Relationships Matter

In California, there is a Redwood Forest. Redwoods are the world’s tallest living things. Some of them tower as high as 360 feet and are more than 2,000 years old!

The resilience of a redwood forest is even more impressive when you remember the older trees in this forest have survived repeated windstorms, fires and floods.

Hi, I am Ralph Rittenhouse, writing this post for our GOMICRO.blog. After pastoring one church in Camarillo, California for 32 years, I "redeployed" to partner with Dr. Greg Ogden, forming our nonprofit, the Global Discipleship Initiative (GDI).

You are not alone

Coastal Redwoods do not have a single taproot. Instead, they form a shallow network of relatively small roots that extend outwardly, up to a hundred feet from the base.

Interconnectedness

The interconnectedness of the tree roots has enabled them to stand tall and survive whatever comes.

There is little doubt in my mind that God intends for us to grow and thrive similarly. Growing together in strong supportive relationships insures mature spiritual development.

“He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As  each  part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.” Ephesian 4:16

As I began my journey in MicroGroups in 2010, I noticed both unexpected and unintentional benefits. One of my fears from the beginning was that this focus would be just another program, just another short-lived attempt to try to do church better.

Would this effort run out of gas, crash and burn like so many other man-made programs? We discovered that MicroGroup disciplemaking is not a program but a lifestyle change. Becoming like Christ is the goal. Transformation, not transactions ("give to get") is the focus.

We were not interested in just transferring more Bible information that would be minimally applied with little actual life change.

The writer of Hebrews said,

“You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food.” Hebrews 5:12

Not only did we see life change in individuals. We experienced corporate change. As the MicroGroups multiplied, the entire spiritual climate in our congregation was transformed. God was doing something special! Growth expanded. Service and volunteering increased. Pastor's "load" decreased. Purposeful lives flourished!

Church Transformation

Now if the people change, but there is no transformation of the values in the culture of the church, eventually the old value system will kill the renewal. It’s like putting new wine in old wine skins. Remember what Jesus said about old wine skins?

If you put new wine in old wine skins, the wine skins will break and you will lose both.

In our church, we saw a new set of values emerge. Most everyone began to recognize the mission that Jesus commissioned for his church. They became aware of the fact that the church exists for no other reason than to make disciples who make disciples. That gave us a solid foundation supporting our disciplemaking and helped us  maintain forward momentum.

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” - Matthew 28:18-20

At first, only relatively few were involved. But two years into our disciplemaking initiative, we adopted an objective for the next year to see all of our major leadership involved in triads or quads (gender-specific groups of 3-4 people who are intentionally committed to making disciples who make disciples).

We knew this commitment to Jesus’s method of building His church needed to permeate the whole church. The yeast needed to spread through the whole lump of dough.

A tipping point is normally reached, when the majority of the church realizes that the reason the church exists is to make disciples.  After a couple of years in our church, this began to happen.

The result was a positive excitement about being in on the Big C Church’s mission. Disciplemaking in MicroGroups became the fundamental building block. 

As these MicroGroups multiplied year to year from 4 to 16, then from 35 to 85, and onto 130 groups with around 500 people involved, there were some challenges.

Sinkholes and potholes can disrupt your disciplemaking efforts (described in the next post). Yet the primary results were greater unity and harmony in the church as individuals were becoming more aware of their call to be disciples and to make disciples. Ownership of handing off your faith becomes a reality check when you will stand at the Judgment Seat of Christ and respond to how to spent your time, treasures, and talents as a follower of Jesus.