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Group Leadership

Confronting Spiritualism with Christ

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You’ve probably heard the buzzword by now: spiritualism.

Maybe it came in a conversation: “I don’t confine myself particularly. I consider truth more broadly as I’m spiritual. You know, spiritually seeking.”

Maybe it was something brought up in your small group, or something that came up as you were scrolling on your phone.

Is spiritualism something new? What’s missing when we worship something rather than Someone?

In reality, this type of misplaced hope has been around for a while. Pastor Noe Garcia has wisdom to share:

I am here in Sedona, Arizona. 

It’s kind of hard not to see the beauty I’m surrounded by. It reminds you of just how big and just how powerful our God really is. You can look and see the red rock, the creation, and the work of his Hands. How can you not believe there is a creator out there? 

But you know, it’s true that some would see the beauty of these rocks, and they would worship the thing created.

It’s what Paul says in Romans 1: They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and they worshiped the things created versus the Creator (Rom. 1:25). Here’s the problem with that: these rocks, they don’t speak back. We can bow down, we can worship these rocks, we can put our hope in them, we can put our comfort in them—but they will never acknowledge us, and they will never speak back. There is no true hope in these rocks. 

This is the great reality for Christians: These rocks declare His glory. These rocks remind us as believers that we have placed our hope in Jesus and this isn’t something that’s going to fail us. 

This is a reminder that we have the greatest God. We have the greatest Creator, and He will listen when we worship. And He will never let us down. 

For some, they anchor their hope on the rocks that won’t speak back. For us, when Christ is the anchor of our hope, we can guarantee that the Creator hears us as His children.

We have a glorious Someone who will never fail us. Let’s worship the Creator and praise Him for His creation.

To learn more from Pastor Noe Garcia (on topics such as depression, pastoral ministry, anxiety, and more) or to view his resources, check out lifeway.com/noegarcia. 

 

Group Leadership

Balancing Content and Community

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Not long ago my wife and I were enjoying a movie together at home. Upstairs, my son was doing his laundry, and we suddenly heard a terrible “thudding” sound coming from the laundry room. Our washing machine was making sounds we’d never heard before, so we ran upstairs to see what had happened. As it turns out, my son had placed his clothes into the washing machine, but he placed jeans and towels on one side as he loaded it. When they became soaked with water, they became heavier, and when the machine went into spin cycle, the imbalance of weight caused the washing machine to begin to jump and tilt. It actually moved a few inches from its normal resting place! All the while, my son laid on his bed with headphones on, oblivious to the imbalance he’d created just down the hallway.

Bible study groups can get out of balance, too. Well-intentioned group leaders may not be aware they have or are creating imbalance between content and community. Healthy groups discover the benefits of balancing content and community. Carey Nieuwhof recently said, 

“Yes, content matters because sharing the Word of God matters…immensely. However, many Christians now realize that they can watch or listen to their favorite preachers, content creators and voices in the world today any time for free. So they do. One approach is to try to equal or match the exceptionally gifted and skilled communicators out there. But for most leaders, that’s not a winning strategy. You won’t be able to compete. Growing churches (and yes, that includes small and mid-sized churches too) will realize that connection and community will win out over content in the end, and they’ll focus their resources there. Nobody should be able to out-local or out-community the local the church. Absolutely produce the best content you can, but make the goal connecting with people.”

Why is there an imbalance of content and community in Bible study groups? I can think of several reasons that lead to this unfortunate situation.

  • A group leader believes the job is about presentation. The church is blessed to have many gifted teachers. Acts 13:1-3 shows this was the case at the church in Antioch. Sometimes gifted teachers are overly zealous in their preparation as they use their spiritual gift of knowledge. They excel in understanding the Scripture, and they desperately want the people they lead to have a similar knowledge and passion for God’s Word. When the teaching begins, everything else fades into the background. Content is elevated, but community and connection often take a back seat.
  • A group leader doesn’t value community as much as content. Some teacher-leaders are just not wired to need community as much as others in the group. A teacher might be highly independent, not feeling the need for deeper personal interactions. When this happens, very little relationship building takes place outside of the group study. This kind of situation provides few opportunities for group members to experience biblical community; fellowships and fun events are kept to a minimum—if they happen at all. The focus of the group is all about the Bible study time. It takes on a more formal, academic feeling.
  1. An unhealthy codependent relationship has been created. This is one that I’ve witnessed, and it’s hard to overcome. There are occasions when an unhealthy relationship forms between a group leader and the members of the group. It’s unhealthy because the people come to hear a talented and gifted teacher expound on the Scripture as an audience and not as participants. The group members do little to prepare for the teaching experience beforehand, leaving it up to the group leader to teach them God’s Word. The teacher is content to allow this to continue because he feels needed and important; everyone in the group looks to him as the biblical expert. When this happens, the focus of the group is on content, not community.

Balancing Content and Community

When my wife and I heard the horrible sounds of the washing machine that was spinning wildly out of balance, we came up with a quick solution—stop the machine and rebalance it! I took wet clothes from the washer and dropped them back in, balancing the heavier wet clothes around the perimeter of the washing machine’s drum. When I restarted the machine, voila! Balance was once again achieved, and the machine operated properly.

If you believe your group’s content and community are a little out of balance today, I have good news. With a few adjustments, you can bring your group back to center. Here are some ways to do that quickly:

  • Schedule regular fellowships. I’ve led two groups lately, and in both groups we implemented ongoing, regular fellowships. A once-a-month fellowship coupled with “third Sunday lunch” after church gave our group members plenty of occasions to get to know one another outside of class.
  • Use relational teaching methods. One way to help group members experience community during a Bible study is to use methods that help them talk with one another. Buzz groups (groups of 3 to 4 individuals) can create conversations that don’t happen in a larger group setting. Open-ended discussion questions allow group members to tell their stories and to express their thoughts and opinions about the topic being studied. Content-heavy teaching tends to be centered on a monologue by the group leader. Moving beyond lecture can help form community during each Bible study session.

Enlist a fellowship leader. It’s alright if a group leader isn’t strong in the area of building community. There are people in the group who are. They are willing to help a teacher make sure that regular opportunities for fellowship and community take place. If you’re a group leader, look around your group for the “party person”—the one everyone likes, and the one who “never met a stranger.” Ask them to take on the responsibility of scheduling ongoing times for community-building. This way the leader can stick to what they do best—helping people understand the Bible through great content—without neglecting these opportunities to build relationships.

Group Leadership

Outreach Doesn’t Have to Be Out-of-Reach

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What would it take for us, as Christians, to be people of intentional hope—starting right where we are, with what we have?

As it turns out, we can reach others near us with simple acts of hope. This type of outreach simply isn’t out-of-reach. This summer, learn to be intentional through this type of loving community engagement. And you don’t have to figure this out alone.

Learn from Pastor Noe Garcia through his testimony of his church’s work at North Phoenix Baptist.

When I became the pastor of North Phoenix Baptist Church, one thing I quickly realized was that God has blessed us with so much square footage. In fact, we have over 350,000 square feet. 

I’m here today at our Hope Center. Here, we took part of our building and turned it into a place of hope for people in our community. We’ve taken 15,000 square feet and now offer resources to people in need. 

We didn’t just want to be a church in the community, we wanted to be a church for the community. We want to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ. 

So we have dedicated these 15,000 square feet to give people hope. It’s a place where they can come in and get food if they need it. They can get resources. They can get clothing. We have refugee services, and services for fostering and adoption. We have all kinds of stuff here for those in the community. 

Here’s our desire: we just want to be a place of hope. 

Here’s more truth: you may be saying that you don’t have this much square footage or this size of a church. That’s okay! Let me tell you, you can turn your living room into a place of hope. You can turn your office space into a place of hope. 

Whatever God has given you as a follower of Jesus Christ, you can use it.

You can use your backyard, you can use what God has given you as a place of hope for those in your community.

Let’s not wait. 

This week, challenge yourself, your friends, or your family to pray. What has the Lord equipped you with that can help spread hope to those around you? Don’t wait for tomorrow. How can you start today? 

As we each take steps right where we are, we spread the hope and joy of Christ to those around us.

To learn more from Pastor Noe Garcia (on topics such as depression, pastoral ministry, anxiety, and more) or to view his resources, check out lifeway.com/noegarcia. 

 

Group Leadership

Assimilation & Biblical Hospitality: Two Sides of the Same Coin

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On a recent Southwest Airlines flight, I watched the boarding process carefully. I was fortunate to have been in the first boarding group, and I chose my seat quickly and sat down, taking a window seat.

A man took the aisle seat on my row, and proceeded to place his computer bag in the middle seat. One of the crew members made several announcements asking passengers not to do that (save a middle seat so that no one could sit there). The flight was 100% full, and every seat would be needed.

Still, the passenger on the aisle didn’t follow the flight crew’s instructions, and his behavior was in stark contrast to others I observed. I watched another passenger, already seated, give up her seat to an elderly couple so they could sit together. That act of kindness is rarely seen. The older couple was having a hard time assimilating themselves onto the aircraft, but one passenger made it easier for them. Eventually the man on my row was forced to place his computer bag under his seat so that a person could sit between us. How many people passed by our row, wishing to take that middle seat, but uneasy about asking the fellow to move his bag? Quite a few, I bet, since we were on the fourth row of the plane! The man was inhospitable, and people knew it.

The goal in boarding the aircraft is to get everyone assimilated—place luggage in an overhead bin, place a personal bag under the seat, find a seat, buckle yourself in, and voila…you’re assimilated!

I’ll come back to this in just a bit.

During a dinner meeting last night, a friend told me of his recent experience visiting a church. His goal was to find a new church and a Bible study group to which he could belong.

This friend described how he’d visited a group, tried to fit in, and filled out a guest information card, but had not been contacted by the leader of the group, nor anyone from the group. His adult daughter had also experienced this same thing on her quest to find a church home. And now we come to the connection between biblical hospitality and assimilation.

Biblical Hospitality Helps in the Assimilation Process

Assimilation is an art and a science. But it is also one way we express biblical hospitality to others. Biblical hospitality is a way for Kingdom people to welcome others into conversations and into the Kingdom by being friendly. Hospitality is about building relationships with others. However, based on stories I hear frequently from around the country, people everywhere have a hard time being welcomed into Bible study groups. This is painful and disappointing to hear. Believers should be the most welcoming people on the planet. We’ve been welcomed into a relationship with Jesus, we’ve been welcomed into God’s family, and we’ve been welcomed into a new way of life.

Showing biblical hospitality to others means that we:

  • Value all people as unique creations of God
  • Treat friends and strangers the same way
  • Welcome people into our homes, our churches, and our lives

Assimilation is more than just becoming a member of a group. In fact, a person may be a member but never be assimilated into the body. The goal is to help people feel they are wanted, that they belong, and that they are needed

Almost 70% of people surveyed are open to the idea of attending your Bible study group. Another 6% are actively trying to assimilate themselves into a group of some kind. With these high percentages, your group and mine should be growing.

The lack of hospitality to guests is sending the wrong signal to people who are in need of biblical fellowship, relationships, Bible study, and opportunities to serve others.

5 Ways to Provide a Higher Level of Biblical Hospitality as you Assimilate People

  1. Enlist a greeter (or greeters). A greeter’s primary job is to watch for, speak to, and show hospitality to guests. The requirement for such a role? A smile, a firm handshake, and a strong desire to help people fit in.
  2. Introduce guests to others. Helping a guest meet new people is important in their assimilation into your Bible study group. As they meet new people, they’ll find others with similar interests and backgrounds.
  3. Invite guests to fellowship opportunities. Group members can and should offer to sit with the guest in the church’s worship service, ask them to have lunch after church, and encourage them to attend the next fun fellowship the group experiences together.
  4. Follow up with guests. This is a big reason why guests don’t return! If groups don’t follow up quickly with a guest, they send the signal that the person isn’t really that important to them, and that is no way to show biblical hospitality.
  5. Train your group to understand that assimilation and hospitality are everyone’s job. Even though your group may have a designated greeter or greeters, you must teach the group that showing hospitality and assimilating new people is everyone’s job. The entire group must take ownership of the process.

Don’t be like the “aisle guy” I talked about earlier! He made it harder for people to assimilate onto our plane that day. Instead, be welcoming, be open, be friendly, and practice biblical hospitality with every guest who comes to your group.

This post appeared originally at kenbraddy.com

Ken Braddy is Lifeway’s Director of Sunday School, Manager of Lifeway Christian Resources Adult Ongoing Bible Studies & Adult Trainers, education pastor 20+ years, author, conference leader, and blogger.

Group Leadership

Are You Leading From a Place of Grace?

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Most of us start out as leaders of groups with high energy and even higher anticipation of what’s to come. Then, personal challenges arise. You start carrying burdens along with your group members. You become focused on being the “best” group or leader.

No matter what prompts us, it’s too easy to step away from leading with a focus on grace. We shift to lead out of our emptiness instead of from Christ’s fullness.

How can we pause and refocus on leading from a place of grace?

Thankfully, pastor Matt Chandler speaks to living from the fullness of the grace of Christ in his latest Bible study, John 1–3.  Below is an excerpt from this study that includes encouragement, edifying scripture, and practical reflection.

From His Fullness

“For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.”

John 1:16

You’re probably familiar with the analogy that some people look at a glass of water and see it as half full, and others look at it and see it as half empty. How we mentally frame things tells us a lot about what we believe. As Christians, our goal is to align our thinking with the truths found in God’s Word.

  • Generally speaking, do you tend to see a glass as half full or half empty? What are the pros and cons of seeing things the way you do?
  • According to the passage above, from Jesus’ fullness we have all received grace upon grace. What did John mean by Jesus’ fullness?
  • In what areas of your life are you in need of the fullness of God?

Bringing to mind and recalling various ways that God has shown His grace in our lives stirs our faith and helps us to see He will show us grace for our future needs. Jesus secured our salvation by His sacrifice at Calvary. Paul wrote, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32). In other words, since God has already offered us the ultimate gift in Jesus—He will undoubtedly continue to give us everything else we need in the future.

  • Do you ever struggle worrying about whether or not God will provide the grace you need? If so, what specific areas are you concerned about?
  • What role does prayer play in presenting your worries to God?
  • On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your prayer life?
  • Think for a moment about your history with God. List several ways He has proved Himself faithful.

Grace to Help

“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Hebrews 4:16

  • According to the text above, what do we receive when we draw near to the throne of grace? How do we take advantage of this?
  • Why do we tend to place limits on the amount of mercy and grace we can receive from Jesus? Why is this attitude unbiblical?

The author of the Book of Hebrews extends an astounding invitation by encouraging readers to approach the throne of grace with confidence. If you are a child of God, you don’t have to come timidly to the throne. While we should certainly approach God with reverence and respect, we can simultaneously come with confidence. The Bible teaches that we can come to the throne of God and receive mercy and grace in our time of need, but we must approach the throne to ask. Prayer is a privilege that we neglect at our own peril.

  • What prevents you from taking your needs to God in prayer?
  • After this week’s study, do you think you have a scarcity mentality or an abundance mentality? Why do you feel the way you do?
  • Which areas in your thought life do you need to realign with the truths found in God’s Word? What passages speak to those issues?

Eugene Peterson’s translation of John 1:14 captures the grace and generosity of Christ:

The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.

John 1:14 (MSG)

Close your time in prayer giving thanks to God for the grace He has shown in your life. Ask Him to empower you to be someone who is quick to show grace to others.

This content was excerpted from Matt Chandler’s John 1–3 Bible study, session three, personal study section two. Find out more about the study here.

Group Leadership

4 Ways to Engage and Reengage With Your Group This Summer

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After a year and a half of days and months seemingly blurring together during the pandemic, a lot of us are starting to see the light at the end of the lockdown tunnel—and just in time for summer.

Summer (hopefully) means more fun time spent with family and friends. Kids are home from school, and family vacations are on the horizon. We also tend to have a bit more margin than we do during the other seasons. As small group leaders, that extra budgeted time spent with family should also include time with our group members, especially after this last season of isolation and social distancing.

Your small group should be looked at as a family, not a function. With a function, we can take breaks and come back to it when we feel like it. With family, there is no such thing as extended breaks.

That doesn’t mean we can’t take a break from hosting weekly in-person or online group meetings. Preparing and leading a Bible study every week (or even bi-weekly) can be grueling, so you deserve to take a breather for a couple of months. There are many ways, however, to stay connected to our “family” during the summer months without gathering as consistently for a study.

Here are four activities to put on the summer agenda at your next group meeting.

1. HAVE FUN TOGETHER.

Cities across America are starting to open events and group activities back up again. This would be a great time to go to a ballgame with your group, or celebrate the Fourth of July together with a picnic in a backyard or at a park.

Schedule an evening around a fire pit making s’mores and sharing stories of how God has been faithful to you during this season. It feels like this past year has sucked a lot of the fun out of group life, and summer is a great time to put it back in.

2. SERVE SOMEWHERE TOGETHER.

Nothing bonds a group better than being on mission together. There are food pantries, youth centers, and other missional organizations in almost every community. Pick out a Saturday in June or July to serve as a group. If it’s a great experience with an organization making a real difference, commit to an ongoing relationship.

As lockdowns around the world are easing, churches are also starting to plan short-term missions trips again this summer. The trip, however, does not have to be international—there are massive needs in communities all around us. Partner with an organization that is already making a difference and take your group on a day mission trip.

3. CONTINUE TO STUDY TOGETHER.

Just because we may not be meeting weekly does not mean we have to stop studying the Bible together. Lifeway offers several flexible options to help keep your Bible study going throughout the summer.

You can jump into a free online Bible study with thousands of people from across the nation and world to watch teaching videos, follow along in Bible study books, and engage in discussion.

Or you can choose a study on smallgroup.com. But instead of meeting together every week for the discussion, set up a Facebook page to go through it online, at your own pace. Your group members can watch the video on their own and then post comments on the page. A great study to try this summer would be Making Space by Jeff Vanderstelt.

4. PRAY CONSISTENTLY TOGETHER.

Although prayer is listed last here, it really should be the first and last thing we always do together. Keeping up with prayer needs in the group is critical during this time. That could be done through email, text, GroupMe, or anywhere your group naturally and digitally connects. Make sure to also use those channels to celebrate when God answers those needs!

By getting creative and thinking outside of the box, your group family can still stay engaged in community and grow in discipleship this summer. Let’s gather and regather our groups with purpose!

This article originally appeared on LifewayVoices.com.

CHRIS SURRATT (@ChrisSurratt) is the discipleship and small groups specialist for Lifeway Christian Resources, a ministry consultant and coach with more than 20 years of experience, and the author of Leading Small Groups: How to Gather, Launch, Lead, and Multiply Your Small Group.

Group Leadership

Choosing the Best Curriculum for Your Group

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By Reid Smith

A question every small group leader contemplates when starting a new group or season is what content they will use as their study focus. Sometimes, this question is answered by church leadership, if your church creates weekly study material based on the weekend messages or a church-wide groups-based campaign is implemented. Ultimately, you want to have a philosophy and plan in place to select small group curriculum.

We all have our biases about what we like or don’t like with study material, so I’ll be upfront about mine. I look for Bible-based material that comes from a trusted source, matches my church’s DNA (theology, core values, language, and style), is clear with its purpose, manageable in size (5-8 weeks), is designed to build relationships and activate faith (through good, open-ended, application-oriented questions versus fill-in-the-blanks and leading/predetermined-answer questions), has creative and engaging content delivery, and isn’t too burdensome, academically or homework-wise. 

If the curriculum is video-driven, I look for bite-size segments versus sermon length teaching, to encourage more interaction. Be mindful of your group as you make decisions about homework, watching videos ahead of group time, and other time demands. Expectations outside of group time are perfect for some groups but don’t work quite as well for others. I prefer material that enriches each member’s personal devotional life and challenges them to serve together. Rick Warren’s “40 Days in the Word” is a good example of this. 

Most group leaders are intimidated by the idea of having a pure Bible study and only using the Word of God, which is too bad. If you discover this, think of ways you can help them build their confidence and competency in this area. There are plenty of “through-the-Bible” or “exegetical” Bible study tools that can help, such as The Gospel Project, and there are many studies that focus on a single book of the Bible. Regardless, a church’s point leader for groups should be prepared to answer questions related to choosing and using curriculum for maximum impact.

Find out if your lead/senior pastor has preferences about curriculum before you research and offer recommendations. This simple step might even inspire greater alignment between the weekend programming of the temple courts and the group life of the house-to-house movement in your church! The 12 criteria below are intended to help you think through the best choices for your group or small group leaders.

Criteria to Consider Question for Leader
Publisher / Author Does the study come from a reputable source?
Theology Does the group curriculum look to the Bible as its source of truth and concentrate on the essentials of our Christian faith?
Scripture Does the content reference Scripture and succeed at getting group members to dig deeper into God’s Word?
Purpose Does the curriculum’s objective or purpose support your group’s focus this upcoming season, taking into consideration the personal goals of your group members?
Communication Does the language, emphasis,and style of what’s being communicated reflect your church’s DNA?
Duration Does the number of sessions required to work through the material make it a reasonable commitment for new or existing members?
Video If your group curriculum is video-driven, does the average length of each segment work easily within your allotted meeting time?
Engaging Is the delivery of the content dynamic or boring?
Questions Are the questions designed to be thought-provoking, stimulate conversation, and promote life application?
Homework If there is homework, how much are participants being asked to do in advance of meetings and how do you think group members will respond?
Access & Cost How easy does the access and cost of the material make it for people to join in? (This varies depending on whether the content is for the leader or the members, if it can be downloaded, etc. Find cost effective options.)
Chemistry Does the content fit the personality of the group? In other words, based on what you know about your group members, do you think they will resonate with the “feel” of the curriculum and the style in which it’s communicated?

Familiarize yourself with what’s out there and prepare to answer questions related to choosing and using curriculum for maximum impact. 

Remember that curriculum is meant to serve your small group—not the other way around. Always be flexible and prepared to scrap the material if it feels like the energy of the group is waning. Essentially, the curriculum you choose should support the transforming work of the Holy Spirit in people’s lives. It shouldn’t feel like a chore to get through it, rather, it should be inspirational and faith-stretching!

At the end of each season in a small group’s life together, you want to see evidence of people loving Jesus more, loving others in the church more, loving God’s Word more, and loving spiritually-lost people more. Remind group leaders how the Lord will use them, their group members, and many other factors—including the curriculum—in this process.

Reid Smith has been equipping leaders in churches of all sizes and stages of growth for effective disciple-making since 1996. He lives in Wellington, Florida where he serves as a Groups Pastor at Christ Fellowship. You can find more of his helpful resources at www.reidsmith.org.

Group Leadership

Three Conversations to Activate Spiritual Gifts In Your Small Group

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By Reid Smith

We tend to think about spiritual gifts on an individual level, but it can’t stop there! Small groups offer the best environments for discovering how the Lord has graced each member and they’re ideal outlets for believers to exercise their God-given gifts together. The biblical community that grows in small groups inspires Christ-followers to be faithful and bold in using what the Lord has deposited in them to advance His Kingdom. 

A spiritual gift is a special enablement that God gives to each believer, according to His grace, to build up the Body of Christ (Rom 12:6–8). Spiritual gifts enable us to do things with greater spiritual effectiveness because we’re not operating by our strength alone. The Lord has called us and empowered us by the Holy Spirit to share our gifts by serving others.

God’s power flows to and through a group in life-changing ways when spiritual gifts are being used in concert together. As a small group leader, you want to be sensitive to the supernatural composition of your group so as you think about how to grow and serve together, begin by asking who is in your small group rather than what you should be doing. You can facilitate three conversations to help in this discovery process.

Conversation #1: Introducing and Identifying Spiritual Gifts

  1. Introduce spiritual gifts to your group and highlight how every believer has them. Refer to 1 Corinthians 12; Romans 12:1-8; Ephesians 4:7-16; 1 Peter 4:10-11.
  2. Have everyone complete an assessment and bring their results back to share with the group. Here’s a couple of examples: https://www.freeshapetest.com/ or https://gifts.churchgrowth.org/spiritual-gifts-survey/
  3. Invite your small group to affirm how they see the spiritual gifts evident in each person who shares.
  4. Draw a circle and segment it according to the number of your church’s purposes (or core values). Brainstorm where each of your regular group practices fit under the purposes represented.
  5. Talk about how the spiritual gifts represented in the lives of your group members relate to your…
  • Church’s purposes
  • Group’s practices
  • Group fulfilling your church’s mission

Spiritual gifts help believers discover their unique capacity to serve God and effectively advance His purposes in the world. They also help small group leaders empower each group member to carry responsibilities for the group and turn its energy and focus outward, keeping it healthy. 

Conversation #2: Building Well-rounded Group Life Together

These questions can be used for a conversation on how to leverage spiritual gifts to build community within your small group and strengthen its impact:

  1. How can each group member use their God-given gifts to strengthen and enrich the group (1 Cor 12:7)?
  2. Which practices are frequent and active in our small group (Bible study, sharing meals, prayer, etc.)?
  3. Which practices are infrequent or inactive that we need to somehow incorporate in our small group life (e.g. sharing the gospel in word and deed, etc.)?
  4. What is needed to continue developing the frequent group practices and to elevate the infrequent or dormant ones?
  5. How can each one invest their spiritual gifts in our larger church family and further what the Lord is already doing?

The goal is to empower each group member to connect their gifts to a group practice that will express your church’s purposes. Consequently, biblical community will grow and your group members will be empowered to live out your church’s mission together. 

Conversation #3: Connecting Spiritual Gifts to Group Practices

One way you can empower your group members is to ask each one to champion an area of your small group life that’s in keeping with their gifts, you can approach this by…

  1. Creating a list with two columns: One for what’s needed to continue developing the frequent group practices and the other for what is needed to develop the infrequent or dormant group practices.
  2. Brainstorming with your group what an easy (baby) step could look like for one season or semester of your small group’s life together.
  3. Asking group members to pick 1-2 group practices they can picture themselves developing and to give the group a snapshot of what that looks like. Which opportunities tug at their hearts the strongest?
  4. Observing what people naturally gravitate toward and asking questions to explore their interest levels. Help people see connections between development opportunities and the deployment of their spiritual gifts in your group or your larger church family.
  5. Inviting group members to take responsibility to develop or strengthen a group practice for a season/semester of your small group life or deploy their spiritual gifts in a ministry of your church.

As individuals are faithful to use their God-given spiritual gifts to build up others, they can be entrusted with greater responsibility in stewarding an area of your small group life. This will empower them in ministry, lift the load of responsibility you’re carrying, multiply leadership development, and grow biblical community, which is transformational for everyone!

Reid Smith has been equipping leaders in churches of all sizes and stages of growth for effective disciple-making since 1996. He lives in Wellington, Florida where he serves as a Groups Pastor at Christ Fellowship. You can find more of his helpful resources at www.reidsmith.org.

Group Leadership

Small Groups are Spiritual Warfare

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by Jared Musgrove and Travis Cunningham

“Spiritual warfare has increased ever since we decided to step into leading a group.” 

We just heard this from four more newly launched group leaders. And it’s not the first time.

Why are we constantly surprised? 

Group leaders are often the most frontline ministry leaders in the local church. Of course the enemy of God targets those leading His children into a space for community with Him and one another. 

Listen, there’s nothing the enemy hates more than Christians joining together in unity. If he sees you getting along, developing friendship, experiencing healing, or even suspects that you might have a shot at this… he’s on the move. 

We won’t get knocked back in our group ministry when we realize, recognize, and expect the reality of spiritual warfare. We should pray up and prepare our leaders for it. 

We’ve come to realize that a large part of discernment is being aware of where the enemy is countering with resistance. Where are the places where it’s just not working? It just feels… off? Out of sync? Reminiscent of Babel? 

Here’s the unexpected encouragement: the enemy doesn’t attack what doesn’t concern him. If you feel attacked as a group leader or groups point person in your church, lean into the resistance. There’s a reason for it. Maybe the enemy sees potential that even you don’t. Refuse to give the good ground and ask for discernment to see his schemes against the good God has for your group. 

Instead, go on the offensive. Here are a few simple ways to keep your group from being pelted or pecked to death by the enemy of God. 

Prayer Before

A simple, yet profound way to prepare for the warfare and the work in group is to pray over the seats in living rooms or classrooms. Many times a prayer team or volunteers will do this before a service meeting on a church campus. We should do the same before our group meets. 

Your group members are likely people of habit who sit in the same general spot each time. Use this for the work and warfare. Pray for the individual who sits in each seat by name. Ask for the Lord to give you Scripture to pray for them, pray what you know, what they’ve shared, ask for God to meet them tonight in group. 

Prayer Over One Another

The enemy hates friendship or even just healthy relationships between Christians. No wonder these are so hard. The enemy’s assault on them is constant. 

So too should be our prayers over and for one another. Spend the first part of group time acknowledging the truth of the warfare in your group. Pray over and for one another. We’ve found the best method for this is to pray the One Another commands of Scripture when you meet. As you are apart, keep praying for one another and what the Lord is doing in your group. 

Prayer Afterward 

Small group is spiritual work and warfare. Pray to close the group and include a blessing over the house where it’s held. Ask that the Lord would guard and guide the souls in the groups and the homes represented. Such cleansing prayers are simple but essential to being sober-minded and vigilant (1 Peter 5:8). 

In closing, when it comes it comes to demons and darkness and the spiritual realm, we face two common dangers in regard to our small groups: 

On one side, we can attribute every problem to demons and darkness. Physical ailments, illness, injuries, depression, divorces, whatever else. It’s all demons and it’s all spiritual. And that’s not true. Sometimes a cough is a cough. And sometimes a talkative small group member is just a talkative small group member. 

On the other end, we can attribute nothing to demons and darkness. There is no spiritual realm, there are no demons, there are no operators of Satan in our world out to oppress and possess people. Again, this is not true. We will face the enemy’s head-on resistance in our efforts to lead people into community with God and one another. 

Prepare as leaders and prepare your leaders for this reality through prayer.     

—

Dr. Jared Musgrove is the Pastor for Leader Development and Groups at The Village Church in Flower Mound, TX. 

Travis Cunningham is the Lead Pastor for Preaching and Vision at StoryChurch in Rancho Cucamonga, CA.

Group Leadership

How Seeing Differently Can Impact Your Group

By

Levi Lusko recently released Through the Eyes of a Lion, a six-session Bible study considering how God can use impossible pain to become a place of incredible power.

But what’s so special about the eyes of a lion? Lusko shares:

“The eyes of a lion were built to see.

They function essentially like night vision. 

First of all, there’s that white stripe that’s under each lion’s eye that functions in the exact opposite way as eye black that an athlete would wear. Eye black minimizes light coming into the eye to keep glare to a minimum while playing in the bright sun.

The white under the eye causes all available light to flood towards the black pupil of the lion’s eye—which is bigger than our pupil and can be opened wider than a pupil of a human. Lions have so many more photoreceptors, called rods, in the back of their eyes. Cones help you see color, and rods help you see shape. Lions don’t have as many cones as they do rods because they don’t need to know color; they don’t pick out their outfits based on what shade they’re going to wear. But, they do need to see shapes and silhouettes.

So, everything about the lion’s eye was built to see. 

All cats are like this. In fact, every cat, on the back of their eye, has a shiny surface that bounces light that comes in back out. Whenever you take a photograph of a cat, their eyes shine because this light is shining back out where it came in. It allows the lion, or the cat, to use any light they get twice; they use it on the way in, and they use it on the way out. So, it appears to be brighter than it actually is.

I believe that this is exactly what the Holy Spirit is capable of doing to you. 

In fact, Paul prayed for it explicitly in Ephesians 1 when he said: I pray that God would give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation that your eyes may be enlightened.

He was praying what I hope will become true of you. That you could see light through the eyes of a lion.” 

— 

What if we strove for our groups to experience this type of sight that is granted through the wisdom of Scripture as revealed through the Holy Spirit? 

Seeing through this wisdom allows us to make wiser choices and to display the fruit of the Spirit.

As you prepare to lead your group or as you seek to be a faithful and engaged group member, you can take steps towards pursuing such wise sight. Pray Scripture for those in your group as Paul did. Turn to Ephesians 1:15-23 and pray that the eyes of their hearts would be enlightened. Pray that they will know the hope to which they are called. Ask that you all will understand the immeasurable greatness of Christ’s power towards believers.

As you pray for this wise sight, your group can experience change. The way that you look at situations can be viewed through the glorious reality of the finished work of Christ. The conversations you have can be pointed heaven-toward. And the way you view your own pain and the pain of those around you can be colored with the compassion of Christ and the equipping comfort of the Holy Spirit.

To find out more about seeing with the eyes of a lion and how your pain can be transformed into power, check out Pastor Lusko’s latest Bible study here. 

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