The Power of Connect Groups

Crappy Dinners. 

Have you heard of these? 

Apparently, they’re designed to dismantle the pressure that many people feel when faced with the prospect of having people over for dinner. Maybe you are familiar with it - the almost compulsive need to clean up the house to make it presentable; to use the “fancy” glasses; to cook something “special”, but pull it off as normal. Crappy Dinners are supposed to challenge that compulsion, and in the face of guests arriving, invite you to not to tidy up, and not to cook anything out of the ordinary.  

Maybe the idea freaks you out. Maybe you cannot imagine letting your guard down in such a way. But maybe you also felt some small sense of relief. Because behind this idea is buried a deep desire that we have, whether we can really identify it or not - to live life beyond the mask; to find a way to lay down the performance that we all so often feel the need to put on with other people; to show up with and for the people in our communities and families as we are, and find love, acceptance, and peace when we do.  

Mid-week Connect Groups at Tapestry Church are places where we practice living out that desire; where we can have that longing to be seen, known, and welcomed met. Each week, we show up to a house, or a video conferencing platform together, just as we are. Anxiety, depression, celebration, uncertainty, exhaustion, hope, confusion, indifference have all attended the connect group I’ve been a part of. No one has been turned away. And together we sit, committed to each other, even in the mess. 

The idea of crappy dinners isn’t new to Christianity. Jesus became human, and took on all the messiness of humanity, in order to make it possible for us to come before God not as presentable, cleaned up people, but in our true state. And there we find true and complete acceptance. And it’s because of this that we can do the same in Tapestry Connect Groups and beyond.

This season, we have 3 Connect Groups running - one on Wednesdays at 7.30pm, one on Thursdays at 7.30pm. and another meeting at 7pm on Thursdays via Zoom (video conference). If you are interested in joining a Connect Group at Tapestry, sign up either through Church Center, or via this form! We would love to have you join us!