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3 Ways Your Group Can Be Kind

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What comes after Valentine’s Day? Although we might only imagine the gray and cold months that wrap up winter, there’s a growing holiday gaining attention: February 17, National Random Acts of Kindness Day.

What does this mean for your group?

We often make it a group goal to be people of kindness. It’s a fruit of the Spirit after all (Galatians 5:22-23). We even say we want to be people living on compassionate mission—people who serve others outside our group, or friends who carry the burdens of those inside our small group or Sunday school.

So, if this is something we value, what if we made it a priority to intentionally and creatively engage with this holiday?

As National Random Acts of Kindness Day approaches, consider these ideas with your group:

  1. Try words

Our culture is saturated with words. From media to meetings and passing conversations, we have a lot of input. But, something powerful happens when we set aside the time to build others up. What if we, during Acts of Kindness Day and the entire week, were intentional to reach out to specific members of our group and tell them truth? Share the positive character traits we see in them? Point out the ways we see Christ working in their lives? Tell of the growth we’ve witnessed and the ways they have impacted our lives and contributed to the group? The impact of intention, kind words, is astounding.

  1. Take time

In the American culture, time can seem to be our resource in shortest supply. Busier is, after all, better. What if, during Act of Kindness Day and throughout the week, we sought to find just a little time? Time to linger slightly longer after group and ask a few more questions to some of the members. Time to pick one person to take to coffee this week. Time to babysit for some of the group members’ kids. Or, you can give time—sharing a gift certificate for the newly married couple to have a date night. We can show kindness by taking time and giving time.

  1. Train others

We compete sometimes more than we show care. Instead of training others in our group, we can get caught up in trying to be the best group leader as we are more concerned with having the most eloquent answers to our member’s questions than trying to train the members to find answers themselves and to even take their own steps towards leadership positions. What if we saw Act of Kindness Day and the following week as a landmark where our role shifted from being a leader to being a leader who develops leaders? Put another way, what if we focused on being a disciple using their gifts and seeking to develop other disciples to also use theirs? You might be surprised by the results you would find if you picked one group member and made a plan to equip them–to train them in how you prepare to lead group, to teach them how to use resources to better understand the Bible, to develop them in hospitality. The greatest kindness might be in training others to be people of kindness themselves.

No matter whether you already are a devoted celebrator of National Acts of Kindness Day or have never heard of the holiday, you can take action. Seeking to be kind to others is one simple way that we can follow Jesus and lead others toward him, pursuing loving God and others in any way we can (Mark 12:30-31).

Deborah Spooner is a Minnesota-born analytical creative serving as a Marketing Strategist for LifeWay’s Groups Ministry. As a pastor’s daughter with a background in Digital Communications and Media and Biblical & Theological Studies, you can find her at her local church, in deep conversation, or with a book or pen in hand as she seeks to know Christ more and make Him known.
Church Leadership

3 Ways to Approach Dating within Your Small Group

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Imagine this: you’re single. You’re Christian. You’re not getting any younger. And you’re in a church small group.

Does such a scenario give you a little anxiety?

From asking someone out and then having to face them again at group, to feeling the pressure to be ready to marry the person before going on a second date, the waters are dangerous. As the average age for marriage in America continues to rise, the stakes are even higher. For Christians, we add the factor that we feel the need to find our perfect ministry partner to catalyze our own faith and change the world.

How do we deal with this elephant in the room of singleness within Christian small groups while not crushing our cherished community?

  1. Dive deeper

Recently, I’ve had conversations which have echoed each other: talks with Christian women in their mid-to-late twenties who are still single and feeling scared, tired, frustrated, and confused that their mingling hasn’t produced a ring. Panic ensues.

But it’s not just that they want a man and picket fence. There’s much more happening on a deeper level: shame. Sitting at a coffee shop doing a Bible study, we talked about “things in our life we wish were there” and skirted around the subject until someone came out and finally said it: “I wish I were married. And I know Jesus is enough, but if I’m real, I want more. And I’m starting to wonder if I’m even enough for anyone to want me.” This mirrored another situation in my small group as the subject was again avoided until someone said it: “Yeah, we’re talking about praying for big things, but many of us around this room have a prayer that hasn’t been answered. We’re still single. How do we deal with this?”

There’s also shame around talking about singleness and even admitting that, when single people walk into a room full of Christians, you can guess what’s one of the first things on their minds: the opposite sex. And since our minds are supposed to be fixed on Christ, no one wants to talk about how they’re prone to wander.

I could go on. There are also questions of what prayer really means in face of unanswered prayers. There’s the reality of ealousy of others who have something we want. There’s the nsecurity in the way we are. There’s the doubts because of seemingly irredeemable issues in the past..

There’s a lot beneath the surface. If we want to handle singleness well in our small groups, we need to be willing to go deep, to dig into what’s at the root of and tied to the word “single.”

  1. Do more

Often, when we feel awkward with a topic or know it’s delicate (or just flat out don’t want to deal with its depths), we start to do less. We don’t talk about it in group. We don’t talk about it with people in our groups when we’re meeting outside of the group time. We don’t even pray for it. If we minimize contact with the issue, we minimize the damage done, right? Not necessarily.

What would Christ do when he knew something mattered to the people around Him? Not avoid it. Instead, he’d seek to meet people where they were with this need they had. Often, this topic needs to be addressed in some way with your group. To do so, get to know the specifics of your group. How many are single? How many are married? And what are they feeling, thinking, and needing with this topic?

Handling this topic better in your small groups means doing more digging: digging into the individual concerns, pains, and joys. Then, you have options of what to do next. It could mean many different results: What would it look like to dedicate a specific night of small group to talk about singleness and marriage, or having a Q&A session between those married and not? What would it look like to dedicate time specifically to pray for the marriages of people in your group and to pray for the singles? What would it look like to ask more intentional questions to specific group members about the topic of singleness and marriage, and then build it into your small group schedule or have a separate night to talk through your group’s specific challenges?

Often through doing just a little more,, we can relieve the pressure and actually start making progress.

  1. Don’t be afraid (or selfish)

Singles need the group’s leadership to step out when it comes to this topic. They need leaders who first know the pulse of the group and can see how much or little may need to be said, but also leaders who are not afraid of diving into difficult and delicate topics. They need leaders of action and not just words. Do you see people in your small group that really maybe should go on a date, even if this could mean an awkward few weeks if things don’t work out? Try encouraging them to do so. Do some single people in your group really need mentorship around this topic right now, and maybe you see a married man or woman in your group who could step in and fill that role? Try asking if they’ll invest in others in this way. Has dating become the only focus of your group and you need to recenter your group back to a focus on Christ and not only on each other? Try bringing the focus back.

More deeply understanding your group and moving through the fear to action can be hard and takes time. As leaders, we sometimes don’t have much time and often have had not wonderful experiences ourselves. Maybe we’ve been burned in a dating relationship. Maybe we’ve been single, then married, then divorced and just feel too burnout or inadequate to speak into the topic. Maybe we think it’s not that big of a deal and people just overcomplicate things. But, we can’t stay silent and comfortable when we see a need. We just can’t take that selfish route, whether that means moving past pride or insecurity (or both).

Don’t be afraid of stepping on toes. Don’t be afraid that you have nothing to offer. Don’t be afraid that this is an over-talked about topic.

Have the courage to know your group and to know your group’s needs. Then, dive deep. And, do something.

Deborah Spooner is a Minnesota-born analytical creative serving as a Marketing Strategist for LifeWay’s Groups Ministry. As a pastor’s daughter with a background in Digital Communications and Media and Biblical & Theological Studies, you can find her at her local church, in deep conversation, or with a book or pen in hand as she seeks to know Christ more and make Him known.
Group Answers Podcast

Group Answers Episode 87: Jen Wilkin

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On this episode of Group Answers, Chris and Brian welcome Jen Wilkin. She is an author and Bible teacher. Jen and her family are members of the Village Church in Flower Mound, Texas, where she serves on staff. She is author of Women of the Word: How to Study the Bible with Both Our Hearts and Our Minds and most recently In His Image: 10 Ways God Calls Us to Reflect His Character.

Questions:

  • You’re a Bible teacher at heart. What have you learned over the course of your time as a teacher that you think would be most helpful for group leaders.
  • In terms of sanctification, how does clinging to the gospel produce growth in individuals? What do we mean by “clinging to the gospel”?
  • In what ways does solid biblical teaching and group life help us form a more gospel-centered, or maybe better put, godly understanding of our identities in Christ? As a teacher how do you take measures to be intentional about helping disciples root their identities in Christ?
  • Why do Christians need the gospel just as much as those who haven’t yet believed?
  • How does the Village Church help groups progress in the Christian life?

Quotes:

Home groups can be difficult places for teaching environments.

Groups are really good at building community, and having peer-to-peer application driven discussions around the text.

When Matt Chandler is the pastor, the assumption can be that everyone in the church knows the Bible. That’s not true.

When many people hear the term, “the gospel,” they default to thinking strictly in terms of justification.

Sanctification is a grace driven effort.

Start by asking what the text is telling us is true about God, so that we can then see ourselves in relation to that and have true self knowledge.

The gospel to the believer is that you can change. You can grow in holiness.

Resources Mentioned:

www.jenwilkin.net

https://www.instagram.com/jenwilkin

Knowing Faith Podcast

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.

Church Leadership

More Questions Every Small Group Leader Has

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It can be intimidating to take on the leadership of a group, but you can be assured that (almost) every small group leader has the same doubts, concerns, and questions you do. The moment we as leaders think we have it all figured out is when we should stop being leaders. I have discovered that the best leaders always have questions, and they’re not afraid to ask them.

You can read my top five questions here, but here are three more questions every small group leader has.

1. What do we do about childcare?

This is the number one question from parents, and the number one barrier to many people committing to a small group. If you are planning to invite married couples with young kids, have a solution for this issue before the group begins. Here are a few ideas I recommend to group leaders: 

  • Each family makes their own arrangements for childcare.
  • The group hires a babysitter, and the families split the cost.
  • Work with the student ministry to hire a female babysitter who is raising money for a summer missions trip.
  • Work out a co-op relationship with another group that meets on another night.
  • Make one night a month a game night where the kids are invited to take part.
  • Involve the older kids into the discussion and life of the group. My kids have been active members of our groups through the years.
  • Rotate childcare among the members of the group, putting two non-related adults in charge of babysitting for a given night, and rotating each week.

2. What if no one shows up for the group meeting?

It can be very disheartening to prepare for your group and then have no one show up. It’s sometimes worse if only one person comes! Here are a few factors to think about if no one signs up or shows up for the group:

  • Is the group being hosted in too remote of an area from the church? It will be more difficult to ask church members to attend a group that is over 15-20 minutes from their house.
  • Is the group’s focus too narrow? Targeting a specific cause for a group to form around can be beneficial, but it will take longer to gain traction.
  • Are you meeting on an unpopular night? Look for a day and time that works well for the demographic you are inviting to the group.
  • Are the meetings consistent enough? Groups that only meet once a month will never gain the relational equity it takes to build loyalty.
  • Is the group shrinking? It is always good to add new people during the life of the small group.

3. How do I stay healthy as a leader while helping others do the same?

It’s important that we as leaders take care of our spiritual, mental, and physical selves while helping others do the same thing. We can spend so much time pouring into our group members, and forget that leading yourself is the number one priority. An unhealthy leader will eventually burnout. 

If you find yourself on the edge of burning out spiritually, here is an outline for staying healthy from Pastor Peter Scazzero. He calls it the Rule of Life. “Rule” is from the Greek word “trellis.” You use a trellis in a garden to ensure the plants grow straight and healthy.

Pay attention to these four major categories in your daily routine:

  1. Prayer: this also involves time in the Scripture and using silence and solitude in your quiet times
  2. Rest: Taking a regular sabbath, simplifying your life as much as possible, and making time for play and recreation.
  3. Work/Activity: Including service and mission into your life, and regular care for your physical body
  4. Relationships: Taking care of your emotional health through life-giving relationships with your family and community
Chris Surratt is a ministry consultant and coach with more than twenty years of experience serving the local church. Chris served on the Executive Teams at Cross Point Church in Nashville, TN., and Seacoast Church in Charleston, S.C., prior to becoming the Discipleship and Small Groups Specialist for LifeWay Christian Resources. He is the author of  Small Groups for the Rest of Us: How to Design Your Small Groups System to Reach the Fringes. You can follow his blog at www.chrissurratt.com.
Church Leadership

The Slow and Steady Pace of Discipleship

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Most of the mechanisms God uses to transform us into Christlikeness aren’t the big, but the small. They are the series of choices we face day after day. This is how Paul described growing in Christ – not as something exciting, but as a methodical process akin to that of athletic training:

Don’t you know that the runners in a stadium all race, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way to win the prize. Now everyone who competes exercises self-control in everything. However, they do it to receive a crown that will fade away, but we a crown that will never fade away. Therefore I do not run like one who runs aimlessly or box like one beating the air. Instead, I discipline my body and bring it under strict control, so that after preaching to others, I myself will not be disqualified (1 Corinthians 9:24-27, CSB).

Despite what the training montages in the Rocky movies might lead you to believe, being an athlete is hard work. It’s not accomplished in 5 minutes and it’s not usually done to the soundtrack of Survivor. Staying in top shape requires waking up at 4 a.m. every morning and going to bed early every night; having a plan for what you eat and how you spend your time; making sure that all the small choices in life point to the one goal. That’s the metaphor Paul chose for growing in Christ – it’s an athletic contest, not a magic show where doves come flying out of a hat.

One of the reasons that everything has meaning for us as disciples of Christ is because everything is either moving us toward Christ-likeness or away from it. Every choice isn’t just about the choice – it’s about whether we are embracing our sanctification or pushing against it. Paul knew the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ – that he is so valuable that anything stacked up against him looks like dung. Is it any wonder, then, that he would, just one chapter after 1 Corinthians 9, also exhort those in Corinth to consider the little things of life as an opportunity to glorify God? “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).

These common, everyday choices are the guts of discipleship. Following Christ is not just about selling everything you have for the sake of the poor (though it might indeed be that at some point); it also involves managing your time; appropriately handling your throw away thoughts; glorifying God through your eating and drinking; seeing the small things of life as things that either move you toward or away from Christlikeness. Disciples understand the true significance of these choices.

When was the last time you or I thought about these things? Chances are we haven’t considered them nearly as often as God has. As much as we might long for something new and different, something more exciting and fresh, God is still vitally concerned that we make the everyday, run of the mill choices of faithfulness because we desire the same thing that He does – to more and more resemble His Son.

Many of us, in an effort to spice things up a little bit, have abandoned thinking deeply about and struggling with these choices. Similarly, we have abandoned the everyday practices of saints of the past, looking for something a little bit more modern and progressive. So we find ourselves bowing down to the idol of excitement all while claiming to be seeking after the living God.

We don’t need something new. We need something old. We need to do the same things that saints of old have been doing in order to deepen our understanding and apprehension of the greatness of God. We need to see that it’s not some kind of secret formula or latest methodology that exposes the myth of the ordinary. Instead it’s through these means of grace that many of us have cast aside as outdated and legalistic that God has chosen to deepen our relationship and experience with Him.

Michael Kelley lives in Nashville, TN, with his wife, Jana, and three children: Joshua (10), Andi (7), and Christian (5). He serves as Director of Groups Ministry for Lifeway Christian Resources. As a communicator, Michael speaks across the country at churches, conferences, and retreats and is the author of Wednesdays Were Pretty Normal: A Boy, Cancer, and God; Transformational Discipleship; and Boring: Finding an Extraordinary God in an Ordinary Life. Find him on Twitter:@_MichaelKelley. Check out his latest book, Growing Down: Unlearning the Patterns of Adulthood that Keep Us from Jesus here.
Friday Features

How Understanding God’s Image Changes You

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 Paul painted a bleak picture of the fallen heart:

God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness andunrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress thetruth, since what can be known about God is evident among them,because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, that is,his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since thecreation of the world, being understood through what he has made. Asa result, people are without excuse. For though they knew God, they didnot glorify him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking becameworthless, and their senseless hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise,they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God forimages resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.Therefore God delivered them over in the desires of their hearts to sexualimpurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. Theyexchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served whathas been created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen.

Romans 1:18-25, CSB

Sin leaves us with deeply corrupted hearts. Paul said, “What can be known about God is evident” (v. 19), but humanity chose to suppress the truth. As a result, our “thinking became worthless” and our “senseless hearts were darkened” (v. 21). God turned humanity over to its rebellion and let us go from bad to worse. Key here to our discussion of the imago Dei is Paul’s teaching that humanity “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles” (v. 23). In rebellion we looked for lesser gods—idols—and we failed to reflect the goodness of God. The image of God was effaced, but it wasn’t erased. Humanity retains its dignity and a measure of its glory, even at its most corrupt. But that glory is dimmed or hidden. Only through Jesus can we begin to flourish and reclaim God’s design for our lives.

Romans 1 is true for all image bearers. When have you exchanged the glory of God for lesser images? What were the results?

If we’re not reflecting God’s glory, we begin to reflect whatever we worship. As one psalmist put it:

Those who make them [idols] are just like them,

as are all who trust in them.

Psalm 115:8

If we give our lives over to worshiping fame, power, money, or sex, we’ll begin to reflect what we worship without reflecting the God who gives any of those things their purpose. And the image we present won’t be pretty.

List specific ways you see image bearers (including yourself) becoming like the idols they worship.

When we worship idols, we fail not only to worship the image of God but also even to recognize it when we see it. Paul wrote:

The god of this age has blinded the minds of the

unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the

gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

2 Corinthians 4:4

As a result, we’re left blind to Jesus’ identity and His nature. It’s a hopeless situation apart from the grace of God. But that grace is extraordinary, and when it touches our lives, it changes everything.

Grace comes by the power of the Holy Spirit. Just as blind men were healed and able to see when Jesus touched them, our souls are cured of their spiritual blindness when the Holy Spirit touches them. Jesus Himself described this transformation when He promised the coming of the Holy Spirit. He told his followers:

It is for your benefit that I go away, because if I don’t go away the Counselor

will not come to you. If I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will

convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment: About sin, because

they do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the

Father and you will no longer see me; and about judgment, because the ruler

of this world has been judged. I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t

bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the

truth. For he will not speak on his own, but he will speak whatever he hears.

He will also declare to you what is to come. He will glorify me, because he will

take from what is mine and declare it to you. Everything the Father has is mine.

This is why I told you that he takes from what is mine and will declare it to you.

John 16:7-15

Jesus was describing the work of grace. It begins with the Holy Spirit’s convicting work, revealing the sinfulness of the world, the righteousness of God, and the judgment that’s coming as a result of our rebellion against God. Only when we’re taken to this low place and made aware of our sin and our idols are we able to fully comprehend the depth of our sin. At that point,we’re able to see the light of the gospel in the redeeming work of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. From this place of humble brokenness, the Spirit continues His work, guiding us to truth. The Spirit enables us to see Jesus for who He truly is, and that’s the first step on the road to the restoration of the imago Dei within us.

As you’ve walked with Jesus, how have you begun to see more clearly the sin in your own heart and in the world around you?

How does the Holy Spirit’s ongoing restoring work help you see the image of God more clearly?

Restoration continues as we live our lives with Jesus, seeking to follow Him in all the ways He taught and learning to trust in the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Such a life is transformative. As we begin to look more like Jesus, we begin to more beautifully reflect the image of God:

We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory

of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image

from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.

2 Corinthians 3:18

The imago Dei is shattered and distorted by sin, but it doesn’t have to remain broken. In Jesus we have a pathway to its restoration and, furthermore, to a restoration of the world around us. The restored imago Dei makes us better neighbors; better caretakers of creation; and better husbands, wives, brothers, and sisters. Image bearers are the best-equipped people to bring peace and reconciliation to society. They’re best equipped to tear down boundaries of race, class, and ethnicity. Their presence heals their communities as they carry the glory and love of God with them wherever they go. As we go about our lives in this tumultuous world, we should pray that God will give us a vision for ways to demonstrate the healing power of His image.

This article is excerpted from the Bible study Imago Dei.  See more on this study at Lifeway.com/ImagoDei
Group Answers Podcast

Group Answers Episode 86: Raising Up a Secondary Leader

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In this episode of Group Answers, Brian, Chris, and Brandon talk about how to identify and raise up a secondary leader in your small group.

Five Steps for Preparing a Secondary Leader

Step 1: I do. You watch. We talk.

Step 2: I do. You help. We talk.

Step 3: You do. I help. We talk.

Step 4: You do. I watch. We talk.

Step 5: You do. Someone else watches.

Questions for Meetings

  • What did you observe?
  • How did this step make you feel?
  • What could be done better or differently next time?
  • What can I do to help you successfully lead through the next step?
  • How can I pray for you?

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.

Church Leadership, Tuesday Thoughts

Tuesday Thoughts: Choosing a Location for Your Small Group

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One of the decisions that you’ll have to make early on if you’re starting a small group is where are you going to host it? There’s a lot of options that you can use and all of them have pros and cons. So I want to talk just a minute about some good options if you’re looking at starting a small group, especially offsite from where your church is. The first natural one is your home. Now, home is a great place to have a small group. It feels comfortable. It’s easy to build community in, but there are some things that you want to think about when you think about your home and whether it might be good for your small group. The first thing is how big is it? Because if you’re going to have a large, small group, and I’m talking more than like 12, you know if you’re going to have 16, 18 people in your small group, you want to make sure that you have room in your living room or somewhere in the house where everyone can comfortably sit in a circle, see each other, hear each other, and feel like they’re in community at your house. If they’re having to spread out or sit behind people, that’s going to be less viable than if they could sit in a circle and see everybody in the group. So you want to make sure that your home is big enough and you’ll also want to think about childcare. If you’re going to have a group with small kids like parents with younger kids, you want to make sure that there’s somewhere in the house that you can comfortably have childcare, that the kids can have a safe time and it’s a good place for them to be during the group. So home is a great place for your small group, but there are also some other options.

A few of them are a neighborhood clubhouse. If you live in a neighborhood that has a clubhouse, a lot of times they sit empty during the week, especially at apartments, so you might look into maybe being able to rent it for a small fee. A lot of times it’s just a fee to cover the cleaning costs, but uh, that might be a good option for you. But the downside is if you have childcare, you need childcare, that’s not always a good good place because it’s easily just one room. So, but you might look at a neighborhood, a clubhouse.

Also maybe a room at the church building. Maybe your church allows groups to use Sunday school rooms or rooms at the church during the week. And that’s a great option, especially if they’ll let you use another room for childcare again. Um, but also it kind of limits some of the community that can happen during the small group, especially if you’re going to provide food. Because not all church rooms are good for that. And it’s also not always a great place just to hang out. So that’s kind of a downside to using a room at the church.

You might also be able to use a break room at the office. A lot of offices will allow a Bible study to go on during a break time, but you want to make sure that you clear that with the people at your office. It also allows you to invite people to your group that may not naturally want to come to your home or church or to a room at the church. So that’s another good option. And then a final one is a third space somewhere like a coffee house or something like that. That’s a good place to have, especially if you have a smaller group like 5 to 10 because you can go into a coffee house and sit around a table or a group of chairs and easily be able to have a discussion. Now that’s a tougher place if you’re going to have a larger group, if you’re going to have more than 10, you might look at some other options.

So those are just a few places that you can have your group. All of them have pros, they have cons, but take a look at those as you start your small group.

Chris Surratt is a ministry consultant and coach with more than twenty years of experience serving the local church. Chris served on the Executive Teams at Cross Point Church in Nashville, TN., and Seacoast Church in Charleston, S.C., prior to becoming the Discipleship and Small Groups Specialist for LifeWay Christian Resources. He is the author of  Small Groups for the Rest of Us: How to Design Your Small Groups System to Reach the Fringes. You can follow his blog at www.chrissurratt.com.
Church Leadership

4 Must-Read Articles for This Week

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The Most Sane Kind of Insanity – Michael Kelley

The basic definition of insanity is “the derangement of mind.” But there’s also another definition, one that applies when the word insanity isn’t used in a clinical sense but as a more casual description. That’s this: Extreme foolishness; folly. That’s how we typically use the word. We use it when we see something that doesn’t make sense according to our paradigm. We use it to describe someone’s workout regimen; we use it when we observe when someone goes to bed or when or how early they getup in the morning; we use it when we hear about someone trying to get downtown at 4:45 pm on a Tuesday.

7 Ways Christian Men Can Respect Woman – LifeWay Men

The Bible honors women and condemns anything that would harm or injure women, whether physical, verbal, emotional, or sexual. God has called men to be the protectors and defenders of women. In our sexualized culture, the minds of Christian men are being assaulted with lust-inducing images from advertisements on television to Internet pornography. Temptation does not have an expiration date, so Christian men of all ages and backgrounds are affected by the world’s sexual objectification of women.

How to Build Community in a New City – LifeWay Women’s Ministry

There’s a lot that goes into moving to a new city. You’re house hunting in areas you aren’t familiar with, hauling all of your belongings in a U-Haul, trying to figure out which grocery store keeps the zucchini noodles in stock, and wondering when you’ll ever find a new dentist. But one of the hardest things about a new move isn’t finding a grocery store or a dentist, but finding community.

Ten Reasons I am Optimistic about Churches in 2019 –  LifeWay Leadership

Despite the tough reality many congregations face today, I remain an obnoxious optimist as we move into 2019. Just yesterday, I received an email about a church that I thought was headed for closure. Through a series of God-blessed events, the church has turned the corner and will remain a presence in the community.

5 Ways to Grow Your Leadership Team’s Heart for Your Church’s Mission – Eric Geiger

Every leader needs a compass in their head. The mission answers “Question Zero”: “What are we ultimately supposed to be doing?” It makes the overall direction of the church unquestionable and points everyone in that direction. The mission is a golden thread that weaves through every activity of the church. It brings greater meaning to the most menial functions of ministry.

Church Leadership

3 Ways to Get Your Group Members to Stay

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What can we do to create a sticky group, one where people return and stay? If the research conducted by Dr. Rainer holds true (see that post here) there are a few big things we can do as Bible study leaders to get people to return and stay.

 Involve them.

First of all, we can involve them in the life of the group. Most groups have a core that does most of the work of planning the parties, making the coffee, and keeping up with absentees. I realize some may feel like they earned the role, but what keeps us from finding more ways of involving people in the work of the group? One way of involving new group members is allowing them to be greeters. This allows them to meet everyone who attends while still being aware of the needs of new people joining the group.

We can also be intentional about involving everyone in the actual study time. Allowing discussion to take place in smaller groups, crafting questions that don’t assume prior participation, and asking people prior to the group time to read a passage or lead a breakout discussion are actions that will go a long way toward creating a sticky group.

 Feed them.

Whatever you call your groups, everyone attending expects there to be Bible study. If the purpose of your group is not built around Bible study, then you may need to rethink what you call your group and why you meet. Most of us have been in groups that are focused on football scores, political debates, and personal stories. We could get that from most service organizations. If it is a Bible study group, then the Bible ought to be front and center.

Beyond studying the Bible, we can help our group members understand how to better use Bible study tools. We can show them how to use a Bible concordance or Bible dictionary as opposed to simply telling them what we found. Better yet, we could hand a Bible dictionary to a group member and walk them through the steps of using the resource. The way we lead the group time matters. 

 Treat them like people.

Most of us have attended a class or group where we felt more like an item than a person. We received a different kind of name tag, were asked to do things no one else was asked to do (like being the only one asked to introduce yourself to the group), or being the only one without a study guide. As the leader, we need to think of our group as a set of individuals who happen to be in a group. Groups tend to be viewed like an institution, losing individual personality in the process.

In effect, we are fostering an open group culture by the way we as the leaders treat all attendees of our groups. Groups easily become closed without even trying. We may allow new people to join us and still be closed by how we as a group treat them. Our treating each individual as a valued person will help move others to do the same. 

 What actions have you found helpful for getting people to stick in your group?

Dwayne McCrary is a project team leader for ongoing adult Bible study resources at LifeWay, including the adult Explore the Bible resources. He also teaches an adult group and preschool group every Sunday in the church he attends.