Get small to make big campus impact, college students told_22304

Posted: 2/13/04

Get small to make big campus
impact, college students told

By Ferrell Foster

Texas Baptist Communications

GRAND PRAIRIE—Small groups make a big impact on college campuses—one life at a time, ministry leaders recently told a student conference.

More than 400 college students learned the power of getting small at a Feb. 6-7 Small Groups Conference at The Oaks Baptist Church in Grand Prairie. The Center for Collegiate Ministry of the Baptist General Convention of Texas sponsored the event.

Four things make small groups special—relationships, unity around a common purpose, strength in the body, and personal and spiritual growth, said Chris Sammons, Baptist Student Ministry director at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene.

"God truly has created us to live in community," Sammons said.

Relationships allow people to share their lives, and it's much easier to build relationships in small groups than in large ones, he added.

Building small group relationships starts with the leader, he said. That person is not just a facilitator.

"Your task is to invest yourself" into the lives of group members, he explained.

People in small groups must spend time together and share experiences outside of the weekly group setting, Sammons continued. He suggested having lunch together, going to a movie, shopping, playing sports, doing a ministry project, going to games and taking a "road trip" just to get away.

Students often are quick to end relationships. he warned. "The semester ends and so does our small groups and our relationships."

That's not how it should be done. "Relationships take time. They're not microwaved; they're slow-cooked," Sammons said.

Small group relationships enable members to strengthen one another. "We are most naturally meant to live and serve in small groups," Sammons said. "We are best able to fight the tough battles when we depend on others to hold us up."

Finding time and making the necessary commitment can be difficult. "Everybody's busy," he said. "We must seek to respect people's time, but seek to establish a commitment from group members."

Students join in prayer.

Conflict also can arise. It comes from a variety of causes—poor communication, insecurities, misunderstandings, "personal baggage" and others. But conflict is not a bad thing if group members can grow through it, Sammons said.

To handle conflict in small groups, he suggested students pray, value the person, speak directly to people and don't seek to win every fight.

Dave Jobe, pastor of Willow Bend Church in Plano, encouraged the students to follow Jesus' model and "draw the circle" of relationships bigger in their lives, but do it one person at a time. Don't focus on the masses, concentrate on individuals, he emphasized.

Building a small group the way Jesus would do it requires dependence on the Holy Spirit, Jobe said, because inner transformation of people's lives will not occur unless the Spirit is truly at work.

Jesus' ministry also indicated the importance of discerning God's timing, Jobe said. Group leaders should pay attention to what's going on in the lives of "that little flock in your life."

Jesus modeled the importance of staying the course. "We cannot quit," no matter what obstacles arise, Jobe said. When Jesus calls a person to follow him, that means having to "walk through, at some time or another, the same obstacles he did."