Connect groups allow us to connect with each other outside of Sunday worship and coffee time. This is a time to get to know each other as well as share our thoughts about life, the world, and the message of Jesus Christ.

And the Gospel lets us know that being together in groups is part of the journey:

Where two or three gather together as my followers,
I am there among them.

Matthew 18:20

The meetings will be for one hour on Zoom and we will respect this time frame.

No! We will strive to send out any readings and discussion questions ahead of time, but there is no need or pressure to read these in advance. You can follow along during the meeting.

No! Connect groups are safe spaces for newcomers, seekers, and long-time churchgoers to meet and share, question, ask, wonder aloud, and connect with each other as we journey together along our faith path and wrestle with what it all means in our daily life.

No! There is no pressure to speak—share and participate as you feel comfortable. If we do call upon you to share your thoughts, always feel free to say, “pass”, and we will ask another person or move on to another topic.

We ask all participants to respect that what we chat about during the meetings stays within the group. This is important to ensure people feel safe to share their questions, ideas, and thoughts within the group.

Their role is to ensure you have a safe virtual space to meet, to provide each of you with a chance to share as you are comfortable, and to make sure we all listen while one of us is speaking. They are also here to learn. They don’t have all the answers but welcome all your questions! And they can always reach out to Reverend Ali for more information on key questions that come out of our discussions.

At the start of each meeting, we will check in with each other to share how our day was, how our week is going, and anything on our minds as a way of connecting and getting to know each other better.

After our check-in time, we will open in prayer.

Someone in the group will then read the selected scripture passage and we will discuss together how the passage sparks interest in us and how we see ourselves in the story. It’s also a time to ask questions about the passage and the themes it contains.

After this open discussion time, we will share our thoughts using guiding questions from Reverend Ali.

Finally, we will end in prayer before closing the meeting.

We hope Connect groups will find the time of connection both grounding and enriching after a busy day in between Sunday worship.