Pastor’s Note

Gotta Getta Group 1

Perhaps the Blues Brothers said it best when they sang, "Everybody--Needs Somebody--To Love". It's true. .As a church family, loving God and each other is our best witness to the world, and is something about which I hope we can be diligent and intentional.

But the question is how do we do it? .As an assembled bunch of folks on any given Sunday morning, we gather together to love God-it's called worship. The more the merrier. It's one of the most enjoyable and exciting times of my week, and I hope it's yours too. That hour (or so) is dedicated to loving God in the best ways we know how. Many people give enormous amounts of time and energy into making this an accessible, engaging time of loving God. We can love God 200, 2,000, or 20,000 at a time and God loves it – no doubt.

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Jesus was the original group guy. He knew that to get to know and really love people, you have to think small.

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Loving each other is a very different endeavor. That's why Jesus separated them as commandments in Matthew 22 (37-39). Love God. Love thy neighbor.

So how do we as the church love each other? Unlike the "more the merrier" worship experience, loving each other happens in a "12'S company, 13's a crowd" basis. Jesus was the original group guy. He knew that to get to know and really love people, you have to think small. Now this is where I'm really going to sound crazy, but stick with me.

I've been more excited than you can imagine being a part of a church that's growing its Sunday morning worship time. I've never experienced it before, and it's great! I've always been a bigger/better guy. As a youth pastor, "the more the merrier" was part of my creed, so the last 4 years have been a real blessing to me-and I believe to many of you too. Growth is good, but there is more, much more to making growth great. The next two years will be critical in the way we handle the growth of the last 4 years.

As this discussion continues, one of several questions that will arise may sound like this. "Does Todd just want to be in a mega-church?" The answer is no. Now what I do want to be a part of is a church that will always have room for that unsaved friend, family member, coworker or total stranger that the Lord draws to our church. What I'd like next to consider how we can continue to make that happen.