Top Ten Questions Asked Concerning

Madison Heights Community Groups

Question: What individuals are included in community groups and is it required?
Answer: All members of Madison Heights along with those regular visitors that signed up are placed in community groups. Community groups are not a requirement for membership or right standing in the church, but they are strongly encouraged by the elders of Madison Heights. As we seek to fulfill our vows as members of this body, the elders of Madison Heights see this as a primary means of spiritual growth in great community.

Question: What about my children?
Answer: In order to facilitate the greatest amount of comfort and opportunity for sharing, children will not be a part of the community group meetings. Childcare will be provided through the community group by the community group members. One of the greatest ways you can get to know one another and care for one another is by caring for one another’s children. Childcare will be similar to Sunday worship. Those in the group will rotate from meeting to meeting watching the children of those in the group. Childcare will be onsite and the structure and process will be facilitated by the group leader and hosts.

Question: When will we meet and how often?
Answer: As the name of the group suggests, we will meet on the second and fourth Sunday evenings. The specific time of the meetings will be determined within the groups according to the needs of the group (i.e. childcare, mealtimes, etc.).

Question: How long will the meetings last?
Answer: The meetings themselves will last no longer than two hours. The groups will have a period of time in the beginning for food and fellowship.  The groups will then have between an hour to hour and a half to engage in a Bible Study, to share, and to pray together. Though the timeframes will vary from group to group, families will have an opportunity to leave after the two hour time period. Some groups will want to linger after and fellowship, which is both allowed and encouraged with sensitivity given to the host home.

Question: Will we eat at the meeting?
Answer: Due to the evening meeting time and the length of the meeting, hosts will facilitate a signup sheet for individuals to volunteer to bring food or drinks for each of the meetings. The hosts have been encouraged to keep this to finger foods to ease the cleanup process and to keep from bogging down at a dinner table. If everyone does their part no one individual will have to bare the load of feeding the group each week!

Question: What if I don’t know anyone in my group?
Answer: The groups were formulated with the following criteria:

• individuals within proximity of one another whenever possible to keep travel time down,
• age and stage of life diversity in order to encourage uncommon connections and relationships,
• age and stage of life uniformity in order to offer encouragement and understanding,
• whenever possible we have sought to make sure that everyone in each of the groups has a prior relationship with someone in there group to ease the process of getting to know others in the group.

Question: Can I change groups if I don’t like the group I am in?
Answer: The elders have worked long and hard to form these groups with the needs of the body in mind. We humbly ask that you work hard at developing relationships with those in your group and love them as brothers and sisters in Christ!

Question: What about the youth of the church?
Answer: Harrison and Mary Margaret will be hosting their own youth community group. Children who are junior high and high school age will meet at the Hatfield’s on the second and fourth Sunday’s.

Question: Will we always be a part of this group?
Answer: Just like our church vision to plant more churches, we constantly desire to plant more community groups as the church grows. Many of you will be called upon to leave your groups to plant other groups.

Question: What about community outside of our small groups?
Answer: There will be periodic events where groups will gather together for fellowship, mercy projects, and group interaction. This will not begin immediately as the groups seek to get to know one another in the group, but will be upcoming in the future.