Vision of Community Groups

At Vintage Faith Church, we value community. In fact, without community, we wouldn’t be a church. The word used for “church” in the New Testament literally means a “called out assembly.” So when we talk about church, we are really talking about a community of people called by God, called from the world, called to reach the world. When most people think of church, they think of a building or a Sunday morning service; at Vintage Faith, we understand the Scriptures to teach that the church is not actually a building or location, but rather that the church is the people of God on a mission.

We believe the people of God are those who profess faith in Jesus the Messiah and seek to demonstrate their beliefs in daily life. We believe the mission of those who follow Jesus is to be representatives of the ways, words, and life of Jesus in the world he loves. As followers of Jesus, we define our community by our relationship to Jesus and our attempts to live out his teachings among those around us. Therefore, we are not just a community, but specifically a community of people who follow Jesus on a mission.

One of the mysterious characteristics of God is his communal nature. God has revealed himself to the world as one unified God in three persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), who operates in a perfect, singly unified community. Because God is by nature a unified relationship, we believe that as humans made in the image of God, that we also reflect this communal nature. God created us to reflect His image, and this is demonstrated beautifully when we participate in unified relationships. Ultimately, when the church is unified in her diversity, the image of God in humanity is rightly reflected (Ephesians 4-5, Jesus’ prayer in John 17 and Revelation 7:9-12). This is why we believe community is such a vital characteristic of Vintage Faith Church.

Our desire is to see all people experience all the benefits and challenges of community. Things like acceptance, accountability, belonging, care vulnerability, connection, commitment, challenge, friendships, prayer, learning, support and growth all occur in the context of community. It is very difficult to participate in a real community without being stretched. Relationships serve as mirrors into our own lives and challenge us to grow. Authentic community is also very messy. No amount of structure or planning can accommodate the unpredictable and mysterious ways that people interact, change and grow. No one is perfect, thus coming together as a group of imperfect people will have its difficulties. Despite the difficulties, we believe that having this type of community among those who follow Jesus is absolutely worth any of the challenges because it is one of the primary means by which God transforms our lives.

Our hope is that every person who encounters our community would discover numerous ways to know others, to be known, and to grow. We know that it can be difficult to experience authentic community in a large group setting, such as the worship gatherings on Sundays. Therefore, we intentionally encourage people to seek relationships in smaller communities at Vintage Faith Church... these smaller communities are called community groups.

A community group is a smaller group of people (6-15 people) who meet during the week to experience authentic community on a regular basis. These people commit to sharing life together, praying for one another, studying the Scriptures, serving in the local community and lovingly challenging one another to grow as they follow Jesus. Each group has a community group leader to help facilitate the journey the group is on together.