Frequently Asked Questions About Home Groups

You’ve been created for community with God and others.  And that’s why Home Groups are essential for your spiritual growth and the health of The Vineyard Church.

Why Home Groups?

The short answer:  “check’em out” because true community grows from healthy friendships!

The best way to learn about Home Groups is to go ahead and “check’em out”; the value of Home Groups is better caught than taught.  We have groups that meet for spiritual growth and friendship throughout the area.  They usually last about two hours and meet in the evenings during the week.  Information about the groups can be found in the lobby of the church building.

What is a Home Group?

Home Groups are small groups of friends who celebrate on Sundays at The Vineyard Church but who gather together in homes once a week for worship, sharing, study, prayer and fun.  The acrostic “C.L.U.S.T.E.R.” describes the heart of Home Groups:

• Communication with God through prayer and worship
• Loving and practical service to one another
• Understanding God's word.
• Spiritual growth through prayerfully applying God’s Word to life
• Training to continue the ministry of Jesus in the power of the Spirit
• Evangelism:  sharing the good news with friends and family
• Relationships and recreation that refresh us
  

Can I come just as I am?
Do I have to be a member?

We have a saying we like here at The Vineyard Church, “Come as you are, you’ll be loved.”  In Home Groups, imperfect people are perfectly welcome!  Come with a desire to connect with God and others.  And with a desire to grow.

What should I expect if I just show up at the Home Group?

Each Home Group has a lengthy initiation ritual, a secret handshake, and a special entry code that you will have to learn . . . just kidding!

People who go to Home Groups are folks just like you who experience both the joys and the challenges of what it means to really follow Jesus and be his apprentices in a postmodern world.  Each meeting usually involves worship, prayer, a short study in the Bible, sharing and generally a little goofing around – which when it gets out of control really bothers people who like their religion nice’n’tidy.  We hope you’re not a person who likes a sanitized religion of rules rather than vibrant, life-giving relationships.

Why are Home Groups so important?

The long answer (with really deep thoughts for you to ponder).

Every person has been created for community – with God and with others.  But in our high-tech commuter culture, genuine high-touch community is difficult to find.  Healthy, loving relationships – though vitally important – seem rare these days, even though everyone recognizes that it is not good to be alone.  A faceless electronic “virtual community” of disembodied words and spiritless images just won’t satisfy our God-given need to know others and be known face to face.  That’s why Home Groups are so important.  Home Group will help you grow in three relationships:  with God, with others, and with yourself.

In The Vineyard, we are dedicated to forming a church community knit together through mature relationships.  This is impossible without God’s help.  After all, true community always points toward God and is a gift from God, a work of His Spirit.  We believe that community in the church should reflect (however faintly) the loving relationship that the One True God has within himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

God’s relationship with himself is a profound theological mystery.  But he has given us the ancient wisdom of the Bible with practical outcomes for our spiritual life together.  As Augustine, a 5^th century church leader said, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee.”  From the Bible, we learn that God has formed us for relationship with Himself and this is lived out in relationship with others.  As John Wimber, a 20^th century church leader said, “Christianity is not a solo flight.”

Our high priority of community pushes against the isolating pressures of our culture’s flawed mold, usually referred to as rugged individualism.  We invite you to join a Home Group team and come break the mold with us.

Why Home Groups and not just Sunday School or Adult Education classes?

Large services, classes or seminars are effective tools for dispensing intellectual information and proclaiming the gospel and the counsel of God.  Jesus himself spoke to crowds.  But in large group settings, students remain anonymous.

We desire to build up the Body of Christ, not a depersonalized bureaucracy or a giant university-like setting where you merely attend a huge class and listen to a lecture from a talking head.  The Vineyard is dedicated to developing people.  We aim to be a church community, rather than a crowd.  And true community begins with meaningful relationships, first with Jesus and then with others, where life is shared, God is worshipped, and the Bible is applied in relevant ways.

Jesus formed friends into leaders in a small group.  Following his example, we recognize that spiritual formation and personal and moral transformation occur best in small community groups.

Any guidelines I should be aware of?

Yep.  Just three.

All who attend our Home Groups are encouraged to be kind to one another, treat one another with dignity, and seek the best for each person’s growth.  We want to grow in truthful, open relationships with God, with the help of others.  We want to maintain mutual respect, open communication, cooperation and believing and speaking the best about each other.

It takes effort to accomplish these worthy goals in our communication and friendships.  Here are three guidelines to keep in mind:

First, some people need to learn to open up and share.  Others need to learn boundaries and not to monopolize a group.  If you lean in either direction, don’t panic.  You won’t be forced to “spill your guts” and you can open up at your own pace.  If you tend to talk too much – and then later regret it – the Home Group leader will gently and privately remind you of what is appropriate.

Second, just as your first grade teacher told you, “There is no such thing as a stupid question – except the question never asked.”  Everyone in Home Group is a learner who grows through trial and error.  On the spiritual journey, there may be people further down the road in some areas of life, but no one is an expert who has arrived and who therefore can stop growing.

As always among close friends, sensitive issues may come up:  struggles with the kids, finances, marriage and relational issues, discouragement, etc.  Thus, the third guideline:  personal information shared in the Home Group should remain in the Home Group (unless there is a rare legal reason to do otherwise). 

Home Groups are training and sending communities

We want each person in our church community to make three commitments: 

• Commit to a growing relationship with Christ
• Commit to serving Christ’s kingdom; make his cause your cause
• Commit to a local church, hopefully The Vineyard!
  

When a group of people make these three commitments their aim, the seeds of genuine community germinate and grow.

Home Groups are a high priority in The Vineyard Church because, along with the Kingdom Living Classes and various seminars, they are a key place of training, fellowship and pastoral care.  New leaders are trained, and new groups are formed on an ongoing basis.

In addition to being who you really are among friends, the Home Group is a place where you can also receive training and equipping in:

• Spiritual Growth
• Leadership Development
• Spiritual Gifts
• Pastoral Care
  

We try to continue the kingdom ministry of Jesus by exercising the ministries and gifts of the Holy Sprit in a biblical way in Home Groups, always aiming to encourage and build-up others.

When we do kingdom ministry together, community happens!

God has called us to be part of his kingdom-community, the church.  And together we want to serve him and his purposes in our neighborhoods and beyond.  All over the globe the Church is rediscovering the biblical value of Home Groups.  As outposts of the kingdom.  We believe God wants to restore this basic Christian community to our church in order to make and nurture followers of Jesus Christ.  And when Home Groups imitate Jesus and do kingdom ministry together community happens!

Copyright © 1999 Jonathan W. Panner.  Permission to reproduce for non-profit use in churches is granted if this notice is made:  “Copyright © 1999 by Jonathan W. Panner.  Reprinted with permission.”