Why SMALL Groups are a BIG Deal, Part 4

I couldn't be more excited about tomorrow's service and GROUPLINK at the Annex at Noon.  In tomorrow's message we're going to wrap up our month-long life-direction series by sharing how important it is for us to be linked together with others.  Then, after the service starting at 12 noon, we're going to provide lunch at the Annex and give people an opportunity to meet with small group leaders.  It's a golden opportunity to find the group that's right for you.  I promise you, these small groups will fill up fast, so act now and don't miss this important semester of small groups at Crossroads.

As I mentioned in my last post, in our spring semester we will be having sermon, or message-based small groups.  Instead of each small group studying a different curriculum, we will have the opportunity for the first time, for our small groups to be on the same page at the same time.  Here's why I believe the time is right for us to do that, and why message-based SMALL groups are God's BIG idea for Crossroads right now:

Crossroads is filled with people from remarkably diverse spiritual backgrounds.  We are Catholics,  Baptists, Pentecostals, Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians, Agnostics and everything in between. We are wizened life-long believers, mature in our faith, and brand-new followers of Christ, entirely new to the faith, and everything in between.  In our personal lives we are rich, we are middle-class, we are poor, and we are everything in between.  We are professionals and laborers, and soldiers and secretaries, and home-makers and hell-raisers, and everything in between,  We are republicans and democrats and libertarians and independents, and conservatives and liberals and everything in between.  While that diversity makes us the beautiful patchwork quilt of humanity that we are, God's desire for us is that we allow Him to grow us together to become ONE IN CHRIST; just as Jesus prayed, "God make them one even as we are one".

We all have different backgrounds, different gifts, different talents and all are important.  Let us celebrate our diversity as we dedicate ourselves to foster an environment through message-based small groups where we can grow to become one in Christ, as God "makes the whole body fit together perfectly.  As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love".