Crossroads Church Kansas City

Here’s our streamlined approach to Core groups. For more, see our earlier post on Core groups, which was more of a theology abstract (but still completely true). These tweaks represent about a year of doing Core groups in our city and learning from our mistakes and better instincts.
–

Core groups are aligned with the mission of Crossroads Church:

Love Jesus, connect people, transform cities.

Core groups facilitate this by, 1) helping Christians grow while on mission with Jesus, 2) having a presence in community, and, 3) multiplying.

Shorthand, Core groups help us have the character Jesus had and do the things Jesus did. The Bible calls this “discipleship.”

Four rules for Core group.

1. Choose a place & have a presence.
2. Meet consistently.
3. Stay on task.
4. Multiply.

Here’s what that means.

1. Choose a place in the community. It may be a “third place” like a restaurant, park or coffee shop. It might be a “second place” like a corporate cafeteria or break room. Choose a place where your group will have a ministry of presence around employees, patrons, or coworkers whom you will grow to know by name & pray for.
2. Be it weekly or biweekly, meet consistently for about an hour. Core groups are for men and women who are serious about growing in the gospel. This means a regular time commitment.
3. Since we usually default toward a lack of structure, we have a simple plan for making sure that Core groups really are Core groups and not just coffee clubs or knitting circles (below).
4. Recruit others who want to grow in the gospel and live on mission, and start new groups.

Core group agenda (our simple plan)

• Answer tough Qs. Our assumption is that we are not OK but that the Spirit works to grow us through the work of Jesus, the gospel. Therefore we confess our sins in order to move forward.
  
• Believe truth. As we subject our struggles and desires to the gospel, God liberates our wills and changes our hearts. Therefore we come not just to vent or share but to turn to the gospel in the Bible–and to develop habits of regular Bible reading throughout the week.
  
• Pray. When issues are raised, pray. When friends have needs, pray. When in doubt, pray. God is the central member of Core group. Therefore we pause conversations with each other to talk to our Father, the author of the gospel–and to develop habits of regular prayer throughout the week.

When you meet, cut to the chase:

Welcome to Core group. How have you followed Jesus this week?

Tags: accountability, core groups, gospel, prayer

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 19th, 2011 at 3:55 PM and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.