the next step

The Growing in Community 40-day journey is over.  So, what is the next step for everyone who joined a small group for this initiative?  Here is some great news:  A majority of the people who signed on for Growing in Community have decided to continue the journey of life with their small group! 

 Here are the specifics:  Of the ten new groups that were formed as part of the Growing in Community initiative, six will be going on with all or most of their members.  Three groups are in the process of discerning their future and will make a decision within the next week or so.  One group, experienced a “failure to launch” but its members are still eager to make a go of small group life.  They will either go on together as a group or join other groups. 

We also received some unexpected good news.  A group of people who were not together for the 40-day journey are forming a new group along with other believers (non Bethelites) from their region.  This means that 11 new small groups in all may potentially be formed by the end of the year.

Since one of our goals as a church is to be a “church of small groups” with the vast majority of its members connected to one another through small groups, this represents a significant answer to prayer.  Knowing that it is God, most of all, who wants us to be knit together in community, I believe we can confidently say that we have just witnessed a wave of the Holy Spirit move through Bethel Church.  My prayer is that we will continue to grow deeper in our relationships to other, as we experience Christ powerfully working in our midst.  –Pastor Tom

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