ELEVATION: An All Star Team!

We are only a few days away from the launch of our IONs now...and I could not be any more excited! The importance of authentic biblical community is so overlooked in our day and age.

Last Thursday night, I gave to you seven reasons why you should be involved in an ION. Let me quickly recap them again.

1) Pastoral Care. Everyone needs to be cared for by pastoral care. The only way to effectively minister to people in our community is to break down into small groups. We must allow people to minister to one another. The health of the church is determined by how the people are cared for. We must stop being so independent and wanting to do our own thing all the time. We have to give ministry away.

2) Learning how to love. Love does not come natural to most of us. Small groups teach us how to work thru difficult relationships. Jesus said that others will know we are His disciples if we love one another. Small groups stretch us. They create opportunities for us to love people right where they are.

3) Discipleship. He wants us to make disciples. To move up the ladder of discipleship, small groups must be required because they challenge us and hold us accountable in a place of growth. IONs are the place for your questions to be answered. Way too many Christians are surface level with their belief system. They need small groups to talk it out, to work out their salvation.

4) Sharing our gifts together. Small groups are the avenue by which God begins to use you in your gifts. Your ministry gifts are improved in a small group setting. It is very hard to get your gifts operating in a worship service because you are always on the receiving end. Small groups put you on the giving end.

5) Accountability. Small groups hold you accountable. You need to have people in your life who have the freedom to bring correction in your life. Who sees what you are really doing? Way too many Christians are spending their life energy hiding sin instead of confessing it and living for the glory of God.

6) Sharing your life together. We need people we can do life with. Who are you sharing your life with. There is no such thing as solitary religion. Small groups create relationships with people you can do life with. If God is your Father, man is your brother.

7) So we can do effective community outreach. We are in the process of trying to take the church outside the walls. All of our community outreach from this point on will take place in our IONs. All REACH events from this point will be facilitated through our IONs.

This is what it looks like when the universal church goes local!

So let me introduce you to our team:

Female IONs