Yesterday I celebrated a significant milestone in my life. I have now been a follower of Christ for 25 years. At that time many doubted I’d even made a true decision or that I would last a year. But I knew that things were different and that there was no going back to the old way of life. It’s been an amazing journey of many wonderful highs and of course many difficult lows. But through it all, I’m still in love with Jesus and I still choose to follow him.
 
One of the greatest keys for my “lasting the distance” was having a small group of friends around me that were able to speak into my life and encourage me on my journey. Within days of giving my heart to the Lord a guy who had been a Christian for a while began mentoring me. He opened up his home to me, teaching me what I needed to know about Christianity, answering all the questions that I had. We would spend hours and hours together and there was always a lot of laughs in the house.
 
We became so close that eventually this same mentor of mine would become my Brother In-Law, but that’s a story for another time.
 
There is strength in numbers. You will be so much stronger in your own journey with the Lord if you have good friends around you who are able to encourage and pray for you, teach you, mentor you, laugh with you, do life with you. I often say we were never meant to do life alone. This is and always will be a key to maturity and growth in the Church.
 
When you look at the life of Christ, he modeled the exact same thing. He hand picked a group of 12 men to do life with him. He taught them, encouraged them, empowered them, corrected them. Then he said go out into all the world and do the same (make disciples).
 
So the question then becomes do you have such relationships in the Church? If the answer is yes then perfect! You are well on your way to growth and maturity in Christ. If the answer is no, then you now have something to work on.
 
We have some great connect groups meeting at the moment. For a wide variety of needs and for different ages and stages. From Men’s groups to young couples, from 60 plus to single women. Groups for young adults, groups for youth. The list goes on. And if there is a chance that we don’t have one to meet you where you’re at then come and talk to us and lets see what we can do to start one.
 
The reason we call our groups connect groups is because we want you to be connected into the life of the Church so that you can be supported and grow in your relationship with God and also so that you can support and encourage others.
 
There is strength in numbers. When you are connected in you have a greater opportunity to grow in Strength. Let’s do this journey together.
 
We love and appreciate you guys so much. Have a great week and we’ll see you this Sunday.
 
Blessings Nu and Taua.