July 22, 2010
Group Night recap
Posted by Eddie
Defining success in a church is always a funny thing. By default, we tend
to look at numbers to determine how we’re doing. In Summit Connect, we
toss around a bunch of big figures like:
1,380 of us are meeting in Summit Connect groups, 41 leaders are about to
graduate from leader training, and 117 people were at the last Group
Night. And, while these numbers are great barometers of how things are
going in the church, they’re not as exciting to me as this number: Three.
Last Sunday’s Group Night was tremendous. Everyone mingled, made new
friends, got excited about studying the Bible together, and started
talking about where they would like to serve in the community. After about
an hour or so, people were mutually “Facebook Friend Requested”, organized
for the next Connect group meeting, and on their way home… Except for
three women.
These three women talked, laughed, and generally paid no mind to the team
of volunteers that were cleaning up around them and giving the
not-so-obvious-but-very-obvious signs that it was time to close up shop.
These women were doing exactly what people in a church should be doing –
forging deep relationships and looking towards the future. Truly, there
was no better way to end a Group Night then seeing the remnants of a group
that had formed 30 minutes earlier unable to stop being around each other.
This is why I love Summit and our Connect groups. Three women, and scores
of others, have taken their next steps in community and know what it means
to be part of a family. Impressive numbers at Group Night is great, but it
is not the ultimate measure of success. Nothing is better than learning,
serving, and worshiping in Christ-centered relationship – even if the
campus minister tells you that he’s locking the sanctuary.
