The night my wife and I met as college freshmen, we didn’t share our lives at the level of depth we do now. In fact, when we first met all we did was play a board game and talk about being music students. But that light conversation led to the two of us sitting next to each other in a music theory class and studying together along with some other friends. We began to share more deeply about our passion for music. Eventually the two of us began playing together on a worship team for a ministry on our university campus. We shared not only music but our musings about the deep things of life: origin, meaning, purpose, destiny. We began dating more seriously and as we did our conversations went deeper. It took time. It took proximity. It involved growing trust.
Chances are you and your family may have walked through the front door of GCC looking for something, not totally sure how to articulate what it was. But worship at 10:30am on a Sunday morning may have led you to think that you wanted to go a little deeper with God and with the community here. Then maybe you found yourselves in a Foundations class where you could get to know a few people and hear people think together about some of the deep things of God. But still, how do you really connect at Grace and stay connected?
It was one thing for my wife, Gina, and I to get to know each other as individuals. How do you get to a deeper level of relationship with God and with his people in a place that gathers 250 people together once a week, or another 50 people for a large class? The answer is small groups.
Gina and I didn’t know that we wanted to get married the first night we met. We knew we wanted to take a step toward each other. If you’ve been at GCC awhile, you probably will not experience deeper community until you take a step toward experiencing small group life. Worshiping with 250 people is spiritually formative. Learning together in Foundations is a great place to grow in knowledge of God. A small group is where you begin to let knowledge of God intersect with your own self-knowledge and with a few others whom you learn to trust.
Does that sound new to you? Does it sound scary? Is it weird? That’s why I’ve been comparing it to dating. I’ve never talked with anyone about dating where the idea hasn’t at least been weird. But in my own life, taking a small step toward another person has turned out to be the most incredible adventure for which I ever could have hoped. So how about you? Are you ready to take a step toward others at GCC? GroupLink, our way of connecting folks in small groups, begins Sunday October 20th and runs for 5 weeks (with one week off for PACEM). Why not take a chance? Step toward experiencing small group life here.
in Him,
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