The pastoral staff at large churches simply cannot provide personal connection, support and spiritual accountability for the hundreds of people who attend a weekend service. For this reason, we emphasize that what happens at our weekend service is “the worship and teaching time of Woodland Hills Church,” which is only one aspect of the full experience of “church.”
In New Testament times, “church” took place in homes, which provided a small context of 20 – 30 people where connection, support, and spiritual accountability naturally developed. Today, Christians continue to need small contexts where we can connect with other Jesus followers beyond the large weekend gathering. At Woodland Hills, these smaller contexts can be found by participating in Gathering Groups, Cultivate Classes, volunteer ministry teams, and our Sojourners house church network. We also encourage people at Woodland Hills to intentionally build “spiritual friendships” with a few other people (we regularly offer a class, “Discover Spiritual Friendship,” that helps people along this path).
In these contexts, personal relationships with other Woodland Hills people can naturally grow and offer connection, support and spiritual accountability.
