Connect & Belong
When people come to Christ City Church for the first time, we encourage them to come to Connect, where we talk about what it means to be God’s people while focussing on 1 Peter 2:9:
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
Connect
At Connect we do three things:
- We look at our vision – to make a positive difference in the city of Dublin Spiritually, Socially & Culturally.
- We look at our 4 values – mission, community, discipleship and leadership.
- We look at the 3 places to belong – city groups, Sunday Gatherings & Life Groups.
Belong
In other words, when people come to CCC, we encourage them to go to Connect so they know what the church is and how to join. Belong is the next step on that journey, from just connecting to church to taking responsibility of the church and allowing the church to take responsibility for you.
If we think of church as a family, Connect is the equivalent of going to another’s family’s house for dinner whereas Belong is cooking dinner together as a family so that others can connect in.
Church as a family – benefits & responsibilities
In a healthy family, each member cares for and takes responsibility for the others, knowing that the other members are looking out for them too. In any healthy family, there are benefits and there are responsibilities.
– Connect is where you benefit from the family but don’t take responsibility for it.
– Belong is where you receive the benefits and commit to the responsibilities.
At Belong we want to think about those benefits and responsibilities; it’s our equivalent of church membership.
Since the church is a family, belonging to a church family should provide the same sort of things that a healthy family provides: a place of security, belonging, love, guidance, support, help into maturity, food and purpose. So belonging to the church is sharing the commitment to being a healthy and not dysfunctional family.
At Belong we’ll think through what the New Testament church looked like and think about the difference between being committed and being a consumer. We’ll think about how belonging to a church enables loving shepherding, personal growth, fostering of a caring community, effective mission and careful church discipline.
Baptism & Communion
At Belong we’ll see from the New Testament that the waters of baptism are the way you join God’s global church (you’re united to Christ), and the bread and the wine are the way you remain within God’s people (through communion with Christ). So baptism is the way you join the church, and communion is the way you belong to the church.
In baptism, all your old loyalties and identities dissolve in the waters and are replaced with new allegiances to Christ and his people. There is one body because, as Paul says, we all share in one baptism (Ephesians 4:3-4). In communion we all remind ourselves and partake in our oneness, because though we are many, we are one body, for we all share the one loaf (1 Corinthians 10:17). So in communion we feed on Christ together by faith and are strengthened in our union with him and one another.
Connect, Belong & Renew
Going forward in church life, we’ll have three different ways to help us grow together as God’s family:
- Connect, for new people who join and want to learn our vision and values and how to get involved
- Belong, for those that want to take that next step of taking responsibility for the church and allowing the church to take responsibility for them
- Renew, an annual covenant renew week where we remind ourselves together what it means to be God’s people in the city, for the good of the city. Do read more here.
Dates & Venue
If you’re interested in attending Belong please email Steve or Maffy.
Resources
- a theological reflection paper on church membership at CCC
- for further reading see the book list on page 17 of the theological reflection paper
- read the booklet
- listen to Belong – church as family
- listen to Belong – Q&A
Missed Belong, listen below and we’ll be holding Belong again next term.
Everyone is invited to attend Belong, even if you have only recently joined the church and haven’t been able to attend Connect (you can do that later). We highly encourage everyone who calls CCC their home church, or is considering doing so, to come to Belong.