Emmaus City MCG Rhythms | How We Go with Jesus + Others

City Lab Graphic

Micro City Group Q&As

Below is a brief list of questions and answers in relation to how we pray for and strive to follow Jesus in His words and actions and love, serve, and share His abundant life with our friends, neighbors, and coworkers in the city of Worcester. Also, here is a previous post related to our gatherings: Emmaus City Church Rhythms | Why We Gather for Jesus + Others

What is a Micro City Group?

A Micro City Group (MCG) is a humble and hopeful community of people coming together to step into monthly rhythms of loving, serving, and spending time with each other and others in the city. Each MCG seeks to share the life of Jesus among others in words and actions.

What does Learning to Follow Jesus with Others Look Like with a MCG?

We try to focus on three things Jesus lived by to help us be committed to His words, works, and ways:

Family | Growing Up in Communion with God: How are we growing in our understanding of and joy in the Good News of our relationship with God our Father through Jesus – resting in His love, communicating with Him through prayer, learning His story in Scripture, following His teachings – and loving each other as part of His family?  

Servants | Giving in to Community in Service with God for Others: How are we humbly serving each other, our neighbors, and friends, and embodying the Good News of God’s grace together – opening our homes, giving time and resources to others freely, forgiving each other, helping with needs, etc. – like God opens His home by sending Jesus who did not come be served, but to serve us and give His life for us?  

Ambassadors | Going Out to represent the love of God for the City: How are we intentionally caring for and spending time with others as we share the life of Jesus with them so they can experience His compassion, wisdom, and grace by His Spirit?

Another way to look at this is through an UP | IN | OUT lens on how our life with Jesus is filled in relation to God, other people, and the world He has sent us to be among and love. 

Becoming more like Jesus is learning how to love God, love others, and humbly surrender all of life – work, play, rest, family – to His gracious and powerful way for the sake of others and the world. This learning or “disciple-making” involves:

UP | Passionate Spirituality: 1 John 4:13-21

IN | Radical Community: Acts 2:42-47, 4:29-35

Out | Missional Zeal: Titus 3:4-7; John 20:21-22; Micah 6:8; Mark 10:43-45; Matthew 25:31-40, 28:18-20

What Does the Rhythm of a MCG look like?

The rhythm of a MCG involves points of connection throughout a month as people are intentional in making space for God to move in their lives and to spend time with others. 

These rhythms are shaped by a B.L.E.S.S. posture because God blesses us to be a blessing for others and the world.

Begin with prayer 

Listen to and learn each others' stories 

Eat with with friends, neighbors, and co-workers  

Serve others freely and with no expectations  

Share and show the Good News of Jesus with those who give you the honor to do so 

Where Do These Planned Rhythms Happen?

Third Place: A place (i.e. pub, café, restaurant, park, gym, etc.) to connect, relax, eat, play, befriend, etc. 

Community Meals: A meal where everyone and anyone can come together to hear a little more about Jesus, eat together, and be prayed for no matter what the religious background, life circumstance, or request.

Serve or Celebration Activity: An activity the MCG comes together to serve or celebrate with anyone in Worcester.

Ultimately, these monthly rhythms help us become a family of servants for the city and ambassadors for Jesus together through an UP | IN | OUT focus so we learn how to share and show His love for Worcester. 

Who Do You Hope Will Be Involved in a MCG?

Anyone who is interested in Jesus and His impact on them as well the world (neighborhoods, workplace, city) around us. We want to join with Jesus in being among the young and the old, the poor and the rich, the west side and the east side, the university educated and the street educated, nonprofit and private sector employees, public servants and criminals, technology and environmental leaders, and multicultural and multiethnic people because the Good News of Jesus is reconciliation between God and man, neighbor to neighbor, and humanity with creation in every area of our city.

Our 5 new MCGs continue to explore how to love, serve, and share Jesus' life in 2020:

(1) W.R.A.P. MCG 

(2) Freedom City Route 1 MCG 

(3) YMCA MCG 

(4) Fellow Travelers MCG 

(5) Westside Welcome MCG

Key Verses and Quotes

And (Jesus) said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.” + Mark 16:15, ESV

Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” + John 20:21-22, ESV

The Lord has shown you what is good. He has told you what He requires of you. You must act with justice. You must love to show mercy. And you must be humble as you live in the sight of your God. + Micah 6:8, NIRV

You are a chosen people. You are a Kingdom of priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for He called you out of the darkness into His wonderful light. + 1 Peter 2:9, NLT

The goal is living sent lives together in community moving towards Jesus' Kingdom reign. Our mission is to glorify Jesus in renovating the city holistically through the Gospel (Good News). That can't just happen with a Sunday morning service. If we just wanted to plant a service, we could do that, but the city would stay exactly the way that it is. For us, City Groups are frontlines for cultural, social, missional and spiritual engagement. We have a heart for our city. The Gospel is for others and not just for ourselves. + Leonce Crump 

Life in the Gospel invites us into the bigger story of God’s redemptive work in the world. This Good News of reconciliation is an ongoing spiritual process involving forgiveness, repentance and justice that restores broken relationships and systems to reflect God’s original intention for all creation to flourish. + Brenda Salter McNeil

Sent Together by Brad Watson

Next post: Our Story Starts with Jesus | Emmaus City Worcester, MA

Christ is all,

Rev. Mik "Sully" Sullivan

Email Pastor Mike | Website | Visit Us | Support Us | Facebook Us

Emmaus City Rhythms | Why We Gather for Jesus + Others

Saturate Illustration of Jesus' Church Sending Resources Out from Its Gathering
(Instead of Just Bringing Resources In)

Sabbath Mass | Service of Worship Q&As

Below is a brief list of questions and answers in relation to why Christians, particularly those with Emmaus City Church (ECC), do the things we do when we gather together for a mass (check out why we still love to call it a mass). Of course, the best way to get a clearer picture would be to visit with us on a Saturday. You are most welcome anytime!

Why Do You Gather in Light of the Gospel (i.e. Good News) of Jesus and His Kingdom?

As Tim Keller says, The Good News is that God has come to renew and restore creation in the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf. If this is true, then we want to learn more about who He is and how His resurrection life changes everything together since He said, "For where two or three gather in My name, I am among them" (Matthew 18:20).

When Do You Gather Together for a Mass or Service of Worship?

Most months, we gather every 1st and 3rd Saturday from 4-5:15 p.m. 

How Do I Participate with Emmaus City During a Sabbath Gathering?

Be yourself. You can listen, observe, sing, be silent, read, recite, and/or ask questions after the service. Our hope is to give you a clearer picture of Jesus and help you understand more of why His Good News is not only history-altering, but life-changing and personally-transforming.

Why Do You Sing Songs?

We cheer what we love, whether it's a drink or a food, a diet that works, a favorite sports team who wins, a classic book, film, or artist that remains timeless, etc. If God is the Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer, Healer, Liberator, Savior, and King of all that is good, we sing about Him to recognize and thank Him for all He is.

What are the Prayers of Confession, Assurance, and Mission for?

A relationship with God transforms our lives, changing how we view our relationships, forgiveness, grace, work, family, our neighbor, and the world to see things the way He does and join Him in His work of reconciliation and renewal. We pray He will do this with for our city, for others around the world, and for us as we prepare to listen.

How Do I Engage with Jesus and the Bible in the Homily | Sermon?

This is an opportunity to listen and to learn more about Jesus and how He came to fulfill all that is written about God in the Bible. Here are some helpful questions to ask as you listen:

• Who is God in light of this reading and teaching?
• What is He saying and doing that could be life-changing Good News?
• How are people responding to His Good News in the story?
• How would my life change if I believed Jesus is God, and changed my life to follow Him?

Why Do You All Enjoy the Eucharist | Lord’s Supper | Communion Every Week?

After we hear the Good News of Jesus provided through the homily | sermon, we then have the privilege to see, touch, smell, and taste the Good News and receive a means of grace that Jesus is just as present with us as the bread and wine. God doesn't just want us to think about and understand His love, He wants us to experience His love together in union with Him and with each other over a meal of bread and wine that reveals Jesus as the Bread of Life and the Vine. We get to respond to His gracious and hospitable invitation as we go forward together to enjoy His glorious presence and His gracious family meal for us with others.

How Do I Believe and Live in light of the Good News of Jesus?

Trust that God gives you abundant life by His grace through faith in Jesus. Through the Father's love and the Spirit's power, Jesus came to redeem you from slavery to self, atone for your sin to reconcile you with God and humanity, drink the cup of justice you couldn't pay, live the life you couldn't live, die the death you would die without Him, resurrect you with power to live freely with Him, fill you with His Spirit to walk in that power with Him and others, welcome you into His family, adore you as His beloved, and send you into the world to share His Good News with all of creation – your neighborhood, your city, your workplace, your environments – in words and actions with His love and grace. Pray, "I believe in You, Jesus, all that You have done for me in Your life, death, and resurrection. Help my unbelief. I believe You are Lord over death and life and I want to follow you." and you will begin your journey of eternal life with Jesus. Then tell someone, get baptized in His family name if you haven’t been, and begin sharing His Good News with others through words and actions.

Why Saturday Evening?

The simplest answer is because this was the space and time available that was at a key location in our city, met our needs for space and equipment, and was at a good price to rent monthly. And it provided us the opportunity to bless another church – Living Word Church who owns the Fusion Center at 30 Tyler Prentice Road – by renting from them. The other cool thing is the Sabbath – or day of the week that God has generously gifted humanity with to set aside from work to rest and trust Him to provide for all our needs more than our own ambition or wealth – has historically begun during the sunset of the previous day and ends at the sunset of the next day. We currently get to begin our Sabbath day of rest in the darkness of the evening on Saturdays, and then we get to enjoy the morning light and all of the restful day ahead on Sundays. We can step into the Lord's Day (Sunday) being reminded again of the power of the resurrection of Jesus over all that wounds and enslaves us, seeing with our eyes that the evening darkness will be overcome by the morning light, and believing in our hearts that our entitlement, selfishness, and seemingly impending death can be overcome by Jesus, the God who came to us and gave us the greatest gift of forgiveness, freedom, and salvation.

Key Verses and Quotes

All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer. A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity — all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added those who were being saved. + Acts 2:42-47, NLT

"And now, O Lord ... give us, Your servants, great boldness in preaching Your Word. Stretch out your hand with healing power; may miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” After this prayer, the meeting place shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Then they preached the Word of God with boldness. All the believers were united in heart and mind. And they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had. The apostles testified powerfully to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God’s great blessing was upon them all. There were no needy people among them, because those who owned land or houses would sell them and bring the money to the apostles to give to those in need. + Acts 4:29-35, NLT

In our worship setting, we need a corporate and community call to worship. Our preaching and worship should direct our attention toward a God greater than our own experience. We also direct attention toward the needs of others in the choosing of liturgy and the selection of worship songs. We focus on prayers for the city, community and neighborhood. Because we love Jesus, His Church, and our city, we come together to do this as His multicultural and multiethnic people. + Soong Chan Rah 

With the Good News, we've been given a ministry together with a message that God is going to fulfill His mission to make disciples of Jesus until He returns with His Kingdom to completely restore creation. The Good News is about the living God overcoming all the powers of the world to establish His rule and justice and peace, on earth as in heaven. This news is about something that has happened, because of which everything will now be different. The Good News is not advice. It is not simply, “Look, I can prove these abstract truths” (rationalism) nor yet “Your heart can be filled with joy” (romanticism) but “The Messiah died for our sins in accordance with the Bible and was raised on the third day in accordance with the Bible.” Something has happened in history that has made all the difference for us and the world. + N.T. Wright

Next post: Emmaus City Group Rhythms | How We Go with Jesus + Others

Christ is all,

Rev. Mike "Sully" Sullivan

Email Pastor Mike | Website | Visit Us | Support Us | Facebook Us

Saturate | Gather, Go, and Grow Together as Jesus' Church

Learning to be a City Group
in Worcester, Massachusetts
that strives in grace
to become more like Jesus together

 As we seek to be a part of Jesus' Church in our city, with our city, and for our city, we do this in community on mission through Emmaus City Groups. Our first City Group formed around a neighborhood in Worcester, and then we multiplied into two groups formed around those we felt God was calling us to commit to friendship and community among. Multiplying has happened again and again, and we continue to pray and seek what God wants to do in us and through us next. 

I am thankful for how much we've learned about our hearts, attitudes, and defaults that too often turn us inward and away from who and where Jesus calls us to love and befriend others. It's definitely a learning process, but we're learning from Jesus, the best rabbi and teacher, with others who are hungry to learn, too.

Even more so, I'm thankful that we've seen His strength come through when we were at our ends, and how His grace is sufficient to draw people to be curious about why we would seek to love them and out city through eating together, listening to each others' stories, supporting and praying people through the ups and downs of daily life, seeking to serve our friends and neighbors in need while we celebrate their lives, and ultimately, setting our hope on Jesus and His Kingdom coming as we rest in His grace and peace. 

 

We Follow Jesus Together as We Seek to Faithfully Listen to and Obey His commands to Gather, Go, and Grow

If you're wondering why and how we do this each week, there is a great video from the Soma family of churches we are part of called Gather, Go, Grow. Maybe check it out. Or, if Jeff Vanderstelt's gnarly beard in the video is too distracting, you can just read some of the manuscript below.

With Jesus leading the way, we continue to think through how to have (1) an upward focus on who God is and what He's done; (2) an outward focus in our relationships with people and with the world; and then (3) how we let that effect the inward transformation we're experiencing and making sure we're helping each other go through transformation. So for us we began to use language like (1) gather, (2) go, and (3) grow to help us capture those primary emphases.

You'll find this true also in the Scriptures that when you look at the life of Jesus, you see Him with a few very close friends: Peter, James and John; He's got his twelve; and then He's got this larger community we following Him around upwards to at least 120 by the time He ascends. And so you see these different structures of relationship that help effectively accomplish the goal of making disciples. 

(1) Emmaus City Groups
(i.e. Missional Communities):
Gather as a Larger Group

We see the (1) gathering as the larger group where it's important to come together. We're even reminded of that in Hebrews 10:24-25 where we don't give up the meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but we come together and we encourage one another. We spur one another on toward love and good deeds. You'll find that if you're going to take seriously the mission of making disciples in missional communities together out in the world, you're going to need to get people together to encourage them. They are going to get weary and tired. They're going to forget why they're doing this. They're going to forget for who they're doing this. They're going to lose motivation because they're going to get corrupted by the world speaking to them. They're going to have lies spoken to them from the evil one. They're going to be under attack. And that's the reality of getting on the mission of making disciples. Jesus promised us that we would be entering into a war zone. We need to come back from the day-to-day mission and gather together regularly to remind God's people how great our God is and what He's done for them in Jesus Christ. So not only are they filled with hope and certainty that God will finish what He started, but their hearts are warmed again in affection for Christ as the gospel of Jesus is proclaimed to them in a larger gathering where they can be reminded that He died for us so we live for Him. And so we found that you can't take this lightly. At one point in the history of our church, some people thought that we didn't care about the gathering, which was not true. But we emphasized going so much that we didn't talk about why it's so important to gather. Now we've learned that it's important to remind the Church that they do need to gather to be encouraged, to be exhorted, to be inspired, to remember that they have a God who is perfectly capable of helping them with everything they're facing on a daily basis. So we gather weekly, whether it's in a very large group or in smaller groupings of missional communities. Either way, we want them to gather to be encouraged, to be exhorted, to experience some basic equipping and get back out on mission together.

(2) Emmaus City Groups:
Go as a Missional Community
Living Life Together on Mission

And that leads to the "go" part, which we would say it's not only primarily about the outward focus of relation to one another and relating to the world, this is one of the best ways we're going to accomplish it (2) going as a missional community and living life together on mission all week long. And we know that's absolutely imperative for making disciples because you can't make disciples merely in a gathering. They won't know if they're growing up, they won't know what to speak to in each other's lives, they won't know each other well enough to even know whether they've been believing what they've been hearing in the gathering. They won't be able to pay attention to see if people are developing the skills of making disciples unless they're out in it together. And that's why Jesus says in John 13, "This is how they're going to know that you're My disciples by your love for one another." There's a communal nature to this discipleship that can't happen during a one- or two-hour event on Sunday. It's got to happen in the flow of life together in a community. That's what a missional community is learning how to do: be the body of Christ loving one another in the middle of every day life. Not only are we doing that, we're also being a testimony to the world. Jesus says in John 17 that they're also going to know that the Father sent the Son because your unity together in the middle of the world on my mission is going to be a testimony to them because they're going to see that the world doesn't have the power to change you like the gospel does, because it's the Word that sanctifies you. It's the gospel that changes you. They're going to see a living testimony of a people being changed in the middle of the world, and then their unity together will be a picture of God the Father sending God the Son with the power of the Spirit because it's a picture of the Trinity. Our time together on the mission God's sent us to is a way of us saying, "This is what God is like as He comes into the world." And we can't do that in an event. You have to do that in every day life while you're on mission with a group of people. And so the missional community not only gathers on Sunday with a larger group, but must as a group of people go to the world as God is sending them. And then while they're going, we've come to realize you can't expect all of the heart issues and all of the struggles people are going to go through are always going to be dealt with in a missional community-sized group. In fact, I would warn you from that expectation. I've seen a lot of people try to make their missional community the primary place where every care gets taken care of, every counseling need gets expressed, and then usually what it turns into is a group counseling session and they lose sight of the mission of making disciples and they forget that there's a world out there that needs to know about Jesus. And so though it's important that we care for one another, it's important that we counsel one another, it's important that we shepherd the hearts of one another, it's likely not going to happen in a group of 15-to-25 people while you're trying to get on mission together. 

Now the beauty is while you're on mission together, the stuff of the heart shows up. The mess comes to the surface. And like Jesus said, "It's out of the overflow of the heart that the mouth speaks. It's not what goes into a person that corrupts them, but what comes out of a person." So the beauty of being on mission together is it's God's way of squeezing you like a toothpaste roll, and the stuff comes out, and we get to see what was inside of you all along. And now we can address that with the gospel.

(3) Emmaus City Groups:
Grow in a DNA
(Discover, Nurture, Act)
Where 3-5 People Discover Together
the Truths About Who God is,
What He's Done, Who They Are,
and How They Should Live

 

So we want the gathering for the upward primarily though it's much more than that, we want the going as a missional community in everyday life for the outward expression of God's people on mission, but then we need something for (3) the growing of believers – we call them DNA groups – where we help people discover the truths about who God is, what He's done, who they are, and how they should live. They can nurture the hearts of one another in their unbelief, and their rebellion, and their struggle. And then as we speak the gospel into each other's lives and lead them to repentance and faith once again, then we want to encourage them to act that out in obedience both in what they're going to do and what they're going to say. So "D: Discover," "N:Nurture," "A:Act." We usually encourage that to be about three guys or three girls. There's some flex on that. We found, however, that when you have too many guys in a group meeting together once per week, it's very hard for guys to get a word in. Guys, at it is, are harder to draw out. So having three guys and an hour or hour-and-a-half meeting allows for a lot more opportunity for each guy to share something they're working on: to share what they're discovering, what they need to be nurtured in, and what they're going to act in response and obedience in relation to what God is doing in their life. And so we encourage those groups to meet once per week. So if there are three guys, take 20-30 minutes on each guy and ask:

What did you learn this week in the Word as you studied?

Where are you having a hard time learning what God is teaching you? 

Where do you need to respond in repentance and faith, and how are you going to act, and who are you going to tell about that? 

And so that's the time in which we're diving deeper into the person and their own real need for transformation. 

And this is how all three of these work together. In your gathering you continue to pull people back to the truths of who God is as we teach His Word and remind them of the gospel and as they go to the table and break bread and take the cup. And that helps reset the week. "This is who we are, this is what He's done, this is why we're here, this is what we're about. And then let's go back out together on mission as a community. I needed that encouragement! It was a really hard wee. Some people even prayed for me at this gathering this week. I really needed that. And then let's get out on mission. By the way, we got a lot of mess going on. A lot of us are broken. A lot of us need help. How are you guys doing in your DNA group? Are you meeting regularly? Are you working through that? Maybe in our missional community we can share once in a while what God is doing in our DNA groups and how it's changing how you're acting on mission?" And so the three of them are absolutely necessary for the ongoing development of our disciples so we have that upward, outward, and inward focus for their full maturity in Christ. I would recommend you ask, "How are we going to do all three?" I don't know if I'd want to do a whole lot more than that. I think if you figure that out, you'll learn how to really form and lead a church into the activities that are required to grow them up into full maturity in Christ." 

Next: Questions to Help You Grow

Christ is all, 

Rev. Mike "Sully" Sullivan 

Email Pastor Mike | Website | Visit Us | Support Us | Facebook Us