What Are Home Groups?
Home Groups are a place where we gather as a community (typically in homes) to:
Connect DEEPLY with God
and
Connect DEEPLY with each other
Human beings are designed to interact with people on many different levels.
Home groups are meant to fill the gap between an intimate group of people (3-5) and our worship service gathering (50+). It will be difficult for a worship service gathering to get the depth and intimacy of a home group gathering. But a home group gathering is also not as intimate or deep as a 3-5 person gathering, or a 1 on 1.
Sunday worship services help us to connect with God and with each other, but sometimes it’s just a taste. For deeper connections, we need to enter more intimate spaces. The first next step is to join a home group. From there, you might seek even deeper smaller group settings.
Deeper and more intimate settings are not always the most important. Every person needs a variety of different spaces. A person who only has deep 1 on 1 relationships is missing some vital aspects to the way God designed us. In the same way a person who only attends worship service could gain a lot from a home group and vice versa.
Genuine Relationships
Home Groups are built on genuine life-giving relationships with people you actually want to do your spiritual journey with.
This means we encourage you to form and join groups with people that you genuinely want to connect with rather than having the church assign or dictate the groups. If you need help, of course we can and will assign you to a group, but typically we’d like the groups to form because the Spirit is urging you to join the group or you feel like God really wants you to journey with a set of people. People can tell when you’re being forced to interact with them or be their friend. That does not lead to life giving deep connections.
Of course this does not mean you don’t push yourself or that you never step outside your comfort-zone to do life with someone you find difficult, or annoying. Sometimes we will ask you to push your own boundaries. Often God himself will ask you to do something uncomfortable. But it won’t be something assigned to you by the church.
This can make groups both more difficult in some ways but also easier in some ways. You won’t be stuck in a group that you just don’t like going to because of the people. But at the same time, it can be difficult to find a group because it will require initiative on your part.
What do we actually do during a Home Group?
Just like our worship service, during a home group we engage in practices that reflect the gospel values of our church. We feel that these values: rootedness, belonging, reconciliation, story and power, will bring us into deeper connection with God, and the gospel of Jesus (Click here to read more about our core values).
The basic things we do during a home group are:
Eat - By eating together, we’re not only following a biblical tradition, we’re also inviting people into life with us. Sharing a meal with someone is something simple, but also intimate. By preparing a meal for someone, you are serving them. So a big part of every home group should be eating together. Home groups should have a cooking or meal rotation so that every person can participate in serving each other.
Pray - Prayer can take many different forms but at it’s root it is connecting with God. Every home group should have a silent, listening and meditative form of prayer. This is our opportunity to acknowledge that God is with us in the home group. He is hanging out with us right there! We just need to acknowledge him. You can also spend the time praying meditatively over Scripture. The prayer and sharing times can be brief for people who don’t know each other well or have little experience with silent prayer. But don’t skip it!
Share - Telling stories is an essential part of understanding God’s story and how it intersects with our own story. Spend some time leaving it open for people to share about what God has been saying to them in the prayer time, or just how God has been working in their lives in general. Some people may share things that need prayer. Pray for them right there on the spot, don’t wait for after everyone has shared.
That’s it! Eat, Pray and Share. That’s the basics of a home group.
Small groups don’t have to last forever. Some will run for 3 months, 4 months or 6 months.
So how do I actually join a home group?
Join Pastor Daniel’s home group.
Pastor Daniel’s home group is the “base camp” home group for our church. It is open to everyone. You don’t need an invitation, or rather this right here is your invitation. Come over to my house! Join my home group! :p
The home group at Daniel and Cindy’s place will serve as a orientation and jumping off point for anybody interested in home groups. You’ll learn about home groups and get a good taste of exactly what to do during a home group. We’ll pray about people God might be putting on our heart to do life with or reach out to. You’ll meet other people you could potentially start a home group with. Or you can find groups that you could join. Pastor Daniel will also encourage you to pray about starting a home group.
If someone asks you to join their home group, join it!
Home group formation is organic, so someone might ask you to join their home group as you get to know people in the church.
If you are in a home group, invite others to join it!
God might be putting it on your heart to do a group in your own home or to lead a group with others. Invite other people who are interested in home groups at Pastor Daniel’s home group. Invite them to join you. But don’t limit it to that. There are plenty of people both inside and outside the church that would love to join a home group but nobody’s invited them. There are plenty of lost, distressed or downcast people that want to join a group. Find them and invite them!
Reach out to the lost, distressed and downcast through home groups.
Home groups are a place where good things happen and healing takes place. Anybody who needs the healing gospel, whether that’s a long time Christian who is hurting or someone who hasn’t even heard of Jesus, should come to home group.
They don’t necessarily need to come to Sunday Worship first. Of course some people are more comfortable going to a public worship setting first rather than stepping foot in a home and eating food with people they don’t know. But others are actually far more comfortable coming to your house than going to a big worship hall, singing strange songs and feeling invisible.
So invite your friends, neighbors, coworkers, family members or whoever to participate in the good thing you have going on. If a friend who does not know Jesus is willing to come over to your house, have a great meal and meet your friends, invite them into your home group. Groups that are reaching out to people who don’t know Jesus can keep the prayer and sharing time short, while emphasizing the relational aspect of eating together. And as your friends get to know Jesus, they will naturally want to do more prayer and more sharing.