Known: Community | Learning Guide

October 1st, 2023

Text: Matthew 4:18-22; Mark 10:13-16 (NET)

Introduction:​

This will be our first Sunday meeting in a new (temporary) location and at a new time. For some of us, this is really exciting, for some it will be a challenge and for others, it’s a mix of both. For all of us though, it is an invitation to both deepen and broaden our community. Sticking together through changes and challenges, celebrations and experiments helps deepen and form community. Moving to a new location and time gives us the chance to include people into our community otherwise excluded. But is it worth it? What’s so important about community anyway? Well, let’s gather this Sunday afternoon and talk about it.

Grace and Peace Y'all,

John Ray and the Teaching Team

Text: John 13:34 (NET) “I give you a new commandment—to love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 Everyone will know by this that you are my disciples—if you have love for one another.”

Big Idea:

We can’t love who we don’t know. Love can’t exist in isolation. There is no substitute for proximity, mutuality and season(s)ing.

Take Away:

If we keep walking out our current path, we are going to come to include some people who really aren’t like us. Are we ready for that?

How does this fit with Belong, Become, Believe?

Belonging is the essential element of community. At Grace it all starts with this. As we practice being part of a community that leads to flourishing for all, we become more and more formed by it. This experience is what helps form and inform our beliefs.

What's Next?

Six weeks until Advent!