Flock of God: The flock of God is a precious and helpful biblical portrait of the people of God. Psalm 23 pictures what the Good Shepherd means to his flock, laying down his life for the flock, providing for them and protecting them. If we think about our small groups in these terms, we know who the Good Shepherd is, we know who the under shepherds are in our church community, so what about the small group leaders? They are clearly sheep, but are they appointed to be a kind of under-under-shepherd for their small group members? In some churches there is confusion at this point, with group leaders thinking one thing and group members another.
Family of God: We are brothers and sisters in Christ by the grace of God. For the apostle Paul, family language was an important way to describe his behaviour and his attitude while he was with the Christians in Thessalonica. He reminds them that he was like a mother and a father among them1. If we think about our small groups in these terms, and we think of ourselves as meeting as members of the family of God, what does that mean? We don’t choose our family members, or necessarily find them easy, but we are responsible before God to love them. What sort of expectations do we have of one another within the family of God? How do we distinguish between cultural and traditional expectations and biblical expectations? How can we all learn from Paul’s wisdom for Timothy in 1 Timothy 5.1-2? Paul helps Timothy to know how to think about, speak with, and behave towards those around him in ways that are shaped by the appropriate patterns within a family.
Fellow travellers: The first description of Christians in Acts is as “people of the Way”2. In the language of the Old Testament Christians are pictured as travelling out of Egypt towards the Promised Land. In the language of the New Testament we are travelling through this world (often on the margins), towards God’s new creation. We are travelling with God towards God. The Sermon on Mount sets out the character and the conduct and the horizons in view for the people on this journey.
It is worth noticing the differences between fellow travellers as a picture of the Christian life and the flock of God and the family of God as portraits of the Christian life. The flock of God doesn’t do much each day, except go out from the fold in search of food and water, every day the flock is in need of protection from wolves, before returning home to the fold at night. The family of God is not a family business, like a farm or a corner shop, the focus is on the responsibilities within their relationships.
In contrast, the people of the Way are on the move. They are travelling together with Jesus towards Jesus, on a challenging journey, with a wonderful future purchased by him, with the power of the Holy Spirit to help them make it to the end, and the guarantee of tears and trouble for every step of the journey between now and then.
If we think about small groups in the light of the Christian life as the Way, there is some freedom for the groups to do together whatever is going to be needed for the next stage of the journey.
A small group might meet for a few weeks to help people with alcohol problems towards recovery, or to support those who have experienced a broken relationship, or a major bereavement, helping each other for a season within the larger journey. The groups know that whatever they are doing when they meet, is a means towards strengthening the members of the group for the next leg of the journey, the next week or the next month, or until the group meets again.
Fellow travellers - without particular issues - can help each other digest the implications of the sermon from Sunday, they can eat together, grow in friendship, pray together and pray for each other, whatever is going to be most helpful for the way ahead.