What if more people want to memorize Scripture with you?

Published on Updated on Scripture Memory

Let’s say you are a member of a Scripture Memory group. What if more people want to join your group?

 

 

You started a Scripture Memory group. You recruited a friend or two. You’re meeting each week to review your memory verses together. It’s working!

But what if new people want to join in on it with you? What do you do with them? I’d like to offer you several perspectives.

 

PERSPECTIVE 1. LESS IS MORE

Keep your group “small” enough.

At first blush, it might seem like more is better.

However, a Scripture Memory Group is most effective when it is a “Small Group.”

How small? It can be really small. Jesus said that when as few as two or three come together in his name, he is there (see Matthew 18:20).

A meeting of just two or three people might be optimal.

 

PERSPECTIVE 2. SMALLER IS BETTER

I’ve read opinions from experts that the maximum size for a Small Group is five people. Or possibly seven.

Go any bigger than that, and its no longer an intimate “Small Group” of spiritual friends.

Instead, it will take on the feel of a committee or a classroom. Some of the dynamism and effectiveness will be lost.

That’s a sad moment.

So you can add people to your Scripture Memory Group, up to a certain point.

But if your group gets too big, it will no longer be intimate spiritual gathering between a small group of friends. By adding, you’ll subtract.

 

PERSPECTIVE 3. STAY UNIFIED

Keep your group unified.

There is some unifying factor that brought your Scripture Memory Group together in the first place. If you add new people, will that unifying factor be lost?

Here’s an example of what I’m saying. Let’s say you started a Scripture Memory Group with some Southern Baptist friends. But then your Roman Catholic coworker wants to join.

If you invite the Catholic, will everybody get along decently enough?

Or will the Baptists be forever trying to “save” the Catholic, and the Catholic forever trying to “rationalize” his Catholic identity?

If so, all is lost, as far as the effectiveness of your Scripture Memory Group is concerned.

 

PERSPECTIVE 4. THE HOLY SPIRIT

What is the Holy Spirit saying?

Perhaps the Holy Spirit will have the answer. Following God’s lead is always the best way to go, of course.

But God’s thinking is often quite different from our own (see Isaiah 55:8).

It would be great to tell your Scripture Memory Group that you have people who want to join. That way, they can join you in seeking God’s leading about what to do with them.

 

PERSPECTIVE 5. SPLIT INTO TWO GROUPS

Start a second group.

This is often the most optimal solution.

Instead of one group becoming too big, you now have two small groups that are actual Small Groups. Each will have the advantages described above.

 

CONCLUSION

As you memorize Scripture, perhaps the Holy Spirit will draw new Scripture Memory friends into your life.

I pray that in the fullness of time, the floodgates of heaven will open and pour out all sorts of blessings like that into your life.

 

RESOURCES

 

Unless otherwise noted, all Bible quotations on this page are from the World English Bible and the World Messianic Edition. These translations have no copyright restrictions. They are in the Public Domain.