Happy Summer!!

Hope you all are enjoying your summer and the sunshine. As you know we are going through a "define" series for the summer trying to once again clarify and "define" the vision that we have been called to on the peninsula and beyond.

Thanks again all of you for attending the Community Group Leaders training in June. I look forward to seeing all of you in August if possible. Remember to be thinking about potential leaders in your group and encouraging them to attend as well.

As we go forward be thinking about a couple of things:

1. What is the purpose of Community Groups in the context of Seaside Church? Remember the definition we gave at the training: corporate sanctification, biblical fellowship, meeting needs, and working out the gifts of the holy spirit in members lives. This is a good place to start and will help us stay focused on the purpose.

2. What is a "Missional community Group" and is it different than what we/you are currently doing? Is it different entirely or is it something we are working towards? I hope you picked the last answer. As we go forward I think the natural progression will be groups transforming into missional community groups. What does this mean? What does it look like? What we are trying to think about in a perfect world is that groups will be involved in their community and living out community in their geographic areas. This could mean service projects, it could mean painting your neighbors house, it could mean getting together with your groups outside the "normal" meeting day and having others in the neighborhood over. The point is that missional living should be a natural extension of our lives. This is the goal and as leaders this is what we need to be leading our people towards.

3. We need to remember that church doesn't mean a get together on Sunday that offers community groups. We need to think of Church as groups in the community that come together on Sundays for the purpose of worship, training, and encouragement. How would this change the way we look at things? Imagine if instead of people signing up to serve in the kids area on sunday, that we had community groups taking a sunday and serving together by teaching our kids. This is just one example, but it is all a different mindset. It means looking at Sunday for its true purpose and looking at your community and the group you are serving with in your community as the place where you live out the Christian life.

HOMEWORK: Go the the Coram Deo website http://www.coramdeochurch.org/ and under training listen to the training on Biblical Missiology given by Jeff Vandersteldt an A29 church planter in Tacoma. Some of the stuff could be way out there for you but listen to it with an open mind and start to dream with me about the what ifs.



Eric