Mission(less?) Small Groups

I’ve been thinking A LOT about small groups, and how we’ll do them at Verve. And don’t you love it when someone else expresses what you’ve been thinking, only better than you could? My friend Bob Roberts (who, by the way, owes me because I seem to pimp him on my blog all the time!) states my sentiments in this post, which I’ll just cut and paste for you, who are to lazy to click a link, to read here:

In the east … “small groups” are more for mission than anything – reaching out and serving and sharing. In the west … when people look to church they focus on finding friends and community and small groups are for “fellowship” and friendship more than anything…

Been thinking a lot about this. When a group starts focused on mission, it will ultimately get fellowship – but flowing from mission and a sense of accomplishing something together. If you start a group for fellowship – seldom do you get anything beyond fellowship – if even that…

Do we need to reorient ourselves in the west and learn from the east here? I think so. Focus on mission in the small group – and you get mission and fellowship. Focus on fellowship in the small group and get only fellowship – if that.

What do you think about Bob’s thoughts?