Community Group

For almost two years now Greg and I have been hosting a community group in our home weekly. Our church decided to start community groups back then and we agreed to host the first one. It was at that time, the only one in the church and we had no idea what we were doing. We started by gathering in the back yard for "fellowship" -aka, hanging out, and ended our time together with a little message Greg had prepared and some time in prayer. Eventually with all the people coming and all their kids we had to split off into two groups.

We hosted our group and our pastor, Dan and his wife Lisa, hosted the other group. Since Dan preaches almost every Sunday, their group decided to do a study on the sermon from that week. But we felt more comfortable doing a study from a book where someone much wiser than us could give us ideas and questions to ask. We became a tight knit group and eventually developed our own rhythm of meeting, drinking coffee and having desert, and then gathering in the living room for a study and prayer time. We eventually outgrew our couch space yet again, and split off into a third group. Shortly after that a few other elders in the church started hosting other groups and today our church has 6 community groups that meet each week.

We've really shifted the focus in our church to put a very high importace and value on being in community with other believers. First of all, the Bible stresses the importance of being in community and of living life together. We are to care for eachother and do life together. Secondly, as was preached in a great sermon we heard this Sunday, the Trinity was in community before humans were even created. God, Jesus and the Spirit were always together, and when they made man, they said it was not good that he was alone, so they made woman. Bottom line is, we are not meant to be alone.

I'm so thankful for our community group. We have a few of the "original" members in our group, which is awesome because we've developed deep relationships with those people and long lasting friendships. And we always get excited when new people come too because they bring fresh ideas and become new friends. I used to stress a little about cleaning up my house and getting things ready for all these people to come over, but now it's one of the best parts of my week. I know they care more about us than the state of my bathroom floor so if we don't get all cleaned up then it's no big deal. The important thing is to meet regularly, be open with one another, challenge each other to grow in our knowledge of the Bible and in our intimacy with God.

Community group has taught me the importance and sacredness of the Bible, it's taught me to live my faith in a real way, it's taught me to pray for others and consider them better than myself, it's taught me that Jesus is the center of EVERYTHING, and sooo much more.