My wife and I have been members of CCC for over 4 yrs. We have been so moved by the awesome experience of Sunday service and the passion for Jesus in our church. We joined a Connect Group because we wanted to surround our family with other families that have the same passion for Jesus. We wanted a mid-week boost of the passion for Christ we share and experience with the CCC family on Sunday.
We share good food together, laugh, share our life experiences for the week and pray together. It has been so incredible to get to know other CCC families and share the love of Jesus, caring and praying for each other. It is the best support you can imagine. It fires you up for the rest of the week!
          - Steve Bury, age 55

I love my connect group because it brought me into Christian City Church! I didn't have a church that I belonged to until Briana Chiddick (the youth pastor) invited me to her connect group, and from that meeting on I fell in love with C3. My connect group has put some absolutely amazing people in my life, given me awesome opportunities within the church, and (most importantly) it has brought me so much closer to God. I am so thankful for C3 connect groups as they are truly changing lives.
           - Ali Rombach, age 17

Since I've been going to connect group I've become a new person! I used to be very shy, introverted, and uncomfortable around people, but connect group has helped to bring me out of my shell. I've found that as I've invested myself in other people, my own life has become richer and more meaningful...and now Scott and I are so excited because we get to lead our own connect group!
For me, connect group provides a much needed reprieve where I can actually just spend time with my friends and just "do life together." It's an environment where we can share our present joys and struggles, connect with people we might not have otherwise met or been able to spend time with at church, discuss what God is doing in our lives, and fight for each other in prayer! I love knowing that no matter what I'm going through, I have awesome friends right there with me.
           - Jenny Husereau, age 25

Connect Groups are an amazing part of both my wife’s and my life. We so look forward to when we get together with our Connect Group. Some of us may have experienced Bible studies or home groups in the past, but Connect Groups are really quite different. You know what it's like to have one of those great family dinners, maybe Thanksgiving, where people re-connect and re-kindle relationships? That's what it‘s like!
Sometimes we watch a video, sometimes we play games together, and sometimes we have powerful prayer until the earth shakes and heaven opens. Connect for us is like family that I can't imagine living life without. I can't say enough about how Connect Group for us is an extension of family and real people willing to live life with you in a real way.
           - Brad Sousa, age 48

What I love about Connect group can be captured in 3 words: relationships, refining, and refuge.
1) Relationships- in that in church that is your time to connect with God, so it isn’t always easy to take the time after church to really get to know people, so this sets out that time to build friendships. And just like any parent our Father God wants us to mindful of who we are friends with for in 1 Corinthians 15:33 it warns that “Bad company corrupts good character.”
2) Refining- proverbs 27:17 says it best” As Iron sharpens Iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.” Not only do we challenge each other to be and do more, but we take it to a whole other level as it is based on God’s word. I personally have grown far more in this last year than I did growing up in the church as a result of the relationships I’ve built through Connect group.
3) Refuge- Whenever someone is in need of some encouragement, prayer, or just an opportunity to vent Connect one of the best places to do that as there is a level of trust and love that only brothers and sisters in Christ can share.
So if you’re looking to have more of the right kind of friends and be challenged to become all God made you, get plugged into a connect group!
             - Rosanna Delurgio, age 26

Community and a sense of belonging is how I would define Connect Groups at CCC San Diego. At CCC San Diego, the Connect commonality that we all share is love and family-hood. There’s no initiation ritual, financial obligations, or even sweat. All you need is a few hours set aside in your week and (sometimes an empty stomach like the case with my Connect group) and you’ll be filled with lots of love, hope, and sense of being a part of a family.
There’s a Godly power to this love and family and I received lots of it. About a year and a half ago, I suffered a stroke out of the blue and because of the fervent prayers of my connect group members and members of CCC, I can stand in front of all of you and say that I’ve fully healed and recovered!
             - Charley Shin, age 39

Whoever named them Connect Groups hit it right on the head! This is a fantastic opportunity to really develop lasting relationships with fellow believers from church. We get to spend some real quality time with a smaller group from CCC. We get to pray for each other and get prayed for. The amazing thing is the follow up from your newfound friends. We genuinely care about what’s happening in each other’s lives and want to know how that job interview turned out or did your kids come to church last week. I now have a greater circle of friends in CCC that I would have taken so much longer to develop otherwise.
           - John Aldrich, age 52