Not much time to pack, but they were ready to go. For 400 years they had been planning the route. Head east across the wilderness of Shur, turn north at Kadesh Barnea, and they were there. Even with a large, cumbersome group they could make it in a week, two at the most.

But it took forty years. The problem was readiness -- the Israelites wanted to leave Egypt, but they weren't ready to arrive in the Promised Land. God must prepare the people, but even more than that, He must prepare their leaders.

Moses had grown up in Pharaoh's court. He must have seen "Granddad," the Pharaoh, at work many times. So when Moses started walking the sands of Egypt with the great multitude of Israelites behind him, he was leading by the only example he knew, the royal rule of the Pharaoh. So he made most of the decisions; he answered the questions; he judged the conflicts; he was father, mother, teacher, counselor, supply sergeant, prophet, and priest.

But it wasn't working very well. Moses was wearing out. People were grumbling. The whole structure was on one man's back, and it was killing him. So over the next forty years, God helped Moses to see a new style of leadership.

"Empowering" is a managerial buzzword today, but it's as old as what God directed Moses to accomplish in the desert. God taught Moses to empower other leaders to become nurturers and counselors.

Following his father-in-law's advice, Moses restructured the Israelites into decentralized units of small groups (with a~ few as ten in a group) served by trained leaders. In groups so small, many people inevitably would have felt personal responsibility for the success of their traveling community. Imagine what this did for the self-respect of these former slaves! No longer mere cogs in an amorphous machine of slaves, as they had been in Goshen, they were all now transformed into real people in small groups of ten who were personally attended to by leaders who knew them and cared about them.

Leapfrog into the New Testament past Pentecost. Again God's people are found in small units for Caring, sharing, worshipping, and growing. Combining Stewart L. Tubbs' definition of a small group, "a collection of individuals who influence one another, derive some satisfaction from maintaining membership in the group, interact for some purpose, assume some specialized roles, are dependent on one another, and communicate face-to-face," with Roberta Hestenes' classic definition of a small group as an intentional, face-to-face gathering of 3 to 12 people," and the picture of the New Testament church emerges clearly.

Small groups of believers met in private homes -- the group that met in the home of John Mark's mother in Jerusalem, in Lydia's house in Philippi, in the homes of Gaius and Stephanas in Corinth, in the homes of Philemon in Colosse and Nympha in Laodicea, as well as in the homes of Priscilla and Aquila both in Ephesus and Rome.

Church fathers Justin Martyr, Ignatius, and Hermas all agreed that the Roman church was decentralized well into the second century. In each one of the host homes, Christian hospitality was demonstrated, and the early Christians came to recognize the value of hospitality as Paul, Peter, John, and the Hebrew writer all held it up as a noble virtue among God's people. As Del Birkey notes, "The apostolic church can never be properly understood without always bearing in mind the distinctive contribution house churches made."

Leapfrog again into today's church scene. Is this even the same world? The small groups of the first and second centuries have given way to mega churches with multi million dollar edifices and large staffs of professionals who have been trained to minister with skill and efficiency. Church leaders flock to seminars to learn how to build their congregations into models of ecclesiastic success. Large is good. Larger is better. Largest is an obvious sign of God's highest blessing.

But in all this, something has been lost. The personal touch. The sharing. The caring. The mechanics are there, but the heart feels an emptiness. To compensate, some churches have decided to offer small groups as one ministry option among many others. The church creates enough groups to meet the demand and announces the program for those interested. Some members do join groups and are blessed. These are churches with small groups.

Some churches, however, go the route Moses did as he restructured from a Pharaoh-model to a God-model. They go back to the beginning and start over. They think in terms of sheep who need shepherds. Not one shepherd over scores or hundreds of sheep. One shepherd over ten sheep. So they identify and empower shepherds (some are called "under-shepherds") who love people and want to help them grow. Soon each of these shepherds has a small group of sheep around him, and together they grow. These small groups become the growing, thriving units of the church.

Yes, of course, there are large group assemblies on Sundays. This is always where the church gathers to celebrate what God has done all week, worship the Lord together in communal praise, share in His supper, and hear the ministry of the Word of God.

However, the primary place for ministry, sharing, caring, nurturing, and growing is the small group in the home. When a family crisis hits in Bob's home, the small group comes alongside to weep. When a promotion comes to Phyllis, it is the small group that shows up with the balloons and ice cream to celebrate. When George and Barbara have questions and doubts, members of the small group struggle together, wrestle together, pray together. This is not just a church with small groups. This is a church of small groups. In these groups -- with their caring leaders and overseeing shepherds-resides the spiritual and emotional center of the church.

Will this work? Of course! It is God's way. Restructuring and empowering are never easy -- it took the wilderness people forty years to learn God's way of caring for people. Today, even among those who attempt to restore a more Biblical model, old patterns and habits die hard. A few months without diligence, and the small groups will revert into "just another option." But with prayer, vision, and care, God's people can be nurtured in the local church as He intends.