Community Groups

The last C stands for Crowd - Jesus living on mission in the world, our mission trips, projects, and call to live as Everyday Missionaries!  This year, as we met as a Church staff to evaluate how we are doing at making disciples who make disciples, we asked the Lord about our Next Steps.  We sensed the Lord leading us to focus on The Core and The Crowd!  In our discussions, we talked about the MARCS of a disciple.  

How do you measure the growth and maturity of a follower of Jesus?  What is the gauge or scorecard of a growing disciple?  MARCS is our scorecard to measure our effectiveness in making disciples who make disciples.  M stands for Missional.  We want to create a culture where every member has a missional mindset.  We're striving to help every member live with the awareness that they are God's presence, voice, influence, and ambassador wherever He places or puts them.  A stands for Accountable.  We all need spiritual accountability in our lives.  We need others to hold us accountable to the Word of God and the ways of God.  This is a major weakness for many Christians.  We must be held responsible and encouraged to honor the Lord in all areas of life.  R stands for Reproducible .  This is the key to discipleship.  We must pass on and invest in others the spiritual truths and lessons we've learned.  This happens as we intentionally model the message of Jesus before others.  C stands for Communal.  We need others, and others need us to fulfill God's mission in the world.  As Pastor Andrew preached, God is communal, and Jesus was in a community group!  If the Son of God chose to be in a community group, how much more do you think we need one?  Jesus shared His life with others.  Jesus included His disciples in His everyday life.  God's plan is that we do life with other believers.  The S stands for Scriptural.  Scripture gives us our marching orders and feeds our faith.  The Word of God is our guideline and playbook for life.  We need the Scriptures to instruct us and teach us to walk in the ways of God.

So, as we considered the Core and Crowd focus as a staff, we thought Community Groups was our Next Step.   Community Groups of ten to twelve people meeting on Wednesday night, mostly, would help us do a better job of disciple-making.  The Community Groups will see to incorporate the MARCS characteristics.  These groups will also help us to reach The Crowd and live on mission.  Please pray for this exciting spiritual growth journey.  We also want to focus on The Crowd right here in our own Mt. Sinai Community.  We're praying and asking God to show us how to reach our community.  What does it look like for us to share and show Jesus in our immediate context?  How can we connect with our neighbors and help meet their needs?

Pastor Tim

1 Cor. 15:58