Life Groups

At Newfield Community Church we place Life Groups firmly at the heart of our Fellowship Life together.

Here are 9 clear benefits of a thriving Life group ministry in our Fellowship.

1.    Life change happens best in small groups. You may have a wonderful Sunday service with powerful teaching and anointed worship, but you still need to know that the ‘optimal’ environment for life change is the small group setting. Put simply, change happens best in circles, not rows.

2.    Life Groups makes church personal. It does not matter whether the church averages 15 or 5000, if someone can slip into the back row and leave without sharing life with another person, we are failing to create community. The desire to find a friend is on the increase. Loneliness is a major scourge of 21st century life for a growing number of people.

3.    Life Groups provide a steady leadership development channel. Our congregation and the others who join us on special occassions are full of potential leaders. A church that has prayed for years for the Lord to send workers into the harvest field is a church that has failed to learn how to identify the potential leaders already in its midst.

4.    An invite to my home is easier than an invite to come to church. The transition to a post-christian culture is rapidly accelerating. The days of readily welcoming an invitation to ‘come to church’ are long gone. The gap between the street and the church is wider than ever today.

5.    Life Groups provide the best opportunity for ‘doing life’ together. The idea that I can receive or give the kind of personal care commanded by Jesus whilst isolating myself from others is not anchored in reality.

6.    Life Groups provide a sense of family. Unlike past generations, it is increasingly common for adults to find themselves living far away from their biological family. Do not forget also, the growing number of broken homes and dysfunctional families of todays average neighbourhood. A Life Group can and does play a role in providing a real sense of safety, family and belonging.

7.    You can ask questions safely in a Life Group. Dialogue is a key ingredient of life change. If every spiritual experience we have is about listening or is about one-way communication, then we will miss one of the most important developmental aspects of a growing faith.

8.    Life Groups make it possible for more people to be cared for between Sundays. Authentic care is demonstrated when our needs are known and met without having to put in a call to the church office. Life Groups provides the delivery for system for that kind of care.

9.    Go Small - Grow Big. As we grow as a church it is crucially important that no-one gets lost in a crowd. Life Groups are the front line pastoral care safety net in the church. Life Groups are not bible studies. They are ‘missional’ in nature. They are as much evangelistic as they are pastoral. Life Groups can also serve as a volunteer force in the church to get a job done.

For more information, please contact us.