A teacher of the law asked Jesus which was the greatest commandment and Jesus responded, “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.  The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself.’  There is no commandment greater than these.”

Jesus shared his plan for spiritual formation - to love God and love other people.  While this may not seem like ground breaking news, I wonder if we have lost the essence of this creed in the church today.  When the pastor encourages us to love our God and our neighbor, all of our heads will likely nod.  As obvious as this may be, it appears that we may not all mean the same thing when we talk about love.  

For those in the church, we begin and end with the love of God that is revealed to us in the Scriptures and in the life of Jesus.  We recognize that there are times when His love is not always our love.  Jesus and the truth of His way of life challenge our definitions and expressions of love.  And there are times when we must let loose of our wrong love.  While it may seem to be a loss at first, our faith that Jesus and His way is the best possible way of life moves us forward together.  

Sometimes we live life without any intentional evaluation of how our living and loving mirrors (or doesn’t) Jesus and His way.  We would do well to return again to Jesus and allow His way and His life and His truth to inform us as to the essence of this love.  No better place informs us of the essence of the Jesus way than His teachings in the parables.  The study will be titled; “LoseLoveLive” and we are excited to once again allow Jesus to inform us and form us.

As followers of Jesus, we take communion weekly to remember His sacrifice so that we could be reconciled. While we will continue to take communion, the way we take it is going to change.  The bread and juice representing the body broken for us and the blood shed will still be present. Instead of the small plastic cups and tray of crackers, you’ll now have the opportunity to remember Jesus with a piece of bread dipped into grape juice.  Why the change?  There are several practical reasons.  First, we will no longer create the waste of more than a thousand small plastic cups each week.  Secondly, those cups will no longer be crunched and broken into the carpet.  Finally, this makes communion prep much quicker for both house churches and the communion team.  This change, while small at first, will have a longer, lasting impact on both our environmental and people resources.  Thank you for embracing this change!

Volunteer Days were held June 24 and July 8 to give people an opportunity to learn about the many ministry teams at Common Ground.  Representatives from our children’s ministry, hospitality team and worship team were available to discuss how individuals could use their gifts to serve the body.  The results were amazing!  The children’s ministry had 32 requests for additional information which resulted in 19 new teachers.  The worship ministry received inquiries from 16 individuals and already have several people in technical training or on dinner rotation.  In addition, the hospitality team (which includes food and beverage, welcome center and greeting) saw nearly 40 individuals looking to use their gifts!

Now that we’re a multi-site church, there are even more opportunities for you to get plugged in.  While the ministry teams have mostly stayed the same, there are a greater number of individuals needed to complete those teams!  Some specific areas where we’d love for you to answer your call to serve include teaching, running sound and visual components during service, volunteering in the welcome center, and greeting our visitors.

No experience is necessary for any of these positions – we will provide full training.  In addition, they are not the only opportunities available.  Download our volunteer brochure for even more options.  While most ministries serve both sites, there are a few (such as MOPS) that are site specific.  However, you are welcome to serve in any capacity, no matter where you worship.  After all, we are one church – one body, serving each other.  Have questions?  Contact Marissa at marissa@cground.org.