Small Groups

Thanks for listening to the His Hands Church Podcast.

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And thank you for being part of what God is doing at His Hands.

Well, congratulations on surviving Snow Apocalypse 2014.

You made it.

And I said, Oh, you know, two to three inches in most places.

Um, you know, it's easy to look back and laugh.

I know a lot of us probably had some pretty trying times this week.

Uh, but but man, isn't being here this morning and just knowing that we have a God that loves us and a God that does come through, uh, make all that stuff just go away.

Isn't it great?

I love that.

At the very least, a lot of us will have some great stories to share with one another.

Uh, you may have seen a news story about a woman going into labor uh on the the roads that was not Megan, it wasn't us.

I was really thankful.

That's the only day in this entire last month that I've looked at Megan and said, do not, do not have this baby today.

Whatever you do, I I'm not ready for that yet, but who knows?

God could have done anything, I guess.

Um, got a couple quick announcements before we we jump into what we're gonna talk about this morning.

Uh, first of all, we have some some honored guests this morning.

We have a lot of uh Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts that are very involved here that meet here.

And so they're here this morning.

Can you guys stand up real quick?

Would you mind standing up?

Here we go.

This is our uh this is Pac 6410, and they meet here, and and like I said, a lot of them just help out a lot.

We're really glad you guys are part of his hands, so thank you.

We've been here today, Scout Sunday.

So we wanted to kind of honor them this morning.

Uh a few other things.

First off, I want to thank everyone for just uh chipping in financially.

God's using it, he's doing great things with it, and we need it.

And there's four columns at the back of the room if you want to do that, or or you can do it online or through the the His Hands app as well, which is kind of up to you.

High school students, I want to remind you guys that we are gonna be meeting this week.

We canceled last week for obvious reasons, but it's a worship week this week, so be there for that.

It's always a party when we do that.

So we'll be back this week.

High school.

We we had a big kickoff two weeks ago and then nothing.

And so it's always hard when you launch something, woo, we're back, and then oh, we're not, but we're back again this week, so look forward to that.

Um man, let's uh let's pray.

Let's pray.

Jesus, thank you so much.

Thank you so much for your love.

And God, honestly, thank you for reminders that we are not in control.

And moments like like what Dallas spoke about this morning, where we realize that we we absolutely need you.

You are not just a nice thing to have, you're not an addition to our lives.

You're a foundation.

You're the foundation.

So, Jesus, thank you that we have you.

And I pray that you would just speak uh through your word this morning and and grow us together.

We ask all this in your name, Jesus.

Amen.

Well, next week we're gonna be starting a new series.

We're gonna be talking about some of the really difficult and challenging and frankly, sometimes strange things that Jesus said.

This is something that Bill Thrasher was kind of thinking of and thought about.

And so it's it's gonna be along the lines of when you see Jesus say something like, if you have enough faith, you can move a mountain.

Or when Jesus tells a rich young man, hey, if if you want to follow me, just sell everything you have and give it all to the poor.

What is he saying in those moments?

What is he implying?

How do we sort of deal with that?

And that's gonna be a really, really great series starting next week.

It's gonna be nice because there's this tendency sometimes for us to want diet Jesus, so to speak, where we can kind of take away all of the all the things that Jesus says that you you really do have to deal with.

You just have to say, I mean, he said it.

He said, I remember being in college and in a class, and a friend of mine named Darren Smith was being pressed by a professor, and this professor just asked him, and Darren was a he's an amazing guy, and he asked him, Are you saying you believe that Jesus is the only way to heaven?

Is that what you're really saying?

You believe that?

And Darren, he's the only guy I've ever known that would do this.

He just reached in his pocket and pulled out this tiny Bible, and he opened it up and he just said, This is what Jesus said.

I am the way, the truth, and the life.

He's he said that, not me.

And there are things that Jesus says that we just have to say, okay, we're gonna, we gotta deal with this.

We gotta we gotta look at this and say, what does he what does he mean?

And there are a lot of things to choose from.

So that'll start next week.

This morning, we're sort of wrapping up what we've been talking about for the last month and kicking off our brand new approach to small groups.

And this is something we've been leading up to all month long.

We've been talking about our need for friends, the fact that we actually really do need each other, and that God intends for us to live life and follow Jesus together.

It's not something we're supposed to do on our own.

We're not supposed to uh to outsource our friendships to Facebook in life or anything like that.

That's something that Nathan has mentioned a few times, and it's true.

We are supposed to live life together.

We're supposed to come alongside one another and share life.

Last week Ben spoke and he shared one of my absolute favorite Proverbs, and it's Proverbs 14 4.

And what it basically says is that if you have a stable but no oxen, it stays nice and clean.

But if you want a big harvest, you're gonna need the strength of an ox.

And that's life.

We can avoid a lot of mess by distancing ourselves and avoiding close relationships.

But what we're settling for ultimately is less support, less help, and less joy.

Yesterday, we moved for the third time since the start of December.

And the last time, the last time, hopefully I say that, I God can do anything, but we're we're settled as far as I'm concerned.

And and I had an amazing group of friends.

I mean, this last month has just been crazy, a huge reminder for me that God is in control and that no matter what I plan and no matter what I set out to do, uh, it really depends on God letting it happen.

But I had amazing friends that came alongside of me and helped.

I needed a few oxen.

Oxen?

What is the plural?

Is it oxen?

I'm not a farmer, but I needed strong guys, okay?

Because I'm not a mover either.

And I have great friends that came alongside and helped, and I only had to guilt one or two of them to get them to show up.

I mean, it was it was great.

So we really, we really do need each other.

And this morning we're gonna be kicking off small groups.

We'll have sign-ups in the lobby afterwards.

We're gonna talk about that.

Nathan Fowler is the one on our team that's really leading the charge for small groups.

He's gonna be leading our small group team, and he is he is incredibly passionate.

He's not just passionate about groups, God has given him a great vision and a very clear vision for how to move forward with it.

And so it's been really amazing to work with Nathan, and and Nathan's gonna come up and share for a few minutes about his heart for groups and the vision that God's sort of uh given him to lead this.

And so, Nathan, I don't know where you are, but I know you're somewhere.

And so there he there he is.

Nathan, will you come out and share for just a few minutes and then uh then I'll come back and give us some more details about that.

So, Nathan Fowler.

There you are.

I'm I'm unaccustomed to these devices.

And so I f I feel like I might need one of these every week and I could start doing Garth Brooks.

You know, I can strut.

But I probably won't.

Let's not.

Um yeah, thank you, Justin, for uh setting this up.

Um so uh I'd love to share with you what we're getting ready to do with small groups.

Um this is we've done things like this before, but never anything really just like this.

Uh we we got together about a year ago, um, Steve and Justin and Susan and Megan and Katie and I, and uh we had a like a day and a half of just looking at and praying for God, what's what's in the future for us as his hands, and what what should we be working on to follow you in that?

And um it became pretty clear, like, man, it is time for small groups for the reason of investing in our relationships together.

And so, this is really weird.

I shouldn't have worn a colored shirt that pushes it around.

Um but so we we looked at that together and we're like, okay, God, bring the right person because somebody will have to manage that.

To do that well, you can't just throw out an idea and say, okay, let's do it.

This kind of needs some planning.

And and uh and so we started praying, God bring somebody to do that.

And I was really excited because that's something for me that's very close to my heart and always has been.

So I was praying extra hard.

And uh and that went on for most of the year last year.

And uh at one point in October, I'm in the car, I'm driving to something for work, and I'm praying, I'm like, God, it's been nine, ten months since we really felt this is what we're supposed to do, this is your purpose for the next season for his hands.

Why haven't you brought somebody that will do it?

And I felt very clearly, he goes, You and I'm like, oh crap.

Oh, like, and it it became clear really quickly, he's so he gave me that passion.

And he had been getting me ready um to do this the whole time, and I didn't realize it.

And we we talk about his hands uh from time to time that we don't have a big programmed mentality about doing things.

His hands is sort of like playing a pickup game of baseball, you know, just show up and grab a glove, right?

And uh so that's what we're doing.

Starting this off is I picked up the glove and I'm like, okay, it's time to do this.

Um so I'll tell you a little about why.

Um and for me personally, it's a desire, but I really wanted to look into man, okay, is this just something I want?

What does God want?

And how does he want it done?

And uh I think when you figure out the why of something, it really changes how you choose the what's and the how you do it because you've got an ultimate purpose that you're moving towards, right?

And um, so I started looking and praying, God, show me what is the why for the small groups at his hands.

And um, and the Bible, you know, it confirmed this need for deep relationships.

We're meant to follow Jesus together.

Um when God had finished creation in the Garden of Eden, he looked at Adam and said, It's not good for him to be alone, right?

And Jesus had 12 disciples in Matthew 28, 18, after he had died on the cross, he'd come back to life, the last thing he left his disciples with, his closest friends, is he told them, Go, make more disciples.

He said, Baptize them in my name, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Teach the things I've taught you, and I'll be with you until the end of days.

And I think that last part's really important.

I used to kind of just go, okay, that's a nice add-on to the end of this statement.

And I really realized in the last year just how important that last part is.

You know, he's he's clarifying if you want to be where I am until the end of days, where I'm hanging out is with my people.

It's with my kids.

You know, Jesus, our God, is a dad.

His heart is for his kids.

I think that's a part of God's character that's just naturally instilled genetically in all moms, right?

If you think about any little kids, and their mom just, her life revolves around those kids.

That is part of God's nature that genetically is in moms, right?

And so Jesus is kind of confirming that here when he says, go make disciples, which they knew what that looked like, because Jesus had done that with them.

Go make disciples.

Baptize them in my name, teach them what I've taught you, and I'll be with you until the end of days.

It's Jesus saying, if you want to hang out with me, this is where I'm at.

Where two or three are gathered in my name, I'm there with them.

He said in Proverbs, the iron sharpens iron.

Just like he said for Adam, it wasn't good for him to be alone.

And so Jesus' disciples, these were his twelve closest friends.

Um, they would eat together, they went to parties together, they'd have conversations as they traveled on foot, walking from town to town to speak to people, and as Jesus would heal people.

And these were his 12 closest friends.

He had an inner circle of these guys.

He would go speak to a crowd of 5,000, but he'd come back to his 12 disciples.

And sometimes they'd have questions because he would have shared a story that they were a little confused by, and they'd say, What were you talking about?

And he would explain to them, he'd take time in conversation with his 12 close disciples.

And he just doesn't want to stay still.

And um the night before Jesus was crucified, what he did is he got together with these 12 closest friends, and they had they had Passover together.

They celebrated a feast together, they ate, they had a meal together and had conversation and spent time together.

He washed their feet that night too, which was really weird in that time.

That would be something the lowest servant would have done in the house.

And Jesus said, No, even though they knew at that point this is the son of God, he said, No, I'm even even though I'm the son of God, I'll still humble myself and wash your feet.

We're in this together.

And after they did that, he took those guys and they went to the Garden of Gethsemane, and he asked them, Will you stay up late and pray with me?

I I can't fully explain what's coming, but it's tough.

And I want to make sure I do it the way my father wants it done.

So will you stay up late and pray with me?

This is Jesus, if anybody had the right to be like, No, I'm good.

That was him, right?

But he said, No, pray with me.

I need your prayers.

I need help from dad.

Will you stand with me and ask dad for help and stay up late and pray?

So he modeled that.

He really showed having close friends together.

And um, a couple thousand years ago, this was really natural to do already in that culture.

Homes were usually built in clusters of maybe four with a courtyard.

And so you really knew your neighbors.

You would cook meals together, you would celebrate life events together, you would help each other um pull their car out of the ditch when it snowed in the Middle East together.

You know, they they had a tight-knit community where family really included your closest friends.

And uh you would live and farm and work with the same people every day.

And so in the church and acts, um, they really modeled beautifully how to do church in a great way together.

And it started with small groups meeting in people's homes, day in and day out, just naturally part of their lives, and grew to where they would have large meetings, but the foundation was that small core, having close friends around you, people that knew you closely.

You would have discussions about the things Jesus said, and you would talk about how that works in our lives.

They would have those conversations together, and there was belonging and care and accountability built in those relationships because of the way they were tightly knit.

And um today things are sort of the opposite of that culture.

Um, some of us commute an hour to work or more, um, so we hardly know our neighbors, and uh we've outsourced we've outsourced most of our relationships to Facebook, you know, and so we can have more quantity of friends than ever these days.

But it's really easy to overlook the quality, especially with how busy we get, you know.

Um we're blessed that we can have uh cars and cell phones and the internet to make it really easy to get together a thousand people on a Sunday in one place to worship God together.

Isn't that amazing?

But it's it's tough with the pace of life when we're so busy.

Some of us might even shy away from the idea of adding more friends into our life because we're thinking, man, I'm already at capacity just trying to keep up with the pace of day-to-day life now.

But I think all of us would be excited about having closer, deeper relationships with our friends, right?

And this is why I think small groups are a really good investment of time.

Uh recently, I learned this in a really personal way.

Um a couple years ago through 2012, a little before and coming out of that, um, I was just in a place in life where I was completely depressed and alone.

And I spent over a year that way with no real way out.

And the only person I could share this with was Katie, who was incredibly patient and loving and supportive through the whole time.

And um she also knew that I couldn't just be fixed.

And I knew I couldn't just be fixed.

I wanted to.

I'd often ask God, why can't you just lift?

Why can't you just take this off me?

Because I know it's an attitude thing in so many ways.

Maybe I can just thing cap your thoughts, maybe if I can just change my attitude, but at some level there's just no breaking through it with sheer willpower, right?

And I knew that.

So I would even say, God, just lift this weight off me, please.

And for a long time he just he just didn't.

And uh that was confusing at times.

And um it was especially hard because when you're when you're struggling with depression, especially for me, I looked at it and I said, how how can I go ask anyone for help with this or share this with anyone?

How dare I even feel depressed?

My life is so blessed.

I have a wonderful wife.

I live in America.

Life is so good, even with the challenges, life is still so good.

So guilt and shame then even piled on top of it and encased it in this shell that just drove me deeper because I felt depressed and then I was ashamed and guilty for being depressed in the first place when I felt like I had no right to.

And at the start of 2013, we we lost our first baby to a miscarriage.

And what had looked like something really exciting that maybe this, I will have a baby.

I could be excited for our baby that was on the way.

And when that was when that was lost, it was a last straw.

And I didn't blame God for it.

I knew these things just happened, but I finally just I didn't even have the willpower left to give up anymore.

And it wasn't at that point a conscious decision to say, God, will you help me out of this anymore?

So much as it was, I've got nothing left, dad.

I can't even choose you or me or anything, all I can do, and I think this is a lot of life, because really all our decisions come down to this.

We can do this with the things in our life, or we can do that.

And at that point, I was so worn out and exhausted from that weight and that loss.

That I just was like, God, if the rest of my life I struggle with this, then okay.

But I'm keeping my eyes on you because that's all I had energy left to do was just say, God, if the rest of my life I struggle with this weight, if it never gets better, then okay, you know?

I don't want that.

But what I do know is that I can walk through it with you.

So I just said, God, I'm just looking at you through this.

And the funny thing is, that's that's really what it took all along for me.

That's what I was struggling with, really, at the root of it, was that wanting to hold on to life and do my very best to make life good.

Do my very best to make life great.

But even though it wasn't going great, you know, what if it had gone well?

I'd still have whatever the best I could do would be the ceiling.

Whatever the best I could muster in life would be the ceiling.

Because even though I was walking with God, I was still kind of wanting to do it on my own.

And um, what set me free from that depression was when I ran out of energy to do that and said, God, at my worst or at my best, I know you'll take me.

You know.

And um, it was a process, but he did.

He he lifted me up through the the rest of last year.

And um I've just been blessed since then, and I don't fight with that anymore.

So pretty glad I got through it this time without crying.

But uh I say all that to say that I look back on that time now with a different perspective than I had going through it, or than I had for other people when I see other people going through hard times.

I have a different perspective than I used to have.

And I look back, and during that whole time, I had that quantity of friends.

I had the friends on Facebook.

I was coming here plugged in as much as I could be on Sundays.

But what if I had close friends near me during that time?

Maybe I wouldn't have struggled with depression at all in the first place.

Maybe I'd struggle with it, but I would have had support early because I had people that I felt I could share it with, even though I was fighting with the shame.

I'd have people close enough that I felt wouldn't judge me and I could talk about it and at least get their prayers, which I needed.

I needed badly.

And someone close could have also held me accountable in that time and be like, hey, I know you, and if this was happening in anyone else's life, you'd be telling them, let me pray for you now, and then you need to seek counseling.

Right?

But we can't just offer those solutions to anyone and have it help, right?

You I would have needed somebody who had built up that belonging and care and accountability with that they had earned the right with love to speak those things into my life and for me to hear it, for it to break through that shell.

I think we can all relate to that.

You know, it's we can't just take advice even when it's great.

If there isn't love that it's built on.

And so, what if I had invested time in relationships with people close around me that could have spoken those things into my life?

The reality is I might have still walked through the whole thing just the same.

But I would not have been alone.

And God's plan is for us not to be alone ever.

And that leads me to something really practical and simple, you know, that I think can change our future in a lot of ways.

You know, when somebody's in the hospital, what if instead of a person they don't know coming to visit them?

Which is good.

But what if close friends who know you deeply and love and care for you come to visit and pray for those people?

Isn't it the most powerful when people really know and care deeply for us, take time to pray for us and the things we're going through?

Isn't that so much more powerful of a prayer?

We're still going to the same God.

But that love cuts through the layers of shame or whatever else it is that might be keeping you from experiencing great life.

There's something about love, and I think that's why Jesus modeled it with his closest friends.

That love like that softens your heart, it breaks down walls that we build up around ourselves that we think are making us secure, or at least in our comfort zone, breaks those things down to where it's like when Jesus talks about the farmer spreading seeds on fertile soil.

He said there were rocks and there were places that had weeds that would choke out what the farmer was trying to grow.

But then there were places of fertile soil.

That a seed could take root and absorb moisture when it rained and grow because that ground was soft.

And man, it's love that makes our hearts soft for God's life to happen in our lives.

That's why I think God says, I am love.

He said, God is love.

Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life.

He wants us to experience love in our lives, not as a concept or not as something just to put on a to-do list, as a way of measuring up.

Do I measure up to love?

No, no, no, no.

He had the complete opposite in mind.

I think Jesus, the whole way he walked through life, made it pretty clear it's not about measuring up to anything.

It's about just opening up and accepting his love in our lives.

And I think even simpler than those examples, what about a just a mom that needs help moving?

And wouldn't it be beautiful to see her small group and their families all showing up to carry boxes and that love?

Um what's what's real cool is I've talking with some of our small group leaders and getting ready for this, I've shared that example, like I can't wait.

And uh before I got to share that at one of our recent meetings, somebody who's coming in new was like, Man, there's been times I'm a single mom, I even just need help moving.

And she's like, and sometimes I feel like I don't even have enough people close around me that I could just get help moving.

And I'm like, funny you ask.

You know, but it's not because it's my idea, it's because it's God's idea.

There aren't there aren't spiritual things up here and just normal life things down here.

We like to put things in those boxes, but Jesus doesn't do that.

Man, Jesus cares about every aspect of your life.

The typical, normal, day-to-day stuff is just as spiritual to him because he loves you so much and it's part of your life.

So he cares and he wants you to have close loving friends around you to help you move your house.

That's part of his best plan for us.

Just like it's part of his best plan to have people close that can hold us accountable and pray for us.

And so I mentioned that God is love.

He says that in his word.

And I think any parent knows that love is something that really comes alive when you're giving it away.

You know, when when you start having kids, it's like, oh, I didn't even really get how much capacity there was for love in my life until that baby.

And I realized I had something to love different than I've ever experienced before.

And that love giving away is the most love I've ever experienced.

I think that's because God's plan for love is it's something we give away.

It's something we accept and give away.

And so if you want more love in your life, and that'd be if God's love, you're gonna get more of God in your life who wants the very best for you.

It makes sense to be where he wants to hang out, right?

He said, Go and make disciples, and I'll be with you.

I'll be with you until the end of days.

He said, where two or three are gathered, I'm with them.

And that iron sharpens iron.

So if you want more love in your life, if you want more of God who is love, more of Jesus, more joy, the thing that makes the most sense is to be sharing life with others.

I think it's God's plan for us to be together with Him and with each other.

And so um I, for one, could say that I'm I'm all for making time to make a small group a high priority for the rest of my life.

So that's my feeling on it.

Um I love you guys so much, and I hope you'll take time to think about this uh for you.

And um, I'm gonna let Justin come back up and uh share some more things as well.

No stool, no stool for Justin.

I'm not a stool guy, I just can't pull it off.

Thank you, man.

Thank you so much, Nathan.

Um Nathan shared a lot of that with me as we were kind of getting ready for this.

And it's funny because I'm friends with Nathan, and we're actually friends who maybe shouldn't be friends because we were wired very, very differently.

Uh but but it actually made me realize, man, I should have been investing more in our friendship over the last over the last few years.

I I wish I was more a part of that time, and and it's been a great uh a bit of accountability for me to realize that when I'm going through something tough, to reach out and to have people around us.

So all I want to do before we we finish up and have our sign-ups this morning is just give you kind of the nuts and bolts of what groups are gonna look like.

Because this is a different approach for us as a church.

And it's interesting, in the church world, it's really easy for a change in approach to ruffle feathers because we kind of equate a change in approach with a change in our beliefs.

And so some of us may have grown up in churches where there were transitions happening, whether it was from pews to chairs, you know, something that really rocked everyone's world, or if it was, you know, hymns to praise songs, and it can actually be very divisive.

But what we have to remember is changing your approach is just a recognition of sometimes you've got to do things more effectively.

Sometimes you have to realize that the way you've been doing it isn't meeting the need you need it to meet.

And Jesus did that.

Great example is Jesus began his ministry by teaching in the synagogues.

He would go to the Jewish synagogues and he would teach.

That was the people he began teaching.

And those people were not very receptive to what Jesus had to say.

And so he didn't keep teaching in the synagogues over and over and over again, even though it wasn't working.

He left the synagogues and he started teaching people out in the wilderness, teaching people where they were, and that was more effective.

So Jesus was willing to change his approach, and we've got to be willing to change our approach sometimes too.

The biggest change that we're making in terms of how we're gonna be doing groups is that we're not going to be having this building as the home base for our groups.

Most of our groups, actually all of our adult groups, except for the art group, because they've got a space here that is designed for doing art together, but all of our adult groups are going to be home groups.

And there are a few big reasons for that.

Number one, it's kind of what Nathan shared a minute ago.

Our homes are the most natural places for us to connect with one another.

They're designed for that.

When you're sitting around a living room, when you're sitting around a kitchen or outside around a grill, it's so easy to have conversations.

It's so easy to know one another.

It's a lot easier and more natural for that to happen in that environment than for it to happen in a classroom.

It just is.

And that's the main point of our groups, is for us to know one another.

We're going to be discussing God, we're going to be having great conversations, but the main purpose is for us to build relationships.

And that happens more naturally in our homes than it does in some room.

Second reason is scalability.

On a Wednesday night, we tend to have about 200 adults here in our groups, which is great, but we are full.

200 adults here, every single classroom is full.

We don't have any more places to go, and we are going to grow as a church.

We can't just infinitely scale the number of rooms we have unless we start making really tiny rooms.

We've thought about that.

But as we grow, there are going to be more people that will step up and say, hey, I'll open up my home.

I'll invite people into my home and lead a group.

And so as we grow, we'll have more homes to use.

And the third big reason is that it's flexible.

We've always done our groups and classes on Wednesday night.

I'm guessing that not every single one of us has availability on Wednesday night.

And sometimes you're like, I'd like to be a part of that, but Wednesday nights don't work for me.

I work, my kids have sports, it just doesn't work.

Right now with our small groups, and we have 20 plus groups to get started, which by the way is already more space than we've ever had for adults before.

We already have enough, just with those 20 groups, to have more adults connected together than we've had in the past.

And that's just the start.

It's going to grow from this point on.

This is a starting point.

But we have small groups that meet every single day of the week.

And so there's flexibility.

It's natural to do it in homes, it's it's scalable and it's flexible, and we believe it's the right approach.

And so when we go out today and we're signing up, we're we're gonna be signing up to go P we're not gonna sign up to go P, we're gonna sign up to go B.

I wanna make that very clear.

My wife has told me that when you're pregnant, uh your words get mixed up, and and guys have the sympathy symptoms, right?

You gain I've gained weight.

I guess that's another one of them.

So we're gonna sign up to be a part of people's homes.

Now I know it can be kind of a strange, it's a strange thing for us.

It shouldn't be, but it just is to go to someone's home that we don't know.

It's like, ah, that's awkward.

I don't want to have an awkward ringing a doorbell conversation.

I had a job in college where I had to go door to door to sell things, and I hated that.

I'm an outgoing person, but just that ringing the doorbell and them opening the door, it was awful.

And we are passionately against awkward doorbell experiences at his hands.

We are passionately against it.

All right?

So this is what's gonna happen.

When we start a session of small groups, we're gonna have a meet and greet.

And today and next Sunday, those are meet and greet opportunities.

All of our small group leaders for the most part will be in the lobby, and it's a chance for you to meet those people, to talk to different group leaders, to see which ones you really feel a connection with.

And even if you sign up for groups after a session begins, because we'll we'll have people signing up for groups every single Sunday.

The Connect Desk that we built in the lobby, it's not just for us signing up to be part of a team and to join a team, it's also for small groups.

Every single Sunday there will be team signups, there will be group signups, so you'll be able to get connected at any point.

And even if there's not a meet and greet when you get started, we'll put you in contact with a group leader, they'll call you, you'll have a conversation.

And I think the way that we should all think about this is not I'm just going to some stranger's home, but instead remembering that these are people that are inviting you to their homes.

These are people that have chosen to open their homes up and say, Yeah, come.

And that's a big deal.

And if all those homes get full, we'll we'll add more homes.

Other people will step up, we know that they will.

But these are people that have invited us into their homes.

And just as one other little side note, I think it's important for us to remember that his hands church is not this building.

It's us.

And so we don't have to use this building every time we want to do something.

This building is a blessing, it is amazing facility, and when we have things like Sunday mornings, the Red Cross training that we do, or youth, or any of those things, the high school group's still gonna be meeting on Wednesday nights like always.

They're not coming into my house.

I love you guys, but um I do.

You can, but not normally.

So we don't have to use this building for everything that we do because we are the church.

In the New Testament, you'll see the word church over 150 times.

There is not one time ever, not one single time that the word church is used where it's referring to a building.

They didn't have buildings to meet in, they didn't have the funds, they didn't have the status in their community.

Every time you read that word church, it's just a group of people getting together.

That's what it is.

So church doesn't happen within these walls, it happens everywhere.

And we are his hands church.

I mean, we started in a Dave and Busters for crying out loud, right?

So it's not that big of a stretch.

A few other details I'd like to share with you about how this is gonna work.

We're gonna have three different types or categories of small groups.

There will be groups for married couples, groups for men, and groups for women.

And so when you sign up today, there'll be different groups for that.

Couples groups will be about eight couples, so 16 people or so.

Eight times two is sixteen, exactly.

So not even sixteen or so, it will be sixteen.

Uh men's and women's groups, those will be between eight and twelve people.

The groups are gonna be big enough that you can really get to know a good number of people, but not so big that you're gonna get lost in those groups.

We really want us to know one another and have close relationships with one another.

Our sessions are gonna last a lot longer throughout the year than what we've done in the past with Wednesday night groups and classes.

So we're getting a little bit of a late start this year.

Normally they'll start earlier in the year, but when we kick this next session off here in a couple weeks, uh, we'll go about 13 weeks, taking a couple weeks off for spring break.

That'll take us right to the summer, and we'll break for summer because summer is short in Cherokee County.

It is short, man.

School starts right back.

A lot of things are going on, we have vacations, so we'll break for summer, we'll start back in the fall, and we'll go about to the holidays.

And so that's gonna be basically how often we'll be meeting, which is great because it's so much more often than we've been able to do in the past with groups just here at the building.

It's gonna help us know one another on a much more regular basis.

I hate getting close to people and then being like, well, bye, I'll see you in three months.

That's hard.

Now it's just two months every once in a while.

So that's the way that this the sessions are gonna work.

Content-wise, most of our groups are gonna be discussing the messages from the previous Sunday.

We will have some groups doing book studies from time to time.

That's really gonna be up to the groups, but but our main approach is gonna be based around the message.

And there's a few things with that.

Number one, there's something really powerful about all of us working on applying what we're doing together in our lives.

The other good thing about it is just convenience.

I'm sure all of us are dying to have more to do.

And you're like, great, I'd like to like to join your group and tell me my homework assignment.

How much do I have to read before I show up?

Because that's just no, it's gonna be nice that if you're here on a Sunday or if you just listen to the message online, that you've already invested 30 or on a really bad Sunday, 40 minutes, into what we're talking about.

You know, so you're you're already able to come and engage in the conversation.

A great example that I read that was used about this sort of idea was this guy saying, Hey, look, I'm not a movie guy.

And so I'm not gonna go discuss movies with people.

But if I saw a movie a few days ago, I'll go talk about that movie.

And so for some of us, the concept of I'm just gonna go talk about God and life, like, where do I start?

I guess I need to start reading more or whatever, but if you're here, you saw this movie, so to speak.

And you can engage in that.

And the whole point of those conversations, again, is to facilitate us knowing one another.

So that's gonna be kind of our main approach.

As far as kids go, most of our groups are gonna be adults only.

There are some groups where kids are welcome, and that's really gonna be up to the group leaders.

It depends on if their home works for it, uh, if they have kids.

And so there are groups where you can say, I need that, and they're kid-friendly groups.

As far as how that'll work, that's gonna be up to the group leaders and the people in the groups.

Some of the groups will chip in and hire a babysitter, some groups will have an older child that can watch the younger kids.

Some of us will just go holiday style and it's just a free-for-all, and we hope they stay alive.

But, you know, it's not like you hire a babysitter for Thanksgiving, right?

You just, all right, don't do anything that'll make me mad, but that's that's how it'll be.

Some of our groups are gonna be, you know, get a babysitter for your kids or figure all that out because it's adults only.

And we love kids.

We love kids, we love teenagers.

We we have a lot of focus at this church on our young people.

And so that's a good thing, right?

Our kids on Sunday mornings in the nursery and his kids, they're learning, they're growing, they're getting to know one another.

Our junior high students right now are over there, they're getting to know one another.

Our high school students really grow close together.

They have small groups on Sundays after church.

And so we have that happening with our with our kids.

I think as parents, it's good for us to give our kids the gift of us growing closer to other people and having those relationships to come along us and support us.

And so we've got to make sure that we have the ability sometimes as parents to make a decision that's this is what we need to do.

And the childcare stuff will get figured out.

So let me explain really quickly what's gonna happen in the lobby, and then I will stop talking.

Uh, you're gonna go in the lobby and you're gonna see a couple sets of tables.

There's two sections.

One is for our married couple groups, one is for our men's and women's groups.

At the tables, there will be people, real, live, human people.

Those are the people leading the groups.

We'll have uh a cluster of blue balloons at the men's groups, pink balloons at the women's groups.

We just wanted it to be obvious.

Cliche.

We should have gone with purple for the couples groups, but we went with green.

That was an opportunity missed.

Okay.

Green balloons tells you it's a couples group.

And as you go to the different groups that you want to sign up and be part of, you'll see a sign that'll tell you what day of the week that group meets.

So it's gonna be very easy to walk around, uh, see a group that meets your needs and see when they meet and see if it fits with your schedule.

At the connect desk, there's also gonna be four people today that are just there to help assist you if you need more direction with groups.

Not all of our groups are represented out there today.

We'll be adding new groups all the time.

So you can go to the connect desk and get some more information as well.

If you're in a hurry, you don't have time to stick around.

You can go to the connect desk and you'll sign up with an orange card there, and they'll pass that along to an open group.

If you go around and talk to the group leaders, you can sign up with one of those orange cards at the actual table with the group leader as well.

They'll put your name down and they'll follow up with you and give you more information the week that the group starts, and that's just in a couple weeks.

And so look for balloons, signs, and people and have some great conversations, just some great short conversations with people.

And don't be afraid to walk around and talk to a couple different people to feel out which group you want to be a part of.

We've got a lot of amazing people.

Remember, these are people inviting you into their homes.

The main thing I just want to focus on before we pray is just a reminder that we are a family.

And that's a word that we use in church a lot.

And it's easy to throw it out there.

Hey, we're a family.

I don't know you, I don't really need to know you, but you're a family.

That's how families do work sometimes.

But one of the things I really felt like God showed me is that, you know, Justin, when you say family, it needs to be more than just a family of distant relatives.

Obviously, we're not all gonna know each other.

That's impossible.

But we need to have brothers and sisters.

When God accepted us into his family, which is what he did, Jesus brought us into God's family.

We are now literally, this isn't an analogy.

He didn't say, I'm like your dad.

I see you like a son or like a daughter.

He said, I'm your father.

I've brought you into my family.

You are my son, you are my daughter.

And if we are all the sons and daughters of God, that makes us family.

We are, in God's eyes, brothers and sisters.

And I have two brothers and one sister.

And I would love to know each of them better, to spend more time with them.

That's what family is.

Today's a great day for us to start being a family.

I'm really excited about it.

Let's pray.

Just jump into it.

Jesus, thank you so much for this family.

And I just want to thank you, Holy Spirit, for the relationships that are going to be happening over the next few months that all of us have have people in this room we've never met before and we have no clue right now, but these are people that you have brought into our lives for a reason, people that we're going to depend on, people we're gonna enjoy life with.

And God, I know that today might be a little messy.

It might it might take a while to talk to people.

There might be uh more than we have the ability to handle today, but never more than you have the ability to handle.

So, God, I just want to thank you in advance for the fact that you're gonna help us figure all this out.

And it's gonna be great.

God, thank you for Nathan and giving us someone so passionate and capable to lead this.

God, mainly thank you for you.

Because we would not be a family if you weren't our dad.

And we love you so much.

Oh, we love you, Jesus.

Just uh bless us and give us a great week.

Amen.