Community Groups
If you really want to find connection as you live out your inspired purpose, you’ll want to be part of a Community Group. We want to effectively help people move from our large environment into small groups. In fact, many newcomers discover a Community Group before ever attending a worship gathering. We believe a small group is the best place for sustained life change to occur. So in a Community Group, people study God’s Word together, share the issues and challenges of life’s journey, and pray with and for each other. Community Groups schedule times of food and fun and service together. Community Groups are not a nice addition to our faith community, they are the heart of our faith community. That’s why we place such a high premium on group life.
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The primary way to join a group is through GroupLink (an event designed to link people together who are seeking a group).
Community Group Questions:
What are Community Groups?
Community Groups are small groups of 3 to 12 people who meet weekly somewhere outside the church building for the purposes of: fellowship, investigating scripture together, discussing the current series being preached in Sunday worship gatherings, praying for one another, and learning to be disciples together.
What are the basic principles of a Community Group?
Following Jesus is a group endeavor – we need each other to be faithful. Faithfulness is concerned with how we live our whole life before God. Community Groups are aimed at fostering this whole-hearted faithfulness. The basic principles that guide and shape this can be seen in what happens at any given Community Group gathering:
- We eat together (at least once a month). It is around the table that the real stuff of life is shared – the joys, the funny things, the trials, the hurt. To share a table is to begin to share life.
- We read and discuss Scripture. Reading the Bible can be a challenge – but we do not read it alone. We learn together how to read this Holy Book and how we should live in light of it.
- We pray together. In praying together we learn to carry each other’s burdens, share each other’s joys, and begin to shore up the gap between what we pray and how we live.
- We serve others together (at least once a quarter). God’s people are to be defined as the people who do the things God does. Together we will learn to not only see the needs of others but meet those needs in a way that shows God’s great love.
Will this take the place of traditional Sunday School?
Yes. It has been an unintended bi-product that Sunday School has contributed to the compartmentalizing of our faith. That is, it has become far too easy to be God’s people on Sunday and to be something else altogether Monday thru Saturday. Being followers of Jesus happens in the middle of our everyday lives. Community Groups will seek to help us with this re-integration by taking place in homes, coffee shops, parks, and restaurants all throughout the week.
Will this take the place of occasional groups?
No. Occasional groups will still happen. In fact it is our suspicion that Community Groups will be a place that give rise to new occasional groups. Some examples of occasional groups are: men’s work groups, healthy living support groups, divorce care groups, sports teams, etc.
Why would I want to be part of a Community Group?
Maybe you’ve been looking for a place to belong. Maybe you’ve wanted to better read the Bible. Maybe you’ve been wishing for friends with whom you can share the important things of life. Maybe you’ve wanted to get more involved in serving the community. Maybe you’ve heard Jesus call to, “Come, follow me!” and you want to respond. If so, you will want to be part of a Community Group!
