Loving My Church

ISSUE 3 VOL UME 2 F eb ru ar y 3, 201 1

February 20th & 27th

Bring Your Group! A publication to
encourage and equip
Group Leaders
www.NCGrouplife.blogspot.com

Group
Focus 2011
Winter Semester Begins!
Groups are off and running! What a great We would also like to encourage you to
semester! bring your whole group. This is a great
opportunity to meet together outside of your
Winter is often a difficult time. Winter seems to normal group time and have different
drag on and on, it still gets dark early and the conversations than you do when you are
sun seems to spend most of its time behind gray together.
clouds. Gathering together regularly with a
group of people can be a bright spot in the week Please extend this invitation to the members of
for many people. It’s comforting to know there your group and then let us know how many are Calendar
is a group of people to meet with, to laugh and planning to attend. It is very important that you
talk with and to pray with. You are providing a let us know you are coming. There is a lot of
sense of purpose and belonging for many preparation for this class and knowing how
people. many to plan for is necessary. February
Be faithful in praying for the members of your 20 & 27 - Loving My Church
group and contact them occasionally to let them Group Covenants 5-7 pm 2 week group
know you are thinking of them. How uplifting All Group Leaders should plan
and encouraging it is to know someone is I know there is a lot to do at your first group
thinking of you! meeting so I understand that you may not be to attend!
able to cover the Covenant at your first meeting.
Leader Info: I do hope that by week 3 you will have Sermon Series: Guardrails
Loving My Church explained it and given people the opportunity to
sign it. Again, this is an opportunity to help
February 20th & 27th people understand what it means to be a part of March
5 - 7 pm a community and begin to grow in their What are your plans for the
understanding and practice of community.
As Group Leaders we ask that each of you who summer semester?
are not members take the Loving My Church Copies of the Group Covenant will be
class. It is a two week class covering the Core available on top of the main office desk on
Values of our church and what it means to be a Sunday.
member. We do not require group leaders to be Please take as many copies as you need. April
members, however we believe it is vital that you 24th - Easter
understand who we are as a church and are May God continue to add His blessings as you
serve Him faithfully Get your group info for summer
able to talk with group members about our
church and what it means to be a member.
semester to Linda!
Linda
Therefore, Pastor Phil and I are asking each of
you to make attending this class a priority.
Relationship vs. Fellowship:
Is there a difference?
June 27, 2010
A couple of key components of our connection
to God and others are fellowship and
relationship. I recently explored the difference
with our group. Here’s how I described it:
Relationship is the substance of our
connections: things like family or blood
relatives, as well as covenant relationship like
marriage or adoption. Even beyond that,
relationship can also be defined by association
(church family, workplace, neighborhoods,
students, etc.), or just the frequency in which
we connect with people (if I see someone often,
then I might say I have a relationship with
them).
Fellowship, on the other hand, is more like the
“life” and energy of our connections with
people. It’s the quality of our relationships. It’s
something that is added to relationship that
adds life, impact, and even sweetness. It
means literally sharing in common which is
modeled in many of the one another commands
of the New Testament, like: love one another,
spur one another on, forgive one another, carry
one another’s burdens, and many more.
But the question is: can you have relationship
without fellowship, and is that a good thing or
not?
I used an object illustration with our group to
help understand the difference. I put pieces of
two kinds of chocolate is a small cups. The
chocolate I put in cup #1 was pure dark choco-
late—nothing added. I had people try it. Some
people like it, while some think it’s very bitter
tasting. But like it or not, it’s the real deal. Pure
chocolate. It’s good but it doesn’t necessarily
have everything in it that people want in choco-
late. It doesn’t have that sweet taste we’ve
grown to love in chocolate.
In cup #2 I put rich milk chocolate. If you like
chocolate at all, you are going to say it’s the
real thing. Give me some more!
I told everyone, “Keep in mind, that cup #2 has told my group that is
the same substance as cup #1, but there is
more added to it. And that more makes all the sidering because
difference in how it tastes.”
That’s at least a simple picture of the distinction happens.
between relationship and fellowship.
by Dan Lentz
Relationship is like cup #1. It’s the real
substance, but for some people it’s good and
for others it seems bitter. Fellowship is like cup
#2. It also has the real substance, but it has
other things added that makes it much richer.
That’s a simple illustration, but the difference
came home for me in a small group I was part
of several years ago. We met together weekly
for a couple of years and saw each other
in-between group times as well. There is no
question that by the definition, I had
relationships with those people. But, I didn’t
necessarily look forward to being together; it
We are
Better
was just something I did. There came a time
when our group multiplied and I moved on to be
Together
in another group. When I left that group, I didn’t
have that sense of healthy grieving like there
should have been. Sure I remained friendly with
those folks, but not really connected in any
meaningful way.
It became obvious to me that while several of 6 Leadership
us had a relationship, we lacked much depth of
fellowship. Looking back, that bums me out.
Because, we never poured much life into that
Essentials
substance. And because of that, it wasn’t very
sweet and I’m not sure how much impact we
really had in one another’s lives. I have learned
from that experience that relationship is great, 1. THINK Life change:
but fellowship is where life change happens. Why We Do Groups
Maybe you can identify with a situation you’ve 2. Cultivate RELATIONSHIPS
had like that. I think most of us can. We all have
How We Build
examples of family or work associates that we
interact with frequently—we have a relationship Community
with them, but not much fellowship. And, of
3. PROMOTE participation
course, hopefully we can think of many
examples of people we have relationships with, How You Lead a Group
and rich fellowship as well. Obviously, we can’t
have fellowship with everyone we are in 4. REPLACE yourself
relationship with. We just don’t have the time or How You Intentionally
emotional capacity to Apprentice
handle that. But, the
question is: Are most 5. Provide CARE
of our relationships How You Handle Tough
void of fellowship? I Situations
something worth con- 6. MULTIPLY influence
How You Maximize
fellowship is where
life and sweetness Impact