“What are Community Groups for?”
Our Community Groups seek to be community in our transient, multi-cultural, 21st Century city. They love, serve, and reach the wider community, which could be those you live and work with, people in your local area, a certain demographic, or a group that you serve through a particular project.
We sometimes summarise this as Up-In-Out: loving God (Up), loving each other (In), and loving our neighbour (Out).
“I'm new to OCC: how do I get involved in a group?”
Please visit our Community Group page on our website where you will find details of all our current groups, including a way of getting in touch with group leaders.
Or, if you're unsure and want to talk with someone, contact Sanjay or the pastoral team.
“What does reaching the wider community look like?”
In November, we introduced 'the Four Ps', a simple way to remember how we look to reach out. We ask each Community Group to find a single shared focus for 'loving their neighbours', beyond their group. That shared focus could be:
- Personal connections with friends, neighbours or work colleagues.
- Projects run by or in partnership with OCC, such as Family Fun, Edge Housing or Tyndale Community School.
- Pioneering: reaching out boldly to people beyond your immediate circle of friendships.
- Pathways to faith: journeying with a community of people, seeking to share the life and love we've found as Christians.
“Can our Community Group engage in different ways of reaching out?”
Most groups will have diverse people with diverse vision in their group. That's part of what makes community great. We're asking each group to pick one thing to focus on, because we want to see everyone growing in mission together. As Steve shared during our series, most of us experience fear and passivity when it comes to mission, and we need encouragement and challenge to grow. We could call this 'missional discipleship' - that is, growing together in mission, as a community.
If an individual wants to focus on a specific project, different from their Community Group, it may work better for them to connect with a different Community Group who have that project as a specific focus. It is possible that a group may have time, space and energy to focus on more than one thing, but in most cases we're trying to respond to God's leading to 'focus', in order to do that one thing better.
“I'm not sure whether to stay in my group, look for a different one, or consider starting a new one.”
Pray! Take some time over Christmas 2022 to pray.
Reflect: "What does growing in mission look like for me in this next season?"
Think: "Where could I connect to receive encourage and challenge in that?"
Then talk to your personal pastor, Sanjay, or one of the pastoral team.
“If we're focusing on missional discipleship, how do Bible study and prayer fit in?”
Community Groups focus on Up and In, as well as Out. "Up" is about growing in our relationship with God, through prayer, Bible study and worship. "In" is about growing together as a community, and helping each other grow in God. "Out" is about sharing that love with others.
When those three things flow together, it's powerful and beautiful! For example, as we worship, God gives us his heart for our city and communities - Up connected to Out. When we introduce our friends to our Community Group - In connected to Out. When our Bible study and prayer leads us to follow Jesus' example of loving one another, and reaching out beyond our Community Group - that's Up In and Out all working together.
In all of this, we want to grow in loving God, loving one another, and loving our neighbour. We want to do this by turning our gifts and lives outwards, to engage with those around us.
