It’s exciting to see all the people that have signed up for tomorrow night’s Small Group Gathering! It promises to be a great time of discussion and dreaming…and eating pizza. If you have not signed up, give Bonnie a call or send her an email and let her know you’d like to come.

By the way, this is not a way for us to get you involved somehow in the small group ministry at Bethel Church. The staff feels that small group ministry is a way for us to work with our strengths (relational ministry) to:

• reach out to the community;
• encourage each other to grow spiritually; and
• provide pastoral care to each other.

While we would love to have everyone involved in a small group, our plans right now are to work within the existing small groups to strengthen them and to work with working groups of people (committees, for example) to help them to begin incorporating a small group mentality into their work. Wouldn’t it be great if the worship planners, for example, could get together not only to plan future worship services, but also to care for each other and pray for each other? Or if the Deacons took the time to really get to know each other and discover what common joys and struggles they have? Or for the GEMS leaders to know that any one of them would not hesitate to be there for the other if they were in a time of need?

As staff, we see small groups beginning to take over other functions of the church as well.

• We dream of a day when small groups will see themselves as the primary ministry of the church and that the expectation would be to invite people to your small group even before you invite them to worship.
• We want to see our fellowship needs being met at a deeper level through small group activities more than through potlucks.
• We look forward to the day when small groups of people will take on ministry or service activities as an extension of their small group.

And we want you to be involved in the discussions from Day 1 – which is tomorrow at 6 pm.

Ruth Kelder will be leading the meeting. She has asked that those who are coming take the time to read through this article. Even if you can not attend the meeting tomorrow night, take the time to read the article to begin to think creatively about how small groups can become a larger part of our congregation and our lives.