- Connect Groups -
What are Connect Groups?
We believe it is important to stay connected with each other in meaningful ways throughout the week. To that end, we invite you to get connected at one of our mid-week Connect Groups. Take a look through our catalog below—different groups have different meeting times and there are various formats available. Groups that generate enough interest will meet for a 7-week series, then new groups will begin. Find groups that interest you, and join us!
The current sign-up period will last through the first week of January. The leaders of groups with the most interest will settle on a time and format that fits best with members’ schedules and begin meeting in the second or third week of January.
How do I sign up?
You can sign up for any of the connect groups listed below through the first week of January. Groups that generate enough interest will then meet for a 7-week series.
Sign up by using the buttons for each connect group below.
Connect Group Catalog
Song Study
Leaders: Abby Kaplan & Karen Sewell
Description: This group will meet for a time of singing and fellowship. Our goals are to (1) learn new songs, (2) learn parts more thoroughly on old favorites, and (3) discuss and meditate on songs’ meanings more deeply, especially songs that are closely connected to scripture. If you have experience with music, great! If not, that’s great too—this group is open to all ages and skill levels.
Meeting Time: Monday or Tuesday evenings in-person at the building. Let the group leaders know which day works best for you.
Spiritual Toolkit: How Your Faith Could Actually Change Your Life
Leaders: Ryne Parrish & ______(contact Ryne if you’re interested in teaming up to lead this group)
Description: You may have heard the preacher say something about faith shaping the way you live, but how does that actually happen? This group will be devoted to exploring the concrete ways that spiritual practices can transform your day-to-day life. Our spiritual toolkit will include everything from prayer and fasting to charity and acts of service, and much more. The rhythm will be one of learn – practice – reflect: at each meeting we will learn the ins and outs of a certain spiritual practice, commit to doing it in some specific way in the following days, and then reconvene each week to reflect on how God was shaping us in the process. No matter where you are on your spiritual walk with Christ, if you are ready to equip your spiritual toolkit and put those tools to work, this is the connect group for you!
Meeting Time: This group will meet in-person, on Zoom or in a hybrid format as needed, and will meet on a weekday evening, still TBD. Let Ryne know which evenings during the week work best for you.
What Do I Believe, Anyway?
Leaders: Ryne Parrish & ______(contact Ryne if you’re interested in teaming up to lead this group)
Description: This group will dig into the basic beliefs of the Christian faith. Our discussion will be guided by something called The Apostles’ Creed, a brief biblically-grounded statement issued by the ancient church—and still repeated by Christians today the world over—that summarizes what we believe about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and Christian life. We will focus not only on what these beliefs are, but also why we believe them and how they shape our life in the church and in the world. Anyone from those testing the waters of Christianity for the first time, to those whose faith may benefit from a refresher course, will find this connect group well worth their time.
Meeting Time: This group will meet in-person, on Zoom or in a hybrid format as needed, and will meet on a weekday evening, still TBD. Let Ryne know which evenings during the week work best for you.
Homebound Healers
Leaders: Dolores Hillaire, Steve Thomsen & Vicky Rowland
Description: Homebound Healers is meant as a venue to organize those with a drive for doing in projects to support, sustain, and encourage others, inside or outside of the church, despite their own limitations in mobility or physical durability. The group will meet once each week, during daylight hours, to discuss and determine activities to be done collectively in support of existing ministries, in response to temporary or unique needs within the Church, and/or in partnership with agencies or organizations within the larger community.
Meeting Time: This group will meet in-person on a weekday around lunchtime, with a meeting location still TBD. Let the group leaders know which weekdays work best for you.
Questions Welcome
Leaders: Ron Higgins & Ryne Parrish
Description: Do you ever have questions about God? The Bible? The church? Your faith? Good news: so do we! So does everybody! The even better news? God welcomes our questions. Seriously. If as the old saying goes, all truth is God’s truth, then the pursuit of true answers to our questions should lead us ultimately to God. This group will be dedicated to that pursuit. We will spend the first few weeks discussing some of the common questions people have about God (Can I believe in God and science? If God is good, why do bad things happen? And more...), and in the last few weeks we will invite group members anonymously to pose questions for us to discuss. We won’t pretend to have all the answers—no one does, after all—but we will create a safe and welcoming space to wrestle with difficult questions in pursuit of God’s truth.
Meeting Time: This group will meet on Zoom during the evening on a weekday still TBD. Sign up and let the leaders know which evenings work best for you.
Practical Applications of Faith
Leaders: David Hurley & ______(contact David if you’re interested in teaming up to lead this group)
Description: This group will discuss practical problems that many (if not all!) of us face from time to time, and the real-life solutions our faith offers for each of them. These will be the topics covered during our seven-week cycle of meeting: anxiety & peace, loneliness & friendship, anger & forgiveness, division & love of neighbor, pride & humility, greed & generosity, depression & faith.
Meeting Time: This group will meet in-person, on Zoom or in a hybrid format as needed, and will meet on a day and time picked by group consensus. Let David know when would work best for you.
Screwtape Letters: The Devil is After You
Leaders: David Hurley & ______(contact David if you’re interested in teaming up to lead this group)
Description: The purpose of this connect group is to understand more clearly what the Bible tells us about temptation, using C.S. Lewis’s classic book The Screwtape Letters as our conversation partner. In this short novel, Lewis imagines a senior demon, experienced in the devil’s wiles, writing letters of advice to a novice demon learning how to use all sorts of temptation to lead humans away from God. Reading and discussing this as a group will help us discern the ways we are or have been tempted in our own lives, and how we might better resist those temptations in order to be the people God has called us to be.
Meeting Time: This group will meet in-person, on Zoom or in a hybrid format as needed, and will meet on a day and time picked by group consensus. Let David know when would work best for you.