"Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever."
John 6:53-58
John 6 is a very pivotal section of scripture because we see Jesus begin to reveal who He really was and the full substance of what His ministry was all about. For a person that knew nothing of Jesus, one could come to the conclusion that He was a demented cult leader, advocating cannibalism. Such bizarre statements tell you one of two things: "Run away!" Or "OK, what's the deep hidden meaning here?" Well, as you might already know, there was a very deep hidden meaning to what Jesus was referring. Basically Jesus is trying to convince His followers that they needed to learn to rely on Him 100%, without any expectations of being provided for by other sources. He alone was their sustenance and sufficiency, to the point that He referred to two main things that sustain life more than anything else: food and drink. Those that hunger and thirst for righteousness, find their fulfillment in Christ alone and what better analogy could Jesus have used to illustrate complete communion with God?
Some of Jesus' followers took His words literally and scripture tells us that "On hearing it, many of his disciples said, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?....From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him." (John 6:60 & 66) It's also possible that they just realized the true cost of following Jesus was getting too high, and could not accept what it really meant. Either way, they left the group of those called to follow Christ, and more than likely settled back into life as usual.
What does this have to do with you are a leader of a Life Group? Well, I've been working with some new facilitators from our last Group Connection. They've been at it for about 4 weeks now and have had some people drop out of their groups. As you probably already know, life is never constant. Situations change. Schedules change. People change. It's can be very frustrating, but it's also a very normal part of Life Groups. I realized that changes to the dynamics of our Life Groups does not necessarily get better with time. You guys need encouragement as well.
Don't let changes discourage you when it comes to people leaving your Life Groups. Building real community together is not always easy. Some people might begin to realize that being part of a community requires sacrifice and dedication. Some might see it as a waste of time and not worth prioritizing. Some might see being part of a Life Group as simply a social gathering, with no deeper spiritual meaning. And these might be the ones that turn back and no longer follow. This is an aspect of leading that we cannot take personally or allow to affect how much we choose to love those we lead.
Just after "many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.", He turned to the twelve disciples and said, "You do not want to leave too, do you?" Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God." (John 6:66-67)
This is a picture of those that will hang in for the long haul. Life Groups are gatherings of Christ followers. Small pictures of the Body of Christ. You are His disciples, following Him even when it gets difficult, strange and maybe a little scary. Be encouraged!
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