We Are United By Jesus' Saving Work

The death of Jesus means life for us, a life that we now live together. We gather in small groups in our neighborhoods to sing, pray, share, and encourage. We do this to become like the Savior who loves us.

These Are Not Normal Meetings

God is at work. He is drawing us together. His Spirit is transforming us and empowering us to minister to one another. Though what we do appears natural, it is decidedly supernatural.

Join In

If you've not yet found a small group, get in touch with us. We want to help you experience and participate in the every-member ministry of Sovereign Grace Church. It's all for God’s glory and our joy.

Your Small Group Leaders Love You

Small Groups are the backbone of our community life. They are where everyday discipleship takes place. They are led by volunteers who love us, welcome us, and help us.

Tonight the small group leaders gather with Pastor Dustin for their quarterly training meeting. They’ll pray, discuss, minister to one another, and learn.

Will you pause for a moment and pray that God will use their time together this evening?

This Is Your Ministry

Small Groups are not one ministry in the life of our church, they are the ministry. Like breathing, these groups provide oxygen to our relationships with one another. They facilitate discipleship. They provide a context for us to help one another become more like Jesus.

We’ve begun a short series on the question, “Why small groups?” This is the next installment.

Reason 5: New Relationships

Small groups are the perfect place to make new people a part of your life.

Healthy small groups, filled with people experiencing the sweetness of biblical fellowship, have an outward impulse. As much as they love their group, they can’t help but want others to join in on it.

This means sacrifice. It means inviting new people into your group, into your life, and into your heart. Everybody would love to join a group and have that group be the same for the next 30 years. No major changes. Nobody coming and nobody going.

But fellowship that doesn’t overflow to others, isn’t true fellowship. We must avoid becoming ingrown.

Christianity grows. It moves toward the fringes. The gospel drives us toward the outcasts to make them part of the family.

Our hearts should be filled with love for our fellow small group members while keeping plenty of room for new people.

Sign me up.

This Is Your Ministry

Small Groups are not one ministry in the life of our church, they are the ministry. Like breathing, these groups provide oxygen to our relationships with one another. They facilitate discipleship. They provide a context for us to help one another become more like Jesus.

We’ve begun a short series on the question, “Why small groups?” This is the next installment.

Reason 3: Our Need For Correction

Do you enjoy being told you are wrong? Not many people do.

But it’s a necessary part of Christian discipleship. Our thoughts and our lives need to change. They need to be further aligned to God’s thoughts and His ways. We need to better reflect the image of Jesus.

God often uses others to point out the areas we need to change. My thinking and living is not air-tight. It needs refinement.

Engaging with my small group means the way I think about my life, God, and others will regularly be challenged. Simply by listening to others describe their challenges and decisions I am forced to re-evaluate my own. Not to mention the times when another Christian will “speak the truth in love” to me directly.

This is healthy and good. It’s a foundational reason we have small groups. God has designed and equipped us to help one another change.

Ok, I’m ready to join a small group.

This Is Your Ministry

Small Groups are not one ministry in the life of our church, they are the ministry. Like breathing, these groups provide oxygen to our relationships with one another. They facilitate discipleship. They provide a context for us to help one another become more like Jesus.

We’ve begun a short series on the question, “Why small groups?” This is the next installment.

Reason 2: Focus Your Attention

How many good friends can any one person have? Two? Ten? Twenty?

The reality, even in a small church, is that we can’t know everyone on a deep and meaningful level. We have to pick and choose who to engage with.

How should we make that decision? Who should we open up to? Who should we encourage and influence?

Our simple answer is: the people in your small group. You can’t disciple and be discipled by everyone in the church. But 10-12 people who you meet with regularly? That’s the perfect place to start.

Ok, I’m ready to join a small group.

This Is Your Ministry

Small Groups are not one ministry in the life of our church, they are the ministry. Like breathing, these groups provide oxygen to our relationships with one another. They facilitate discipleship. They provide a context for relationships that help us become more like Jesus.

A Series On The "Why" Of Our Small Groups

Over the next few months, we are going to write a series of posts highlighting why we do small groups the way we do.

For those of you already participating in a small group, this should strengthen your appreciation for your small group and help you continue to faithfully participate.

For those of you not currently participating in a small group, consider this an invitation. We want you to experience the rich benefits of a life lived with other Christians. It's the way God intended us to grow and bear fruit.

Reason 1: True Fellowship

"We should not think of our fellowship with other Christians as a spiritual luxury, an optional addition to the exercises of private devotions. Fellowship is one of the great words of the New Testament: it denotes something that is vital to a Christian’s spiritual health, and central to the Church’s true life...The church will flourish and Christians will be strong only when there is fellowship." J.I. Packer

Our desire to know others and be known by others is a sign that we were made for fellowship. That ache for deep and meaningful connection to other humans is no accident. It was woven into us by our Maker.

Certainly, you were made to know God and enjoy Him. But you were not made to do either of those alone. You were meant to do those in community. That's fellowship: a shared experience of God Himself with others who are united to Christ.

In small groups, that is what we are seeking. Through praying together, learning together, counseling one another, sharing the Word of God with one another, meeting one another's needs, we want to experience true fellowship. As Packer notes above, this is not optional, it's vital to our spiritual health.

We commit to a small group as a way of committing to our own spiritual health, the spiritual health of others, and the spiritual health of the church. This takes sacrifice. It takes time as we meet with one another inside and outside of planned meetings. It takes courage as we share who we really are with one another. It takes energy as we listen, pray, and bear one another's burdens.

But this investment has wonderful returns: growth, harmony, joy, and most of all, a display of the glory of God among us.

Come join us next week as we gather together as friends committed to following Jesus together. Our small groups meet on Wednesday and Friday nights. Guests are always welcome.

Get your invite here.

Our small group ministry isn't just one option among many ministries of the church, this is THE ministry.

BIG MEETINGS
SMALL MEETINGS

Our life together is organized into two primary contexts. Our big meetings are Sunday services. Our small meetings are small groups. This is where we get to pursue one another and grow in our understanding of the gospel and its application in our lives.

Without small groups, we wouldn't be able to love one another because we wouldn't know one another. 

OUR SMALL GROUP LEADERS MEET REGULARLY FOR CARE AND TRAINING 

They are meeting tonight and covet your prayers for God to use them and equip them as they lead our small groups.