Gospel Community Groups

WHAT IS GOSPEL COMMUNITY?

Gospel Communities are a means of living out the vision for discipleship that the Bible pushes forward to us. Being a disciple is about:

Following Jesus

Being Changed by Jesus

Growing in Commitment to Jesus’ Mission

The goal of discipleship is closeness and conformity to Jesus (Romans 8:29-30, 2 Corinthians 3:17-18, Colossians 3:1-3, cf. 1 Timothy 4:7-8 and godliness means Christ-likeness).

WHY GOSPEL COMMUNITY?

This comes from Matthew 4:19 & Mark 1:17 where Jesus calls the first disciples and tells them what it means to be a disciple. Later in Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus commissions the disciples with His authority to go and make more disciples. And, what you see in the New Testament is that discipleship is a community journey (Acts 2:42-47). One of the chief ways you see God working to disciple people in community is through the power of Holy Spirit (see Acts 1:8 and how it plays out through the whole book).

The idea for Gospel Communities comes from the picture of what Jesus is doing when He saves sinners. He is bringing them into a unified community (Ephesians 2:11-22). His wise plan is to show the mystery of the gospel to the world through this gospel community called the local church (Ephesians 3:6-10). And, He uses the leadership of the church to equip the church to do the work of ministry, which is speaking the realities of the gospel to each other (Ephesians 4:11-16, cf. 4:20-21). This takes the gospel community being involved in each other’s lives (Ephesians 5:1-21). Living out the realities of the gospel as a local church (Ephesians 5:1-2) in the local church (Ephesians 5:3-21), in your family life (Ephesians 5:22-33), raising your children (Ephesians 6:1-4), where you work (Ephesians 6:5-9, cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12) and in everything you do (1 Corinthians 10:31).

If we want what God has for us in Jesus, then we need three things:

The Word of God

The People of God

The Spirit of God

Those three things come together in Gospel Community. In other words, if we want to learn how to follow Jesus, we need to intentionally place ourselves in the pathway of the way God works in people’s lives.

Here is what that means in summary: A Gospel Community gathers regularly to share a meal, engage the scriptures, and provide a context for discipleship and mission, as an extension of the local church.

STRUCTURE

The typical structure for Gospel Community is a Family Meal twice a month, and DNA at least once a month for both men and women.

Family Meals allow for us to do life together, experience being changed by Jesus in one another’s lives, and be committed to Jesus together. We eat together, catch up on life, discuss the sermon series, and pray for each other.

In DNA (Discover, Nurture, and Act), we learn to follow Jesus and be changed by Him through reading the Bible together. We Discover who God is, Nurture the realities of the gospel to each other as the true answer to our problems, and Act in obedience as a response to the things we sense God leading us to do as a group.

This structure puts us on the path for the Word of God, the People of God, and the Spirit God to be at work in us. And, it allows us to learn to Follow Jesus, Be Changed by Jesus, and Grow in Commitment to Jesus’ Mission.

TIMING

Every group varies when they meet for Family Meal and DNA. Typically, every other week is family meal, and every other week is either a women’s or men’s DNA. Be sure to check with a Gospel Community for details.

If you are interested in getting connected to a Gospel Community, please sign up HERE, and pastor Josh will contact you.