Small Groups

Align: Denver, June 29, 2021

Do you remember when church small group leaders gathered together for training and encouragement? Well, those days are back! Lifeway has partnered with The Small Group Network for a brand new in-person groups conference called “Align.”

Align is a one-day conference that will help you learn the Small Group Ministry essentials. This training is designed to set the Small Group Point Person (SGPP) of your church up for success. Small Groups are not a program of your church, they ARE your church!

Too often the church misses the purpose it was designed for—to change lives. In this training, you will learn how to align your small group ministry to your church’s vision and mission. The SGPP will learn the basics of “why small groups matter,” “what systems are needed,” “how to design a strategy,” “what is needed in your small group ministry structure” and “what their next steps for success will be.”

There are just two more Aligns scheduled in 2021: Align Denver on June 29, and Align Atlanta on October 12. These are designed to be smaller gatherings, so there is a space limit. You can sign up today at the links below.

Align: Atlanta, October 12, 2021

June 1, 2021

Are You Leading From a Place of Grace?

By Group Ministry

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.

May 26, 2021

Group Answers Episode 206: How Can We Be Better Disciple Makers?

The Whole Story for the Whole Family

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On this episode of Group Answers, Brian and Chris talk to Michael Kelley about how we can better disciple the people in our groups and our families.

Michael Kelley is a husband and father of three who lives in Nashville, Tennessee, where he serves as the Sr. Vice President of Church Ministries for LifeWay Christian Resources. He is also the author of Wednesdays Were Pretty Normal: A Boy, Cancer, and God, Boring: Finding an Extraordinary God in an Ordinary Life, and Growing Down. Follow him on Twitter at @_michaelkelley or read more content like this at michaelkelley.co.

Resources

Upcoming Groups Conferences:

Align Denver, June 29

Align Atlanta, October 12

Episode Sponsor

No matter how many people you have on staff at your church, there’s only so much you can accomplish in a day, right? Your church exists to serve your community, so the mission of your church and its staff is to reach as many people as you can.

So BELAY, the innovative staffing solution with over 10 years of experience serving churches with virtual assistants, bookkeepers and social media strategists, is offering a free download of their resource, ‘Church Leaders: Essential Strategies to Unleash Productivity.’

Let BELAY help your church live its mission in your community by helping you juggle less and accomplish more. Visit belaysolutions.com/lifeway for your free download.

May 25, 2021

4 Ways to Engage and Reengage With Your Group This Summer

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.

May 20, 2021

Choosing the Best Curriculum for Your Group

By Group Ministry

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.

May 19, 2021

Group Answers Episode 205: Steve Gladen on Why Small Groups Need to be Aligned.

Align Atlanta, October 12

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On this episode of Group Answers, Brian and Chris talk to Steve Gladen about the philosophy behind the new small groups conference, Align. Align is a one-day conference that will help you learn the Small Group Ministry essentials. This training is designed to set the Small Group Point Person (SGPP) of your church up for success. Small Groups are not a program of your church, they ARE your church! Too often the church misses the purpose it was designed for – to change lives. In this training you will learn how to align your small group ministry to your church’s Vision and Mission. The SGPP will learn the basics of “why small groups matter,” “what systems are needed,” “how to design a strategy,” “what is needed in your small group ministry structure” and “what their next steps for success will be.”

Upcoming Conferences:

Align Denver, June 29

Episode Sponsor

Let BELAY help your church live its mission in your community by helping you juggle less and accomplish more. Visit belaysolutions.com/lifeway for your free download.

May 12, 2021

Group Answers Episode 204: 3 Prayers to Pray as You Disciple Someone

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On this episode of Group Answers, Brian, Chris, and Brandon talk about the three prayers everyone should pray as the enter into a discipleship relationship. They also talk about Brandon’s next step back into the local church full-time.

Episode Sponsor

Let BELAY help your church live its mission in your community by helping you juggle less and accomplish more. Visit belaysolutions.com/lifeway for your free download.

May 5, 2021

Group Answers Episode 203: The Pros and Cons of Video

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On this episode of Group Answers, Brian, Chris, and Joel talk about the pros and cons of using video teaching in your small group.

Episode Sponsor

Let BELAY help your church live its mission in your community by helping you juggle less and accomplish more. Visit belaysolutions.com/lifeway for your free download.