LIBERTY THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
Analytical Paper 1
Submitted to Dr. Rod Dempsey, in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the completion of the course,
DSMN 630-B01
Small Group Ministries
by
Alex S. Bartee
January 23, 2020
Table of Contents
Introduction……………………………………………………………………..………………………3
Comiskey Chapter 2-4 Summary…………………………………………………….
………………3-4
Dempsey and Earley Chapter 5-6 Summary…………………………………………..
……………5
My church structure…………………………………………………………………………..
………..6
Conclusion………………………………………………………..…………………………………….6
Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………………..
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2
Introduction
In this weeks analytical paper we will be looking at the works of Joel Comiskey
and Rod Dempsey and Dave Earley. Both of these works take a different look at
small group ministry with the hope of growing and strengthening this ministry in our
local churches. In this paper we will be focusing on chapters 2-4 from Comiskey’s
book, Biblical Foundations for the Cell-Based Church. And chapters 5-6 of
Dempseys and Earleys book, Leading Healthy Growing Multiplying Small Groups. In
each of these works we will be looking at the primary passages that make up a
small group ministry and the main principles that are talked about. Both of these
books if taken seriously have the potential to revolutionize the small group ministry
at your church. Small groups have to be one of the most effective and practical
ways to make and grow disciples in our church. Small groups are able to take a
bigger congregation that might not feel very personal and close and break them
into groups to make it more personal and provide a platform for people to grow
together.
3
Comiskey (Chapters 2-4(
Comiskey talks about the reason and main focus of this book in his
introduction. He mentions that as believers our man goal is to develop disciples for
the kingdom of Jesus and if this is our goal than we should also have the desire to
“develop healthy, growing, multiplying small groups”1 for God’s kingdom. Being a
Christian I totally agree with this as our main goal but sometimes it’s harder to take
that goal and make it practical in our church’s small groups. Comiskey, talks about
how leading and multiplying small groups are part of our biggest mission as
Christians on this earth, to live out the Great Commission .
Matthew 28:18-20, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to
me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I
have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
This is one of the most meaningful passages for us when it comes to discipleship
and also when talking about small group ministries. We have to ask the question,
how are we going to make disciples and teach people to observe what God has
commended? One of the big answers is small groups. One of the best examples of
a small group ministry is with Jesus and the twelve disciples. There were many that
wanted to follow Him (we can see this from the people that came to hear Him
preach). But, what he did was choose 12 men, essentially a small group, designed
to equip, make disciples, and then go out and grow the kingdom of God. Comiskey
points out that in order to make this happen Jesus had to form a new family by
1 Joel Comiskey, Biblical Foundations For The Cell-Based Church: New Testament Insights for
the 21st Century (Moreno Valley, CA: CCS Publishing, 2012), 2.
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asking them to break from their old family and make a new commitment to follow
Him and Him alone.
2
One of the main points that is talked about by Comiskey is the idea of
Strategic Servanthood. In order to make disciples in small group ministries there
has to be a certain amount of creativity in order to reach people. Within this topic
Comiskey brings up a very valuable question for us to think about and answer for
ourself. The question is, “What did you do with what (gifts) I gave you?”3 We have
to acknowledge that God has given us special and unique gifts in order to achieve
our mission as believers. And we have to ask ourself how we are going to use those
gifts in order to reach the most people. These gifts were given to us for a reason
and they should not go to waste .
Another point that was made in this book was this idea of multiplication.
“Realize that the strongest churches in the world have tens of thousands of
members in thousands of small groups.”4 Another way that we can look at this is the
idea of “critical mass” at some point your church, small group, or youth group will
hit a point that we could call critical mass. Critical mass is a point that you are big
enough that you will continue to grow just from the main reason of having enough
people that want to be there without pushing them to be there. This same thing
can happen when looking at small groups within our church. We need to
understand that we will be able to get to a point where groups are multiplied and
2 Ibid., 14.
3 Ibid., 17.
4 Ibid., 19.
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more people are being discipled and becoming disciples. This is our goal and this is
something that we have to think about and work towards in our small group
ministry .
Dempsey and Earley (Chapters 5-6(
This book is set out with the goal and purpose to show us how to lead a
healthy, growing and multiplying small group. This is a very importune thing to
know and work towards if we want our small group ministry to impact the most
people for Christ. One of the most impactful things that Dempsey said in this book
when talking about the great commission is that we cannot afford to confuse it with,
“the Great Suggestion.”5 We need to take this seriously and live each day
recognizing this is our mission and goal hear on this earth. If we can make our
small group ministry healthy then we have the best shot to turn them into growing
and multiplying groups. When we do this we know that we are reaching the most
people for Christ .
One of the main points that stuck out to me in this reading was this idea of
the privilege it is to be a small group leader. They go on to say, “Being asked to
lead a small group is one of the greatest privileges on the planet. You are
cooperating with the Holy Spirit in God’s divine restoration plan.”6 I think that this is
something that a lot of people miss. Being a small group leader is not just a task as
5 Dr. Rod Dempsey and Dave Earley, Leading Healthy, Growing, Multiplying Small Groups,
Liberty University Press. Lynchburg, Virginia 2015, 8.
6 Ibid., 24.
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it is seen by a lot of leaders it is a privilege. We need to look at it more like this and
when we do it will radically change our small groups as a whole. There were times
when I was a small group leader and I dreaded that I had to prepare for each small
group. How I should have looked at this is as an opportunity to grow in Christ with
the people in my group and being prepared will allow us all to do this to our greatest
potential .
My Church Structure
I currently attend and work at a church that has about 1100 attenders on a
given Sunday. We offer two morning services and one night service on Sunday.
Small group ministry is something that we have worked very hard on over the years
and each year we are getting better and better. We currently have about 85% of
our attenders plugged in and participating on one of our small groups. With this I
would consider our church a “Is- Small Group” when it comes to the classification.7
Each group has a choice of what they want to do in their group, some of them do
sermon discussion with the weekly questions that are sent out, and others work
through either a book or a book of the Bible. We have seen a lot of growth within
these groups and that is something that we are very excited about!
Conclusion
These two books have allowed me to think more about small groups and the
bigger idea of discipleship. Each of these books gives a little different perspective
7 DSMN 630 Lecture Notes
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and gives tips and things that we have to think about in order to grow and make
disciples. There are things that I have to improve on in my thinking of small groups
when it comes to my leading and growing in my own small group .
Bibliography
Comiskey, Joel. Biblical Foundations for the Cell-Based Church: New Testament
Insights for
the 21st Century (Moreno Valley, CA: CCS Publishing),
2012.
Dempsey, Rod and Dave Earley. Leading Healthy, Growing, Multiplying Small
Groups. Liberty University Press, Lynchburg, Virginia 2015.
DSMN 630 Lecture notes .
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