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Group Leadership
July 30, 2020

Three Ways to Overcome During Difficult Seasons

By Deborah Spooner

What does it take to be an overcomer?

As you launched your groups at the beginning of this year, you likely had certain goals set—solid ideas of what success would look like and hopes for conversations, relationships, or service opportunities that your group would progress toward as meetings continued. Then, challenges—as they always do—arose.

Yet, the challenges of the past several months have exceeded even the typical trials of life. A pandemic is causing chaos. Many are dealing with the long lasting economic consequences. Churches are facing difficult decisions for reopening and are seeking how to best serve as the body of Christ. Groups are facing childcare challenges amid social distancing. Mental health is a growing concern. Relational dynamics are being pushed to their limits.

Yet in the midst of this difficulty, we all have opportunities to overcome. As your group members work through external challenges that often pose internal struggles, here are three ways you can step in to help.

  • Ask Core Questions

As circumstances around us reveal deeper realities transpiring within us, you have the opportunity to have crucial conversations with members of your group. They might realize they are struggling in particular areas: relationally, emotionally, or spiritually. Questions they’ve grappled with beneath the surface about God, purpose, or their identity might now be on the forefront of their minds. Asking questions such as “What are you learning about God in this season?”, “What sin is God revealing to you during this time?”, “What thoughts and questions are taking up a lot of your time?”, or “In what areas of your life do you feel defeated?” can lead you towards Christ-centered conversations, gently helping your leaders dive deeper into how the truth of the Bible can help us overcome weakness.

  • Remember Brokenness

Many group members may feel discouraged, defeated, overwhelmed, purposeless, or tractionless during this time. In a lot of ways, many of us are coming face-to-face with the simple reality that we are not in control. Even though we might have believed we could control our next hour, day, week, or year, it has been made clear that so much is beyond our grasp. This can make us feel helpless and broken, unable to succeed in loving others, in our jobs, or in our ministries as we once did. However, we can remind our group members that this brokenness is human and points us to the Perfect One—Christ. He can show us the way to overcome. Instead of focusing on our failures and brokenness, we can overcome through turning our eyes to the truth of what Christ says about us and how He enables us to face each day.

  • Pursue the Overcomer

Even when much seems out of our control, we can still choose how we spend our time and where we fix our thoughts. Encourage your group members to overcome the challenges of this time through pursuing the Overcomer by spending time in the Word and in prayer. Challenge them to join with one or two other group members (even if virtually) for prayer, Bible reading, and accountability whenever possible. Encourage them to memorize key verses that can fill them with hope and strength throughout the day. Challenge them to set reminders on their phones to stop and pray throughout the day for their own situations and for others in their group. The best way to overcome is to consistently seek out the Overcomer who sought us first.

Even though this season is challenging, there is hope. Overcoming is possible. Through whatever means possible, encourage your group not to lose sight of this. 

If you’d like additional resources on core questions of who we are and how to Overcome (where some of these ideas are expanded), check out the two Bible study resources below. These are available as DVD kits with teaching sessions for group use or as digital video sessions for group or individual use. 

Overcomer Bible Study

Many people feel they are less than who God says they are. We get our identity from our careers, our political positions, our roles in the family, and a number of other lesser things. However, when we understand who God is, we more fully understand who we are. This small group study uses clips from the film Overcomer to examine how we determine our identity and how we can find our true identity in Christ (5 sessions). 

Defined Bible Study

When you introduce yourself to someone for the first time, you have an opportunity to define yourself. You disclose your name, profession, and interests. These factors help our culture define us, but are those answers enough? There are bigger answers our culture can’t answer: Who am I? Why do I matter? And before asking, who am I? You must first answer, who is God?

The Scripture teaches that we are all made in the image of God. We do not define ourselves–the Creator does. We were all created to be known and loved by God. Once the answers are clear, we can move forward and discover all God has called us to be (8 sessions).

 

Group Answers Podcast
July 31, 2019

Group Answers Episode 111: The Kendrick Brothers

By Group Ministry
https://media.blubrry.com/freebibleteaching/p/s3.amazonaws.com/ministrysites/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2019/07/20143111/GA-111.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 36:49 — 50.7MB) | Embed

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On this episode of Group Answers, Brian and Chris welcome Alex and Stephen Kendrick. Alex and Stephen are ordained ministers and New York Times bestselling coauthors of The Love Dare, The Resolution for Men, and The Battle Plan for Prayer. They are also screenwriters, and film directors, whose credits include Facing the Giants, Fireproof, Courageous, War Room, and the upcoming Overcomer. 

Questions:

  • Our listening audience is comprised primarily of educational and small-group leaders. How have you seen discipleship groups, small groups, and other classes contribute to your maturity as a believer?
  • The follow-up to the #1 War Room, Overcomer, releases this August. Tell us about how this story developed, how you sensed God at work, and why it is an important movie?
  • Overcomer releases in August and we are collaborating with you to create the initial Bible study to be available in June — ahead of the movie. What is your hope for groups that engage this study that is rooted in Overcomer the movie?
  • In what ways do you think matters of identity rate among our culture’s most daunting challenges?
  • In concert with the release of Overcomer is Defined: Who God Says You Are. This is an 8-session Bible study for groups with origins in the book of Ephesians but also emerging out of the story of Overcomer. Why do you think it is important to engage this content in a group setting?

Quotes:

We shot our first movie, Flywheel, for $20,000.

When the Lord finally got out of our system our desire to the Christian Han Solo and the Christian Harrison Ford, He said, “Now I’m going to tell you what direction you should go,” and when we obeyed him, He began to open those doors.

You cannot fake or manufacture the favor of God. We would rather have the favor of God on our projects than any amount of money.

Everywhere we go as followers of Jesus Christ, any conversation we have can become a discipleship conversation.

When I think about Acts 2,3,4, that’s the way small group discipleship needs to be taking place. It’s that koinonia fellowship where we are sharing life together.

In 2017, God beginning turning out hearts toward the issue of identity.

The Creator gets to define His creation. Who are we to redefine what God has already defined?

Resources:

Overcomer Movie Facebook Page

Overcomer Resources

The Group Answers Podcast is a weekly show designed to resource, train, and encourage small group leaders. Each episode considers current trends and resources as well as timeless truths and methods of discipleship. It is hosted by Brian Daniel, a Bible study and discipleship expert in Lifeway’s Groups Ministry, and Chris Surratt, the small group and discipleship specialist at Lifeway and author of Small Groups for the Rest of Us.

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