Small Groups, Home Groups, Growth Groups, Connection Groups, Journey Groups, Shepherding Groups, Bible Study Fellowship Groups, Sunday School That Meets In Homes Groups

I don't care what you call 'em, they are vital to a church. Just read through the book of Acts, especially chapter 2. I have led a home group since we started the church 3 1/2 years ago. I am still learning better ways to do do small groups in our church. I have read countless articles, books, etc, on small groups. Currently, I am listening to "The Small Groups Intensive Workshop" on CD that I purchased from churchleaderinsights.com. It is the best resource I've ever laid my hands on how to do groups. I wish this stuff was out when we first kicked off groups. It's good, really good!

P.S. Pictured above is one of our first groups we had at Ridgeview, the Yearick/Stovall group.

Ridgeview's Summer of Servive 20,000 Touch Celebration Sunday

14,588 Touches!

Ok, we didn't quite reach our goal of touching 20,000 people this summer with the love of Jesus in some way. But, there was much joy in the journey! Pictured above is one of 3 block parties our church hosted in various neighborhoods in our community this past week. Today was our celebration Sunday where we hosted around 175 student athletes from North Greenville University and fed them lunch. It was a great day! We showed a video of North Greenville University President Jimmy Epting. He couldn't be with us today but extended a welcome to the students and thanked our church for hosting them. He even said he knew me when I was a nobody but now I'm a somebody. He cracked everyone up! It's been a great summer. We've served many people in our community; 14,588 to be exact. Hopefully, we all can see that serving others as Christ followers should be a lifestyle and we should do it cheerfully as unto the Lord. Speaking of good cheer, today I started a new message series on living the joy-filled life. I think one of the most powerful moments today is when we showed a video testimony of Renee Smith who is an active attender in our church. Renee is a couple of years younger than me and has been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease. I have admired so much her attitude through this trial. She has a joy about her. You see, happiness is based on circumstances. Joy is based on a relationship with Jesus Christ. Renee is truly an example of what living the joy-filled life is all about. It isn't based on circumstances. It's based on Jesus!