DSMN 630 Small Group Ministry: The Biblical Foundations Assignment, 9/6/2026

The Written Assignment:

The Biblical Foundations Assignment

Joo Won Lee

DSMN630: Small Group Ministry (B01)

September 6, 2026

Contents

Summary-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3

Primary Passages--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------5

Guiding Principles-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------6

Type of Church & Small Groups--------------------------------------------------------------------7

Bibliography--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------8

Summary of Comiskey and Earley & Dempsey

     The required reading this week on Comiskey’s explored the old venerable doctrine of the Trinity surrounding the Three Persons/Three Godheads of God (before anyone who jumps to rushed conclusion, and prematurely or categorically condemns what outwardly appears to be an incoherent or non-sensical doctrine of Polytheism, which the doctrine of Trinity may appear to be, let’s summarize what Comiskey (& thousand other Trinitarian adherents have argued for over hundreds of years), shall we?  We might be able to gain an insight into knowing God at more personal and meaningful way thusly:

     The following excerpt from Comiskey’s written argument for the Trinity just about sums it all up for me regarding how I and perhaps some others (who might be torn between what Scriptures actually tell us Vs. what the Seminaries teach), “The triune nature of God describes a God who possesses mutuality within his own being. Rather than promoting an individualistic, lone ranger God, the doctrine of the Trinity emphasizes life, love, and movement within the Godhead. Thomas F. Torrance writes, While the Lord Jesus Christ constitutes the pivotal center of our knowledge of God, God’s distinctive self-revelation as Holy Trinity, One Being, Three Persons, creates the overall framework within which all Christian theology is to be formulated. Understandably, therefore, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity has been called the innermost heart of Christian faith and worship, the central dogma of classical theology, the fundamental grammar of our knowledge of God.”[1] That is a good argument for me: this author likes to think of the Trinity in terms of how God really wants us to know Him, relate to Him at a level we can understand and get to know him. We are limited in our understanding as mere creatures, and hence we had had a need to develop a concept of God in a way we could describe and draw a picture of what He might be—in academic and theological jargons, which may or may not be entirely accurate based on what scriptures actually have taught us.

     Comiskey further notes, “The New Testament writers explain the Trinity with more clarity and help us understand how the God of Deuteronomy 6:4 (“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one”) exists in three persons. Torrance reminds us that we only understand the God of the Old Testament through the New Testament’s revelation of the Trinity, The Trinity is not just a way of thinking about God, for the one true God is actually and intrinsically Triune and cannot be truly conceived otherwise. There is in fact no real knowledge of God as God except through his revealing or naming of himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for the three Persons are the one true God—apart from them God cannot be known in the truth and reality of his Being”[2] As noted above, when the names and ideas become relational and relevant to the limited human understanding and knowledge, that is when the individuals may begin to develop better understanding of the deities not to mention YHWH in terms of the Three God-headed being so that we could perhaps feel closer and His nature revealed to us in more clear and definitive ways.

     Early & Dempsey write that the two most fundamentally important aspects in any Christian’s lives as we strive toward becoming the true active disciples of Jesus Christ, a Champion in Christ are the Great Commandment and Great Commission as we have often heard about. These two pillars of the utmost importance complement nicely what Comiskey essentially endorses and argues for the Doctrine of the Trinity: That our God is relational, personal, and loving God to whom we can not only relate, but to know, understand, and worship as He ought to be—the Almighty Yahweh who appeared to Adam, Eve, Abraham, Sarah, Jacob, Moses, Manoah, Sadrach, Meshach, Abednego et al in the Old Testament Times. Our God is amazing, and He truly has manifested and revealed Himself time and time again as Hit Triune Nature saw it fit on need basis.

And as Dempsey and Earley write, “The heart cry of every human is an overwhelming need for community. The healthy Christian lifestyle seeks to meet this need. Christian community is essential to us because we were created to work together. The Apostle Paul’s favorite term for the church was “the body of Christ,”[3] all this should lead us to forming a mutually beneficial and loving, caring community of Christ’s love and grace within our own boundary of Christian faith adherents.  

Primary Passages That Form a Small Group Ministry

     Obviously, the greatest emphasis is on two most fundamentally important aspects or actions in the whole Christianity, which are the Great Commandments as narrated in Matthew 22:37-40, Mark 12:28-31 and Luke 10:25-28 or in the old testament as in Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. Essentially, our Lord Jesus reiterated what was already written and taught in the form of Shema in antiquity when He reminded His disciples of the ultra-importance of the Great Commandment.

     Then, the second most important aspect when it relates to the small group ministry is the Great Commission as elaborated in Matthew 28:18-20 ESV (“And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”  

2-3 Brief Principles Drawn from the Primary Passages

     As Dr. Dempsey illustrated in his video lecture, the Four Basic Principles guiding the small group ministry and the whole evangelism  are “Go, Baptize, Teach and Make a disciple.” ; 1.Go, 2. Baptize, 3. Teach, 4. Make a disciple. These are essentially the core missionary principles outlined from the Great Commission verses in Matthew 28:18-20. Therefore, combined with the Great Commandment verses, my 2-3 principles I’d draw form the primary passages are 1) We ought to love God first and foremost, 2) We ought to love our neighbors just as we would do God since that love toward our neighbor is the indirect expression of love and devotion to God, who created us all, and He would like to see nothing but us living in peace and harmony with one another.

     As Dempsey and Earley write, “Our hunger for relationships is an identifying mark of our humanity. Small group experts Bill Donahue and Russ Robinson write, “God chose to embed in us a distinct kind of DNA. God created us all with a ‘communal gene,’ an inborn, intentional, inescapable part of what it means to be human,”[4] indeed, we crave to bond with one another, and for us Christians there is no other bond which is stronger than the bond which the sacrifice at Calvary had bought for us who otherwise would have perished: the fraternal bond which Christ our Savior and Lord did endow us with as our sins were forgiven by the death and resurrection of the Lamb.

The Type of Church and Small Group the Author of This Paper Is In

     By looking at the Church Structure Chart & With/Of/Is Chart, the type of church this author is currently in is 1. Organic with multiple elders in structure, 2. Hybrid with building focused (& incarnational, lived out in the community in location, 3. Extreme complex in complexity, 4. “Relational missional groups” & “Come and See” in evangelism, 5. Curriculum driven learning & small groups in discipleship, 6. “With” and “of” small groups in small groups organization, 7. Constant change & accepted changes due to evangelism in change attitude, 8. Intentional mentoring in community, both personal and community in spiritual formation, 9. All gifts needed, needed for the programs, 10. For the congregation, toward the seeker, for the believer in preaching, 11. Mission/discipleship/activity in growth engine, 12. Support the staff, property, and buildings, aimed toward the mission; complex in budget, 13. On Sunday morning, aimed toward the mission; complex in worship, 14. At the church, personal in prayer, 15. Hierarchical; equipping leadership; understands equipping leadership but manages a complex organization in Leadership Philosophy, 16. Leaders developed for the programs; disciples developed, leaders emerge for the mission in Leadership Development, 17. Equipper/Teacher, multi-talented in senior pastor, 18. Extensive paid staff in staff, 19. Involved and active; watch, pay, cheer, and limited involvement in Saints’ Role, 20. “Watcher,” “Consumer,” “Kingdom Citizen” in Saints’ attitude, 21. To run the programs; to lead the missional groups, 22. Be faithful, meet my needs; fulfill my role in the mission; but the default is “meet my needs”, 23. Local, national, and international through church planting in Missions, 24. Multiplication-oriented in Multiplication, 25. Add satellites/campuses; multiply churches in Church Planting.

Bibliography

Comiskey, Joel. Biblical Foundations for the Cell-Based Church: New Testament Insights for the 21st Century Church (CCS Publishing, 2012).

Dempsey, Rod and Earley, Dave. Leading Healthy, Growing, Multiplying, Small Groups (Wordsearch, 2018).

[1] Joel Comiskey, Biblical Foundations for the Cell-Based Church: New Testament Insights for the 21st Century Church (CCS Publishing, 2012), 38–39.

[2] Joel Comiskey, Biblical Foundations for the Cell-Based Church: New Testament Insights for the 21st Century Church (CCS Publishing, 2012), 40–41.

[3] Rod Dempsey and Dave Earley, Leading Healthy, Growing, Multiplying, Small Groups (Wordsearch, 2018), 23.

[4] Rod Dempsey and Dave Earley, Leading Healthy, Growing, Multiplying, Small Groups (Wordsearch, 2018), 24.