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This is my newest piece–written with my husband!–for The Gospel Coalition. You can read the whole article here, at TGC.

During the last decade of our life together in ministry, we’ve lived in five cities and have been a part of five different churches. In each place, we’ve been actively involved in (and often leading) a small group.

With each move, I (Ann) have found myself longing for the friendship and camaraderie that can come in a healthy, life-giving small group. And because I’ve been hungry for meaningful friendship, my tendency is often to want to huddle with the friends in our small group, rather than reaching out to others who might need community.

My sinful tendency is to want to hoard my friendships, because they seem so difficult to come by.

I (Michael) am the pastor of the small-group ministry at our church, and our team works to create a culture that is both inward-facing and outward-facing (see Acts 2:42–47). Cultivating this type of culture is not something that happens overnight, but small changes can reap great fruit when we aim to live as church members who love those within our small group while also keeping a compassionate, missional eye toward those outside the group.

Here are four ways you can seek to cultivate a culture of both loving community and missional outreach in your small group.

1. Choose a way to minister together.

Our church promotes four core practices of a healthy small group: Bible study, prayer, caring for each other, and some form of outward-facing service or missional outreach. While the emphasis on each of these four elements ebbs and flows depending on the need and season of each group, the aim of being service-oriented is always present.

What might this look like? For some groups, it looks like helping someone in our congregation who needs financial and spiritual support. Other groups are praying together for opportunities to share the gospel with unbelievers in their lives. Our current small group has decided to pursue outreach to a local state university, and we are communicating with on-campus ministry leaders for the best ways to help in this season.

No matter how each group chooses to reach out, our small group ministry training emphasizes that small groups don’t exist only for themselves. Even as we encourage and challenge each other, we are called to be a blessing to the broader church and community.

Read the rest of the article here, at The Gospel Coalition!