For about twenty years, our church has had what we call K-Groups. The “K” is for koinonia, which is a Greek word that occurs 20 times in the Bible. The primary meaning of koinonia is “fellowship, sharing in common, communion.” The first occurrence of koinonia is in Acts 2:42:
 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
Our K-Groups are wonderful opportunities to enter into fellowship with a small group of friends from church. We have been in several different K-Groups over the years, all of them wonderful, resulting in some deep and lasting friendships. The K-Group we have been a part of for the past few years was a thriving group long before we joined. Small groups come in every shape and size. Some churches may call them life groups, or community groups. There is certainly no “one size fits all”. For example, our group members, for the most part, though there are some exceptions, tend to be around my age, that is, we are older. While there are advantages to this, as we can relate to each other because we are in a similar stage of life; there is also sadness, as we have had a number of group members move to a more pleasing climate as they retire.
Our group meets on Sunday evenings from the Fall through Spring. Except for special get-togethers, we tend to take the summers off, as so many are travelling on vacation. Let me give you a brief description of a typical meeting of our small group.
5:30 pm – 6:00 pm – Fellowship. Members of the group arrive at our host’s home and gather over snacks that the members bring. Our conversation is pretty casual and informal, talking about the latest sports event, movie, etc.
6:00 pm – 7:00 pm – Sermon review. We all gather to review questions that one of our pastors has developed about the content of that morning’s sermon. The intent is not necessarily just to review the main points of the sermon, but to go deeper in application. Many of the group members take notes, and our conversations are always rich and stimulating.
7:00 pm – 7:30 pm – Prayer. For the final thirty minutes, we gather for prayer. Unless we have a small turnout, the men will go downstairs and the women remain upstairs. If we do have a small number on a particular evening, we’ll all stay together for prayer. This is a wonderful and encouraging time to hear what’s going on in each other’s lives and pray for one another.
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. Philippians 4:6
I really love our small group. As we go through life together, we rejoice with those who rejoice and we weep with those who weep (Romans 12:15).

How about you? How are your experiences with small groups similar or different?