Missional Community Groups will be a time for fellowship, worship, spiritual growth, and relationship building! Our Missional Community Groups will also serve the purpose of serving our community together. As the church grows, more groups will be created that cater to various seasons of life.
What makes Missional Community Group time so important? We all have busy schedules, having a MCG can help us to slow down and focus on what is most important; our relationship with Jesus Christ. Proverbs 27:17 says “As iron sharpens iron, one man sharpens another.” Building relationships with those in our MCG allow for growth, community, and investing our time in others and in our relationship with our Lord.
OBEDIENCE
As followers of Jesus Christ, we obey His commands. Jesus commands us to commit to Godly community. Investing regularly in a Missional Community Group allows for an opportunity to demonstrate our love and obedience to Him.
COMMUNITY
Shine Community Church prides itself on being one big family. Making sure we engage with one another in a more intimate setting, such as Missional Community Group, allows us to form meaningful relationships with our fellow churchgoers.
CARE
As you grow closer with your MCG, you become closer and more involved in each others lives. We all know that life happens and some life events need prayer and support. Your MCG will be the first place you can look for this kind of support system.
GROWTH
Growth in discipleship happens in community, not in isolation. We form relationships with others, we grow in grace, in understanding, and in a relationship with God. A relationship with God happens through His Word, through prayer, and through community. Missional Community Group members invest in one another to allow everyone to grow stronger in their faith.
HOW CAN I GET CONNECTED IN A MISSIONAL COMMUNITY GROUP?
Click “Join a Group” below to fill out a form with your information or you can email our MCG Director at mcg@shine.community and he can personally help you get connected.
Each of our Missional Community Groups is unique. Different leaders and different people can create different cultures. One thing that stays the same across all groups: you get out of it what you put in.
We ask anyone joining a group to:
Be consistent - We know that things happen and there will be times you won’t be able to attend. There’s a difference between missing a week here and there and missing once a month. Growing in community requires a certain amount of consistency, so we ask you to be as consistent as possible. Community only works when we make it a priority.
Be respectful - Shine Community Church is a family. At times dysfunctional family with all of us being imperfect people. There are challenges to community. One of the things that helps us overcome our imperfections, is to agree to treat each other with respect even when we don’t fully see eye to eye. We have all learned different lessons as we come from different walks of life. We ask that you be respectful to each other under any circumstance.
Care - Being that we see groups as our primary means of care, we rely on our group members not just to need care, but to offer it. We ask our group members to care for one other. That may mean calling someone you haven’t seen in a few weeks, visiting them in the hospital, or making a meal to help them through a hard time. Every situation is different. Our desire is for our groups to take care of each other as a spiritual family.
Be real - Putting on the “I’m okay, everything’s fine” mask is one thing in a large group setting. The point of groups is to develop real, intimate relationships. We can only do that if we take the masks off and let people see us for who we really are: imperfections and all. Being real means willingness to be vulnerable.
Trustworthy - In order for the group to open up and be real, each member must commit themselves to being trustworthy. That means, things that are shared privately must remain private (unless there is a serious and eminent reason to share them). Be respectful of one another and what they are sharing. Don’t share information without the persons consent first. Think of what it would take for you to open up and be vulnerable with another person, to let down your defenses and be yourself. Extend the same courtesy to everyone in your Missional Community Group.