Hello Redeemer Family!
As we’ve turned the corner from the Christmas season and entered into Epiphany, we also turn from the unique rhythms of the holiday season and return to our regular routines. Our college students are back, holiday travel is finished, and we can look forward to five-day work weeks and school weeks for some time to come.
It’s in these regular, ordinary rhythms of our lives where so much of our “Gospel formation” happens – where our encounters of God through his Word and his people in the Church start to reshape our everyday lives. Here at Redeemer, we believe one of the most important regular, ordinary rhythms of our week should be participating in a Small Group.
What’s So Important About Small Groups?
A small group gives you the chance to practice belonging. Humans are made to belong to each other. Think of what a gift it is to walk into a room and have someone’s face light up because they’re so glad you’ve come. To return from a trip and have someone say they’ve missed your presence because life is not the same when you’re gone. It is a profoundly human thing to want to know who your people are and to spend time with them.
In an ideal world, community would happen effortlessly, with everyone feeling equally seen, known, wanted, and cared for from the start. That can happen, and when it does, thanks be to God! But most of us have had the more normal experience of working at community over time, with a little bit of awkwardness along the way.
There is an important spiritual muscle that gets exercised as we practice belonging in Small Groups. We get to rehearse the skill of knowing and being known by others; bringing our hopes, questions, and self-consciousness with us. Ultimately, what makes a Small Group work isn’t the balance of personalities around the table, or whether the potluck contributions are especially good. Rather, we are brought together as people who already belong to Jesus, through the power of the Gospel. The practice is letting the Gospel be the power it is to allow us to welcome each other, work to see and understand each other, and eventually feel loved as people who belong to each other.
Two Things For You To Do
If you are an adult who calls Redeemer home, please join a Small Group! You can contact Redeemer’s Director of Community Formation, Oldson Duclos, for assistance in finding a group that works best for you. Redeemer Small Groups will relaunch the week of February 4-10.
If you know of someone inside or outside of our parish who does not yet belong to Jesus or to a Gospel-practicing church, invite them to come to your Small Group with you.
Let’s practice belonging together.
Warmly,
Lane Cowin
Senior Director of Ministries
