Building a grassroots community

Epicenter is off to a great start. We’ve already had 5 services and it is clear that God is present and working in our lives. If you haven’t had the chance to visit Epicenter yet, I want to give you an idea of what it is like and what we’ve been up to.

When Epicenter began, it was stated it would feature three primary elements: experiential worship, biblical teaching, and intentional community. How do you define experiential worship? I think the answer to that question is going to be different for each of us. What I’ve seen is our worship time has allowed each person to step fully into the process of worship. We are asked and challenged to engage in worship and respond to God in our own unique ways.

At the first service, Aaron Young began teaching from the Book of Acts Chapter 1. We are really soaking up the Scriptures because as we approach week 6, we’ve only made it to Chapter 2. I think when we normally read the Bible, we have the tendency to fly through it in order to complete the task. Taking the time to move slowly through these stories of the early Church has allowed us to place ourselves into the story of the first followers of Jesus.

Acts 1:6-8 (New International Version)6 So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" 7 He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

This was a powerful passage we heard on the first night. Aaron told us that the greek word used in this passage for power was “dynameos”, which was the origin for the word dynamo and eventually dynamite. That is some serious power. It was such an amazing passage to hear the first night of Epicenter. To hear that we are to receive “explosive power” and that God will work through us to be his witnesses all over the earth. We’ve continued to go through the first few chapters of Acts and get a clear idea of what it was like to be in the shoes of the earliest members of the Church and to discover that we probably share more in common than we might realize. They were the grassroots beginning of something that would change the world forever. What will we be?

This realization really brings me to the last element of Epicenter which is intentional community. Epicenter takes place at Sugarloaf United Methodist Church. We have the benefit of a place to gather, worship, and learn. We have Aaron, Jake, Hannah and a worship team providing leadership, but we are very much in the same place as the earlier Christ followers in Acts. We are doing something new and unknown. We don’t know what's ahead of us. We are striving to discover what plans God has for this community and what our roles will be within that community. Epicenter has been designed as a grassroots community that will look to God for direction and be driven by the hearts, minds and gifts of those that call it home.

After the worship and service time ends, we join in smaller life stage groups where we discuss questions about the message we’ve heard. We are still feeling out this small group time. Many of the groups get together for dinner afterwards. We are still trying to figure things out, but we are being intentional about connecting people. We hope people that attend will find strength and support in these relationships and, as we connect, we will discover more of what God has planned for us.

If you haven’t made it to an Epicenter service yet, I encourage you to join us. If you are a regular, I would love to get your thoughts, ideas and dreams for Epicenter. Hopefully this blog can become a place for us to let others know what Epicenter is about and also a place where we can connect and share.