9 Things You Should Know About Small Groups at Grace

This Sunday at Grace is “Small Group Sunday.” We will focus on the importance of community and spiritual friendship. We will take a look at what the Wisdom of Proverbs has to say about spiritual friendship and we will also connect it to our lives as New Covenant believers.

Following the worship service everyone is invited into the gym to learn more about small groups, get questions answered, and even sign up for a group. Some of our small group leaders will be there to answer your questions. Whether you’re already in a small group or thinking about joining one, here are 9 things you should know about Small Groups at Grace.

1.

We launched small groups for men and women as “Fight Clubs” four years ago. We chose this past year to simply call our groups Small Groups so as to make it very clear to guests and new members what the groups are. The name has changed, but the purpose remains the same- to see lives transformed through spiritual friendship, grace, and truth.

2.

There are currently 12 men’s Small Groups and 13 women’s Small Groups at Grace. When we first launched small groups we purposefully started with same sex groups in order to focus our attention on those issues that were unique to men and women. We have seen God do amazing things through these groups. Lives are being transformed and God deserves the glory.

3.

This month we are launching 6 couples groups at Grace. We are excited to see what God will do through these new groups. We hope to see couples connected into deeper spiritual friendships and marriages strengthened by the grace and truth of Christ through these groups.

4.

At Grace we believe that spiritual growth is impossible apart from community and spiritual friendships. God IS a community and he saves us into an eternal community. We cannot grow into Christ likeness alone. There are many ways to experience community at Grace, but we believe that small groups offer a unique opportunity to go deeper into gospel centered community, practice the “one anothering” of the new covenant, and personally apply the truths of scripture. Our vision and prayer would be that one day everyone at Grace is connected to a healthy, challenging, and life changing small group community.

5.

Small groups at grace are gospel centered. In fact everything we do at Grace we want to be gospel centered. Small groups should always point a person back to Jesus as our Savior, and move us away from faith in our own efforts. The gospel offers us a “third way” to live- not by morality and not by immorality, but by faith in Christ.

6.

Small groups at grace are both biblical and relational. We want to strike the balance of doing life together in relational ways, and also keeping the scripture at the center of our groups. Small groups at grace are encouraged to use the sermon questions for group discussion and application. This brings unity to our church and helps to ensure that we are all learning God’s truth together. Small groups allow us to not just know the scripture, but also to encourage, warn, confess, and spur each other on in those scriptures.

7.

Small groups “move people to the right.”

As the above diagram shows, we want to see people moving from engaged to equipped. Small groups are meant to “move people to the right” through engagement, evangelism, establishing, and equipping. We want people to invite their unsaved friends to small group. We want new members of grace to find connection and friendship in small groups. We want people to be equipped to serve and lead through small groups. Small groups help fulfill the vision of Grace Baptist Church in these ways.

8.

Small groups allow us to experience Hebrews 3:13

But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

and Hebrews 10:24-25

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Where are you exhorting, considering, stirring up, and encouraging “one another?” A small group is a great place to find this level of growth.

9.

You shouldn’t join a small group unless you are fully convinced that you need and want this level of spiritual friendship with others. But if you are convinced, you can join a small group by finding a group online at gbcbowie.org/smallgroups or by filling out the brochure at the Welcome Center. Or come to the Small Group Sunday gathering after church this Sunday in the gym. There will be people there to help you.