Rochester Red Wings Game & Group Serving Opportunities

Red Wings Game - Group Leader Celebration

It's been a long year! Community Groups were never more vital than this past year, but also never more difficult.

One small way to say thanks for your investment is through our Group Leader Celebration.

We want to purchase tickets for you and your family to join us at a Rochester Red Wings Baseball Game!

Last year COVID cancelled our celebration plans. This year we want to bring back the Red Wings game. It won't look quite the same as previous years, but we are glad to be able to offer tickets to you and your family to join us at the game.

Here are the details:

When?

• Friday, June 18th, 7:05pm

What do fans need to enter Frontier Field?

• The Redwings are no longer requiring proof of vaccination or negative COVID-19 tests.

• Masks must be worn by fans 2 years and older at all times, except when eating or drinking in their seats.

• 2021 Redwings Season FAQs

Who Can I Sit With?

• All of our tickets for Northridge Group Leaders will located in the same area. Tickets will be provided in pods of 8.

• If you have specific people you'd like to sit with, let us know when you RSVP. We'll try our best to accommodate those requests.

Ready to RSVP?

• To lock in our seats, we'll need everyone to RSVP by May 21st.

Serving Opportunities for Your Group

Clean up the El Camino Trail

• The El Camino trail is a multi-use pedestrian greenway that was adapted from an old railroad line. The 2.25-mile trail runs from Mill Street in High Falls all the way to the Seneca Park pedestrian bridge. The trail provides a safe, continuous pedestrian and bicycle route accessible to citizens from all walks of life. One of the northern portions of the trail runs along the east side of the Rochester campus' parking lot. This is a great project to do as a Community Group to spend time together, get to know more of our beautiful community, and serve our neighbors.

• For more information and access to cleaning resources, email Eric Lintala, at elintala@northridgerochester.com.

Build a picnic bench for our partner school, Rise Community School 106!

• Right down Ridge Road near Kodak, less than a mile from our Rochester Campus, Rise 106 serves pre-K through 6th grade as a part Rochester City School District. The students and faculty would love another 3-4 picnic benches to use during lunches and free time. This is a great opportunity for your community group to come together to serve students in our city with the use of their time, talent, and resources.

• For more information, please email Eric Lintala at elintala@northridgerochester.com.

Sermon Access Update

Our team has updated when our sermon videos will be available on our website. They will now be posted on Monday afternoons.

The sermon audio will be available on our website by 12:30PM on Sundays.

You can always find our full services on facebook (including sermon) immediately after each service.

What thoughts or questions do you have?

Reply to this email, contact your coach, or share your ideas on the Northridge Leaders Facebook Group.

Upcoming Sermon Series

• Mind Game (April 11 - May 23)

Trimester Dates

• Spring: April 11 - May 29 (7 weeks)

Additional Resources

Why Giving Advice Is Hurting Your Group

Why Confronting Is Showing Love and How To Do It Well

What Your Group Members Aren't Telling You

How To Get The Most Out of Your Prayer Time In Groups

In-Person Group Recommendations During COVID-19

14 Outdoor Social Ideas For Your Group

Group Leader Podcast

Why Confronting Is Showing Love And How To Do It Well

This Group Leader article was written by Nancy Simmonds who serves on staff at Northridge as a Community Group Coach, Counselor, and our Webster Kids Director. Nancy shares highlights from a counseling article on confrontation I think you'll find helpful as you care for your group members.

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In a recent issue of the Journal of Biblical Counseling, J. Alasdair Groves shares why confronting someone about their sin is actually the most loving thing to do. He goes on to share some guidelines on when to confront and when not to, as well as how to confront lovingly for the good of the other person.

Here are some highlights from this article:

• The Bible is clear that confronting can be a "vital element of love."

• "Refusing to confront a fellow sinner stumbling toward destruction is not kindness, politeness, or being non-judgmental; it is selfishness. It places our desire to avoid discomfort ahead of the good of another person."

• We have natural tendencies to lean either away from or toward confrontation:

  • Some of us are hesitant to confront but we often end up judging from a distance, gossiping, avoiding the person or just pretending the problem doesn't exist.

  • Some of us appear to thrive on confrontation, always ready to put others in their place. We can be full of harsh words, leave a string of broken relationships in our wake, and can be short on grace.

No matter what direction you lean, Alasdair shares some helpful insights on how to confront well.

When Should You Confront? 

NOT every time. We are all sinners in need of a savior and we need to humbly remember that! At each opportunity we have a choice to let love cover the offense OR confront the offender.

When To Cover: 

 "The vast majority of our responses to sin ought to fall into the category of covering an offense." Covering means continuing in the relationship without making an issue of their sin.

When To Confront:

Confront when it is causing significant harm to the offender's relationship to you or others. However, you may want to ask these questions first:

• How close is your relationship?

• Who else is in their life that could speak into the issue?

• How big of a problem is it?

How Should You Confront?

Here are 10 ways to confront (from least to most forceful):

1. The first step is to prepare your own heart, NOT think about what you want to say! Loving confrontation is always gentle and focused on the other's good. 

2. Ask genuine questions that invite self-reflection, not judgmental leading questions.

3. Encourage them in what they are already doing about the problem.

4. Show compassion for other's temptations.

5. Exhort - urge them to pursue God-pleasing behaviors and attitudes.

6. Express concern - describe the behavior and your concern.

7. Warn - call attention to specific negative consequences of their behavior.

8. Plead - appealing to the relationship that the two of you have.

9. Rebuke - name the problem, call it wrong and insist it stop.

10. Pull back - change how you relate to the unrepentant person.

Ultimately, the aim in confrontation is help the other person repent - turning from their sinful ways to God's ways for God's glory and their good! 

If you found this helpful and you want more details, you can download J. Alasdair Groves's article for $1.99 here: Nine Ways to Confront in Love, A Primer for the Timid.

Nancy Simmonds

Community Groups Coach

Here are a few additional resources you may find helpful:

How to Have "The Talk:" Overcoming the Dread and Delay of Crucial Conversations (Breakout)

This breakout will give you tools and approaches that prepare for emotionally charged conversations. It will introduce strategies to transform anger and hurt feelings into powerful dialogue, making it safe to talk about almost anything, so you can be persuasive without being abrasive.

How To Address Unhealthy Dating Relationships (Breakout)

What do you do when someone in your group makes a bad relationship decision? Whether it is dating an unbeliever, living with their boyfriend, sleeping with their girlfriend, or dating while in the process of getting a divorce. This breakout will give you a Biblical framework for how to think about these issues and practical steps on how to carefully address them with the members of your group.

Discipleship & Counseling Training (Northridge Equip Class - Begins March 3rd)

This ten week training will teach you how to compassionately and skillfully use God's word to help people grow and change for God's glory, whether through casual conversations, mentoring, leading a group, discipleship, or counseling.

Do You Have A Question?

We would love to be of assistance to you.  Contact your Group Coach HERE or search our website to find other counseling resources, Group Trimester dates, curriculum options, leader tips, group forms, sermon discussion questions, past leader training content, and much more!