He has made us family
In the gospel, we are rescued by God, to his community, for his mission.
This new community, the Spirit-created family of God, becomes our primary identity. Through the gospel we are born again into this new community – the Church. The gospel doesn’t just save individuals; the gospel creates a new community. Through Jesus, we are given a new identity as God’s people, out of which we now live our lives. God’s new community is the context for our new life together in Christ and our mission together to the lost. Community is essential for true ongoing gospel transformation and proclamation.
At the Fall, sin destroyed community. The Gospel restores it. The Church is the family of God, where believers live and unbelievers are invited in, to experience life under the rule and reign of King Jesus. We believe that not only does the gospel transfer us into a new community, and not only are we transformed in that community, but the gospel is most fully transmitted through that new community living together and demonstrating the goodness of living under the reign of King Jesus. (Genesis 1:26; John 13:35; Acts 2:42-47; Romans 12:10)
At Kaleo we experience the daily blessings of this new family in our Missional Community Groups.
New Identity In Christ = New Community In Christ
Our Community groups are smaller expressions of our local church who seek to live life together on mission in their local communities during the week. These communities typically have about 10-20 people who often live in the same part of town but are in diverse stages of life. Through these relationships, we mutually challenge and encourage one another in our love for God, one another, and those around us. Each community group meets regularly to eat, laugh, learn, pray and serve.
Whether you're a member of Kaleo, or you’re just checking out what it looks like to follow Jesus, it is our desire that everyone has the opportunity to be an active participant in one of these communities.
Common weekly patterns
These are some of the common patterns that folks in a missional community group may participate in
Family Meal
A regular time when a Missional Community group gathers to share a meal together. A simple time to eat, laugh, pray, learn and encourage each other in our lives of following Jesus together.
DNA Groups
This is a time when the people of a community dig into the deeper work of caring for each other. By meeting in smaller numbers (3-4) and by staying gender-specific, this is a time when we can be formed by God’s word, encourage one another in our struggles, and grow with one another in the gospel. Read more about DNA groups.
Missional Living
We desire to see all of our life—our homes, our work, our play, and our neighborhoods- as places where others can experience Jesus through us and with us.
PROGRAMS VS. REAL LIFE
Often times church structures and programs can actually hinder gospel-growth by focusing on the Christian as a consumer to be caught and kept rather than a minister to be equipped and sent. Instead of running multiple programs that keep people busy by pulling them out of normal life to attend events, it is our prayer that Missional Community Groups will equip our people to live in all of normal life with gospel intention. We differentiate Community Groups from a "program" with this definition: programs are events coordinated by church leaders that can be successfully run without requiring the rest of the body to grow in the gospel Word or rely on the Holy Spirit. Thus, a church can have a busy schedule of programs that are run smoothly and successfully (lots of people came, had fun, felt "ministered too") all the while having no one who is actively growing in the gospel.
Training and equipping in the Christian life best occurs in the normal everyday contexts of life-on-life relationship. This was at the heart of Jesus' own equipping ministry with His disciples and follows the discipleship pattern seen throughout Scripture (Deut. 6, gospel accounts, great commission, and the early church in Acts.) Therefore, programs and events cannot become the life-blood of a church that wants to make disciples, because, simply put, programs don't make disciples... disciples make disciples.
Missional Community Groups are not a program or event, but an organic lifestyle flowing from our identity in Christ as a family of missionary servants, sent to make disciples.
We currently have community groups meeting in Aberdeen and Montesano.