Growing in two directions

When I edit pictures on my computer, sometimes I "stretch" them to make it easier to see the main thing in the picture. But I have to be careful where I click. If I take a picture of myself and pull the top bar vertically, the image distorts and gets long and skinny - and yes - it makes me feel better about myself! Or if I pull the side bar horizontally, then I look like Wile E. Coyote after he gets in the head with an anvil. But if I do it right, then the image grows proportionately and looks great - or at least as good as a picture of me can look (which isn't saying much).

Church is all about growing in our vertical relationship with God and our horizontal relationships with each other. In fact, Jesus said that those were the two most important things: loving God with all your heart and loving your neighbor as yourself. It concerns me when people are regularly connecting with God on Sunday mornings and growing vertically, but aren't connected with any sort of community group to grow horizontally. After a while, the image of God in their life gets distorted - often because they keep wanting to learn more when they haven't even put into practice the stuff they already learned. It seems like most of us are already educated far beyond our level of obedience. We need to keep growing in both directions.

I have received so much encouragement and seen so many positive life examples in the groups I've been a part of, that it's hard for me to imagine how different my life would be if I'd never connected with any of those groups. So what about you? How has a small group impacted your life and helped you to "grow in both directions"?