To start off this month’s discussion I want to ask a very serious question. If you really needed someone’s help, someone to talk to, or someone to just ask out for lunch, think about whom you would call or depend on immediately. If you are still thinking about your answer we need to get you in a small group.  We were not created to be alone. You were not made to go at life alone.  God created us for relationships with others.  Even the 10 Commandments deal with our relationship to God and those around us. The most important relationship is a personal relationship with our heavenly Father through His Son Jesus Christ. But we are also supposed to be connected to others.

I read a recent study that says isolation can lead to or manifest major health problems.   One associated article from the Boston Globe reports people who are socially isolated are twice as likely to die as those who have friends.  Well known survey taker George Gallup says his organization’s found out that Americans are among the loneliest people on earth, with more than a third saying they felt isolated and alone.  But George Gallup tells us something else, something he personally discovered that he says is "profoundly good news."

Let me quote him:

"I want to report to you now on a trend that may be contributing to a transformation of America. You will not read about this trend in our daily newspapers or on television, yet it is a powerful undercurrent in our society that, I believe, gives us cause for encouragement about the future! This trend could be described as a sociological and spiritual phenomenon: Americans on a massive scale are rediscovering each other, and coming together regularly in small nourishing support groups, many with a spiritual dimension."

The news Gallup discovered is so profound that he has now basically retired from his survey company's day-to-day leadership and has devoted the remaining part of his life to the development and encouragement of small groups. George Gallup, in case you didn't know, is a devout Christian.

Small groups are all about relationships. And that's something that Jesus teaches in the Bible that we are to develop and nurture.

Jesus said our love for each other is to be our witness to the world.

Let’s show our love for each other and get involved with a small group.  Ask someone to join your group today and show them what being Christ-like is all about.

In His Holy Name,

Stephen Garland