Viewing entries tagged
fellowship
Many people think that it’s the leader who makes or breaks a small group. But a great small group is usually the result of one or two group members who make the difference. The Bible’s one another commands lay out practical steps that can help you turn your group into the community it’s designed to be.
Starting a small group is fun, but what started as a great thing can easily become a tired thing. While God is the one who builds community, there are practical steps you can take to keep your small group thriving over the long term.
Joining a small group for the first time can feel intimidating, but it’s one of the best ways to grow in your faith. Here’s what to expect, how to prepare, and why it’s worth showing up.
When people think of church, they usually think of the place where you sit, listen, and sing on a Sunday morning, but church was intended to be much more. Church can be a lonely place if you never get past the crowd. You need relationships with other Christians you can invest in and be supported by. You need people to pray for and who will pray for you. You need a place where you can experience the family of God, not just a meeting with God. Small groups, or what we call life groups, are where those things happen.
Did Jesus eat meat? Exploring His diet reveals key insights into His mission, cultural practices, and how food fosters fellowship.
Stress at work, problems with kids, and our mental health push us to look for peace in different ways. But the instructions for the Peace Offering in the Book of Leviticus teach us to confess, connect, and celebrate in order to experience lasting peace.
Maybe starting a Zoom group in the first century wasn’t an option technologically, but there’s value in considering what would have been lost if Jesus had chosen to mentor His disciples online instead of in-person.
We were created for connection, so we all feel a longing for relationships. In a church, there are lots of opportunities to get to know others, but if we don’t understand the difference between friendship and fellowship, we can miss out on what God wants to do in our lives. Consider what happens when we don’t get this right.
If you’re a Christian parent, at some point, church will probably be a challenge for you and your kids. It was for me, and yet in retrospect, those challenges blessed our kids and our family, and I’m grateful for them. Let me share some of the lessons we learned when church was hard.
Reading the Bible often challenges our assumptions about Jesus. Take, for example, what He does to Saul. Usually, Jesus heals blind people. But why does He blind someone who can see? And what does that tell us about Him? Am I next? Is this the kind of thing that Jesus does to people? Why wasn’t I warned about this in Sunday School?
[Please note: Due to technical difficulties, a video could not be recorded again this week.]
