These are the current groups offered but they are subject to change each semester:

– Men’s Ministry

– Women’s Ministry

– All Ages Groups

– 20-Somethings

– Creative Groups (Card making & crocheting)

Most groups meet on Wednesday evenings during Encounter. 

Connect Groups meet together weekly to Play, Pray, & Grow together.  They are intentional about having a good time with each other to build shared stories (Play), we intentionally build each other up and care for each other (Pray) and we discuss the previous week’s sermon material to go deeper in our faith together (Grow).  Pretty much you have a BLAST and grow spiritually while doing

Nope, we have a coordinator who you can contact at any point and let her know that your group isn’t working for you or that your circumstances have changed and she will help you get out and, if you want, find a group that fits you better.

Yes, Connect Groups will start and end twice a year – Fall session and a Winter/Spring session.  If it doesn’t work now, be sure to plan on getting involved in the future session.

It’s important to know what you are getting yourself into.  At the most basic level – the questions you will discuss are all based off the sermon from Sunday.  Here is an example of questions from our second sermon in our series how to BLESS those in your circle (you can listen to the whole series here):

CONNECT GROUP QUESTIONS [EXAMPLE]:

Leader Hints are designed to help guide a leader to some information that we want to “tease” out of the group.  They are not there for you to directly read to the participants.  People are significantly more likely to remember things they said or came up with, so your goal is to help direct them to that answer.

1. What’s the busiest week you’ve had recently?
2. When life is chaotic like that, do you have a harder time focusing on people?  Why do you think that is?
3. Who is the best listener you know?  What makes them so good at it?
4. In his sermon Kent talked about how Jesus was able to push off the urgency of healing Jairus’ daughter to give himself fully to the woman who had been bleeding.  On a scale from 1-10 how hard would this have been for you? (10 being the most difficult)  Why?
5. Let’s read Luke 8:40-56 (ask for volunteers).  As you’re reading, look for things that stick out to you?  Remember, Kent talked about how this story seems out of sync.
   (LEADERS NOTE:   The thing that is out of sync is Jesus seems unhurried by the fact that a 12 year old is dying.  Instead, he stops in the middle of a busy crowd to try to find someone who touched him so he can give this woman peace.  We want your group to consider how it would have felt for this woman to have Jesus make her feel special and to not just give her the gift of the miracle, but the gift of Him actually interacting with her.)
6. In James 1:19 he says,  ^“My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry”
7. Why do you think we so often get this idea backward (quick to speak, quick to become angry, slow to listen)?
8. As we seek to live out the BLESS practices what has been challenging to you as you think about truly listening to those in your circle?  How have you been thinking about putting this practice into play?

Not at all.  If you already have a group that’s meeting and want to continue to meet, we’d actually encourage you to do so (other than during the times when our groups take a break from meeting – December, May, and August).  Our goal with these groups is to form a deep community of beleivers that loves one another and cares for one another.  So, by all means, continue to meet.

Now, if your group wants to join in on the Spin-Off Experiences, or perhaps you have some members that have left and you want to join back into an experience in order to try and attract some new members, then by all means, jump back in!

Either way, when we say no-pressure, we mean no-pressure!