Grow to Become
More Like Jesus
Inside and Out
Apart from being connected to Jesus, it is impossible to be fruitful for God. In fact, the Bible describes us as “dead” outside of Jesus. But when we connect to Jesus and remain in Him, the true Vine, He fills us with His Spirit, and we become alive! We become transformed, and we bear much fruit! And this fruitfulness isn’t something we muster up on our own - in our merely human abilities. And in fact, Jesus gives harsh warnings about the futility of trying to do this apart from him (Matt. 23). This kind of growth only happens when we receive God’s Spirit and partner with Him (Gal. 5). And as we learn to listen and submit to God’s Spirit within us, we continually grow to think, feel, and behave more like Jesus - we become transformed from the inside out (Mat. 7, 12:33-37, 23) - we learn to view and treat others like Jesus would view and treat them - we learn to love in the manner and power of God - we grow in the fruit of the Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit, and the works of Jesus.
Thus, Small Groups are places where we cultivate the soil of our lives so that the conditions are optimal for Christ-like growth. We do this by loving one another as described above, learning more about how to hear, trust, and obey the Spirit, journeying deeper into God’s heart through the study of His Word, worshipping together, sharing testimonies with one another, and much more.