Small Groups

If Worship is the heart of our church, then small groups are the backbone. Someone has said that “Church is often a place where Christians live alone together.” Attending Sunday services provide insufficient time to get beyond exchanging pleasantries. To get to know others and be known, to interact, to share and to grow we need more time together. This makes small group participation so important. Bill Hybels wrote, “Small groups provide the optimal environment for incubating the maturing process. Where there is trust and transparency, and where there are extended periods of time to help each other apply biblical truth to real-life situations, suddenly scriptural truths that seemed theoretical become concrete.”

Our small groups aim to intentionally create an environment that connects people (authentic community) in such a way that it encourages them to follow Christ (Christian discipleship).  Following Christ involves continual progression in these three vital relationships:  intimacy with God, community with believers, and influence on unbelievers.

Presently, over 20 different groups are meeting regularly.  These groups meet in neighborhood houses that are around the community surrounding Doylestown.  

           -- Some of the studies being held presently include --

Let’s Study Mark
This study combines a number of facets:  an excellent daily devotional on the individual passages in the gospel of Mark, written by Sinclair Ferguson along with discussion questions on the passages and devotional emphases.

The Gospel For Real Life (The Book of Romans)
Jerry Bridges, the best-selling author of The Pursuit of Holiness provides a study which is chock-full of colorful, memorable stories, anecdotes and illustrations based on the Epistle to the Romans.  The Gospel for Real Life challenges and welcomes the believer to turn to the liberating power of the cross for everyday living.

Practice Resurrection (The Book of Ephesians)
“Show me the bottom line.  Don’t confuse me with psycho-babble, or theological mumbo-jumbo, give me the pay-off, that’s what interests me!”  Christians demand relevant, practical instructions, and the book of Ephesians has some of the most demanding, challenging and relevant teaching on relationships, purposes, aims and objectives.  It also shows how everything we’re called to do is firmly grounded in all that God has done for us first.  Based on the book by the same name by Eugene Peterson.

Meeting Jesus (LifeGuide Bible Study)
Someone has said that Christians are like manure.  When you spread them around, they help everything grow.  But leave them all piled up together and they simply stink!  This 13-week study is from selected passages from the gospels on such topics like “The Surprising Jesus,” “Jesus the Puzzling King,” and “Jesus the Prophet.”  

Meeting God (LifeGuide Bible Study)
His majesty will fill your thoughts.  His love will soften your heart.  His holiness will purify your life.

When you meet God, you will be changed.  Meet him now as J. I. Packer, author of the bestselling Christian classic, Knowing God leads you through twelve key passages from the Old and New Testaments. These inductive Bible studies will engage your heart and mind. And enlarge your vision of the God you worship and serve.

Paul's Letter to the Galatians (Redeemer Bible Studies)
Galatians may be the Apostle Paul’s earliest epistle written to defend the faith against error.  He argues most clearly Christ’s message on Christ’s authority.  The argument of this letter addresses the tendency that is still with us to add something to the message of salvation which is by faith alone, by grace alone, through Christ alone.  The theme of liberty is clearly sounded throughout the letter – Jesus liberates us from the penalty and power of sin; we are free from the condemnation of the law’s judgment, and we are freed by the Spirit from rule-based obedience to live lives of loving obedience through the guidance and power of the Spirit.  

Praying With The Psalms (Redeemer Bible Studies)
Martin Luther wrote, “Each person, whatever his circumstances may be, finds in the book pslams and words which are appropriate to the circumstances in which he finds himself and meet his needs as adequately as if they were composed exclusively for his sake, and in such a way that he himself could not improve on them nor could find or desire any better psalms or words.”  Christians through the centuries have discovered that the hymnbook of Israel is a great prayer book for the life of faith.  This study has 20 studies on two dozen of the psalms.