THE INTIMACY OF SMALL GROUPS

“Those who accepted [Peter’s] message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”  (Acts 2:41-42 NIV)

Belonging to a learning faith community provides companionship that sustains us through difficult experiences.  Nothing is as disheartening as a lonely struggle.  Many communities and congregations are too large for people to know others well, and so it's in the intimacy of small groups - classes, Bible studies, choirs, prayer groups – that we learn each other’s' names, pray for one another, and learn to care for one another.  Christian companions become the people God uses to sustain us through the ordinary ups and downs of living, and also through those times of extraordinary darkness and grief. 

-- Robert Schnase in “Five Practices of Fruitful Living” 

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