We place a high value on Small Groups at New Covenant. In fact, we have approximately 40 Small Groups serving our church family and community. Each group seeks to embody Small Group practices such as Commitment, Hospitality, Engaging the Scriptures, Spiritual Friendships, Contribution, and Movement.

Each week, Group Pastor Ryan Eckhoff, seeks to encourage Small Group leaders through a weekly email, focused on one specific small group principle. This post focuses on the Small Group Principle of Contribute, as shared by Micheal Kim. 

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Pitching In Where Needed
As the holidays approach, schedules get busier, and the swell of late autumn coughs and colds make their rounds, it can feel difficult to know how best to Contribute. Contribute is one of the six practices of New Covenant Small Groups. It means that everyone has something to offer, both inside the small group and outside of it. It means we take the gifts that the Father has entrusted us and use them to bless others, especially those in our Small Group. Sometimes Contribute means we set aside our own plans or hopes and pitch in where we're needed rather than what we want.

Our Small Group has been unable to meet recently due to ongoing illnesses. I had hoped that this past Sunday would find enough of us recovered so that we could meet again but that was not to be. It would have been very easy to shrug and say, "Well, I guess we'll meet eventually" and move on with my day. But instead, I felt the Spirit saying maybe we should try and do something to help instead. What would that look like? Maybe in your group, it would be picking up groceries or shoveling snow. For our group of young families, it meant making a big pot of homemade chicken soup and delivering it so that sick-and-tired parents wouldn't have to muster up the energy to make something for their sick-and-tired kids.

The best part was the opportunity it gave me to teach my oldest son about the value of contribution and care. He dutifully accompanied me to the grocery store to pick up ingredients and was very excited to help make the soup. When I asked him later about what we did, he understood that we took our friends some soup because they weren't feeling well. He saw how we cared for them. I would encourage all of us to keep looking for ways to contribute to our own small group as well as to those around us - even as the busy holidays approach.

- Michael & Renee Kim, Small Group Leaders