Category: Bruce’s Blogs

As I mentioned in the sermon on December 31, we have adopted a few “resolutions” as our mission for this body of believers. We are resolved to love God, to love others, and to make disciples. These resolutions are nothing new to the church; they have been the church ?s top priority since Jesus commissioned the first disciples. But the church has not always done a good job historically in those areas.

We know that we need to love God and others and to make disciples, but when we don ?t do it well, we tend to focus more on being remorseful rather than fixing it. While that ?s probably a healthy beginning, it doesn ?t get the job done. And so, let me offer a few suggestions about how we can refocus our lives in such a way that we can meet our resolutions.

First, we need to remember that the resolutions were made by one body, the church. We need to do our part as individuals, but the responsibility rests on the whole body.

Second, we need to create an environment, an atmosphere that screams “community!” or “family!” We need to focus on our resolutions as a body with many members doing their part in the greater task. We ?ve been doing better building community within smaller groups, but we ?re still struggling with a church-wide sense of community.

Third, we need to identify and build upon our strengths. With such a large community of diverse people, both within and outside the church, it ?s easy to adopt a scattered approach to ministry and community life. Unfortunately, that approach gets ineffective very quickly, and when you draw in a lot of people with something you can ?t maintain, the ministry fails.

In 2007 watch for opportunities to grow as a community. We will be launching a new approach to ministry through teams. We will be building up our smaller groups. We will be increasing our opportunities to fellowship and grow closer together. Let us continue to grow together as a body, as it says in Hebrews, encouraging one another and spurring one another toward love and good deeds.

We are a big church. Maybe we ?re not a mega-church, but since the average church in America has 89 active members, we are certainly a big church.

Being a big church, we have a lot of benefits. We have more resources to work with and more opportunities to use those resources. We also face a few disadvantages. Perhaps the biggest disadvantage is running the risk of losing the familiarity and family feel of a smaller church. For example, the church growth experts claim that most folks can ?t remember more than 60-70 names.

With that in mind, how do we balance the benefits of being a big church without losing the sense of family and community of a little church? And how do we continue to grow? The answer is found in our Adult Bible Fellowship groups.

Adult Bible Fellowship groups, which meet at 9:30 and 10:45, are the key to continued growth, both numerically and spiritually. While they are the place where we place the most emphasis on Bible study, they are also the place where we can place the most emphasis on fellowship.

The Crossroads group, which meets at 10:45 in room 103, is one of the best examples of a “little church,” where they spend most of their meeting time in solid Bible study. Not only do they dig deep into the Bible, but they also spend a lot of time in fellowship outside of Sunday morning, having game nights and other get-togethers nearly every month. These are people who are growing closer to God through the Word and closer to each other in fellowship ?and they know how to have a good time, too!

If you ?re enjoying the benefits of being part of a big church ?but not feeling the family atmosphere of a little church ?check out our Adult Bible Fellowships. They ?re waiting for you!