Community Groups
We were made to live in community!
God made us as relational creatures, who need each other in order to healthily live as His people. At CCC, the primary avenue for consistent relational connection with fellow Christians are groups we call “community groups.” We’d love to have you join one!
Read the information below, and if you’d be interested in joining one, be sure to click the button at the bottom of the page to fill out an interest form.
What are community groups like?
Click on the drop-down menu below to learn about community groups’ purpose, composition, meetings, and leadership.
-
The purpose of community groups is to provide a consistent context in which group members can personally stir each other up in faith and spur each other on in obedience toward Christ.
-
Community groups will typically have 8-14 adults (both men and women, and ideally of various ages).
Group members are expected to be professing Christians, and to be regularly worshiping with us on Sundays at CCC.
Groups will be expected to receive new members periodically, with the goal of eventual multiplication.
-
Community groups’ meetings will be marked by the following characteristics:
Frequency: They strive to meet weekly during the school year, and twice a month in the summer.
Location: They meet in group members’ homes or at the church.
Length: Meetings should be between 90 minutes and two hours—during a consistent time of the week.
Content: Rather than using a curriculum, book, or study as a driver of discussion, conversation should find its genesis in the real-life circumstances of group members…Thus, for each meeting, group members should come ready to share from one of the following categories:
**Celebration to Share (an example of how they’ve seen God’s grace evident in recent days)
**Care to Unburden (a burden they’ve been carrying and want to make known to the group)
**Counsel to Seek (a situation they’re facing, for which they’d like to seek biblical advice)
**Confession to Make (a sin they’ve committed, that they desire to confess)
Mutual Ministry: Group members should listen well to what is shared by others and seek to minister to each other in response, using Scripture and pointing to the gospel of Christ.
Gender-Specific Time: Each group incorporates gender-specific times into its meetings. These could take place as a weekly rhythm. Or groups could set up a monthly rhythm of two all-group meetings, one men’s meeting, and one women’s meeting.
Childcare: Groups are responsible to secure and organize their own childcare. But leaders will be given training and recommendations with regard to this important dimension of group life.
-
Each group has a Community Group Leader (CGL), who is a male member of the church and has received training to serve as a facilitator of group meetings. Each group also has a Women’s Care Leader (WCL), who is a female member of the church who assists the CGL and has received training to lead the women’s meeting times.
Each group will also have a supervising elder who regularly meets with the CGL and WCL to encourage them as leaders and to check-in on the health of the group.
What would be expected of me as a group member?
Click on the drop down menu below to learn what would be expected of you as a community group member.
-
Anyone who would like to participate as a member of a community group at CCC must:
**Profess faith in Christ
**Regularly participate in the worship gatherings of CCC
**Be willing to abide by the commitments detailed below
-
All members of community groups will agree to the following as part of their commitment to participate in the group:
Consistency: I will make participation in CG meetings a priority. If I’m ever running late or unable to attend, I will let the group know.
Authenticity: I will come to CG meetings prepared to share about what is happening in my life in ways that are honest and transparent. Groups will use the categories of Celebration, Care, Counsel, and Confession.
Attentiveness: I will actively listen to what is shared by other group members and consider how to stir them up in faith and spur them on in obedience. I will come to CG as much to benefit others as to be benefit myself.
Use of Scripture: I will seek to incorporate Scripture into my comments and responses to fellow group members as much as possible—whether explicitly or implicitly.
Accountability: I will be committed to confessing sin in my life and humbly engaging with other groups members as they do the same. Together, we will remember that accountability flows from, and points us to, the gospel of Christ.
Affirmation: I will look for, and affirm, evidences of God’s grace in the lives of fellow group members.
Prayer: I will pray for the members of my group—during and between our gatherings.
Confidentiality: I will help foster an environment where my fellow group members feel safe to be vulnerable, by committing to not share about private matters with others outside of the group.
Hospitality: I will joyfully welcome new members into our group and gladly pursue multiplication of our group as a “win” for us to celebrate.