• August 2021

    • Home groups

      Author: Rev. Douglas McCallum

      Dear CPC family,

      We all know the importance of spending time together as Christians. Even the most introverted among us need the encouragement that comes with being in the same company as fellow believers. Fellowship was one of the hallmarks of the early church (see Acts 2:42) and, of all the lessons we have learned since the start of the pandemic, surely one of the greatest has been the vital role such fellowship plays in the life and health of the church; without it, we are all the poorer.

      This is why I am pleased to let you know that, as of September, we will re-start our home groups – and, yes, they will actually take place in people’s homes! I know some groups met online during the pandemic and derived much benefit from doing so, but I’m sure you’ll agree that there is no substitute for the real thing.

      As before, they will meet on the final Thursday of each month and there will be three groups, roughly divided according to geographical areas (north, south and central Cambridge). Peter shall be leading the southern softies, DJ the sophisticated centrallers, and I have the task of heading up the no-nonsense northerners!

      The composition of the groups will remain largely unchanged, although some people have moved on and others have joined the church, so there will be some new faces. In due course, each leader will email his group, along with those we think may wish to be a part of our group, with more details (if you don’t receive an email in the next couple of weeks but would like to belong to a home group, please do let me know).

      Continuity is therefore the main theme of our resumption of home groups, but there will be one important change. In the past, we allowed each group to study its own material and largely left it to the leaders to decide what that would be. From September, however, we plan to synchronize what the home groups study. This was something we discussed at our recent elders' away day and we concluded that there would be real value in ensuring that each group is studying and discussing the same material.

      What will this common material be? The options are many, but we decided that it made sense, at least for the foreseeable future, for the home groups to discuss the sermons that had been preached at the morning services that month. This means, for example, that at the September home group meetings, each group will be looking at the first few chapters of Esther.

      I will provide a summary of the section of Scripture to be studied and will then seek to make the questions as practical and applicatory as possible. One big advantage of doing things this way is that it will hopefully reinforce what has been taught on a Sunday so that it sticks in your mind and settles in your heart more effectively. There is, I believe, a good amount of breadth in the teaching at CPC: two different sermon series on a Sunday, the midweek study, plus other meetings you may be involved with. Arranging the home group studies in the way I’ve explained will hopefully add to the depth of our teaching and, in doing so, add to the depth of our fellowship too.

      With love in Christ,

      Doug