Creating Community
(Taken from Bread for the Journey blog - http://www.george24.blogspot.com/
Check it out !)
Andy Stanley has a great little book out called, "Creating community - 5 keys to building a small group culture."
Great book.
I like his quote on the flyleaf of the book, "small groups are not an appendage to our ministry; they ARE our ministry. We think groups. We are driven by groups."
This is the direction we are headed in as a church.
Let's summarize the 5 keys in the next 5 days, taking a key a day.
Key number one: People need community.
Stanley talks about going to Starbucks and finding a card there that they give employees that states on the front of the card, "create community. Make a difference in someone's day." On the back of the card it states, "When you work at Starbucks, you can make a difference in someone's day by creating an environment where neighbors and friends can get together and reconnect while enjoying a great coffee experience."
Wouldn't it be interesting to have a card that we hand out at our church that says on the front, "create community. Make a difference in someone's day."
And then on the back it could say, "When you come to First Assembly, you can make a difference in someone's day by creating an environment where neighbors and friends can get together and reconnect while enjoying the presence of God."
People are lonely. I am around people all day, every day, and yet there are times in the midst of a crowd that I feel lonely. I don't think I'm the only one. The only way to overcome loneliness is to connect with others on a deeper level.
Stanley writes, "We are a culture carving relationship. In the midst of our crowded existence, many of us are living lonely lives. We live and work in a sea of humanity, but we end up missing out on the benefits of regular, meaningful relationships."
God intended from the very beginning that we live in relationship with others. When we aren't in meaningful relationship, we suffer natural consequences, whether we realize it or not.
We lose perspective on life.
We begin to fear intimacy
We become selfish
We begin to experience poor health.
Stanley writes, "Living life alone does not accurately reflect the One whose image we bear."
Henry Cloud writes, "God created us with a hunger for relationship-for relationship with him and with our fellow people. At our very core we are relational beings."
One of God's biggest dreams for us is authentic community.
Did you know that God has a dream for you?
Jesus prayed in John 17, .....protect them by the power of your name - the name you gave me - so that they may be ONE as we are one."
God desires that we be one.
God desires that we truly live out our faith, being real with one another in authenticity and truth.
Jesus goes on to pray in John 17:21, "so that the world may believe that you have sent me."
Wow....the greatest "apologetic", as Francis Schaeffer writes, is Christian community."
By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another," Jesus said.
That's what God has called the church to be about: creating environments where authentic community can take place.
Check it out !)
Andy Stanley has a great little book out called, "Creating community - 5 keys to building a small group culture."
Great book.
I like his quote on the flyleaf of the book, "small groups are not an appendage to our ministry; they ARE our ministry. We think groups. We are driven by groups."
This is the direction we are headed in as a church.
Let's summarize the 5 keys in the next 5 days, taking a key a day.
Key number one: People need community.
Stanley talks about going to Starbucks and finding a card there that they give employees that states on the front of the card, "create community. Make a difference in someone's day." On the back of the card it states, "When you work at Starbucks, you can make a difference in someone's day by creating an environment where neighbors and friends can get together and reconnect while enjoying a great coffee experience."
Wouldn't it be interesting to have a card that we hand out at our church that says on the front, "create community. Make a difference in someone's day."
And then on the back it could say, "When you come to First Assembly, you can make a difference in someone's day by creating an environment where neighbors and friends can get together and reconnect while enjoying the presence of God."
People are lonely. I am around people all day, every day, and yet there are times in the midst of a crowd that I feel lonely. I don't think I'm the only one. The only way to overcome loneliness is to connect with others on a deeper level.
Stanley writes, "We are a culture carving relationship. In the midst of our crowded existence, many of us are living lonely lives. We live and work in a sea of humanity, but we end up missing out on the benefits of regular, meaningful relationships."
God intended from the very beginning that we live in relationship with others. When we aren't in meaningful relationship, we suffer natural consequences, whether we realize it or not.
We lose perspective on life.
We begin to fear intimacy
We become selfish
We begin to experience poor health.
Stanley writes, "Living life alone does not accurately reflect the One whose image we bear."
Henry Cloud writes, "God created us with a hunger for relationship-for relationship with him and with our fellow people. At our very core we are relational beings."
One of God's biggest dreams for us is authentic community.
Did you know that God has a dream for you?
Jesus prayed in John 17, .....protect them by the power of your name - the name you gave me - so that they may be ONE as we are one."
God desires that we be one.
God desires that we truly live out our faith, being real with one another in authenticity and truth.
Jesus goes on to pray in John 17:21, "so that the world may believe that you have sent me."
Wow....the greatest "apologetic", as Francis Schaeffer writes, is Christian community."
By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another," Jesus said.
That's what God has called the church to be about: creating environments where authentic community can take place.
posted by GroupLink at
6:55 AM
2 Comments:
I love listening to Andy Stanley and have been looking at his books so I can learn more about what small groups are intended to be as an extension in the church. My sister and husband have recently been to Stanley's children's ministry and leadership training. I would love to visit their small group training to learn more and more as this is very new to me. I think I'll just have to read it book for now. However, for the present, I think of what Pastor Flattery has said many times, "people don't care how much you know, they want to know how much you care." Working with junior high kids they will rarely look back and remember what lecture and what lesson we taught. They will remember more than anything that we were there for them. Working with youth is about truly letting them know we care and connecting with them on a personal level. I think this is how small groups can be defined and as we grow in relationships with one another, I pray we will also grow in our relationship with the Lord.
We have to be careful about what kind of community we’re creating. Community is needed, it is desired, and in our church it is being created. We have to make sure that what we’re creating is according to the will and Word of God.
People will get together for any number of reasons, whether they are Godly or not. As a church, creating this new community has to have a firm foundation in the Word of God. If the Word of God is not the standard by which we’re building this community, what we end up with will be anything but what God desires.
I know that some think of me as a broken record or at least a scratched CD, by always bringing up the need for a scriptural foundation and basis for everything we do from daily living to creating community. For this I can not apologize. The Word of God is yes and amen. Remember the Ford commercial, where I believe they said. Quality is Job #1. The kingdom is a quality place which will only receive a quality person when we leave this place and go there.
As leaders lets stop and seriously look at who comes to our groups. Lets ask ourselves these questions and see what kind of answers we come up with.
1. How well do I know the members of my group?
2. Do you know specifically where they live?
3. Where do they work or how do they make a living.
4. Are the single, married, divorced, or separated?
5. Do they have children? What are their names and ages?
6. Where do or did they go to church before.
7. When did they accept Jesus Christ as their Savior?
8. Have they been baptized?
9. Do they have the fullness of the Holy Spirit? Have you heard them pray in tongues?
10. How often do they read their bible or go to a bible study.
There are more questions that can be and should be asked without making it look like an interrogation. The whole thing about knowing your people is to find out the best way to minister to them. A new person can enter our midst and attend faithfully for any amount of time and die and go to hell, because we didn’t get to what really matters spiritually and help them get there.
I know everyone of the leaders of our T-groups, have been taught how the group time is suppose to be broken down. And don’t get me wrong, these are suggestions to keep the group orderly and to actually building and strengthen the group as a whole. All the questions above and more will be answered through focused discussions, then asking the questions directly. People love to talk about themselves, so let them. Ask questions that are spiritually relevant and sit back and list to your group and take mental notes. Then, take that information and work on quality, bring every member to a closer relationship to Jesus Christ.
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