
God creates us for community. In an era where community is breaking down on all sides, God speaks to the church and commands us to be in community. Why?
Because God is community.
Consider this:
We live in a world where we can plug ourselves into game consoles and engage people halfway around the world, but we hardly know the names of the people down our streets.
We live in a world where we know the latest whereabouts and doings of celebrity personalities, but we hardly know the intimate details of the ones we love.
We live in a world where we have access to unprecedented amounts of information and data, but we have a hard time connecting to someone beyond our own social groups.
We live in a fragmented world where it is hard to know others and be known by others. We live in a world that believes it’s the most highly connected society on earth with pagers, cell phones, and GPS tools, but have a hard time sharing our lives with each other. We stand beside each other on soccer fields waiting to jump into the SUV for the next game in the next town for the next kid. We move careers and towns so often that we begin to wall ourselves in from making true friendships for fear of having to say, “Goodbye,” too many times.
In a world such as this, God reminds us that we are designed for community.
God is the divine community of loving relationships between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And it is in this God’s image that we have been created.
Jesus knew this and quickly gathered an intimate group of followers into whom he poured his life and his love of God. His mega-movement of spreading the good news of God’s kingdom started with a micro-gathering of people who needed the accountability of the group to keep them on task.
At Preston Meadow Lutheran Church, we have engineered several small group experiences where we can engage one another in community. It’s in the context of community where we experience the presence of Jesus.
The 37:4 Group is one such way that we can get in touch with the purpose of our lives: to be for and with one another just as Jesus is for and with us.
Based on our mission verse of Psalm 37:4, a 37:4 group is a group of 4-12 people who gather regularly around the story of God, share the journey of life together, and delight in the God’s amazing grace through care, prayer, and service to others. 37:4 groups are a way by which God gathers disciples of Jesus to develop their love for God and others.
Couples groups, Men’s groups, and Women’s Groups are meeting regularly at various times and in various places across the North Dallas area. Members of Preston Meadow Lutheran are expected to find a group that will share their lives and live in the amazing alternatives of God’s story for the world rather than the story the world wants to give to us.
To be the church is to enjoy the unique fellowship that only God could gather under one roof.
Contact Pastor Paul to find out about the opportunities in store for you and 37:4 groups. Groups are constantly forming and setting off into the wild adventure of getting to know one another and the God-design for our lives.
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