Biblical Family

When a person considers the "meta-narrative" of the Bible, one can easily see that God has done incredible work to create each person and desires to have a personal relationship with all of those He has created. People are the focus of His amazing actions and should likewise be the focus of a believer's ministry. God also created mankind to be communal. People need people to prosper. As infants, humans require other humans to nurture and care for them as they grow toward adulthood. No person can make that journey without other humans to aid them. Similarly, new believers require the nurture and support of mature believers to assist them in their development and spiritual growth.

Unity

Because of believers’ need for each other, students of Scripture should consider what the Bible has to say about gathering together and serving each other. The divine fellowship of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit provides the example of biblical fellowship. Even as each person of the Trinity exists as an individual, they operate in a state of unity. This unity is so profound that the Godhead describes themselves as one in Scripture (Deut. 6:4). As such, God has presented the example of fellowship and directs His people to seek such fellowship with each other. Comiskey points out that, "The church is a place where the being and nature of God should be demonstrated through loving relationships (Colossians 1:18-19; Ephesians 1:22-23). As the church understands and grows in love with the triune God, it must reflect that same unity in the family of God."

Family

The Bible presents the concept to believers that they are adopted into the family of God (Gal 4:4-7). This familial construct is shown throughout the New Testament and was based upon the extended family experience called the "oikos" in Greek. Comiskey described how the word oikos was utilized thirty-four times in Luke and twenty-five times in Acts 3. The word conveys the idea of a large, extended family who lives together. This family would have multiple generations represented and would have followed the leadership of the family leaders (which could have been a father or a mother). In addition, servants, clients, and guests might be part of the family experience at any given time. The fundamental understanding of the members of the family is that they would be loyal to each other and seek out whatever benefited the family group, rather than focusing solely upon their own interests. The family accepted the responsibility to care for its members, discipline the young, and teach them what they needed to know to be successful adults. In a similar way, healthy small groups empower "family" members and seek to nurture them as they pursue the Great Commission directive to make disciples. (Matt 28:18-20).

Effective Ministry as a Family

Another attribute of a biblical community is the ability to provide opportunities for effective ministry for the members. The family of God is comprised of many individuals who have diverse skillsets. Each person is unique and can contribute to the overall well-being of the family (1 Cor 14:12). A healthy small group provides a supportive environment in which each member can pursue the Great Commission mandate to share the gospel and make disciples. The unity that the group displays becomes an attractive force in the communities where the small groups operate.

By combining their skillsets, they expand their capacity to serve beyond the family group. In the early church, pagans wrote about the attractiveness of the biblical community. Hellerman describes that,

"People did not convert to Christianity solely because of what the early Christians believed. They converted because of the way in which the early Christians behaved."

- Joseph H. Hellerman, When the Church Was a Family, (B&H Publishing Group, Kindle Edition, 2009), 105.

These believers treated others with compassion and shared the love of God with those around them. Their work to live out the commands of Jesus resulted in an incredible spread of the gospel throughout their civilization. Similarly, healthy small groups have the capacity to spend part of their time focusing outward from the group to include others, minister to them, and share their faith in meaningful ways. There are many modes of ministry that the members can conduct as they work from a mutually supportive base of the relationship. Comiskey felt that small groups meeting in homes were a key part of the spread of the gospel in the early church. He shared,

“God crafted a reproducible strategy that depended on the believer's home property for the early meetings. Only those transformed by the gospel's message would risk opening their homes. Yet, all those who opened their homes exemplified God's love and power for their neighbors and friends to see and experience. In the process, many more were converted, and the early church continued to spread from house to house.”

-Joel Comiskey, Biblical Foundations for the Cell-Based Church, Kindle Locations 1311-1314.

This method of ministering to a lost world and developing healthy mature believers can be accomplished in the contemporary church. The key to effective ministry will lie in developing a close, nurturing relationship based upon familial loyalty and Godly unity.