Are you in?

Well it’s definitely been an exciting week at Chatswood Church and that’s not just because OUR SERMONS WENT LIVE YESTERDAY! How cool is that?! Three cheers for Jeremy, Amen?! I have to say I’m a tad shy about talking this up – for obvious reasons – but by the grace of God I can’t wait to hear stories of people coming to know the love of Jesus by visiting our space!

And the other exciting news? The other exciting news is that both of our new Groups met for the first time this week and what joy it brings me to see 15 new people committing not only to Group life but to Chatswood Church as a whole. Chatswood Church is now dependent on each of our Cell Groups – or Small Groups or Home Groups or whatever you want to call them. We have intentionally structured our church to go down if our Groups go down and that’s to ensure we focus on what’s most important – community – a sense of belonging in the body of Christ.

In his book, Believing, Behaving, Belonging, Richard Rice says, “We not only acquire our beliefs and our patterns of life from others, we also need their support and encouragement to maintain them. Apart from a community, it is impossible to sustain either a belief system or a way of life.” (p 159) Do you believe it? Do you know this to be true? My understanding is that the 15 new people who have joined our 2 new Groups have decided this is true. My understanding is that those in our 3 existing Groups know this to be true. And my hope for those of you who aren’t yet in a Group, for all of our non-Christian friends and family and contacts who need to be in a Group, is that those of us who are in a Group will soon inspire and encourage you to be.