Overcome the “Holy Huddle” Infection

ByMelanie Newton Colossians | Healthy Living, Lifestyle disciplemaking
Overcome the "holy huddle" infection
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Do you find yourself spending all your time with Christian friends? Do you have difficulty even knowing how to talk to unchurched women? Do you ignore the nonbelievers around you? If you answered “yes” to those questions, you might have caught the “Holy Huddle” infection. This is post #12 in our Healthy Living series from Colossians. In this article, we will see how to overcome the “Holy Huddle” infection and stay spiritually healthy in an unhealthy world.

Listen to this post as a similar podcast from our  Healthy Living Bible Study of Colossians and Philemon:

What is a “holy huddle?”

Have you heard the phrase “holy huddle?” Do you know what it means?

The holy huddle is the tendency for Christians to surround themselves with other believers going from one fellowship group to another. It occurs when believers isolate themselves from non-Christians, developing relationships only with other believers. They end up having few deep friendships with unbelievers. (urbandictionary.com)

Do you recognize this tendency in yourself or in Christians that you know?

In Colossians chapter 4, Paul asked his friends to pray specifically for him.

And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. (Colossians 4:3-4)

Pray for him to proclaim the gospel clearly to those who are within hearing. Paul is in chains. Yet, he knows that even in chain, his purpose is still to make disciples for Jesus. Then, Paul goes on to remind the Colossians that they are to do the same thing in their community. And he gives them some encouragement how to be intentional to make that happen.

Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. (Colossians 4:5-6)

Make the most of every opportunity you have with those outside of the body of Christ. Be intentional with your words and wise with your interactions. That is living outside your “holy huddle” of Christian friends. This is part of your purpose.

The “Holy Huddle” infection attacks our purpose for being left here on earth after we are saved. Jesus commissions us with that purpose. We need to know what it is.

Jesus commissions us with a purpose.

Jesus Christ calls you to a new life, clothes you with Himself, commissions you with a purpose, and empowers you to fulfill that purpose. It’s a two-fold purpose: (1) to follow Him as His disciple and (2) to live for Him as a disciplemaker.

(1) To follow Jesus as His disciple

To follow Jesus means that you make the choice to learn from Jesus through what is taught in the Bible and, in dependent obedience, apply those teachings to your life. We call that discipleship. Discipleship is how Christians get established and grow in their faith—usually through Bible studies, sermons, small groups, and personal devotions. Discipleship tends to be inward-focused, how you are growing in the Lord. But discipleship is incomplete without disciplemaking.

(2) To live for Jesus as a disciplemaker

In disciplemaking, you trust in Christ and choose to follow Him as His disciple. The difference is that while you are growing in your own faith, you are also reaching new people for Christ, building them up in their faith, and helping them reach their peers. Disciplemaking is outward-focused. It is thinking to yourself, “Hey, I just learned something cool about Jesus. I can share it with someone else who needs to know this.” Jesus wants His followers to become disciplemakers like that.

Disciplemaking is intentional and relational. To be intentional means to be deliberate and strategic. You know what relational means—to be together, spending time to listen, talk, know and be known.

Christian women are pretty good at being intentional and relational with one another. We love Bible study groups. That is where disciples grow. Most of us know we are supposed to be disciplemakers, but it is easy to get sidetracked from that. We hang out together so much that we lose connection with those who don’t know Jesus. We find it hard to talk with them so we ignore them whenever possible. You know you have caught the “Holy Huddle” infection when that happens to you. But the one who gave you the purpose will show you how to overcome this infection.

Jesus shows us how to overcome the “Holy Huddle” infection.

Reaching out to non-Christians takes courage. When you think of talking about Jesus with that neighbor or co-worker, do you feel like you don’t know what to say? Do you have a fear of rejection? Most of the time, we just prefer to be comfortable with growing closer to Christ and enjoying community with other believers.

That happens in our church events as well. We quickly find our friends and start visiting with them, often ignoring that newcomer who is by herself.

But Jesus doesn’t want us to stay in our holy huddles. He demonstrated for us how to be intentional in building relationships with others and introducing them to Him.

Jesus engaged people who needed to know Him throughout his 3½ years of ministry. To engage means to bring things together to cause them to interlock. Jesus did this by intentionally going to where the people were who needed to know Him. Wherever He went, He built relationships with those who were interested, even those with bad reputations. He invited people to follow Him—some to travel with Him, others to go back home and share about Him. His love for people motivated Him to do this.

Just like Jesus, we need to build intentional relationships with those who do not know Christ or do not know Him well. In my heart, I want to do that—to be obedient in sharing about Him to others around me who need to know Him. But I often feel so inadequate. You may feel that way, too.

A few years ago, I realized that if I was going to get beyond this inadequacy, I would need to work at preparing myself to share about the Lord in daily conversation. I would need to pray for opportunity to introduce Jesus to other women and then trust Him to do the rest. By the way, that is the simplicity of disciplemaking. It is a huge part of my purpose, and your purpose, while we are alive on this earth. But how do we do this and avoid the “Holy Huddle” infection?

Prepare yourself for disciplemaking.

We must start out by asking Jesus to show us how to love the non-Christians in our lives while He works in their hearts. Here’s a simple phrase to remind me of that: Pray and Love.

Pray and love the unchurched women in your life.

What does that look like? You can ask Jesus to bring to mind the unchurched women in your life. Consider those whom you frequently see or where you are presently connected. Some we think are non-Christians may be believers who have never been discipled so their lives look like those of unbelievers. Write their names down. Then,

  • Pray for each one whenever you think about her, asking the Holy Spirit to work in her heart to draw her to Jesus so she will trust in Him.
  • Also, ask Jesus to give you His love for her and to help you understand what she is feeling and needing from Him. That is His living through you.
  • Commit to make the most of any connection you have to build a relationship with her and show Jesus’ love and compassion to her.
  • Trust in the Lord to show you how He can use you in her life to introduce her to Jesus.

Only the Holy Spirit can open the eyes of unbelievers to the truth of the gospel and convert their hearts. But Jesus has given us the job to communicate the gospel. We can do our part by praying for them and loving them. We can also be ready to share how Jesus has impacted our lives. That is called a faith story.

Shape your faith story using 3 words.

Your story is Jesus’ story in your life. Only you know it and can share it. Someone might reject the gospel facts, but it is very hard to argue with your experience of the gospel.

You can shape a short faith story using just 3 words.

  • Choose any three words to represent your life: one for before knowing Jesus, one for how you came to believe in him, and one for your life as a believer since.
  • Using your three words, create 1-2 sentences for each word—just a brief explanation of how each word relates to your story.
  • My three words are striving, freedom, and satisfied. I spent my growing up years striving for the best in everything – grades, awards and good behavior – because my heart needs were tied to what I could achieve—my performance. When I trusted in what Jesus did for me on the cross, I experienced real freedom from the burden of performance because my faith in Jesus made me perfectly acceptable to God forever. My heart is now satisfied by His love and acceptance without my having to earn His favor through performance. My satisfied heart wants to live a life that pleases Him. You can watch this as a video here.

That is short and easy to remember. Try it. You can interject your 3-word story into a conversation or ask another woman what 3 words might define her life

Once you have shaped a short faith story to share, consider some conversation transitions to use on various topics.

Consider conversation transitions.

Remember the advice Paul gave in Colossians 4?

Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. (Colossians 4:5-6)

Create some salty conversation. Think through common topics of casual conversation you might have with another woman that could lead to sharing some part of your story. Consider how you might identify with her and what God has done in your life to make a difference for you.

Common topics are these: when bad things happen, when good things happen, community, or family. Here’s an example using family, “I am so glad that God cares even more about my family than I do. What would I do without Him helping me to…”

Women use 20,000 words per day. We might as well make them work for disciplemaking. Right?

The last preparation is to know how to share the basic gospel facts.                      

Know how to share the gospel facts.

Choose a simple presentation of the gospel to memorize and have ready to use. Speak it aloud to yourself several times so you know it well without having to think about it. Ask the Spirit to give you boldness and opportunity to share this with someone soon. We include these at the end of our Live Out His Love Bible Study.

Summary:

These few preparations are intentional and relational and will help you overcome the “Holy Huddle” infection. Pray for and love the unchurched women around you. Shape a short faith story to share. Consider some conversation transitions to your faith story. And know how to share the gospel. That’s how you become a disciplemaker.

Here is the best part. Jesus empowers us to accomplish our purpose as disciplemakers.

Jesus empowers us to accomplish our purpose as disciplemakers.

You and I can be disciplemakers not because we are so great or smart. We can be disciplemakers not because we have been a Christian a long time or know the Bible well. Jesus is the one who makes us able. We are simply to obey Him and trust His Spirit to work through us. Being scared is a good thing because we will rely on Him more.

How do you trust Him? Just say, “Lord, I can’t, but you can do this in me.” Then, watch what He does. He will lead you and encourage you to accomplish the purpose He gives you to be a disciplemaker.

All of these preparations are interwoven into our Bible study of New Testament women called Live Out His Love. We also have other articles about disciplemaking with practical activities to get you started doing it in your life.

As Paul wrote in Colossians,

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. (Colossians 2:8)

A spiritual infection takes you captive to something other than Christ. The Holy Huddle infection is bad. Knowing the truth that you have been commissioned with a purpose and empowered to accomplish that purpose gives you an immune system that overcomes this spiritual infection. Let Jesus satisfy your heart needs with His truth and His love so you can get well and stay well.

Learn more about staying spiritually healthy in an unhealthy world through our Healthy Living Bible Study of Colossians and Philemon (11 lessons). 

Read other articles in this Healthy Living series. The next one is Defeat the Victim Infection.

Image credit: sourced from a template at canva.com.

AI was not used to generate this post.

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