Community: Week 1 (Oct 10-16)
Community Practice: Week 1 | Week of October 10-16
Communities @ Grace
Goal: The goal for Week 1 is to get in the rhythm of sharing a meal and to cultivate discussion on being disciples and community members in a Communities @ Grace context.
Food and Hosting:
Community Leader is responsible to email time, date, address to each community member who has signed up to come
Food: For the first week it may be helpful and easiest for the leader or host to provide the meal. We encourage something simple, (pizza and salad, soup and salad, chicken and rice). The other option is potluck but this will take some coordinating with your Community members ahead of time.
By the end of the night, be sure to set aside time (as written in the overview below) to talk about what next week’s dinner could look like. The leader can decide what’s best. An option is to ask for a volunteer to be in charge of emailing everyone with a signup sheet of who brings what. (This volunteer doesn’t have to keep this responsibility for forever, just for the first few weeks to get things rolling.)
Overview of the Night:
6:15 - 6:30 : Arrive + Set Out Food
6:30 - 7:00 : Welcome, Pray, Eat, + Mingle
7:00 - 7:15 : Group Introductions
7:15 - 8:00 : Guided Discussion
8:00 - 8:10 : Best Practices
8:10 - 8:15 : Practice for the Week Ahead
8:15 - 8:20 : Logistics for Week
8:20 - 8:30 : Pray for One Another + Close
6:15 - 6:30 : Arrive + Set Out Food
6:30 - 7:00 : Welcome, Pray, Eat, + Mingle
Give a few minutes for people to arrive. When the majority has arrived, the leader can open the night by welcoming the group and gathering them together.
Gather everyone’s attention and briefly read off from your list the names of people who will be in the Community, to make sure there’s no one missing. Encourage people to make note of who is in their Community and get to know them throughout the night.
Invite someone to open the time together, before the meal, to pray and welcome the Holy Spirit.
Encourage people to sit by some they haven’t met yet, getting to know each other as they eat.
Optional get-to-know-you question for dinner conversation:
What was a highlight of this week for you?
7:00 - 7:15 : Group Introductions + Attendance
Gather together (ideally in a circle) and take a few minutes for everyone to introduce themselves.
Ask the following: Name, where they live and what they desire from the Community. Encourage people to share whatever comes to mind (big or small) and/or ask what brought them here tonight.
During this time, the leader can make note who has attended if not already.
7:15 - 8:00 : Guided Discussion
Gather everyone in a comfortable setting if not already (around a table, on the couch, etc.). Have either the leader or someone else lead a prayer by asking the Holy Spirit to lead and guide your time together.
Lead your group through the following discussion on the Communities @ Grace values followed by a discussion on Best Practices:
As you may have heard in the Participant Orientation, our mission is to provide a safe place for individuals to gather together to practice the way of Jesus through using provided content, with the goal of a changed life and growth as a believer in their relationship with Jesus and with others.
Before we spend time breaking that down further, we recognize that a lot of us come with different church backgrounds and experiences. With that, we want to provide 3 features of Communities @ Grace that might be different than small groups you’ve been a part of in the past:
Multi-generational
Practices
Serving Together
First, Multi-generational...
There are lots of approaches to organizing small groups in churches. Some churches build groups around geography, age & stage, others will form groups around availability and scheduling.
While these are not wrong, we believe that small groups can benefit immensely from having a multi-generational dimension.
“God’s family is meant to be the ‘show and tell’ of what true belonging and love looks like….God’s one plan for reaching the world is rooted in the community of broken people who gather with a desire to bring in God’s own kingdom of love and shalom.” - Adele Calhoun
At whatever age, …”we will never be perfect people, but imperfect people committed to a radical Spirit-empowered love can change their relationships and their world.” - Adele Calhoun
(Optional Ask): Have you personally experienced multi-generational relationships/friendships? How has God used a younger or older person who was following Jesus in your life? We would love to hear from maybe 2 or 3 of you if you’re willing to share.
Second, Practices…
Many church small groups gather with the goal of studying the scriptures, or discussing the sermon, or reading through a book together.
While these things can be helpful, our conviction is that if we want to become more like Jesus, we need to adopt the lifestyle of Jesus. Put another way, if we want to become like Jesus, we have to commit to the practices he committed himself to.
For this reason, Communities @ Grace are Communities that live out their identity as Disciples through what we call Practices.
Practices are time-tested spiritual disciplines, spiritual principles, and habits that are aimed to bring us closer to Jesus.
Philippians 4:9
“What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”
1 Chronicles 16:11
“Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!”
1 Timothy 4:15
“Practice these things, immerse yourself in them…”
John 15:12
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
Most weeks, we’ll come together as a Community to work through a Practice together. The Community Leader will lead the group through whatever Practice is slotted for that week. This looks like coming together to talk about the Practice, spending some time doing that Practice together, and then exploring that Practice on your own throughout the following week.
Some examples of spiritual practices are silence & solitude, community, prayer, fasting, generosity, rest & work, forgiveness, and the list goes on.
(Optional Ask): “Is anyone currently practicing, or has in the past, any of these on a regular basis? If not, no worries! We’ll have plenty of opportunities to experience these together and on your own.”
All this will become more clear when we try a Practice together, but for now, it's important for you to know that you are not signing up for a Bible study, but for a Community that will try to put the way of Jesus into Practice.
Now, as you engage these Practices together, you’ll see each other succeed and fail, stumble and grow. So it’s worth asking...
*Take a few minutes here to make space for response
What could get in the way of your Community growing in discipleship?
How do you create an environment in which people can grow to become like Jesus together?
Okay, with those differences in mind, let’s move on to the last feature of Communities @ Grace’s mission:
Lastly, Serving Together.
You may have seen this displayed in the lobby at Grace or heard it during one of the teachings on Sunday - our hope is to:
Love God. Love People. Reaching People. Developing People.
As disciples, when we begin to do the stuff Jesus did, we will naturally begin to do mission. However, like all areas of following Jesus, this takes practice and intentionality.
For this reason, each Community is invited to practice quarterly rhythm of serving together (ex. volunteering at church or in an outreach event together).
This can be whatever you choose them to be. The point is that you do something regularly in which you serve and love people who aren’t following Jesus.
Questions:
What are some justice-oriented missions that the Community could have? (allow response)
Ex. Portland Rescue Mission, Backpack Blessings, Mentorship for Kids, Advent Conspiracy, Foster Parent’s Night Out, serving at a local school.
What are some evangelism-oriented missions that a Community could have? Or some ways that Communities could Practice Hospitality ?(allow response)
Ex. Having a dinner and inviting neighbors, monthly game night with friends who don’t follow Jesus.
Alright, we have a little more time left. Before we come to a close and talk about next week, it could be helpful to talk about some best Practices. Though there are a lot that we could mention, three come to mind...
8:00 - 8:10 : Best Practices
Share Responsibility
If your Community is going to be a healthy one, everyone will have to chip in and play their part.
Each Community will have a leader who gives direction to the Community.
Many Communities will also choose to have an outreach coordinator, prayer coordinator, host, meal coordinator.
But regardless of whether or not you fill one of these roles, every member of a Community has something to bring to the table.
Communities @ Grace is not “what’s in it for me,” it’s about “what I can bring to the table.”
Show up…every week…on time
When it comes to Community health, consistency is key.
Your Community will meet at the same time every week. Put it in your calendar.
Do things come up? Absolutely.
BUT, We don't want to miss because we’re tired, or better plans come up, or just because we’d rather stay home and watch Netflix. The goal is for Community to be a priority.
When you have to miss, let your Community leader know in advance via phone call, not a text.
As the leader, I’ll commit along with you to honor each other’s time. We will begin on time and end on time as people need to be at work early the next morning, or get the kiddos into bed, or whatever it may be.
Be Patient
Forming a new Community OR jumping into an existing one can be awkward.
All of this takes time, so be patient. Give it 3-4 weeks at least to see if the Community is a good fit. If after 3-4 weeks you sense you may need a change, you are welcome to contact the Community Leadership Team.
If you keep at it, if you press in, your Community will grow and it will slowly but surely begin to become the kind of family we’ve talked about. The secret ingredient for healthy Communities is faithfulness over time.
Now, let’s move on to the practice for the week: Practicing Community.
8:10 - 8:15 : Practices for Week Ahead
Some ideas for practicing living in community this week:
Get the number or email of someone in your Community and try to schedule a time to hang out before we gather again next week!
Pray for your Community members (this could be one a day or maybe there is someone in your Community God is leading you to pray for everyday.)
8:15 - 8:20 : Logistics for Week 2
Hosting: Confirm where the Community will meet the next week, whether or not it’s at the same house.
Meal: You can choose to a) do potluck again, or b) plan a more coherent meal. When in doubt, go for veggie, chicken, and rice bowls! Perhaps the easiest approach would be to email a list of needed items for the coming week.
Childcare: Child care will be arranged by each family individually unless your Community decides to work together to arrange it. Financial assistance is available from the Community Leadership Team if needed.
8:20 - 8:30 : Pray for One Another + Close
Set aside at least 10 minutes at the end for prayer. Invite people to share personal prayer requests. Either leader can pray for these, or ask if anyone would like to pray for an individual request shared.
End at 8:30pm, in order to honor everyone’s time.