Gospel Community at Paramount

Posted by Mike on Mar 7, 2012 in Church Life, Community, Family Life, Featured | 0 comments

We marvel at gospel community! God created us to live life in community and to experience joy, sorrow, suffering, labor, fellowship, and excitement. When we experience excitement, our joy in the experience does not seem complete until we share it with another. There is a reason for this: God created us in His image. God is the foundation for our fellowship as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, communing in perfect fellowship with Himself. The three Persons in the Godhead are always in perfect and unending fellowship. Therefore, when we are out of fellowship with one another, we are also fighting against God’s design.

Although some pockets of society thrive on community, it is increasingly acceptable to live in isolation from others. Yet the gospel provides for a life much richer and deeper than a solitary existence or even a friendship founded on our play, work, or other mutual interests. Christian fellowship is rooted in the Person of Christ, an unshakable foundation Who knits His people together in love. This is why we believe our fellowship at Paramount Church should be lived out together, through faith, by the Spirit, under the word of God.

God entrusted to the Church the all-sufficient counsel of His word so that we may love, encourage, restore, admonish, pray for, and sanctify one another in truth (John 17:17, Galatians 6:1-2). In fact, Jesus said the world would know His disciples by the fruit of their love for each other (John 13:34). This is the essence of a Gospel community. As Paramount Church, we are committed to grow as a community knit together by love through the mutual ministry of the word (Acts 6:4, Colossians 3:15-16). Through preaching, Community Groups, one-on-one ministry of the word, and even the mundane of life, we want every member to grow in wise and godly counsel together. It is our joy to walk together in weakness and dependence upon Christ (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Our focus is to bring glory to Christ, to orient our lives around the gospel, to focus on change, and fulfill our mission as Christ’s ambassadors. To keep a proper balance and guard our Community Groups from revolving around something other than the gospel, we pursue at least four primary goals for life with one another:

1. Progressive sanctification (growing into the image of Christ)
2. Mutual care
3. Fellowship
4. Stewardship of spiritual gifts

With these goals in mind, let’s look at some group dynamics.

Where do Community Groups gather?
Community Groups will gather in homes or other convenient and warm locations. We believe a home-style environment is helpful to facilitate healthy transparency and to spur us toward a richer life together.

When do Community Groups meet?
We recognize all of our lives are busy and even hectic at times. Therefore, our Community Groups enjoy a measure of flexibility for meeting times while still maintaining a commitment to regular, weekly fellowship. Groups typically meet on weekday evenings or Saturday.

How many people attend each Community Group?
We gather in groups of 12-15 people. These smaller numbers can often contribute to added warmth for sharing life together, as well as to help those who are new to Community Groups.

Who leads Paramount’s Community Groups?
Since Paramount is a new church plant, our three pastors will lead the initial adult groups. As time progresses, it is the desire of the pastoral team to recognize men with the ability to lead, train them, and equip them to lead groups. These future leaders will be members of Paramount who are faithfully attending and serving within their respective Community Group. They will receive Community Group leadership training, to include training from “How People Change” and “Instruments in the Redeemers Hands” then become assistant leaders for a time, prior to starting a new group. As Paramount’s student ministry grows, student groups will form, led by an adult student ministry leader.

What should you expect if you attend a Community Group?
Everyone may expect a welcoming atmosphere of fellowship and hospitality. Community Groups regularly enjoy food, Scripture, fellowship, and prayer. As time progresses and Paramount begins to gather for Sunday worship, there is a plan for groups to transition into sermon-based discussions. Groups will discuss down-to-earth thoughts and questions from the current Sunday morning preaching series.

Will Community Groups gather outside of normal meeting days?
Yes, we highly encourage all groups to connect outside of normal meeting times. We see the fellowship of believers as much more than one-shot weekly gatherings, but rather an on-going effort to grow together. We want to celebrate the gospel together, for the pleasure of God and the good of our neighbors.

How Do Churches Grow

Posted by Rush on Feb 12, 2012 in Church Life | 0 comments

God can grow churches however He pleases. But it does seem that He has set forth ordained means in the Scriptures through which He will typically build and grow His churches. If we are to discover the means God typically uses to grow healthy churches, there is perhaps nowhere better to turn than to the Acts of the Apostles. Here we find the apostles planting and watering, yet God giving the growth.¹ Let’s consider six passages from Acts in which we see the church growing. In the process, we may note the kind of spiritual gardening that accompanied God’s sovereignly orchestrated church growth.

Acts 2:40-42 – And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation!” So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls. They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

Note: Peter solemnly testified and exhorted people [from the Scriptures] to be saved. He preached the Gospel to the people. By God’s grace, some received his word and on that day the Church grew by three thousand souls. Likewise, the followers were devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching [the Scriptures], living in Christian fellowship, observing the Lord’s Supper, and praying together.

Acts 2:44-47 – And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Note: The Church grew day by day as the believers lived in community around the Gospel, cared for those in need, corporately set their minds on Christ, enjoyed glad and sincere Christian fellowship, praised God, and served others.

Acts 4:1-4 – As they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to them, being greatly disturbed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they laid hands on them and put them in jail until the next day, for it was already evening. But many of those who had heard the message believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.

Note: After faithfully proclaiming the hope of resurrection through Christ, the believers were persecuted. Through suffering, God grew the Church.

Acts 5:12-15 – At the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were taking place among the people; and they were all with one accord in Solomon’s portico. But none of the rest dared to associate with them; however, the people held them in high esteem. And all the more believers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women, were constantly added to their number, to such an extent that they even carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on cots and pallets, so that when Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on any one of them.

Note: As the Lord displayed His supremacy through His disciples, throngs of men and women were being added to the Church. I believe God performed such miracles through these early apostles to affect a profound and explosive inauguration to the Church. By a careful reading of the New Testament, I think God is continuing Kingdom expansion by the testimony of Gospel-changed lives, though no longer through such miraculous signs. We should note carefully, though, that beyond the miracles the early disciples lived in such a way that those around them saw their good works and praised their heavenly Father.²

Acts 6:7 – The word of God kept on spreading; and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith.

Note: God grew the Church through the spread of His word, the Gospel. In fact, the clear (perhaps not eloquent) teaching of Scripture led to great increase in obedience to Christ, including many falsely religious leaders.

Acts 9:28-31 – And he [Paul] was with them, moving about freely in Jerusalem, speaking out boldly in the name of the Lord. And he was talking and arguing with the Hellenistic Jews; but they were attempting to put him to death. But when the brethren learned of it, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him away to Tarsus. So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace, being built up; and going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it continued to increase.

Note: Through Paul’s God-centered preaching [about Christ from the Scriptures], God grew the Church. Though he faced persecution, Paul built up [sanctified] the church, emphasizing the fear of the Lord and the sustaining work of God’s Spirit. The church continued to increase.

WHAT MAY WE LEARN FROM THIS? WHAT WAS THE FOCUS? The Apostles:
*Testified of the Gospel and Exhorted People to be Saved by Grace
*Led the Early Church Members to Value
-the Scriptures
-Intimate Fellowship with Other Christians
-Baptism and the Lord’s Supper
-Corporate Prayer
-Generous Hospitality
-God-exalting Praise
*Cultivated in the Church a Deep-seated Appreciation for Christ’s Cross and Resurrection
*Courageously Embraced the Consequences for Treasuring Christ in Public
*Displayed lives of Faith and Grace inspired by the Gospel
*Scattered Broadly and Planted Deeply Gospel Seeds among Civilians and Leaders
*Pressed the Christians toward Sanctification, Fear of the Lord, and Comfort in the Holy Spirit

Of all that we see in these six passages, there is little entrepreneurial emphasis. The emphasis is upon the simple work of diligently cultivating the garden, planting the Gospel, and eagerly anticipating the blooming harvest of God’s perfect will. In Acts, we find the early believers fearfully cowering in houses. What caused them to come out of hiding, boldly proclaim the Gospel, and shepherd the flock among them? Was it an entrepreneurial skill or spirit?

The kind of growth we have in mind for Paramount Church is a gospel-centered, grace-enabled, biblically-informed multiplication of local churches in which God uses ordinary people to accomplish His extraordinary purposes. Join us!

1. 1 Corinthians 3:6 [↩]
2. Matthew 5:16 [↩]