Why Create Community?

There are a few things we do at Connections that are non-negotiable.
Jesus will be at the center of all we say and do.
We believe that the church scatters for mission.
We believe that the church gathers for worship.

Actually, if we are going to scatter, we have to first gather.

We believe in gathering publicly- it's biblical and relevant to gather for worship- for the proclamation of God's word, to sing, to pray, to give an opportunity to respond, to offer the sacraments. So we create environments where this can happen. We've done it at Silver City Theatre. We're doing it again with an evening worship experience at Labatt hall starting September 20.

We believe in gathering in homes. This is why we do Connection Groups. This is our environment for community. Just as it is essential to create the worship experience, we believe it's our job to create this community experience. It's EQUALLY as important as the worship service.

And just as we want the doors of worship to be open, attractive and winsome, we also want the doors of our home groups to be open, attractive and winsome centres of fellowship.
So we work to create more groups.
We work to train our leaders.
We encourage everyone to join a group.
We create an easy way to step into a group through a registration process.
We value people's commitment so we create starting and stopping dates.
We hope people will re-register for their group, but we don't "assume it."

Making groups, and making Community, takes work, sacrifice and commitment.
Here's what I'm learning about groups as I talk to people:

• For some people this like nothing they've ever experienced before- we need to explain very clearly what these groups are about.
• Some people are afraid of community- they've had nothing but bad experiences with groups.
• Most everyone longs for a group of friends- for some that means only a few people, for others it's as many as a dozen or more.
• Some people would NEVER know how to get into a group if we didn't create a structure.
• Some people think structure is unauthentic- that community should happen organically. That's fine, and it does happen, but it doesn't preclude the need for structure.
• Not every group will gel, and not every person will gel with the group. That doesn't mean we don't press on.

Finally, the people who are most excited about what God is doing in their lives get most excited about home groups. Or maybe it's the other way around- people in groups get excited about what god is doing in their lives.

Either way, there is a correlation: we grow in our faith as we grow in worship and in community. Both are non-negotiable for the fully-devoted Christ follower.