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Saturday, September 12, 2009
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Monday, September 7, 2009
Common Needs
Ecclesiastes 4.
Last month one of my college buddies and his family came to visit us. It’s so great to have some folks in your life that you know, if push came to shove, if you really had no were to turn, and things were that bad, you could just say, "I need you," and they’d be there. Well, Sam is that kind of friend. When Robin and I were dating, and I was plotting my proposal, Sam and his wife Kim, me and Robin decided to go on a 3 day back packing trip. It was August. The hottest month of the year in our hemisphere. And I had a lot of camping experience. I can rub two squirrels together and make a fire, then roast the squirrels and eat them. (Squirrel is actually really good- I’m not joking.) It was HOT, so I figured, I’m gonna be carrying a lot of rock climbing equipment and other stuff, so I’m going to just take my sheet bag. My sheet bag was my brilliant idea that you don't really need a bulky heavy sleeping bag in August, you just need a sheet. So I sewed up a sheet into a bag, and off we went. We hiked all day and then found a beautiful spot to make camp. We made a fire, we ate a nice meal. The sun set, the fire died down, and they crawled into their bags, the three of them, and I, well, I crawled into my sheet. And then I got up and put on an extra t-shirt, and tied one around my head, and pulled by backpack up on me, and some climbing gear, and started stuffing leaves into my sheet bag, and I don't think I slept a wink that entire night. And in the morning, when they all awoke from their cozy slumber, I was already dead. They asked, "How’d you sleep George?" I informed them that it was only a slight exaggeration to say I froze to death.
And after another day hiking, that next night, because Robin and were not married yet, and because I knew Robin could not keep herself off of my now sweaty, dirty, stinky body after two days of hiking, my dear friend a brother in Christ Sam let me share his sleeping bag with him, and I slept very very well that night.
Now some of you respect me more for not sleep with Robin, some think less of me for keeping warm with Sam, all of you can agree that I’m an idiot for only taking a sheet bag with me, but I learned that night, how can one keep warm alone? But if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
We need to people. We work better in community. We get a better return. We can do more work, better work, when we work with another. In regard to the work of our church, to work of connecting with people who share a common need of God, we can not do this alone. The job is too great, the numbers too many. We need to do this together and get a better return. We need community because we fall down in life. We stumble, we fall, and it’s hard to get up. We need people at times in our life to pick us up from under our arms and to be our strength and get us on our feet again. WE need community to keep warm at night. In the darkness, in the cold, when we only have a sheet bag in life, we need community. When we are attacked, we need someone to have our back.
Folks, a cord of three strands can not quickly be broken. let me remind you of the three strands that how our Connection Groups together. Common Purpose, Place, Possessions. This flows directly out of the teaching of the bible and the way that the church came into existence. I hope that if your a regular and involved with Connections this passage is now very familiar to you,
The church had a purpose: devoted to God, to one another, to their neighbors, guided by scripture in everything. They had a place- they meet in worship at the temple, or for us a theatre, and they meet in homes. They were in such strong solidarity with one another they actually shared their possessions- giving so that the church flourished, and no one was in need. When we weave these strands together the strength of the church is UNBREAKABLE! The impact of this type of church, this type of community, was so astonishing that the church grew daily- people saw the witness of the church, were touched by the church, got involved with the church, gave their life to Jesus, got saved!
Today I want to talk about our purpose, and our purpose we break down in to three parts as well: to belong, to grow, to serve. I want to talk about how these three stands will make for an unbreakable and incredible experience in your life.
Our groups help us to fulfill the need to Belong. We all have a deep need to find a place of belonging. You need a place where you are you, and you are part of something bigger than yourself, you are so intimately a part and involved that when you are gone, the group says, we miss Joe, where is Mildred, has anyone heard from Dorkas (Yes, that really is a biblical name). At the same time, the one absent is saying, dag, I miss my group, I miss my friends, I want to be there.
1 Peter 2: 9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
You’ve had that experience of stepping out of a dark theatre and into the light, and it hurts, it burns, you cringe and want to retreat back into the darkness, back into this theatre? We get so comfortable with the darkness sometimes, that we cringe from the light. We get so comfortable living outside of community and connection and true belonging to others that when we begin to step into it, our immediate reaction is to want to retreat.
Here’s the thing about this, here’s why you need this, and what I want to convince you- if you don’t think you need a place to belong, it’s because you have grown too accustomed to the dark, and the light of community, of belong, scares you. You have never had a place to belong, because once you have found a place of belonging, once you’ve experienced life together, as opposed to life in isolation, you realize that you can’t live without it. Once you come into the light, you may want to retreat to the dark at times, but you know, you know, life in the light is better.
I remember my coffee conversion experience. I had just gone off to college, but came back home for my birthday for a weekend. My uncle Ted bought me a coffee grinder, some beans, and a coffee drip. I opened it, I probably had that look, of oh, gee, thanks. But I don’t really like coffee. My uncle ted said, no George, you haven’t experienced coffee. I said sure I have, they have these big vats of coffee in the dining hall and the stuff tastes like- CRAP, he said. Yeah, that stuff is garbage. Here, let me show you how it works, let me help you experience coffee. SO we put the water on, ground some beans, poured the water on. He talked me through the whole process, he was firm, but he was a gentlemen. I breathed in the aroma, it was actually pretty good. We poured the cup. He recommended a little cream for a beginner like me. He warned me, the taste would shock me at first, but give it time. I sipped, I cringed, it was almost too much for my young virgin taste buds. He encouraged me to drink slowly. To savor the taste. With each sip I grew a little more accustomed to this new flavor. I went from doubt, to shock, to acclimation, and eventually, by the end of that cup, I was converted. I was hooked. I was and have been ever since a full-on coffee junkie. I need the stuff, i don;t think I can life without that black, bold, rich nectar of the gods. I’m getting dangerously close to idolatry!
Belonging in community is the same. It’s not that people don’t need it, it’s more that they have never experienced it, or just cheap lousy tasting knock-offs and excuses for real belonging. But once they do, they will become a believer. But the process can be difficult. I was converted to coffee in one cup, but belonging to community, belonging to the body of Christ, that often takes time because it is so radically different that the experience of so many lost in isolation and estrangement from community. People will literally cringe at their first taste of community. The will want to pull back and withdraw. They will slowly acclimate. But over the course of time we will say, how did I ever manage life without this deeper sense of belonging- belonging to Christ, belonging to a church, belonging to a group of people, belonging to something bigger than myself.
Just last weekend I was picking up some diapers and stuff for our second harvest ministry at my father in laws house. I always block out an hour or 2 when I drop by Dan’s house, because you are not going to get out of Dan’s house very easily. I load up my van with stuff and then I’m saying to myself, wait for it, it’s about to come... Boom, George, can you say for a cup of coffee- yes Dan, I am a coffee convert! We start to visit, then Dan says, there are some things I wanted to talk about with you George. And I’m like, oh great here it comes, the uncomfortable Father-in-law, son-in-law conversation, with the added discomfort that I’m his pastor, and he wants to talk with me about something. So I think, I can come up with any number of excuses right now. I’m a busy guy, I’ve got things to do, a church to run, heck, I just want to go and avoid the discomfort of this conversation. But I think to myself, you know, we kind of belong to each each other, I married his daughter, she now belongs to me, I am his pastor, we are in this together, so we go through it. And it’s stuff that none of us like. But if we belong to each other, and if we don;t want to live in the dark, but bring things into the light, and really really really have genuine belonging, then its good. And it was good. And we talked. Then finally I said Dan, I’m a very important guy, and I have a church to run, and people to shepherd, and I gotta go. But thanks for this talk. Thanks for wanting to live in the light.
You need a place to belong. You need a place to grow. Belonging says that we love you, we accept you, we embrace you just as you are. Growing says we love you so much we don;t want to see you stagnate and die. We love you too much to say I’m OK, you’re OK, let’s just all get along! Not reality folks. I’m not OK, you’re not OK, we have trouble getting along. But if we turn to Jesus, if we belong together in community, we can start growing and figuring out how we do this together. I will say this- I believe that foremost our groups are about belonging and this sense of community. But we need something more to move a group forward. We need something to guide us more than the people of the group. We need to be guided to grow in God.
Colossians 1: 28 We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. We have a trajectory for groups to follow- to become more Christ like. People need to grow, groups need to grow. But we need to know what grow looks like. We need to know what the trajectory of growth is to be. So we have a common authority in the bible to direct our growth. Most groups, the standard group model we use, is to play off of the Sunday worship text and topic. The group takes time to be in God’s word together, to read over the texts, to grow in biblical knowledge, and to discuss what they are learning together. In fact, will say this- you will experience exponentially more growth getting into a group rather than just coming to worship. Here is where we hope you can be inspired to love God, to celebrate him, to confess to him, to renew your commitment to him- all that. This is about inspiration. But it is going to be in your group where you will experience personal involvement. You’ll be inspired here, but you get involved there. And when you decide to make that step in your spiritual formation, then you have positioned yourself for growth at a rate in a way that honestly, this just can’t touch.
We are still growing and evolving as a church, and as we do I believe this will come into more clarity, but let me say this- we are working on developing a picture of what that growth will really look like- First, and this is the easy part, we want you to grow in your THEOLOGY-in knowledge- your knowledge of the bible. You’ll learn about the big picture of the bible and the foundations of Christian faith and believe. You’ll learn about the creation, the fall, God’s plan of redemption, and the final plan of creation. You learn about God: father son and holy spirit. You learn the attributes of God the father. You’ll learn about the savior and our Lord Jesus Christ, his life, his ministry, his death and resurrection, his ascension, his return, he eternal reign. You’ll learn about the person and work of the Holy Spirit, being filled with the spirit, the fruits of the spirit, the gifts of the spirit. You’ll learn learn about the nature of humanity. You learn about the nature of our sin. You’ll learn about the plan of salvation. You’ll learn about the church.
Second, and this gets a little harder, you’ll grow in your THEO-PRAXIS- your practice of actually being in Christ and in being the church- of worship, fellowship, evangelism, mission and service. You’ll learn about the practices of the Christian life- of prayer and fasting and giving and stewardship.
Last, and perhaps most personal and most difficult, You’ll grow in you own personal CHARACTER in the body of Christ. And I’ve only just scratched the surface folks. But over time we will bring more clarity and structure to our program so that you can put yourself on a course of growth in your formation in Christ. Growth is good! Healthy things grow. Dying things don;t grow. This is part of the purpose of these groups - to grow in Christ together.
To belong, to grow, and finally, to serve or reach out. 1 Peter 4:10 Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. Everyone one of us has something to offer to other people. Everyone of us is called to use the gifts God has given us for other people. We have been blessed to be a blessing. That the way it goes. More, we think serving and reaching out happens best when we do it as community. This is where get the best return on our work.
There’s a lot to say about, but here’s what it boils down to- we have decided to jump start the reaching out and service element of each group. My wife has made a contact with the London Food Bank and now each Connection Group has been asked to organized themselves to find a date and time to meet at the food bank, learn about their operation, and to help sort food and supplies for 2 hours on a weeknight or on a Saturday. So there you go. No more excuses. No more talk saying we really should do something. Everyone is full of good ideas and hopes and dreams. We have gone ahead and committed our church and our groups to actually do something. it’s a small thing, but maybe a thing that otherwise you would not do. A thing that might spin off into actually doing some other projects.
Belong- grow- serve. That is what the purpose of these groups are all about. We believe you need these purposes in your life. We believe you need this. I want to encourage you to make a step toward connection today.
If you look at that CG Catalog you’ll notice we have 9 groups formed and ready to go. At the very minimum groups have a host and a facilitator, that means we have at least 18 folks on board to provide leadership to these groups. But I’ll tell you that most groups have more- they have a team of hosts and teachers working and preparing a place for you. We have about 30 people involved in leadership in groups at some capacity. You’ll notice that we will also sign up as many as 20 people per group to start. If you do the math real quick, you’ll see that we have space for nearly 200 people in Connection Groups. You’ll also notice that at this stage Connections, when we’re all here, is a church of about 200 people. Huh, coincidence? I think not.
This is by design and desire. We are so committed to community, to home groups, to developing relationships and developing leaders that our teams has literally worked for hours and days and weeks to create a system, a structure for groups that has the potential to reach everyone, EVERYONE who comes to Connections and more.
If you are still exploring Jesus and what it really means to be follower of his, getting into a group is going to be like caffeine jolt in your journey. If you are a follower of Jesus, and you don;t have a place of community, if you are not in a group, I really believe that you are short changing yourself, and you are denying some of your brothers and sisters, you are denying the body of Christ, the blessing and benefit of you. I really do. I believe that strongly in this stuff. As much as I believe people need god and need a worship experience like this, I believe people need a group.
If you are a mature Christian we need you in a group. We need people over 50 in every group. We need mature Godly men and women who are will to be in a group and literally adopt and mentor and guide young people and young families. In fact,I think our church is probably short on older, mature Christians who can really offer something to all the young bucks and does bouncing around here.
We need kids in our groups, because kids help all of us keep it real, and kids need to see what Christian community really looks like. We need babies crying, and kids playing and tweens helping and teens participating.
We have created these groups because the bible teaches that Christians got together in groups in homes. We’ve structured our groups the way we have because we believe that we have to have a structure that doesn’t limit our growth, and doesn’t exclude anyone who wants to get involved. It’s not the only way to do community, and to do groups. But it’s our way. And we want you to be involved. It structured enough that there doesn’t have to be any guess work involved. It’s free enough for groups to work the system in a way that works for them.
Some of you, you are saying nope, no way, never, not gonna happen. Not gonna be in a group, not gonna start a group. And you now what, to that I just say you lack faith. You’re not a bad person. It’s not that you don’t love Jesus. But you lack faith. You rob yourself. You rob the church. Because really, we don;t ask much of you. I mean Jesus ask everything of you, but we don;t ask much of you. We ask you to be a part of worship and to bring your neighbors. We ask you to volunteer. We ask you to get in a home group. That’s what we do. That’s what we ask. And that’s what I’m asking of you right now.
Nate’s gonna play, you’re gonna look at your catalog, you’re gonna sign up, and we’ll all be blessed by connecting with one another.
9 Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work:10 If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!11 Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? 12 Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
Last month one of my college buddies and his family came to visit us. It’s so great to have some folks in your life that you know, if push came to shove, if you really had no were to turn, and things were that bad, you could just say, "I need you," and they’d be there. Well, Sam is that kind of friend. When Robin and I were dating, and I was plotting my proposal, Sam and his wife Kim, me and Robin decided to go on a 3 day back packing trip. It was August. The hottest month of the year in our hemisphere. And I had a lot of camping experience. I can rub two squirrels together and make a fire, then roast the squirrels and eat them. (Squirrel is actually really good- I’m not joking.) It was HOT, so I figured, I’m gonna be carrying a lot of rock climbing equipment and other stuff, so I’m going to just take my sheet bag. My sheet bag was my brilliant idea that you don't really need a bulky heavy sleeping bag in August, you just need a sheet. So I sewed up a sheet into a bag, and off we went. We hiked all day and then found a beautiful spot to make camp. We made a fire, we ate a nice meal. The sun set, the fire died down, and they crawled into their bags, the three of them, and I, well, I crawled into my sheet. And then I got up and put on an extra t-shirt, and tied one around my head, and pulled by backpack up on me, and some climbing gear, and started stuffing leaves into my sheet bag, and I don't think I slept a wink that entire night. And in the morning, when they all awoke from their cozy slumber, I was already dead. They asked, "How’d you sleep George?" I informed them that it was only a slight exaggeration to say I froze to death.
And after another day hiking, that next night, because Robin and were not married yet, and because I knew Robin could not keep herself off of my now sweaty, dirty, stinky body after two days of hiking, my dear friend a brother in Christ Sam let me share his sleeping bag with him, and I slept very very well that night.
Now some of you respect me more for not sleep with Robin, some think less of me for keeping warm with Sam, all of you can agree that I’m an idiot for only taking a sheet bag with me, but I learned that night, how can one keep warm alone? But if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
We need to people. We work better in community. We get a better return. We can do more work, better work, when we work with another. In regard to the work of our church, to work of connecting with people who share a common need of God, we can not do this alone. The job is too great, the numbers too many. We need to do this together and get a better return. We need community because we fall down in life. We stumble, we fall, and it’s hard to get up. We need people at times in our life to pick us up from under our arms and to be our strength and get us on our feet again. WE need community to keep warm at night. In the darkness, in the cold, when we only have a sheet bag in life, we need community. When we are attacked, we need someone to have our back.
Folks, a cord of three strands can not quickly be broken. let me remind you of the three strands that how our Connection Groups together. Common Purpose, Place, Possessions. This flows directly out of the teaching of the bible and the way that the church came into existence. I hope that if your a regular and involved with Connections this passage is now very familiar to you,
Acts 2:42They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
The church had a purpose: devoted to God, to one another, to their neighbors, guided by scripture in everything. They had a place- they meet in worship at the temple, or for us a theatre, and they meet in homes. They were in such strong solidarity with one another they actually shared their possessions- giving so that the church flourished, and no one was in need. When we weave these strands together the strength of the church is UNBREAKABLE! The impact of this type of church, this type of community, was so astonishing that the church grew daily- people saw the witness of the church, were touched by the church, got involved with the church, gave their life to Jesus, got saved!
Today I want to talk about our purpose, and our purpose we break down in to three parts as well: to belong, to grow, to serve. I want to talk about how these three stands will make for an unbreakable and incredible experience in your life.
Our groups help us to fulfill the need to Belong. We all have a deep need to find a place of belonging. You need a place where you are you, and you are part of something bigger than yourself, you are so intimately a part and involved that when you are gone, the group says, we miss Joe, where is Mildred, has anyone heard from Dorkas (Yes, that really is a biblical name). At the same time, the one absent is saying, dag, I miss my group, I miss my friends, I want to be there.
1 Peter 2: 9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
You’ve had that experience of stepping out of a dark theatre and into the light, and it hurts, it burns, you cringe and want to retreat back into the darkness, back into this theatre? We get so comfortable with the darkness sometimes, that we cringe from the light. We get so comfortable living outside of community and connection and true belonging to others that when we begin to step into it, our immediate reaction is to want to retreat.
Here’s the thing about this, here’s why you need this, and what I want to convince you- if you don’t think you need a place to belong, it’s because you have grown too accustomed to the dark, and the light of community, of belong, scares you. You have never had a place to belong, because once you have found a place of belonging, once you’ve experienced life together, as opposed to life in isolation, you realize that you can’t live without it. Once you come into the light, you may want to retreat to the dark at times, but you know, you know, life in the light is better.
I remember my coffee conversion experience. I had just gone off to college, but came back home for my birthday for a weekend. My uncle Ted bought me a coffee grinder, some beans, and a coffee drip. I opened it, I probably had that look, of oh, gee, thanks. But I don’t really like coffee. My uncle ted said, no George, you haven’t experienced coffee. I said sure I have, they have these big vats of coffee in the dining hall and the stuff tastes like- CRAP, he said. Yeah, that stuff is garbage. Here, let me show you how it works, let me help you experience coffee. SO we put the water on, ground some beans, poured the water on. He talked me through the whole process, he was firm, but he was a gentlemen. I breathed in the aroma, it was actually pretty good. We poured the cup. He recommended a little cream for a beginner like me. He warned me, the taste would shock me at first, but give it time. I sipped, I cringed, it was almost too much for my young virgin taste buds. He encouraged me to drink slowly. To savor the taste. With each sip I grew a little more accustomed to this new flavor. I went from doubt, to shock, to acclimation, and eventually, by the end of that cup, I was converted. I was hooked. I was and have been ever since a full-on coffee junkie. I need the stuff, i don;t think I can life without that black, bold, rich nectar of the gods. I’m getting dangerously close to idolatry!
Belonging in community is the same. It’s not that people don’t need it, it’s more that they have never experienced it, or just cheap lousy tasting knock-offs and excuses for real belonging. But once they do, they will become a believer. But the process can be difficult. I was converted to coffee in one cup, but belonging to community, belonging to the body of Christ, that often takes time because it is so radically different that the experience of so many lost in isolation and estrangement from community. People will literally cringe at their first taste of community. The will want to pull back and withdraw. They will slowly acclimate. But over the course of time we will say, how did I ever manage life without this deeper sense of belonging- belonging to Christ, belonging to a church, belonging to a group of people, belonging to something bigger than myself.
Just last weekend I was picking up some diapers and stuff for our second harvest ministry at my father in laws house. I always block out an hour or 2 when I drop by Dan’s house, because you are not going to get out of Dan’s house very easily. I load up my van with stuff and then I’m saying to myself, wait for it, it’s about to come... Boom, George, can you say for a cup of coffee- yes Dan, I am a coffee convert! We start to visit, then Dan says, there are some things I wanted to talk about with you George. And I’m like, oh great here it comes, the uncomfortable Father-in-law, son-in-law conversation, with the added discomfort that I’m his pastor, and he wants to talk with me about something. So I think, I can come up with any number of excuses right now. I’m a busy guy, I’ve got things to do, a church to run, heck, I just want to go and avoid the discomfort of this conversation. But I think to myself, you know, we kind of belong to each each other, I married his daughter, she now belongs to me, I am his pastor, we are in this together, so we go through it. And it’s stuff that none of us like. But if we belong to each other, and if we don;t want to live in the dark, but bring things into the light, and really really really have genuine belonging, then its good. And it was good. And we talked. Then finally I said Dan, I’m a very important guy, and I have a church to run, and people to shepherd, and I gotta go. But thanks for this talk. Thanks for wanting to live in the light.
You need a place to belong. You need a place to grow. Belonging says that we love you, we accept you, we embrace you just as you are. Growing says we love you so much we don;t want to see you stagnate and die. We love you too much to say I’m OK, you’re OK, let’s just all get along! Not reality folks. I’m not OK, you’re not OK, we have trouble getting along. But if we turn to Jesus, if we belong together in community, we can start growing and figuring out how we do this together. I will say this- I believe that foremost our groups are about belonging and this sense of community. But we need something more to move a group forward. We need something to guide us more than the people of the group. We need to be guided to grow in God.
Colossians 1: 28 We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. We have a trajectory for groups to follow- to become more Christ like. People need to grow, groups need to grow. But we need to know what grow looks like. We need to know what the trajectory of growth is to be. So we have a common authority in the bible to direct our growth. Most groups, the standard group model we use, is to play off of the Sunday worship text and topic. The group takes time to be in God’s word together, to read over the texts, to grow in biblical knowledge, and to discuss what they are learning together. In fact, will say this- you will experience exponentially more growth getting into a group rather than just coming to worship. Here is where we hope you can be inspired to love God, to celebrate him, to confess to him, to renew your commitment to him- all that. This is about inspiration. But it is going to be in your group where you will experience personal involvement. You’ll be inspired here, but you get involved there. And when you decide to make that step in your spiritual formation, then you have positioned yourself for growth at a rate in a way that honestly, this just can’t touch.
We are still growing and evolving as a church, and as we do I believe this will come into more clarity, but let me say this- we are working on developing a picture of what that growth will really look like- First, and this is the easy part, we want you to grow in your THEOLOGY-in knowledge- your knowledge of the bible. You’ll learn about the big picture of the bible and the foundations of Christian faith and believe. You’ll learn about the creation, the fall, God’s plan of redemption, and the final plan of creation. You learn about God: father son and holy spirit. You learn the attributes of God the father. You’ll learn about the savior and our Lord Jesus Christ, his life, his ministry, his death and resurrection, his ascension, his return, he eternal reign. You’ll learn about the person and work of the Holy Spirit, being filled with the spirit, the fruits of the spirit, the gifts of the spirit. You’ll learn learn about the nature of humanity. You learn about the nature of our sin. You’ll learn about the plan of salvation. You’ll learn about the church.
Second, and this gets a little harder, you’ll grow in your THEO-PRAXIS- your practice of actually being in Christ and in being the church- of worship, fellowship, evangelism, mission and service. You’ll learn about the practices of the Christian life- of prayer and fasting and giving and stewardship.
Last, and perhaps most personal and most difficult, You’ll grow in you own personal CHARACTER in the body of Christ. And I’ve only just scratched the surface folks. But over time we will bring more clarity and structure to our program so that you can put yourself on a course of growth in your formation in Christ. Growth is good! Healthy things grow. Dying things don;t grow. This is part of the purpose of these groups - to grow in Christ together.
To belong, to grow, and finally, to serve or reach out. 1 Peter 4:10 Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. Everyone one of us has something to offer to other people. Everyone of us is called to use the gifts God has given us for other people. We have been blessed to be a blessing. That the way it goes. More, we think serving and reaching out happens best when we do it as community. This is where get the best return on our work.
There’s a lot to say about, but here’s what it boils down to- we have decided to jump start the reaching out and service element of each group. My wife has made a contact with the London Food Bank and now each Connection Group has been asked to organized themselves to find a date and time to meet at the food bank, learn about their operation, and to help sort food and supplies for 2 hours on a weeknight or on a Saturday. So there you go. No more excuses. No more talk saying we really should do something. Everyone is full of good ideas and hopes and dreams. We have gone ahead and committed our church and our groups to actually do something. it’s a small thing, but maybe a thing that otherwise you would not do. A thing that might spin off into actually doing some other projects.
Belong- grow- serve. That is what the purpose of these groups are all about. We believe you need these purposes in your life. We believe you need this. I want to encourage you to make a step toward connection today.
If you look at that CG Catalog you’ll notice we have 9 groups formed and ready to go. At the very minimum groups have a host and a facilitator, that means we have at least 18 folks on board to provide leadership to these groups. But I’ll tell you that most groups have more- they have a team of hosts and teachers working and preparing a place for you. We have about 30 people involved in leadership in groups at some capacity. You’ll notice that we will also sign up as many as 20 people per group to start. If you do the math real quick, you’ll see that we have space for nearly 200 people in Connection Groups. You’ll also notice that at this stage Connections, when we’re all here, is a church of about 200 people. Huh, coincidence? I think not.
This is by design and desire. We are so committed to community, to home groups, to developing relationships and developing leaders that our teams has literally worked for hours and days and weeks to create a system, a structure for groups that has the potential to reach everyone, EVERYONE who comes to Connections and more.
If you are still exploring Jesus and what it really means to be follower of his, getting into a group is going to be like caffeine jolt in your journey. If you are a follower of Jesus, and you don;t have a place of community, if you are not in a group, I really believe that you are short changing yourself, and you are denying some of your brothers and sisters, you are denying the body of Christ, the blessing and benefit of you. I really do. I believe that strongly in this stuff. As much as I believe people need god and need a worship experience like this, I believe people need a group.
If you are a mature Christian we need you in a group. We need people over 50 in every group. We need mature Godly men and women who are will to be in a group and literally adopt and mentor and guide young people and young families. In fact,I think our church is probably short on older, mature Christians who can really offer something to all the young bucks and does bouncing around here.
We need kids in our groups, because kids help all of us keep it real, and kids need to see what Christian community really looks like. We need babies crying, and kids playing and tweens helping and teens participating.
We have created these groups because the bible teaches that Christians got together in groups in homes. We’ve structured our groups the way we have because we believe that we have to have a structure that doesn’t limit our growth, and doesn’t exclude anyone who wants to get involved. It’s not the only way to do community, and to do groups. But it’s our way. And we want you to be involved. It structured enough that there doesn’t have to be any guess work involved. It’s free enough for groups to work the system in a way that works for them.
Some of you, you are saying nope, no way, never, not gonna happen. Not gonna be in a group, not gonna start a group. And you now what, to that I just say you lack faith. You’re not a bad person. It’s not that you don’t love Jesus. But you lack faith. You rob yourself. You rob the church. Because really, we don;t ask much of you. I mean Jesus ask everything of you, but we don;t ask much of you. We ask you to be a part of worship and to bring your neighbors. We ask you to volunteer. We ask you to get in a home group. That’s what we do. That’s what we ask. And that’s what I’m asking of you right now.
Nate’s gonna play, you’re gonna look at your catalog, you’re gonna sign up, and we’ll all be blessed by connecting with one another.
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