Lent season is upon us! Use this time to reflect on what Jesus has done for us.

pilot community groups

what is a Pilot Community Group?

Pilot Community Groups are brand new Community Groups (CGs) that commit to meeting for a minimum of seven weeks for the purpose of building a gospel-centered community. They are especially designed for those who are new to RWS or have never joined a CG before. Similar to our ongoing CGs, Pilot Groups gather for Bible discussion, prayer, fellowship, and mutual encouragement in living out the Christian faith. What makes Pilot CGs distinct from established CGs (which also welcome new people year-round) is that everyone starts out new to one another. This often brings a fresh energy and eagerness to grow together.

how do I get involved?

Lead a new group

We are looking for volunteers to lead new groups in the new year! Indicate your interest at redeemerws.com/startagroup.

Requirements:

  • RWS member (or a regular attendee in process of pursuing membership)
  • Love for God and for fostering gospel community
  • Participation in a New Leader Basics training session (TBA)

No, but you are welcome to choose to do both if that suits your situation better. If you can only serve as a leader, we encourage you to partner with a friend who can host. If you are unable to rope in a friend to help start a new group, we will do our best to pair you up with other hosts.

  • Before each meeting: 15 – 30 minutes to prep with the discussion guide and pray for the meeting time plus 5 minutes to send out the weekly reminder email
  • Actual meeting: 1.5 – 2 hours
  • Encouraged: CG Leader Huddles (1:15 – 2:30 pm on January 25 & March 29).

We recommend asking a friend to co-lead with you, either on a mutually agreed rotation or as a back-up leader. If you are not able to find a co-leader, we will do our best to pair you with someone.

Host a group

We are looking for volunteers to host (or co-host) new groups as well! We can help pair a leader with you to start up a new group. Indicate your interest at redeemerws.com/startagroup. 

Requirements:

  • RWS member or regular attendee
  • Love for God and for fostering gospel community

While even a small group can be meaningful (cf. Matthew 18:20), we’ve found that gatherings of at least 5 or 6 people make for a more lively and engaging experience! The maximum group size will depend on how many people you’re able to comfortably seat in your home.

We’d love to work with you on this and will try to pair you with someone who can serve as a back-up host or someone who you can regularly rotate with in hosting.

If your pet would also welcome visitors, then yes! We can include a note about your pet on your group’s registration page so people can make an informed decision in joining.

Join a group

This list will be updated periodically.

Visit redeemerws.com/findagroup for more choices of ongoing community groups.

resources

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additional faqs

We suggest for new groups to aim to launch their new group in the second half of January as people are often looking to start new routines in the new year. We ask that both leaders/hosts and group members commit to meeting together for 7 meetings.

We would celebrate that! It is our prayer that new Pilot Community Groups would be welcoming spaces where friendships emerge and participants experience growth in their relationship with God. We encourage groups to take some time out towards the end of the 7-week meeting commitment to evaluate if there is interest to keep growing together and ways in which members can share more in maintaining the health of the community.

We recommend for groups to meet 2-4 times a month with many opting to meet every week. 

Each Pilot Community Group will use discussion guides that correlate with the Sunday sermon series. The guides are published weekly and are designed to be accessible, whether or not someone has attended the Sunday service (see sample guide). 

If you are interested in volunteering as a leader and would like to use the inductive Bible study method or a different curriculum, that can be considered together in conversation with the CG director. Please make a note of that when you sign up to lead.