together. We continued this on and off during our time in Palau from 2004 to 2007.
In 2025 I was invited to speak for pastor’s meetings in a local conference here in the United States. After I finished my presentation, one of the pastors approached me and asked if I had served in Palau. When I said I did and told her the years we were there, she burst into tears. “My husband, who is the principal of an Adventist academy, has shared with me many times that he is in the church today because of a Friday night small group Bible study you and your wife had in your home when he was a student missionary there. Thank you for what you did for him!” The transformation in the life of this young adult 20 years ago took place by simply following the biblical example of what turned the world upside down in the first century. When all of the Acts 2:42 elements are combined, spiritual transformation takes place in the lives of willing participants through the power of the Holy Spirit. And lives transformed by the Holy Spirit always lead to lives of service.
Small Groups Are Missional
“And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47). Transformed individuals become missional individuals who have one object in mind—winning others to Jesus. In the following simple definition of a small group we read, “A small group is an intentional, face-to-face gathering of three to 12 people on a regular time schedule with the common purpose of developing relationships, meeting felt needs of group members, growing spiritually, and laying plans and working together to lead others to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior of their lives.”[1]
I have personally seen dozens of people come to faith in Jesus Christ and baptized into the Seventh-day Adventist Church because the small groups I attended were intentional about inviting others into fellowship. Ellen White speaks about small groups being the foundation for soul winning when she says, “The formation of small companies as a basis of Christian effort has been presented to me by One who cannot err.”[2] Small groups were incredibly effective for soul winning in New Testament times, and they have lost none of their effectiveness today.
Will you, dear reader, consider starting or joining a small group in your local church if you don’t already belong to one? Because the idea of small groups is God-initiated, you will experience the big effect this unique form of fellowship has on transforming lives and expanding God’s kingdom in this world. For when it comes to eternal impact, there truly is nothing small about small groups.
[1] May-Ellen Colon, ed., Keys to Small Group Ministry (Silver Spring, Md.: General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, 2010), p. 8.
[2] Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1948), vol. 7, pp. 21, 22.
