EM Growth Groups

Matt Lo 

At the leadership level, we began the year by orienting our purpose on what God’s word says about the purpose of ministry. In Colossians 1:28, Paul says his ministry is all about proclaiming the riches of Jesus Christ – he teaches everyone the truths of the gospel so that they may grow to maturity in Him. 

Our vision is for growth groups to be built in such a way that people are taught and discipled into maturity in Christ. The strategy is for our communities to be centred around God’s word so that by studying it and applying it to our lives together, members would be grown as disciple-making disciples. To that end, we sought to teach our members the truths of God by studying the riches in the book of Ezra. Rich in symbolism and references to Israel’s history, we were challenged in our understanding of biblical theology, in reading in context and in distilling robust main ideas. God’s word can be challenging but is always good. 

At the end of Ezra, we are posed with a problem – the re-building of the temple does not solve the deeper heart issue of Israel – the peoples’ recurring rebellion against their God, their guilt before his righteousness.  

In the gospels we meet Jesus – God’s promised Messiah who becomes sin for us, so that his righteousness is imputed to us. For the second half of the year, our groups will be studying God’s work in the expansion of this gospel news in the book of Acts. Pray for us as we take seriously our call to be witnesses of the resurrected Christ. 

Thanks