Community Groups

FELLOWSHIP

The Bible instructs us to: encourage, serve, rejoice, weep with, correct, instruct, sing to, build up, accept, pray for and love one another.  It is impossible to live out these commands by yourself.  The Bible envisions a church-community necessary for my spiritual growth; without it my growth is arrested and out of proportion.  By being connected to others I share in their graces and exercise my graces.  

PRAY

Prayer is always the first response of the heart to the Gospel of Jesus.  Prayer in the community group should fill this role, praying as a response to God’s work in you.  Praying for one another as the first attempt at serving one another out of the love of Christ.  A robust and intentional time of prayer is perhaps the best way for a group to develop intimacy and a heart for others.

STUDY

It is simply impossible to grow and mature in the Christian life apart from the Word.  Without studying and meditating on the Word of God, our lives as Christians atrophy and spin out of control and away from Christ.  The Word anchors us by focusing on the grace revealed in the Gospel of Christ.  Community groups are designed to help people “get into” the Bible.  

SERVE

Small groups can easily become closed communities when they turn inward to meet the needs of the group.  However, at Redeemer our Community Groups are designed to turn inward and outward, nurturing its members and welcoming new people.  But this can also take a more focused tenor.  Our hope is that every person and every group would begin to discover how God might be calling them to re-orient their lives for the good of other people.