Mission of the Church – Mission of CONNECT

As we move forward as a ministry, our leadership team has allowed for tremendous freedom in your group to chart a discipleship course. However, that freedom does not come without boundaries. As you move forward, you should be considering the direction of your group in light of the direction of the ministry and the church. Pastor Scott has done a fantastic job of keeping the mission of Grace Church before our eyes and hopefully all of us know that we are here to Meet as many people as possible wherever they are and help Move them to where God wants them to be.

But how does the CONNECT Ministry fit into the Grace Church structure? Why are we here and what are we doing? Well, from the website:

CONNECT is about meeting people wherever they are physically, geographically and spiritually. The intent is:

• Connecting people to God, one another and Grace Church in a small group setting,
• Growing them individually in love and faithfulness and corporately to the fullness of Christ, and
• Engaging them fully in the work of being the church.

So how does this go into determining what your group should do next? Well, hopefully we will have a tool for you in the near future, but right now you have lots of studies to choose from, and I trust that you have been considering how to apply what you learned in the Acts study. Also, you do have an incredibly powerful tool available to you right now… your Coach. Make sure that lines of communication stay wide open with the coach who has been assigned to your group. Coaches are a huge blessing for your group and you can be a blessing to them by providing them with opportunities to serve you or to share your ideas and stories with other groups.

Remember that Meeting and Moving is about more than helping people to come to faith in the Lord. Each and every one of us needs to continue growing in love and faithfulness. It’s not about us; it’s about the Lord and who we are in Him – but that’s another post…

Welcome to Transforming Grace

Well, lots of people have been asking me to start a blog. I have been hesitant to do that since I don't want it to be about me. (Sorry, folks, but if you want to know what's going on in my life, take me out for coffee!!!) But I'm willing to give this a go if it is about what is going on in our CONNECT groups. After all, "the church" is not the building, neither is it the "clergy"; rather, it is the people. You are the church!

This week I've been trying to find service and outreach opportunities for the groups who are requesting them. Some groups are already taking on landscaping and home restoration projects for both church members and for unchurched neighbors. Some groups are diving back into another study and several have indicated how they are trying to reach out to those outside group fellowship.

One opportunity concerns our Elevate Jr. classes on Sunday morning. As you probably know, our second service, 10:00am, is our largest. We are finding the classes for 3-5 year olds are very full that hour and we are looking to add 3 classrooms. When we do, we will need 13 volunteers - 5 of whom can be youth. If your group is looking for a project to do together, consider attending service first or third hour, and help out with our little ones. This doesn't require any teaching and it's just 10:00 service every other month. This is a great place to serve alongside your jr. or high school youth, together learning to be devoted to one another. What a blessing to give parents safe care for their precious lambs as they worship undistracted with God's people! Discuss and consider this.

With summer quickly approaching, what are your ideas for building bridges to your neighbors, friends, and family who don't know Christ or are disconnected from the church? My group is talking about a neighborhood BBQ. What are your ideas? I'd love to read them and share them with other groups.