Each week we are excited to see new folks coming to our church, yet what we don’t discuss is that there must be almost as many newly leaving folks as there are newly coming folks since our numbers only creep up slowly. People will come to church because of an invitation or because of good preaching or good music, but people STAY in church because of good relationships. Small groups are for building Godly, Word centered relationships.

Via sign ups – this way people have the choice of who they group together with instead of being pushed in a certain direction. We strongly encourage people to join a group with people they are already in relationship with.

We are also encouraging leaders to prayerfully consider and  invite people they think God would be directing to join their group.

Three sessions of 9 weeks in length per year. One to start in September and conclude the week before Thanksgiving. The second to start in January and conclude mid-March and a third to start at the beginning of April and conclude in the beginning of June. No official small group meetings in the summer.

By having multiple sessions each year we provide 3 natural places for people to join or leave a group. This is perfect for the newcomer. It is also perfect for those who have busier seasons where participation would be difficult.

Ideal group size is around 12 people. Instead of dividing when the group gets too large we simply start new groups.

Questions launched from the sermon prepared in advance by the preacher. Not simply a regurgitation of the message, but rather an expansion using parallel passages and a deliberate focus on the application (which is often not a strength of the sermon itself).

Other benefits of the sermon based model:

It is simple for any new comer or young Christian to get involved, only prerequisite is having listened to the sermon

It provides a significant increase in purpose for the average person in the Sunday morning worship service (as well as a greater interest in listening to the sermon if church is missed)

It limits the amount of training needed by those facilitating

It limits the amount of prep time required to facilitate

Groups will meet in someone’s home for about 90 minutes and will include a time of study, prayer and refreshments.

Each group leader has decided on a day and time for their meeting.  That information will be available at sign-up.

These groups will be invited and encouraged to participate in the small group structure we have outlined. Of course they could also decide to remain meeting as they currently do.

Please let us know of your interest and we will recruit and train more leaders to be ready for the second 9 week segment.