“Why are you putting on your tennis shoes? You going for a run?”

That’s what I asked our son, Steven, Sunday afternoon as Monieca and I were preparing to leave the apartment where he and Sara live in Columbia. We had driven down after church to meet them for lunch at California Dreaming. Later at their apartment we Skyped with Jacqueline and her family in Italy and then I took a brief nap while Steven watched NASCAR. Now it was time to leave and he was putting on his tennis shoes.

His answer was brief and made me proud. “I’ve got group!”

He meets each Sunday evening at a home with a group of guys he goes to church with at Shandon Baptist. They do a Bible study and challenge each other to grow in their walk with Christ.

Monieca and I are both proud of him for many reasons, one being his commitment to Jesus. His faithfulness to his “group” is just one demonstration of that faithfulness, but it is an important one.

In my current sermon series, “Come Together”, I’ve been stressing the importance of believers being connected with other believers in some kind of small group if we are to develop into the mature followers of Jesus we are all called to be. Each of us needs to be in a Sunday School class, ministry group, or small group of some kind. If we’re not, there is an 8 in 10 chance we won’t even be attending church in 5 years.

So here’s what I’m challenging you to do. This coming Sunday, get up early enough to put on your shoes and make it to both worship and Sunday School. You need it!

Pastor Steve Hogg