“The community of the saints is not an "ideal" community consisting of perfect and sinless men and women, where there is no need of further repentance. No, it is a community which proves that it is worthy of the gospel of forgiveness by constantly and sincerely proclaiming God's forgiveness...Sanctification means driving out the world from the Church as well as separating the Church from the world. But the purpose of such discipline is not to establish a community of the perfect, but a community consisting of men who really live under the forgiving mercy of God.”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship
You may have heard our announcement for the past few weeks on our Friday night meetings. We have been enthusiastically promoting discipleship for guys and ladies that are starting once a week for the FALL semester. Whether you've heard the announcement before or reading this is your first notification, we implore you to truly consider joining us as we begin our twice a month small groups.
How do these groups work?
We meet the 1st and 3rd Wednesday evenings of the month. This WED September 5th is our first meeting. At 7pm, everyone gathers together in children's classroom 3A to say hello, hang out a bit, and prep the food. We like to do potluck style, where everyone brings a small dish to share and in the past we've had quite a selection of fast food, home made dishes, and desserts. We usually start with an uplifting time of joint worship, a few announcements and then we split up guys/girls in different classrooms. The reason we split is to develop deeper relationships with those of our own gender and cover issues, topics and study applications with those who can best relate. In our separate classrooms we split into groups of 3-5 to cover a particular passage and share prayer requests.
What is the purpose of these meetings?
The purpose of discipleship groups is to provide you a place to grow in your intimacy with Jesus Christ, study His Word and find accountability with like-minded sisters and brothers. We hope that God is already stirring your heart, at work in your life and we simply provide a place for you to come draw near to Him. We also strongly believe that coming along side one another encourages everyone and is an act of obedience to God.
Hebrews 10:25 says "25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching" Amen!
It's always a really, really blessed time. Everyone is friendly and welcoming.
We hope to see you this Wednesday.
