What Are Mission Groups?

 Among the groups/activities RCC will be engaging over the next 6 months, I mentioned in my last blog post the introduction of something we’re calling “Mission Groups.” The organizing principle of these groups is that people with common interests will get together once a month to engage in their common interests, whether it be knitting, hiking, working on cars, baking – the possibilities are nearly limitless.

This is obviously not a novel concept. It’s not unusual for libraries or colleges to organize groups like this. In other settings, they might be called affinity groups or clubs. At this point, you may wonder a couple things:

1) Why should RCC be interested in starting groups like this?

2) Why call them Mission Groups instead of affinity groups or clubs?

Let me explain.

In service to the Gospel mission, RCC is responsible to build a strong church community and to reach others in our surrounding community with the new life Jesus has to offer. The local church is more than a community (it’s a local manifestation of the Body of Christ!), but it’s certainly not less than a community. Thinking about our life together in those terms, it’s important for us to imagine how we can become a vibrant community of Jesus Christ. If our life together only consists in singing songs together on Sunday and going to Bible studies, do you think that adequately reflects the kind of life Jesus has saved us to share together? Consider Luke’s description of the early church in Acts:

And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. - Acts 2:44-47 [ESV] 

When we envision that early church community, doesn’t their life together appear to be much fuller than what Christians have come to accept as the norm in 21st century America? They shared life together, day by day, not just on Sundays. I think it’s safe to assume they had some fun as they ate meals and shared activities together. Rather than a mere assembly of religious individuals, they were an identifiable community in Jerusalem, who won the favor of everyone who knew them by their life together. God used not only preachers like Peter and public calls to repentance to bring people to Christ – he used the community of believers in their shared life together, day by day, to invite others to find forgiveness and a new beginning in Jesus.

A pandemic makes pursuing this in its fullness difficult. Ideally, we would invite people to our homes for meals, have Men’s/Women’s Nights, and pursue all sorts of other formal and informal activities. I put Mission Groups on the table as a piece to the puzzle, but not the whole picture. I think we can get some of these groups going even in the midst of a pandemic, even if it won’t be realistic for every possible group (e.g. board games).

Mission Groups differ from affinity groups or clubs in that their purpose is to build up the church, and to bless and bring our neighbors into contact with the community of the church – they have a mission. They are unapologetically Christian and should be opened by leaders with a prayer of gratitude (and protection as needed), but without compelling anyone to pray. The basic good of the groups is found in the activities themselves (God gave us all these things for our enjoyment!) and to bless others materially and relationally. Beyond self-benefit, these groups will be intent on benefiting others through their activities. It’s a way for us to show love for one another and our neighbors, which is a basic command given to us by God. [see Mark 12:31]

God can use big events to reach those who don’t yet know his forgiveness, but those events will be few and far between in a small church like ours. The better avenue for outreach is to simply lean into making our church community the best it can be. The more we build up our relationships with one another, while at the same time creating more opportunities for our neighbors to join us, the more we will see God’s daily grace working through our church to bring those neighbors to Himself. 

Click the button below and let us know what your interests are. You’re not signing your life away – we’ll just follow up if it looks like a group can be formed around that interest. As the world grows increasingly divided, we can run in the opposite direction and bring people together. Let’s launch a Hiking Mission, a Baking Mission, a mission of every kind to God’s glory!