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| Great Things In Small Packages |
Date Posted:
11/20/2000
Author:
Stuart Townend
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So you have the task of leading worship in a small group. Just how do you start? Fear not. Stuart Townend shares some practical tips.
If you’re like me, your experience of worship in small groups will have been…well, varied. Worship times have ranged from pretty good to completely dire (I’ve actually led worship at both ends of the spectrum too).
My worst experience was being in a group of six women, and one other man – who happened to be loud, enthusiastic, and completely tone deaf. We had no instruments, and our rendition of the two-part chorus of ‘God of glory’ still wakes me up in a cold sweat.
So why does small group worship so often seem to be a struggle? Many reasons are offered:
* lack of musicians
* people are tired after a day’s work
* the room’s too small
* the sofa’s too comfortable, and so on
But I think there’s a more fundamental reason. No-one’s shown us how to do it. We often fall into the trap of trying to recreate the experience of Sunday morning in our midweek small group meeting. We forget that the dynamic of a handful of people is completely different from a congregation of 100 or more (if you’ve ever heard four people applauding at the end of a song, you’ll know what I mean). We need to take a step back, in order to re-think what works in a small setting.
What is Worship?
But first, if we’re going to help lead others in worship, it’s important for us to understand what worship is all about. Often I find that people are familiar with the forms and structure of worship, but don’t actually understand what is at the heart of our worship to God.
Let me first say what is not. It is not singing songs or hymns, or reading scriptures, or even raising our hands or dancing. Those are all things that can be useful tools in our expression of worship, but they aren’t at the core. That would be like saying that great works of art are all about paint!
Of course, we need tools that will help us express our worship. But God looks at the heart.
It’s also not just about meetings. We can become so fixated with ‘congregational worship’, and even ‘small group worship’, that we begin to think worship is something we ‘do’ once or twice a week! And yet the Bible tells us that worship is something that should infuse the whole of our daily lives:
* our work
* our play
* our family time
* our relationships
* our driving (!)
* everything we are engaged in
We might coalesce these thoughts into two main strands:
1. Worship is my heart’s response to God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
It involves recognizing and responding to His character by inward and outward expressions of thanksgiving, praise and adoration. This attitude of thankfulness and praise is not limited to Christian gatherings, but should overflow into every part of my life.
2. Worship also means lining up my life in accordance with His character and will.
It involves an ongoing yielding of myself to Him, a willingness to hear His corrective voice in my life, and as a consequence to be changed by the power of the Holy Spirit in my daily life.
For me, small group worship offers a unique opportunity to capitalize on this second aspect of worship, which all-too-often gets overlooked in our lives, as we go to the meeting for a bless-up, and yet leave largely unchanged by it.
Strengths of a Small Group
In thinking about the distinctive strengths of small group worship, I’ve found that, rather than having a list of things we can’t do – shouting for joy, dancing, lying prostrate on the floor, there are certain group dynamics that are entirely appropriate to a small group, which bring a richness and depth to small group worship which couldn’t work in the larger setting. Here are a few of them:
1. A relaxed, informal atmosphere.
A group of friends chatting together in a front room is a great setting for worship. Remember Jesus’ promise in Matthew 18:20: ‘where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them’. Encourage the three-way conversation, moving easily and naturally between talking to one another, and talking to the Lord.
2. All can participate
In a small setting, everyone counts. Paul’s statement in 1 Corinthians 14:26 – ‘When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation…’ – can actually happen. And note Paul’s insistence: ‘[they] must be done for the strengthening of the church’. When everyone participates, everyone benefits.
We’ll look at some more distinctives next time. But now, let’s look at a typical plan of how you might run a time of worship in a small group. This plan is one of my 50 ideas featured in a new book written by myself and Morgan Lewis, called “50 Worship Ideas For Small Groups” (released July 2000, Kingsway).
The idea is to explore a particular theme, using activities, songs (where practical), scriptures, and ideas on applications, to help a small group of people to express their worship and experience God’s presence in their front room.
Typical Plan for Small Group Worship
Theme
The body of Christ
Introduction [This is a suggested outline, that can be read word for word, or adapted to put into your own words.]
We are the body of Christ. It sounds astonishing, even slightly blasphemous, idea, yet it’s thoroughly biblical. When someone becomes a Christian, they enter a huge family of believers in which God resides, and through which he accomplishes His purposes.
Whether we like it or not, we are all related. And God is building us together for a greater plan – that His glory might be seen on the earth. His body, the Church, is the instrument through which people from every tongue, tribe and nation will be gathered, and added to His body. We are all pat of a living, growing spiritual dwelling place for God!
Activity
You will need: a piece of paper, or preferably a picture from a magazine, cut or torn into random shapes. You will need the same number of pieces as people in the group (if you have fewer than ten people, give everyone two pieces each).
Give each person a piece of the picture, and explain that you want to put the original back together again. Someone will offer to put a piece on the table or floor first and then carry on until the paper has been recreated.
Then read 1 Corinthians 12:12-30 (or parts of the passage). Reflect together on how the activity with the pieces of paper demonstrates the body of Christ – perhaps ask these questions:
* are the shapes all the same?
* what happens if I take one piece away?
* do the shapes fit perfectly? (Yes and no – you can see the joins but they are still in the right place and represent the Original.)
* what would happen if everybody wanted to place their piece of paper on the table first instead of working together?
Spend some time thanking God that He has placed different shaped people like you in just the right way to be Christ’s body on earth.
Thanksgiving
* For the Holy Spirit shared in our hearts.
* For God’s purpose to use us together in His plans.
* For one another’s friendship, gifts and love.
* For the importance of every part of the body.
* For our need of one another.
Suggested Songs
If you have a musician, obviously use him/her! But an alternative is to sing a cappella (could be risky!), or use recordings on CD’s as an accompaniment. With this in mind, Kingsway have produced special Songs of Fellowship for Small Groups CD’s that gather recordings of all the songs mentioned in the book.
If you’ve never used recordings, try it! It can work really well, and avoids some of the embarrassment and distraction of a small group of average-to-poor singers!
As We Are Gathered
Bind Us Together
For I’m Building A People Of Power
Make Us One, Lord
Scriptures
1 Corinthians 3:16 “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” (There are no longer any holy places of holy things – only holy people. Jesus now dwells in us, His body, by the Holy Spirit.)
Ephesians 2:21 “In [Jesus] the whole building is joined [KJV fitly framed] together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.” (Fitly framed together. Jesus molds each one of us to be just the right shape, so we can be joined together as a holy temple. I am the shape I am, because you are the shape you are – the fit might not be perfect yet, but He’s working on it!)
Ephesians 4:206 “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. [3] Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. [4] There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to one hope when you were called – [5] one Lord, one faith, one baptism; [6] one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (We need to bear with one another, because God is still shaping each one of us. And we are learning to be joined together. If there is no unity, there is no body.)
See Also
1 Peter 2:5 “We are living stones, being built into a spiritual house.
Prayer
Thank you for the value you place on us, causing each one to be an active part of your body here on earth. Thank you that you are our head, directing us, and building us together through the bond of the Spirit. Teach us more of what it means to be a body of believers, supporting, honoring and loving one another as you love us. Amen.
Application
Groucho Marx’s old adage, ‘I would never want to join a club that would have me as a member’, could easily be applied to the church! There’s no such thing as a perfect church, so long as people are involved in it.
Often we become exasperated with others, and think how much better our church would be without them. But although it may appear to us that some people are oddly shaped living stones, we’re probably only irritated because God’s using them to knock us into shape!
Who is God using right now to shape you more into the image of Jesus? Pray for a soft heart to allow the grace of God to change you.
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