If you're interested in joining or learning more about a Neighborhood Group, please contact us for more information.

  

Neighborhood Group FAQ's:

What is a Neighborhood Group?

A Neighborhood Group is a monthly Sunday afternoon/evening gathering of believers who live in the same immediate Westside neighborhood.

 

The groups will meet on the same specified Sunday of each month, and our regularly scheduled Sunday night prayer meeting will not occur on that day.  Gatherings will happen in someone’s home in the neighborhood, and ideally the group will meet in the same home each time for simplicity and to assist newcomers in jumping in more easily.  Each gathering will be scheduled for at least 2 hours and will be primarily unstructured, but will ideally include a meal.  The structured portion will be a 30-minute time of prayer for the neighborhood and a brief time to share neighborhood-focused prayer requests.

 

Hey, isn’t this a program?!?!?  I thought Atlanta Westside was “minimalist” and anti-program…

Uh…hey, what’s that over there?  Didn’t distract you enough, eh?  Ok, fair point.  But here’s the thing – minimalism is one of our values because we want people to have the time and freedom of conscience to get to know each other, serve their neighbors, and be Kingdom advocates for their communities.  We don’t value minimalism because we are “anti-program”, but because top-down programs have a real danger of becoming an ends in and of themselves rather than an enabling tool to bring people together to love God and others with Gospel driven purpose.  In order to stay consistent with our entire vision, there is an occasional need for some structure.  As we have grown in size, we think we’re at a place where a little bit of structure may help us better live out the vision that we believe God has called us to as a congregation.

 

So why should we give Neighborhood Groups a shot?

  • Foster “hyper-local” community consistent with our vision despite our size.  As our church has grown, it’s harder for people to know who lives in their neighborhood.  Increasingly, people either fall away from AWPC because they don’t know how to plug in to community (even if they live in the neighborhood), or aggregate to other people who they already know or are like them.  With the size of our current congregation, the entire Westside of Atlanta is too big of an area to constitute a “local” community.  Instead, the smaller neighborhoods that make up the Westside make more sense to be the primary geographic focal points of community.  We are dubbing this focus on neighborhoods “hyper-local”.
  • Provide another outlet for corporate prayer.  A central part of our vision and a necessity of a gospel life, Neighborhood Groups provide an outwardly focused place for corporate prayer.  Prayer knits together believers and acknowledges that if we are to love our neighbors with a shared vision, it will require humility and submission to the Spirit of God.
  • Kindle the flames of passion for missional living.  It’s hard to serve the neighborhoods in a coordinated way without knowing who makes up the “hyper-local” body.  By getting to know each other and seeing what God is doing in our particular neighborhoods, it is our hope that God will show us how to love our neighbors and communities together.
  • Sow the seeds for church planting in the entire membership.  It will be very challenging to plant additional neighborhood churches without a sense of community and a shared heart amongst the residents of the neighborhoods where we hope to plant.  By praying together for the neighborhoods and beginning to see how God is working in them, it is our hope that He will also give us a clear vision for where, when and why to plant another church on the Westside.

 

What a Neighborhood Group is not:

  • It is not an accountability group.  The size of some groups will make more personal group sharing challenging.
  • It’s not a Bible study.  While there may be a recommended passage to read as part of the time of prayer, there are lots of existing options for small group Bible studies.  The intention here is not to create another one.  If you are interested in joining (or starting) a Bible study, talk to one of the elders – we would be glad to connect you to a group of believers meeting already or help you start a new one.
  • It’s not an “age and stage” group.  The unifying characteristic of the groups will be geographic proximity and, hopefully, a growing sense of mission to the immediate neighborhoods.

 

How long will it last?

The initial commitment will be for 6 months (and therefore 6 gatherings).  If it’s working, we will continue it with whatever modifications may be necessary.  We would also allow people who are new to the body to jump in mid-stream to their respective group.

 

Our hope is that this will be a long-term way for people in each neighborhood to regularly connect and pray with each other and foster a shared vision for their community.

 

How would we divide up the neighborhoods?

It depends on how many people sign up, but ideally the groups would be as locally focused as possible.  Two quick rules of thumb would be:

1.       If you have a neighborhood association (i.e., Underwood Hills)

2.       If you regularly pass each others’ homes if you’re out walking your dog…or child...

 

A likely structure could be as follows:

  • Underwood Hills
  • Berkley Park/Loring Heights
  • Grove Park/Washington Park
  • Adams Crossing /Dupont Commons
  • Whittier Mill/Riverside/Vinings on the Chattahoochee
  • Home Park
  • Spring Lake / Collier Hills

 

This sounds great…but you didn’t mention my neighborhood.

That’s most likely because either:

  • We forgot.  If that’s the case, please let us know!
  • We didn’t know. There are a few neighborhoods that as far as we know don’t currently have anyone living there in our church community.  If we’re wrong about that, let us know.
  • You don’t live on the Westside.  We are structuring the Neighborhood Groups around “hyper-local” communities that are located in Atlanta Westside Presbyterian Church’s targeted area – the Westside of Atlanta.  It doesn’t mean that where you live doesn’t matter – it matters very much!  In fact, we believe that where you live matters so much that we’ve made the Westside our focus.  God is using many Gospel-focused churches to reach the many parts of our city that desperately need His redeeming hand – we believe that in order to be effective, He has called our church to live in and love the Westside.

 

Fair enough…but I plan on moving to the Westside.  Can I participate, and which group should I join?

Here’s the guidance we would give: if you have immediate plans to move to a specific neighborhood in the Westside, join that group.  However, if you are still deciding where you want to live or your plans are longer term, we’d encourage you to hold off.  Neighborhood Groups are about praying for and encouraging one another in a shared ministry to a particular place and to particular people.

 

If you’re still not sure what to do, or this whole thing bothers you, pray about it and get wisdom from others.  Talk to an elder – that’s what we’re here for.

 

Why not break up into small groups of 8-10 in neighborhoods where there are a lot of people?

The goal of Neighborhood Groups is to facilitate the building of a shared vision for the neighborhoods.  Doing this with separate groups rather than a full representation of the AWPC community in that neighborhood seems incomplete and fragmented.  If smaller groups want to form Bible studies, throw parties, or schedule other times of prayer, that’s wonderful!  We hope these more intimate groups come out of this time.