What is a Gospel Community?

A Gospel Community (GC) is the coming together of three elements: Gospel, Community, and Mission.  It is our goal as a church to be a people that are living out the gospel in community and on mission.  This model is derived from our Core Values of Cross, Grace, and Kingdom.

Gospel Element (Value = Cross)

The Gospel Element is where we focus on who God is and what he’s done.  We live out the core value of the Cross as we learn to grow in our knowledge of the gospel, our understanding of the gospel, and our application of the gospel to our lives.

The Gospel Element materializes in the Primary Gatherings for our Gospel Communities.  These are regular, scheduled, weekly gatherings in which we come together to study God’s Word as a Gospel Community.  All GCs typically work through the same thing – namely, the passage that was preached the prior Sunday Gathering. 

Community Element (Value = Grace)

The Community Element is where we focus on who we are because of who God is and what he’s done.  We live out the core value of Grace as we do life together, extend and model grace to one another, practice the “one anothers” of Scripture, as well as experience and reflect on the grace that God pours out over us.

The Community Element materializes as we stretch from being more than a small group or an in-home Bible study to living life together.  This is regular and irregular, scheduled and unscheduled.  It may include gathering at the pub, watching a football game together, meeting over coffee or tea, or gathering weekly for a shared meal.  It may materialize in a play date with kids or group going to a concert together.  It may mean painting a GC member’s house, helping someone move, comforting them in a difficult time or rejoicing in a time of celebration.

Mission Element (Value = Kingdom)

The Mission Element is where we continually ask, in light of who God is and what he’s done, and out of who I am because of it, how then shall I live my life?  We live out the core value of Kingdom as we join together as a community, centered on the gospel, living on mission.

Macro and Micro Mission

Each Gospel Community has a clearly defined “macro mission.”  This is the collective mission of the Gospel Community.  This may be blessing and serving artists through the First Friday Art Walks, blessing and serving local musicians by throwing shows at The 815, or a neighborhood or school.   Whatever it is, the macro mission is where the Gospel Community comes together collectively on mission on a regular basis to make a specific impact in people’s lives and our city with the end goal of building relationships with people in order show and tell the gospel of Jesus.

Simultaneously, the Mission Element recognizes that every Gospel Community is made up of people from all sorts of other mission fields.  We call these the “micro missions” of the GC.  One person may work at a high school while another is a stay-at-home mom or involved in a fraternity or sorority.  Whether it is a workplace, a neighborhood, or any other particular field, the Gospel Community acknowledges these micro mission fields and then intentionally finds ways to do two things:

1. Draw from the micro mission fields toward the macro mission field.  In other words, as individuals deployed in our micro mission fields, we strive to engage people from our micro mission field in the macro mission.  
2. Mobilize the GC as a whole (or in part) to occasionally engage in the micro mission fields where the individuals of the GC are already actively deployed and living.