Community Groups

What are Community Groups?

• Building community. Our Community Groups are intentional gatherings of 10-20 people designed to nurture three sets of relationships: our relationship with God, our relationship with one another in the church, and our relationship with our city and those who live in it.
• Holistic communities. A Community Group is more than a mere “group” and more than a “Bible study.” Rather, it’s a mini-community of people that are sharing “real life” together. Each group’s community life centers upon a 1.5 to 2 hour-long weekly meeting held in homes and apartments throughout the District. But group members also meet at other times and places during the week.
• Inwardly Growing, Outwardly Facing communities. Each mini-community gathers for spiritual nurture, intimate relationships, and Christian discipleship (“inwardly growing”), and for evangelism, mercy/justice, and serving our local neighbors and neighborhoods (“outwardly facing”).
• Neighborhood Communities. CGs are an important avenue through which we will learn to love and serve the city together. At least once a month each group serves its local neighborhood in creative ways, because the gospel calls us to love the people and the place immediately around us wherever we are.
  

  “I instantly felt at home as we chuckled about life… connected very quickly.” read more …

  Individuals are therefore urged to attend a group in their home neighborhood, and those who are not residents of DC may “adopt” a neighborhood by joining a group that meets in an area where they long to invest their time and energy.

As with all community events at Grace DC, our Groups are open to people of various dispositions towards Christianity, including the “convinced” Christian, the “unconvinced,” and the simply curious. All groups are co-ed and are led by trained lay members of Grace DC who receive guidance and support from the pastors and elders. Our associate pastor, Duke Kwon, oversees the Community Group ministry.

What do we do in our Community Groups?

Our CGs engage in the following four “core activities” through which we expect the grace of Jesus to flow to us and through us:

• Study. Our groups seek to be transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ revealed in the Bible. Each week we “digest” the previous Sunday’s sermon together, discussing its implications for our own lives as well as for our city and culture. You can listen to the sermon to be discussed in your CG online here and access the sermon discussion guide here.
• Prayer. Each group sets aside time to pray for our individual needs and circumstances as well as for the needs of our city and world. Read more about the church’s prayer ministry.
• Relationships. Group members develop authentic relationships with one another, sharing their lives and engaging in mutual care, leisure, and accountability. Our groups also strive to build relationships with those outside the Christian community, inviting friends, colleagues, and local neighbors to various community activities.
• Service. Group members serve the physical, material, and emotional needs of their “neighbors” both inside and outside the group. We extend deeds of compassion to our group members (e.g., babysitting, help with moving, etc.), and we serve our local neighbors and neighborhoods through neighborhood service activities conducted at least monthly.

While all of these activities may not receive equal emphasis at any one gathering, a balance among these is expected over a series of CG meetings.