Why You Need to Be in a Small Group (And Why I Love Mine)

Mt Vernon Church is big on LifeGroups (our uber-hip renaming of Sunday School), and here’s why: real community happens in circles, not rows. Our Sunday morning services are obviously the front door program to our church, but we work tirelessly to move folks from worship (rows) to LifeGroups (circles).

Several years ago we moved away from a traditional Sunday School, transitioning to a hybrid format. We have LifeGroups that meet on Sunday mornings, Sunday nights, and all throughout the week. We encourage folks not to meet on Sunday mornings so that they can serve in one of our other environments. The result? We have more than enough volunteers to make Sunday mornings extraordinary, and we have a majority of our adults meeting in LifeGroups.

I lead one that meets on Sunday nights, and I love it. For years I was in charge of a section of Sunday School but never actually got to be in one myself. Now I wouldn’t give mine up for the world. We met last night and had a blast. Four other couples, all our age, all with kids the same ages. We live in the same world and can laugh at the oddities of this life stage that no one else gets.

We’ve been meeting for eight months now and have begun to really develop a sense of community. Last night we laughed a lot and cried a little. We talked about our marriages, our kids, and our parents. As one of the husbands jokingly said, “It got real in here tonight.”

That type of community doesn’t just happen. It doesn’t come from sporadically attending a church service. It comes from intentionally committing to a small group intent on doing life together. Now there’s a special bond between us that makes life so much more enjoyable. Why do you need to be in a small group? Because that’s where true community happens. 

Wherever you are, whenever you read this, get plugged into a small group. You’ll be glad you did.