What is a Community Group?

We believe that life is best done together.  We want everyone who is part of our wider community to ‘do life together’; to know others and to be known; to find support, to pray and encourage each other whether they’d call themselves a follower of Jesus or not.  We have a number of smaller groups called ‘Community Groups’ that are designed to help us.  They are a tool to encourage community.

A Community Group is a bit different to a traditional “Life Group”, “Home Group” or “Cell Group”.  They are based on the follow principles that are designed to help us connect with one another within our busy lives:

  • They Are Time-Limited

    A Community Group is a group of people that you commit to joining for a period of around 10 weeks (one “term”).

  • They are Unique Concepts

    Each Community Group has its own particular way of meeting as defined by its leader(s).  These could be based on an activity (e.g. playing football together, cheese and wine evenings, the Alpha Course, acoustic worship, etc.) or on a shared goal (e.g. we will be able to run 10 km’s, or we will renovate someone’s house, we will build a table, etc.).

  • They are unified concepts

    Whatever the concept of the Community Group is, it must always connect people to Jesus (some groups very overtly and other groups less so), to one another (people are known and loved) and to Redeemer Delft (the connection to the local church is clear).

  • They are Community-Initiated

    Community Groups are an expression of the desires and passions of members of Redeemer Delft who want to facilitate community whilst doing what they love.

  • They are Deep and Wide

    Each person has different community needs.  Some need to form deep relationships, whilst others need wider connections.  With Community Groups at the end of the term everyone is free to stay to go deeper into community, or leave and join another group to go wider into community.

When are Community Groups running?

Community Groups will run every year in three blocks or “terms” of 10 weeks, for 2024-25 these dates will be:

Autumn Term: 30 September to 6 December 2024 (Week 40 to 49)

Spring Term: 3 February to 11 April 2025 (Week 6 to 15)

Summer Term: 12 May to 18 July 2025 (Week 20 to 29)

The dates differ year-to-year depending on the timing of Easter and the school holidays.

Have you got an idea?

We believe that everyone in our church community has something to bring and to give.  You have unique skills, talents, hobbies and interests that God can use to build community and impact the city we live in.  If you have an idea of how you would like to bring people together you are very welcome to apply to lead a community group.

You will need to be:

  • Accountable

    We require all people leading others in a pastoral setting to be members of the church.

  • Interviewed

    If you have never led before in Redeemer Delft, you will be interviewed by one of the eldership team to build a relationship with you and to check this role is a good match for you and for the church.

  • Trained

    There will be one training session per term that will be for all leaders who will lead that term.  It will refresh the concept of Community Groups and detail how you will be supported.

Submit your ideas for the spring term by 21 January.

I have an idea.

Find A Group: The Map

Find A Group: The List

Questions?

Signing up to a group means that you are committing to come for this group for 10 weeks.  You are not testing it out, but you are committed to it.  We think it is better to give a group a little bit of time before deciding that it isn’t for you.  Sometimes the challenges or difficulties we face in community are exactly what we need to work through to grow in maturity.

You can sign-up for as many groups as you want, but each sign-up is a commitment to come to the group for 10 weeks.  We do not want people signing up to groups and not being committed.

You can meet outside of term time, however, the idea of having terms is to ensure that everyone (including leaders) have a good rhythm of work and rest.  We want all Community Groups to be fun, engaging and unforced.  These termly rhythms are designed to help us get the best out of one another in these busy times.

This depends what type of problem it is.  If you do not like it (or the people) then the good news is you can switch to a new group in the next term.  We do think you should persevere through it and see what God wants to teach you in this period.  If there is a more serious problem, especially with leadership of a group, please contact one of our elders immediately.

Yes.  There are so many options.  Maybe this helps:

Worship Evenings A Bible Study
Eating Great Food Together Going Through a Book
Exploring Deep Philosophical & Theological Questions Playing Football or Other Sports
A Breakfast Club Climbing Tall Things Together
Monkey Town with Tiny People Baking Cakes and Eating Tasty Things
Doing DIY Jobs Together Movie Watching and Cultural Analysis
Crossfit and Christ Jesus and Beer Brewing
Running and BBQing Alpha
Prayer and Prophecy Cheese and Wine Evenings
Gospel Choir Baby Stroller Racing
Carpentry Jam Sessions