It is Jesus’ love for you that unites you to the Lord and calls you out of the world in order to serve the world (as the church) in anticipation of the coming of His Kingdom. It is our responsive love for Jesus and His church that mortars us together with real commitment toward each other. That love, when it is mature, testifies to the world that we are Jesus’ disciples. The question is, how does that love mature? It matures as we grow, as a community, into the gospel.
Community is experienced on multiple levels. We experience it in a large group in worship – especially in the Lord’s Supper – in which we all partake of the one body and one cup. There is a closeness in that experience that comes even without knowing much about each other. We also experience in smaller, more intimate settings. That closeness comes as we begin to share our lives with each other. It is in this smaller setting that we find the communion of the saints to be a foretaste of the coming Kingdom. Paul explained his practice in teaching
I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house… (Acts 20:20)
It is the “house to house” aspect that points us to small groups. To truly be a part of Christ’s church through Cornerstone, you need to be in a small group. Beginning the week of Sep 19, we will “kick-off” our fall small groups. Each group will host one or two “open houses” in which any and all are invited to attend and preview the dynamics of the group. I want to encourage you to try out a couple of these groups and find one that resonates with you. In the coming weeks there will be more information available on the format and topics studied by each group. If there is a particular topic you are interested in studying within a small group, please contact me so that we can look into fitting it into an existing group or starting a new one.
Please be in prayer for each of these groups as they kick-off. Remember, we are “members of one another” as Paul reminds us in Ephesians 4 and small groups are an excellent way to proactively work that out.
Grace in Christ,
Carter
