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Commentary on the pope's reaction to biblical small groups.

I happened to come across a quote on Facebook yesterday, The quote is provided in the picture below and the reads "When these small groups are created within the community of God's people, these people believe they are being good Christians and also are acting in good faith maybe, but they are small groups who have privatized salvation." Pope Francis January 29, 2015. This morning I woke up early and went to blog talk radio and logged into my account and was going to give an audio commentary on what I believe the pope meant by those statements. I was interrupted by an unforeseen event so now I'm going to use my blog as a way of communicating what my views are on the biblical small group and how I feel about what the pope said about this. For those of you wanting to hear further commentary on blog talk radio my show is called the alternative viewX and if time permits me in the future I will do just that. But for now I will leave a link to this blog, underneath the comments on my blog talk radio episode for today which is friday, January 30, 2015. 

 First things first I must let you know that I do participate in a biblical small group at my church. My church is called harvest Bible Chapel and I live in Canada and the region that I live in is York. I was shocked to hear this comment coming from the pope when there are many people within the Evangelical circle who have negative use of the small group. When the small group was first introduced, I had some reservations about joining one. But as time went by I found this ministry to be invaluable in my spiritual growth. It's more than just a Bible study, it is a fellowship of believers who soul purpose is to take the sermon that we here on Sunday or whatever curriculum the group is using to grow in biblical doctrine. There is an argument out there which says that instead of using the didactic process of reasoning, dialectical thinking is being used which can produce false doctrine. I personally have felt the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in these meetings that I have been attending, and the conviction and repentance that have resulted from attending these meetings has produced in me an enourmous amount of spiritual growth in my own life. 

 The statement that the pope uses in that small groups have privatized salvation in my estimation is a false assumption. Salvation is an individual act not a group act. Doctrine is so important in this issue and coming from the Roman Catholic background I understand what the pope meant by his statement. Small groups are meant for believers in at that exclude some people then that's the way that it is. It is a way to grow in your faith as a born-again Christian, and even the doctrine of being born again as an evangelical is different from the doctrine of being born again as a Catholic. However I do agree with the pope on certain issues that some Christians who are acting in good faith may come to a small group with a sense of pride. Not having much college or university education I find that the small group setting is a way for me to learn to grow and somewhat of a curriculum environment. Without the formality of the small group, and this is what I think he means when he says that we are privatizing salvation, there would be no real growth for anyone. I don't think anyone should be forced to join a small group, and if someone wants to participate in a small group who is not a Christian I believe that it is okay not being a leader of the church but someone who has seen that happen in a church that does that. This is Mike.

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