Heart Groups at Highway are not just a “small group program.” Heart Groups are about the Mission of God.
The Mission of God is grounded in these truths:
1. God is community
2. He extended his loving community when He created us
3. He made us in His image
4. He sent His Son to restore broken community
The Mission of God has always been to form a people with whom God can share His life. The role of Heart Groups in the Mission of God is to simply help us at Highway live in Christian community. Often people ask, what is the purpose of the groups at Highway? Are they out-reach oriented? Or are they about inner spiritual growth? Are they about service? Or are they about Bible study? Are they prayer-groups? Or are they about relationships? Is the goal to nurture one another? Or is the goal to develop leaders? The answer to all of these questions is simply, “yes.” The Heart Groups at Highway are intended to be holistic: helping the church to simply be the church.
We are God’s people and we are bound together by that reality. The point of Heart Groups is to help us live in Christian community together. This is not just participation in a Sunday evening group; it is participation in the Mission of God.
“Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.”
Acts 2:46-47
We currently have 11 Heart Groups that meet on Sunday evenings. We try to keep the groups small enough to be relational. When one of our groups consistently has over 20 people we start praying about how that group can help start another group.
As God continues to raise up leaders here at Highway we will continue to start new groups. Heart Group leaders are not left without resources. The leaders meet together on Wednesday nights for prayer, study, and encouragement.
The Body of Christ is the dominant metaphor for the church in scripture. The metaphor is organic rather than institutional. Our Heart Groups have an organic feel as well (hence the word, Heart). We deliberately steer clear of programmatic, institutional trappings when we can. For example, we do not programmatically orchestrate or arrange the groups. We do not randomly shuffle the groups from time to time. We do not mechanize the process with sign-up sheets. While the groups have a unified curriculum, we recognize that each group has a unique dynamic, giftedness, and style. We encourage new-comers to visit several different groups in order to find one where you can most effectively participate in the Mission of God.
