About Community Groups

Jesus prayed for community among believers.

In John 17:20, Jesus prays, “My prayer is not for them alone (referring to His disciples). I pray also for those who will believe in Me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as You are in Me and I am in You. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that You have sent Me.”

God uses community.

In Acts 2 and 4, we read that followers of Jesus Christ “did life” together. They worshiped at the temple, and they were meeting in homes daily to share, fellowship, pray, and study the apostles teaching of Christ. The outcome of their life together was that the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. By God’s desire, the people who were continually meeting in their homes and in large group worship at the temple were being used to fulfill Christ’s prayer recorded in John 17:20. By their love, the world around them was coming to know that Jesus was sent to seek and save the lost.

Finding community...

Southbridge Fellowship believes strongly in building caring relationships that are guided by biblical truth and grounded in spiritual accountability.

The New Testament says we are to love, serve, encourage, teach, admonish, and comfort one another. These are concepts that must be lived out rather than just heard and discussed. God wants us to model His love and acceptance as we extend love to each other.

It is for this reason that Community Groups have been formed — to carry out Christ’s prayer. We hope to empower more people to serve in leadership and ministry. Our vision is to encourage people to be the church not just attend one. This in turn decentralizes ministry, moving it out of a single building and into the community as group members live the good news amongst each other, challenging one another to be the gospel in their own individual spheres of influence.

Our Community Groups are primarily based on geography. This means that, ideally, your Community Group will be close to the neighborhood in which you live. It also means that you may become part of a Community Group with believers of various ages and life situations. We believe this opportunity for diversity encourages a balance of life experiences and creates a family-like environment.

It should be noted that joining a Community Group is truly a life-changing commitment. You will be joining a family. As with any family, when you become intertwined in one another’s lives, life can be messy. We believe that “messy” can be a wonderful place for personal growth and life change to happen.

We strongly encourage everyone to become involved to experience the fullness of what God has led Southbridge Fellowship to become. It is an environment where you will have opportunities to grow and use your gifts in a way that our weekend gatherings could never provide. If you are ready to share your life with others and use your God-given gifts, we invite you to join a Community Group!