Multiplication = More

For months I’ve been thinking and praying through all things West Campus and Cedar Creek Church.  I have looked at everything we do and asked God to show me how we could do things better.  I have focused, specifically, on a couple of challenges pertaining to our HOME groups.  HOME groups are the heart of everything we do at CCC.  They are the place where we do life together and accomplish our vision by reaching the unchurched, connecting relationally, growing in our faith, serving within the body at church and in our community and honoring God with our lives.  Our Senior Pastor, Phillip Lee, reaffirmed that recently at the first ever “Leadership Community” held at the Banks Mill campus earlier this month.

HOME group leaders are the “front line foot soldiers” in the mission of helping people find their way back to God.

The West Campus has been going strong for a little over two and half years now.  We have consistently seen people respond to the Gospel, follow Jesus in baptism and begin to live lives that “bear fruit” and show evidence of change. While we have seen growth in the number of folks coming on Sunday mornings (from 90 average to over 450), we have not seen a great growth in the number of HOME groups that I had hoped and expected to see.  After months of praying through my questions of “why” I’ve been reminded of some things and challenged to take some NEXT steps in my own life and HOME group.

We know that most people who connect in a HOME group do so after a personal invitation from someone already in a group.  Due to the nature of Sunday morning in a portable church environment (setting up, etc.) there is a lot going on that sometimes prevents us from looking up to see who is around that may not be in a group yet.  Also my group, which has consisted of the lead team folks that we launched with, has been a “closed group” and not one where people could be invited.  Within that group are some of the most experienced, passionate and invitation-minded HOME group people at the West Campus (and CCC for that matter).  Having been together for two and a half years, we have not modeled multiplication to our HOME group leaders.

That is going to change.

Knowing that following Jesus always involves a NEXT step to continue growing, my group is taking a NEXT step and multiplying.  We’re multiplying to model what we ask other groups to live out.  We’re multiplying to make room for more unchurched, unconnected people.  We’re multiplying to send out passionate people who bleed HOME group to further the vision.  We’re multiplying to be able to invite new people to join us in a “real” group and not one that was closed due to the “staff” stuff that often times needed to be discussed.

We’re multiplying because we believe that real life change and growth only happens in the context of community.  We LOVE life change!

Whether a group shuts it’s doors to people because the people “like it just the way it is” or because some group dynamic doesn’t allow for invitation, it is not a healthy group.  So we, as the leadership of the West Campus, will join with those who have already multiplied their groups and model what we’re asking every HOME group to do.  It is ALWAYS the goal of EVERY group to multiply.

In just a few weeks we will begin a church wide series called “Starting Point.”  It will be a series of 10 messages on Sunday mornings, followed up with HOME group studies to be shared and experienced by everyone at CCC during the week.  We are asking every HOME group to join with together for this series and study.  It is a great look at God’s story and our personal stories and how they connect.  God’s story from creation to eternity.  Why we believe what we believe.

It is an exciting time in the life of CCC as we prepare for this series and look ahead at all that God wants to do in us and through us here in Aiken and around the world!

God is bringing new people through the doors of CCC every week.  He is bringing new people to our HOME groups every week.  We need to be intentional about being ready.  Ready to serve them by setting up chairs, parking cars, greeting them, offering them a smile and a cup of coffee, checking their kids in safely, leading their kids in age appropriate worship and small group sharing, leading them in songs of praise to God and inviting them to do life with us.

Multiplication = More

Who’s ready?