Home Small Groups
What is a Home Small Group? In many ways it’s like the shady front porch of your house, that space in between the privacy of your home and the anonymous world outside. A small group is the space you share with other Christians that’s not like public worship on Sunday morning, but is also unlike the time you spend in solitude with Christ in prayer and the Word. It’s a place of fun and relaxation with others, a comfortable space to talk and build authentic relationships, a safe place to share joys and sorrows. It’s a place where you can feel like you belong. Like those in the early church who devoted themselves continually to the apostles’ teaching, fellowship and prayer, a home small group is a community of friends devoted to Christ and to each other.
Small groups exist because friendship in community helps us grow in our faith. Do you wonder about the Bible sometimes, what it means and how to apply its teachings to your own situation and the challenges you face? In a home small group, you can hash out these questions and discover how others are trying to be more like Jesus in the nitty-gritty of real life. Our spiritual friends help shape our values and convictions, our priorities, and we’re never more likely to choose to live for Jesus than when we’re around friends who feel the same way.
In short, a home small group is a place of mutual ministry. As we share our stories – stories of God’s goodness and recent work in our lives, our difficult struggles of faith or obedience, our developing relationships, stories of prayer and God’s answers – we stimulate each other to love and good deeds, encouraging, comforting and building up one another.
Building relationships of mutual care and support takes time, of course. There are no shortcuts. And, admittedly, joining a small group is a step of faith. It means making a choice and taking a risk. But you’ll never know the joy of being part of a group of people pursuing God together until you give it a try. Most of our home small groups have an open chair and a welcoming spirit waiting for you if you’d like to visit.
Think of it as walking by your neighbor’s front porch. It’s a warm night and he’s sitting outside, but you’re busy and you think, “I don’t have time, I need to get on.” Before you can get past him, though, he calls to you, a friendly greeting, and invites you up. So you sit for a while and talk. When you leave, finally, you find that you got more than you anticipated of what you really needed, that you have, for some reason, more energy for life and relationships. You realize that proverb may be right: If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.
Click here to find a list of all the groups, their meeting day, frequency and location.