An Open Letter to our Small Groups…

I just wanted to share a little bit from my heart (really our hearts) as it relates to the future of our small groups.

As many of your know, Matt has been challenging our church to go deeper and for each of our members and attenders to take on more ownership as we move forward. This is based on two crystallizing thoughts.
1. We want to recapture the priesthood of the believer. As a follower of Christ, you have everything you need to be huge part of the kingdom of God. In terms of ability to channel the power of God in your life and in the lives of others, there is no difference between you, me, Matt, or the members of your group. It is, in fact, God IN us that gives us that power – not ourselves. With that in mind, we want to empower the congregation to live out their faith in powerful ways.
2. We want to be a people reflecting Luke 15. In these verses, God is consistently chasing after the lost. He ignored the 99 who are already safe in order to chase the 1 who is running away. This MUST be the heart of our church – to seek after the 1.

With this in mind, we want our groups to grow in two ways.
1. We want our groups to grow by planting and multiplication. In order to reach those in our church who need community and discipleship, we need more groups. Our staff team will be calling members of your groups in the next few weeks who we believe are ready to lead a group themselves. Please do not be offended by this. We do not want to steal your people. We do, however, want to see the kingdom of God expand. Please let us know if you know of people we should be calling.
2. We want our groups to grow deeper. So many groups are right where they should be – living life together and digging deep by living out the truths of the Bible that they uncover every time they meet. However, many of our groups have turned into nothing more than social clubs with no desire to grow. Most of us don’t need more friends, we need friends who are willing to “die on the hill” with us in order to see Christ glorified in our lives.

Please join me in praying for these two things. Our goal is to see 125 healthy, thriving small groups by 1/25/11. Should be easy to remember: 125 by 1/25.

You are a tremendous blessing to me, both individually and as a group. I love serving God alongside of each of you. I pray that God will bless your group beyond your wildest dreams. Thank you for serving.