The real life of a church is more than just Sunday.  It’s day to day, home to home, shaped around community. People are searching for community, true community. They want a place to belong and feel accepted. Even in America where individualism reigns supreme there is a cry in the hearts of men and women to have the acceptance of others, to belong to something greater than themselves. This desire, though distorted, is not evil. God has made us for community. He has saved us and made us a people. The church is a body made up of many different members. We were not brought into this family to live in isolation from one another. We were made to be in community with one another, as well as, with God. This community provides a path for growth and spiritual transformation to occur. It is our goal to help facilitate true gospel community in the lives of the people in our area through small groups. At Big Sky Fellowship the gospel has to be at the center or the effort could turn into little more than a social club. Community apart from the gospel brings friendship while community rooted in the gospel brings life.

The number of people is important to keep small because it provides intimacy. It is tough to have true community and divulge anything past surface level with a number of people much larger. By meeting at least once weekly it gives the opportunity to live life together. Simply having people that you can share the joys and struggles of daily life with on a regular basis. Friends are there to help so that nothing in your Christian walk has to be faced alone. Living life together with others gives an avenue to encourage one another and build each other up in the faith. Sometimes this will be easy, but not always. Real life and real relationships include sharing, laughing, and even crying together. It also must include hard conversations. Jesus’ pattern was to openly welcome all, but at some point in relationship he confronted people, calling them to leave their old patterns of sin and ways of building life and identity apart from God; abandoning it all and follow him.

As we interact with each other, there will be times where we have to confess or lovingly confront one another with truth, about sin, lack of belief, or inability to deeply apply the gospel. Being a committed part of Christ’s family means being open in relationship about your own issues and open to being lovingly confronted about them. This is where growth happens. It is when brothers and sisters in Christ are able to come around each other and through grace speak the gospel into one another’s lives that real life change happens. More can be done through these small groups than any one elder could accomplish on a given Sunday. This is where we will focus our energy because it is here that men and women will be equipped for the work of the ministry as Ephesians 4 commands us to do.