LIFE GROUPS
Doing Life Together
We believe that much of the full Christian life becomes a reality as the church meets as authentic small group communities outside the “four walls” of traditional church buildings. We call these small groups “Life Groups.” Life Groups meet throughout the week in people’s homes and are open to anyone interested in learning more about God and experiencing loving Christian community. These house church style groups are at the core of Tru's vision and are an ideal avenue for you to plug in more deeply with our church and to grow in your relationship with God.
"Life" is an acronym that stands for the four core values that we see evident in the early church as described in Acts 2:42:
Learning biblical truth, Intercession, Fellowship, and Extending life to others.
So, Life Groups are truly “more than a meeting.” In order to pursue these four core functions, Life Groups engage in a variety of activities together as a community and out in the city.
How are Life Groups
Different than Bible Studies?
The Dead Sea is a helpful illustration on this point. The Dead Sea is “dead and smelly” because it has lots of water pumping into it, but has no meaningful outlet. Thus, its “life” evaporates in the heat and no living thing can survive in its toxic waters for the long haul. We believe that the classic Bible study or care group model runs the risk of becoming toxic as well. We definitely value Bible study and caring for one another. However, if there is no meaningful “outlet” or common mission beyond the group, then we believe that the group will eventually become toxic. At that point, more Bible study and more caring simply add to the group’s toxicity. In other words, we want to avoid the “holy huddle” syndrome that plagues much of American Christianity. As a result, Life Groups seek to intentionally reach out and engage the non-believing world all around them.
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. ... Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
Acts 2:42, 46-47
Focus on Multiplication
One of the main ways we seek to avoid the Dead Sea syndrome and maintain healthy Groups is by focusing on multiplication. Ephesians 4:11-12 teaches that “regular people” are called by God to do the work of ministry (not just the leaders). We're all called to encourage and build up our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ as well as engaging the lost world around us with the love and Good News of Jesus. So, we want to help equip our people to be able to do this well within their existing spheres of relationships. This is the essential call from Jesus for all Christians to go and make disciples (who make disciples)!
So we also aim to multiply entire small groups. We long for our groups to be able to grow in numbers by reaching people for Christ, helping members to learn to use their gifts, developing and raising up leaders, and eventually grow to the point that they'd be able to plant new groups with the vision to do the same. This helps expose more people to the love of Christ and gives new leaders a chance to express their gifts.
Join a Life Group
Since Life Groups are multi-generational and diverse by design, they are open to anyone! So if you are interested in visiting a Life Group, you are very encouraged to do so. To get started, just click on a group below and contact a Group leader. Let them know you are interested in visiting their Group and ask them for more specific details. For more about our Life Groups, contact us at info@tru.church.
