Gospel Communities

GOSPEL COMMUNITIES

A Gospel Community (GC) is a group of people committed to Jesus, to each other, and to the city in which they live. In sharing a Gospel-transformed life together, this community blesses their city through sharing the good news of Jesus and inviting others to join in the work of the Kingdom.

Simply put, here is high level overview of what this looks like:

  • We strive to put the Gospel at the Center of relationships.
  • We strive to share life together and not be event or program driven.
  • We strive to welcome others into our lives and homes.
  • We strive to equip and train to be sent individually and together to live as missionaries to the city and contexts in which we live.
  • We strive to serve each other and those we have built relationships with outside of our immediate group.

When we accomplish this, our communities will begin to be transformed from:

  • shameful to free
  • superficial to intimate
  • self-serving to servants
  • divided to united
  • purposeless to co-laborers in Christ’s ongoing mission
  • worshipers of ______ to worshipers of Jesus

WHY GOSPEL COMMUNITIES?

1) Gospel Communities help people to truly know others and be known. We aim to create a welcoming environment for everyone in each of the spaces above. However, due to the nature of these larger events/gatherings where we meet with others and/or are corporately equipped, it is all too easy to get “lost in the crowd.” In these environments, it is possible for us to be unknown or inauthentic about who we are and our struggles. We can know many people, yet remain essentially unknown at an intimate level.

All ministry is relational… and there are varying degrees of depth in relationships. Relationships limited to interactions on a Sunday morning will not grow to the same degree as relationships developed in the context of shared life. GCs emphasize the nature of relationships transformed by the Gospel, resulting in intimacy, taking risks with one another, and speaking Gospel truth to one another across the various circumstances of life.

2) Gospel Communities help empower believers to do the daily work of ministry. We live in a consumeristic society and unfortunately, many of those consumeristic values have leaked into church culture, where people expect to show up, be entertained, and then leave. Looking to Scripture, however, believers are called to live as the hands and feet of Jesus, using our gifts in service to the Kingdom. GCs emphasize the need for church members to come together and practice the daily work of ministry, rather than relying on a church “organization” to do that work instead.

3) Gospel Communities allow for the connection of Scripture to real life. Our Sunday gatherings provide valuable teaching of Scripture that we hope will inspire a deep love of God’s word. However, our ultimate hope is that sermons will extend out beyond a Sunday morning—to be deeply absorbed by listeners’ hearts and applied to real life. GCs provide an environment and community in which members can wrestle with God’s word in the daily application, grow in Scriptural understanding, and learn to become more Gospel fluent in how we speak to one another (viewing all of life through the lens of God’s story).

4) Gospel Communities help allow for more people to be reached with the good news of Jesus. We believe that no matter how welcoming we are, we cannot just wait for people to show up. After all, going back to Jesus’ words in Matthew 28:19, His disciples were sent out to all the nations from where they were. The bulk of our opportunities to reach people will be off the church campus and in the midst of daily life—where we live, work, and play.

SEMANTICS?

As mentioned earlier, Element is just one local expression of the universal Church. With that being said, we understand we have our own terms and definitions for aspects of ministry that may resemble that of other churches. Most churches today will have some form of smaller groups, whether they are called small groups, life groups, homegroups, missional communities, etc. In addition to the variety of names, these types of groups can often have vastly different structures and focuses.

As opposed to other groups that may be closed, short-term, study-focused, or event-centric (e.g., a group that only meets for a 1.5 hour Bible study on Wednesday nights), we want to emphasize that Element’s Gospel Communities share life together and are not defined by a singular event. While study of God’s word is important to the Christian life, it is not the singular focus of GCs. Our prayer is that GCs will, by the process of sharing life together under the Holy Spirit’s guidance, grow in their walk with God, their relationships with one another, and in their heart for and lifestyle of mission.

If you are interested in a Gospel Community, email us at: community@ourelement.org.

Resource Links:

View our Gospel Communities in Church Center

Click Here to download our GC Handbook.

ELEMENT’S MISSION

To Glorify God by teaching and living out the Scriptures, transforming community into Gospel Community, and planting churches.

Read Our Statement of Faith