Q. What is a Community Group?
A. The purpose of Community Groups is to connect and grow authentic relationships with God, our brothers and sisters, and our neighbors. Community Groups function as one of the main ways for the church body to become like family. In Community Groups, people talk through life issues, eat together, pray together, laugh together, serve others together, etc.

Q. Why are Community Groups so important to Grace Fellowship?
A. We intentionally say that getting connected means participating in both the Sunday gatherings and a Community Group. Sundays are a time for celebrating in worship together, getting sound teaching of the Word of God, and sharing in Communion. Smaller Groups are preferred for building relationships with one another and living life together. Both types of gatherings meet different needs in the spiritual health of the Church as well as individually, which is why we emphasize both.

Q. Is a Community Group like a Bible Study?
A. Community Groups are an environment for building relationships with one another which strongly emphasizes challenging one another to drive God’s Word deeply into our lives. Most Groups follow the Sunday sermon series; some may work through another book of the Bible. In all cases, Bible reading and discussion is geared toward personal life application and transformation rather than intensive Bible teaching.

Q. What does a typical Community Group meeting involve?
A. A typical meeting involves time for food, conversation, prayer, and discussion for applying the Bible to practical living. Many Community Groups have periodic special events such as barbeques or parties.

Q. Do I have to be a member of Grace Fellowship to attend a Community Group?
A. No. You are welcome to join a Community Group before becoming a member of Grace Fellowship. The Community Groups are intended for those who call Grace Fellowship home and for the friends and neighbors we are trying to reach. Community Groups are not intended for those who consider involvement a supplement to their attendance at other churches.

Q. I’m not/don’t know if I’m a Christian. Can I attend a Community Group?
A. Definitely. Joining a Community Group is a great way to find out more about Jesus and see what Christians are like. If you have questions, we can help you process through them.

Q. Are my children welcome to attend the Group?
A. We love the idea of families attending a Group together. Plans for accomodating children vary from Group to Group.

Q. How big is each Community Group?
A. Community Groups are designed to be small enough for members to get to know each other well. When a Group grows to a size of approximately 12 people, they are strongly encouraged to focus on planting a new Group out of the original Group.

Q. What if there isn’t a Group that works with my schedule?
A. Each Community Group meets at the time and location that works for the majority of people in the Group. In time, it is possible that a Group could form that would be a better match for those with less common schedules.

Q. Why does Grace Fellowship choose a sermon based approach?

A. There are a number of advantages along with some common misconceptions about sermon based groups hat are worthy of note.

Advantages

1. Church wide mission momentum

We want those in our groups to feel like they’re part of something larger. When a Community Group takes a sermon based approach, it joins that stream of thought and activity that the whole church is engaged in and is carried along by it.

2. Leadership reproducibility

There are future leaders in our group. And here’s what you want them to be thinking as they watch the leader of the group, “Hey! I can do this!” And as much as possible, that shouldn’t biased in favor of a narrow selection of personalities and gifts. Some who lead groups will have stronger gifts in the area of Shepherding, others Teaching, and still others Leadership. One of the goals as a leader of a Community Group should be to develop other leaders, identifying gifts in others, equipping them, and releasing them to their own ministries.

A discussion oriented Sermon Based group does require skill to facilitate, but it’s a skill that an apprentice leader can learn in the context of your group, by watching the leader, and by getting some opportunities to practice. It can be learned within the context of your normal rhythm of group life and leadership.

3. Focus on application and relationship building

Community Groups are a place for building relationships through the process of applying what we’ve learned. Often we don’t need more information. We have plenty of information already. Your mind can only hold so much each week. What we need is transformation. Because a sermon based group gets to leverage the work that Murray has already invested in to the texts being taught on Sunday, it can move more quickly into application. So a sermon based group helps to keep the focus where we want it to be in our Community Groups. There’s more to growing in the Word than studying it. There’s also living it in community. That’s a very important part of “being biblical.” Being biblical means not just knowing the Word, but doing it. Community Groups are ultimately about doing the Word, together.

4. Reducing prep time

Most of us don’t have the time to produce a quality custom small group curriculum week in and week out. But that’s essentially what you have to do if you are going to facilitate a quality inductive Bible study group. Now, no one’s saying you should slack on your personal study and devotional time, by any means. But it sure adds a lot of extra work every single week to write your own curriculum for a home Bible study.