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| Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were, because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.” |
| —Mark 9:30-31 |
The last ten years of my career at the insurance company, where I worked for 30 years, I had the privilege of managing the engineering training department. My background in both engineering and psychology made me uniquely suited for that responsibility.
During that time, I was fortunate to learn a great deal about the philosophy and strategy for effective adult learning. I was able to experiment with a variety of educational development processes and test their ability to convey necessary information in a way that would help the learner to retain the needed facts.
It became clear to me, very early in these experiments, that small group learning had some significant advantages in dealing with very complex material. By creating projects that would apply the principles of a subject, the members of a small group could match the apprehending of the information to their individualized learning styles.
Therefore, it should be no surprise that Jesus fully understood the importance of working with a small group. Calling twelve disciples with distinct personalities, strengths, and weaknesses, allowed Jesus to share His truth in a way that it would penetrate deeply into the minds and hearts of these twelve men. Then, they would be better able to share this truth with others.
Jesus would often draw his twelve disciples away from the crowd so that He could teach them in the best possible setting. Notice the incident recorded in Mark 9:30-31:
Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were, because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.”
Here, in a small group setting, Jesus shares very important news with His disciples. We see how necessary it was for Jesus to share the most in-depth teaching and most private information with this carefully chosen small group of individuals. We can learn from this in forging the best possible process for promoting in-depth spiritual formation among our fellow believers.
Small groups have a great importance in the teaching ministry of any church. Groups of believers, gathering in small groups, can learn much more effectively the truths of God’s Word.
Yes, it is important to have pastors preach sermons. These sermons often convey broadly applied truth from God’s Word. But, to get the most out of an in-depth study, people learn best in a small group.
As we begin a new day, I urge you to join a small group for Bible study, if you are not already a member of such a group. With a properly designed, educationally valid, curriculum based on the truth of God’s Word, you will find the depth of your spiritual formation increasing at a much more rapid pace than it would without this small group involvement.
And, after all, learning more and more about the God who loves us is certainly a very worthwhile experience.
