At Deer Park Alliance Church, we love gathering together on a Sunday morning to sing praises to our heavenly father, hear from his word, and enjoy one another’s company. And that’s great…but our mission as a church goes even deeper than that. We don’t want to just gather for an hour or so and then go back to our separate lives as though nothing happened; we want to be a body of believers continually moving toward Christ together.

That’s why, in this video, we want to introduce you to our approach to groups as a church.

You see, our Sunday morning gatherings are like one wing of a plane. Groups are the other. Why? Because deep spiritual growth happen in small groups. Deep relationships happen in small groups. In fact, I’d suggest that often, we can only really live out the full expression of God’s Church when we gather in groups. Let me explain:

Acts 2:42-47 says this:

“All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer. A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. They worshipped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity—all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.”

Isn’t that an amazing picture of believers expressing their faith together? Our desire is that life at Deer Park Alliance Church resembles something of the early church in Acts 2:42-47; a community devoted to teaching, discipleship, fellowship, sharing meals, and praying together. And we think one of the best ways to get there – the other wing of the plane, as it were – is to do that in groups.

So what will that look like?

Well, we’re focussing on a three-part approach; in other words, three options as we grow in faith together: Connect Groups, Life Groups, and Training Groups.

Connect groups are fun social gatherings where the intention is to be able to build community and meet people. It might look like a weekly walk at the park, a gathering over a meal, or maybe even something like axe-throwing, or knitting. Or if you’re really brave, maybe knitting with axes somehow. I don’t know! It’s a low barrier, easy win as we seek to build connections with one another – but they are also really easy ways to invite people who maybe don’t know Jesus yet, too.

As well as Connect Groups, we are also placing even more focus on our Life groups. Life groups are the core engine of our discipleship process at the church. It’s where we see Acts 2 in full expression. This is where we’re focussed on spiritual formation, scriptural application, care for one another, and deep, life-transforming community. You might join a life group working verse by verse through a biblical book, or maybe watching a video series, or perhaps even working through a really helpful Christian book – some of the most powerful life groups I’ve been a part of have done just that.

You might be familiar with both of these, but in the near future we’ll also be introducing Training Groups. The purpose of training groups is to go much deeper in our studies. This is where we’ll work with a plethora of rich resources as well as some in person teaching to explore sound doctrine and practice skills when it comes to ministry. For example, one group might spend a semester exploring aspects of biblical interpretation or systematic theology, perhaps a more academic dive into biblical books or even apologetics and practices in evangelism. The options are limitless.

That’s our approach as we move forward together. We want to connect, do life together, and train for ministry – whatever our ministry setting might be. Our desire is that 50% of our church family would be connected into a group in some way – to be clear, you could join more than one group, but that’s certainly not our expectation. We don’t want to burn you out, we want to build you up in such a way that God can work powerfully in and through you.

We’re going to share more in the coming months about how our Connect Groups, Life Groups, and Training Groups will look, but for now, here’s what we’d love from you:

If you are not already in a life group, and would like to be, it would be really helpful if you would register your interest by heading to our website and clicking on our groups page, or by chatting with someone at the welcome desk on Sundays. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to chat with me or email the office for more information. We’re excited about what God has in store, and hope you’ll join us as we grow in groups together!