Following Jesus isn’t something any of us can do on our own. He never meant for us to. In our gospel passage for this Sunday Jesus says to his followers ‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you’ (John 15:12).  That means, among other things, spending time together the way Jesus spent time together with his first followers.

Regularly gathering for worship is one of the most important ways we spend time together as followers of Jesus, but that can’t be the only time we spend together. For us to experience genuine spiritual growth and build meaningful community we need to spend at least some time together outside of our large group gatherings for worship. This is where Connect Groups come in.

Connect Groups are exactly what the name suggests. They are groups that exist to help people connect with both God and with each other.

The focus on connecting with God in worship should be obvious on Sunday morning and in other large group gatherings for worship. Hopefully most of the people who gather with us on most Sundays feel that connection with God in that setting. There can be something so exhilarating about worshipping God in a large group of people.

It is very difficult, however, to focus in a meaningful way on both God and those around you in a group of more than a dozen or so people. Inevitably someone gets overlooked or misses out on being able to share. Connect Groups are kept smaller for precisely that reason.I hope you can join us on Sunday as we share more about how Connect Groups work and why they are so vital to the spiritual growth and community building of our church.