Koinonia Mission Group is called to consciously hold up for the community the ways that we can create Koinonia with each other and with those people who are exploring Seekers.
The call of Seekers Church states: “Our call is to be a ‘Seekers community’ which comes together in weekly worship rooted in the Biblical faith, with shared leadership.… By ‘Seekers community’ we mean an intentional body which sees Christ as our true life source. Koinonia with one another and genuine self giving are the ways that we can be in Christ today.”
Koinonia means “fellowship” or “partnership” and is exemplified by Jesus who called forth disciples and mentored them, who had dinner with outcasts and engaged in discussions with the religious leaders of his time. Jesus valued his interactions with others; he enjoyed a party, and he saw real value in all people whether they were children or adults, rich or poor, powerful or weak. His life is an example of how to live in Koinonia with each other. Like Jesus, we Seekers want to partner each other into knowing God more deeply and more intimately, and we believe that we do that by being in fellowship with one another.
Our mission group is called to consciously hold up for the community the ways that we can create Koinonia with each other and with those people who are exploring Seekers. We are called to create and sustain opportunities within our life together that will build Koinonia, and identify and remove barriers that would prevent deepening our fellowship together. Although the call to Koinonia with one another is one that all Seekers hold, the role of the Koinonia Mission Group is to make it more visible, and by holding it up, make that call more central and intentional in our life together.
We are called to shepherd into the life of our community new people who are coming towards us.
We are called to deepen our relationships and fellowship with the neighborhood in which we live.
We are called to ensure that Seekers Church is a welcoming space.
Our disciplines will include regular prayer for new people in the community and for our group, regular attendance at our meetings, a commitment to individual spiritual practices, weekly spiritual reports, and personal sharing.
Living Out Our Call
A mission group’s vision and call may evolve as the mission group’s understanding of its mission grows and changes beyond what was originally envisioned. Circumstances in the community may change or dictate what a mission group needs to be about in holding up its call. The living out of a mission group’s call depends on the gifts and skills of its members and their own emerging sense of individual call to the mission group’s goals.
After careful and prayerful consideration we have listed below the things that this initial group of four members is planning to take on in carrying out our call. We believe that as others join us, this list may change based on their skills, gifts and emerging sense of call to the work of building Koinonia within our community and the world.
Jesus often found opportunities for Koinonia in “table fellowship.” We are called to create and sustain table fellowship opportunities in our life together.
- We will facilitate our traditional community meals (Easter breakfast and Christmas Eve dinner) and evoke and support new ways that we can share table fellowship together in large and small configurations.
- We will facilitate our traditional community Overnights (in March and October) and seek to create ways in which our conversations and times together can build our life together, and deepen our understandings of each other as individuals created in the image of God.
- We will facilitate celebrations within our community!
- We will facilitate Coffee Hour every Sunday.
Because of our unique structures and the freewheeling nature of our community, it is often very difficult for people to find their way into our community life. Often Circle Time and Coffee Hour are a blur of information and friendly faces, but it is difficult to make deeper connections.
- We will, with the help of the rest of the community, greet and welcome new people as they come towards us and make an effort to discover what longings of the soul they bring and help them make those connections within Seekers which may meet their needs.
- We will maintain contact and follow up with people as they explore the life of our community and discern whether God is calling them to “this small part of the body of Christ.”
- We will encourage those who are exploring Seekers to deepen their fellowship with Seekers by taking advantage of the Sunday morning classes, especially the “Intro to Seekers Class,” classes in the School of Christian Living, special events, silent retreats, and when appropriate, mission group membership.
- We will seek to find ways that new people can share their gifts with the larger church community. *We will continually look for and hold up ways that we as a church can improve our hospitality, and our fellowship with others.
Since our membership is scattered and not all of us live in the neighborhood, we can feel disconnected from what is going on around us.
- We will listen for and announce ways that Seekers can join with others to make a difference in our neighborhood. Often making a space welcoming entails making sure that the details are covered.
- We will ensure that there are enough paper supplies on hand for the bathrooms, kitchen and kitchenettes, and cleaning supplies for the cleaning people. We will also make sure that there are First Aid supplies and other necessities available.
- We will ensure that there are the supplies necessary for Coffee Hour each Sunday.
- We will work with others to ensure that people who rent our building or use our space have the necessary and adequate instructions to use the kitchen and other features of the building.