All Saints Home Groups: Growing in discipleship

We are happy to see that All Saints Amersfoort is growing into being a fellowship in deeper ways, through the two-weekly All Saints Home Groups that were launched almost a year ago. In May 2017, a Pilot Group was launched, multiplying into two groups in September, and then three in January 2018. We have grown in our relationships with one another, and have grown spiritually.

 

What is an ASA Home Group? Basically, it is the backbone of our “Up, In, and Out”, which are the core values we place at the heart of All Saints and seek to work out in our individual and corporate life.

• The Home Group is where we – in addition to our corporate worship on a Sunday – seek the face of God together, and deepen our relationship with Christ through the Spirit. We seek openness to the Spirit, and continue to fan into flame the power and gifts we’re receiving. (UP)
• The Home Group is also where we deepen our relationship with each other. This is where we share our lives, build each other up,  and encourage each other to live as witnesses to Jesus Christ and his Kingdom. It’s all about growing in discipleship. Essentially, this is also where the first line of pastoral care takes place: we care for each other, and pray for each other. (IN)
• The Home Group is also a place where we happily invite newcomers and seekers, to simply join in and get a taste of the goodness of the living God in our midst. (OUT). In the future, we will also seek to understand how God may be calling the home group to serve in mission within Amersfoort..

 

The Home Groups aren’t so much Bible study groups, but fellowship groups where we share our lives, engage with scripture, help each other to grow in discipleship, and pray with one another in the expectancy that the Spirit of God wants to work through us as we minister to others. This is where we, as a charismatic and missional Anglican church, seek to grow in the life of the Spirit.

 

From September until December, we focused on praying with others with an openness to the Spirit, using a New Wine Netherlands Coursebook, (with an English translation of the text for those not fluent in Dutch). How can we follow the leading of the Spirit as we pray with others? How does God speak to us through words, impressions, visions, and how do we discern? It was very encouraging for all of us to see God speaking into our lives through each other!

 

From January on, we have focused on our identity in Christ, and God’s fatherhood. Who are we in Christ? Why did God create us, and how can we grow into the person He intends us to be? Meanwhile, we still devote a great part of our meetings to pray with one another.

 

The current Home Group leaders are Grant and Jolanda Crowe (Tuesday group), Ronald and Nienke Westerbeek and Ninke van der Werk (Wednesday group), and Andrew and Marianne Tucker and Beatrijs Beitler (Thursday group). Each group contains 8-12 members. When it grows larger it will multiply. Our vision for All Saints Anglican Church is to see these Home Groups multiplying further, so eventually (and ideally) all church members and regular visitors are part of an All Saints Home Group.

 

Interested in joining an All Saints Home Group or what to know more? Please, contact Jolanda Crowe