the living room

Why do we call this ‘the living room’? Easy, because that’s where you invite your friends in to relax, to rest, to share what’s on their heart.  It is also part of a discipleship strategy that Andy Stanley describes in his book, Creating Community.  He calls this the “Foyer to Kitchen” approach.  The idea begins with describing ’guests’ who you may talk to on your front porch or ”foyer”, which represent large community gatherings such as Sunday morning worship. Then he offers “the living room” which  signifies “medium-sized environments designed to change people’s minds about connecting”, such as our ABF Communities. Last, he then describes those who we are closest to, those people we have our deepest conversations with as we lean on the counter in our kitchens.  This signifies our small groups, environments designed to “change people’s minds about their priorities.”