Connection Groups- WHAT?

Yesterday I addressed some of the WHY questions regarding home groups, or as we call them in our church community, "Connection Groups."

Today I want to look at WHAT the groups do.
We have three words that describe WHAT we are all about:
BELONG
GROW
REACH

Let's look at BELONGING.
The old TV shows Cheers had at least one thing right- everyone wants to go where everyone knows your name.  And while we may long for that kind of belonging, my experience tells me that many of us are a bit freaked out at the thought of knowing and being known in community.
"Will I have to tell them everything?  Don't tell me he is going to cry now!"

Please understand, these groups are designed to meet a genuine human and biblical need.
We need to have a place of belonging with a group that lies between the intimacy of our family or our inner circle of friends, and the crowd of folks that gather publically.

That's the kind of SPACE we are working to create.
I can't promise anyone that they will find their best friend or soul mate in a Connection Group.

And we can't get to know everyone in a room once that room is filled with nearly 200 people.

But we can get to know about 12 folks who gather together for the same purpose.
This is a human need- to be known in a group of people who gather around a cause.  It's why sports teams create such camaraderie- winning is a great glue.

Now put on top of this human need the biblical teaching to gather in homes around the purpose of growing in faith together.  BAM!
That's the sense of BELONGING we are talking about.

A Connection Group is not a random social group, nor is it your personal counseling session.
It's a place to be real, to be honest, to be comforted, to be challenged.
You might meet your soul mate, but we make no promises about that!

We just promise that we'll create the space for BELONING,
if you'll just show up, be yourself, and be willing to step in genuine community.

From that place of BELONGING we'll find ourselves in a space for GROWTH.
But that will have to wait until tomorrow.