Loving Strangers: April 2019 CG Leader Gathering

by Eric Spivey | May 21, 2019 | Leader Gatherings, Resources

On April 2, 2019, we met for our twice-a-year Downtown CG Leader Gathering. For the past few years Vintage Downtown has been picking a church-wide yearly theme, and our theme for 2019 was “Love God, Love Neighbor,” taken from the two Great Commandments.(Matt. 22:34-40) At our Spring Gathering we talked about the implications of this theme for community groups, particularly in the context of loving one’s neighbor. If we want to love our city, reach people with the gospel, and shine like lights in the darkness, we have to live in and grow in our love for our neighbors. And looking at some key Biblical texts we see that this love has to be geared first and foremost towards strangers.

The three videos below summarize the content from our gathering. They look at loving strangers from our typical Vintage formula of Know, Live, and Advance. In order they cover 1. what is the love of strangers? 2. what does it mean to live according to this (particularly in repentance)? and 3. how do we advance the gospel in loving strangers?

All the way at the bottom of this page you’ll see some resources from our training, the notes from the content as well as a handout on selecting service projects in your neighborhood or context, along with the book recommendations from Part 3.

Part 1: The Love of Strangers