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Political Conversations With Your Group

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by Will Johnston

Abortion. Gun ownership. Immigration. Global warming. Tax cuts. Gender identity. Race relations.

These are critical issues facing our society and our country today, and as such, they are critical issues facing followers of Jesus.

Here’s another one, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:34-35, ESV).

You notice that Jesus didn’t say, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love those who agree with you, look like you, act like you, talk like you, vote like you, think like you, and live like you.”  If he wanted us to do that, he needn’t have said anything.  It’s usually pretty easy to get along with the people who are just like us.

I spent a decade living and working in Washington DC.  My career began in the political world before ending up in the pastorate, and during that time I got to know gay Hispanic liberals, white conservatives from the heartland, and African-Americans from the inner-city.  I knew wealthy and powerful people, and I knew the down and out.  On any given weekend the church I attended (and later joined the staff of) could have elected officials and people who spent the night on a park bench worshipping in the same service.

When you’re digging into life with people, when you’re opening up yourself, and they’re opening up to you, there really aren’t any off-limits topics.  And politics are likely to come up.

But as small group members, leaders, and pastors, it’s incumbent on us to remember that Jesus’ command was not for us to hold a particular perspective on a given issue or to vote for a particular political party but rather to love one another.  And as important as all of those issues mentioned above might be, they’re not as important as Jesus’ command to love.

Here are a few ways we can show love to one another when political conversations arise at small group… or family gatherings, workplace lunches, and social outings for that matter.

Don’t assume.

There are people who love Jesus on just about every side of a given issue and certainly in both major political parties.  So don’t assume that everyone else in your group agrees with your perspective.  Avoid comments like, “I’m just praising God that so-and-so is our next Senator.” or “Maybe now we can finally get that law overturned.”  Statements like this tend to cause people who disagree to either lash out or to seethe silently.

In the first statement, you’re assuming your will is God’s will regarding a particular candidate, and most of the time it takes a whole lot of pride to presume to know exactly what God’s preferred election outcome is.

In the second statement you’re assuming that the others in the group agree with you that a particular law should be overturned.  They may have a totally different perspective.  At the worst, you can make people feel like they’re not welcome in the group because they don’t agree with you.

Don’t attack.

I’ve got a couple of good friends whose political perspectives have changed somewhat significantly over the past several years, and my own have shifted a bit as well.

In no case were these changes brought about because someone berated or belittled us.  They didn’t happen because someone told us we were defying God or that all good Christians think a particular way about a particular issue.

If you want to change someone’s mind, a full frontal assault is rarely productive.  When you’re offensive, it makes people defensive.

Don’t debate.

Participants in a debate have one goal in mind: to win.  The audience might watch a debate to gain perspective on an issue or learn about candidates, but the debate participants are rarely trying to get to the truth.  They’re trying to prove their point, to show that they’re better.

I can often win debates because I’m good at debating.   I can know I’m wrong and still win a debate.  If you’re having a conversation about politics at small group and your desire to win is greater than your desire to arrive at what is right (even if it means you’re wrong), then you’re not doing a very good job of loving the other people in your small group.

Do listen.

Rather than assume others agree with you, make space for them to disagree with you.  Say things like, “I know some of you may disagree with me on this, but I think this law is going to make our city a better place in three particular ways…”  That’s a rational and reasonable statement, and you’ve opened up the conversation for others to disagree rationally and reasonably.

Do ask questions.

Questions are far more powerful than statements.  When someone expresses a political view you disagree with, you can say, “I think you’re wrong, and here are three reasons why.”  Or you can say, “That’s interesting.  Why do you think that?”

The first puts the person on the defensive.  The second opens them up.  In listening to their reasons, you might actually learn something you didn’t know or have your own perspective changed.  If not, others will likely be more open to your opinion since you’ve been willing to listen first.  You’ll also be able to make a better case for your perspective if you know more about their reasoning.

Do engage.

Don’t be afraid of political conversations, and don’t feel like you need to avoid disagreeing with someone in the group.  Just be sure to disagree without being disagreeable.  We all have rough edges, and part of how those get smoothed down is when others lovingly engage with us.

Let us keep the words of Jesus, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” in mind in the midst of all of our conversations, because as critical as any particular political issue or race may be, none is as important as Jesus’ command to love.

Will Johnston is the Director of Build Community at Eastside Community Church in Anaheim, California. Will graduated from Wheaton College with a degree in theology, did a two-and-a-half year stint on Capitol Hill, and then joined the staff of National Community Church in Washington D.C., where he oversaw small groups.

Thursday Giveaway

Thursday Giveaway – Gospel Foundations

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Each week on Thursdays we highlight a trustworthy discipleship resource that can help you in your mission to make disciples. This week’s post is from Gospel Foundations Volume 2: A Wandering People (Exodus – Judges), Session 1: God Hears His People. At the end of this post there is a link to sign up for a chance to win a free giveaway of the first volume of this resource!

God listens to the cries of His people.

Read Exodus 3:2-10.

It’s a simple statement but often one difficult to believe: God listens to the cries of His people. When circumstances mount against us, when the pain in our lives is very real, we might wonder if God really hears our prayers and cries for help. This is surely what the Israelites felt throughout their protracted slavery in Egypt.

Moses, as an Israelite, was likely familiar with the cries of his people that had been offered up to God for four hundred years. The Israelites knew their history, that God had promised their forefather Abraham that He would give them a land of their own and He would bless them in a special way . Perhaps after so many years in slavery, some within the Israelite community wondered if God had gone back on His word.

Despite the decades and centuries that passed, God was still listening. In His mercy, God heard the cries of His people and responded . Notice who initiated the conversation: God came to Moses . God revealed Himself to the man He had chosen to intercede for His people and then identified Himself as the God of Moses’ forefathers.

Humans have no right to demand an audience with God. God is not dependent upon us; all of creation is dependent upon Him . God is not accountable to us; we are accountable to Him. God would have been fully just and righteous to create this world and leave it to the natural processes He sustains, never to intervene (by way of a miracle), never to communicate with His human creatures (by way of special revelation), and never to involve Himself with our human plight (by way of redemption). There is nothing about our existence that forces God to be a God who reveals Himself. And yet, God listens to our cries and then acts in response.

God would not allow His people to continue to suffer. Instead, He would intervene to rescue them . Here we see a shadow of the good news of the gospel! The gospel is the story of a God who issues a call to helpless sinners . In our spiritual blindness and deafness, we are imprisoned and enslaved by our own sinfulness. We cannot see the goodness of God until He gives us new eyes. We cannot hear the voice of God until He opens our ears.But God, out of sheer grace, spoke to us in a most unexpected way—through His Son, the Word. God chose to enter our world of darkness through the person of Jesus Christ . John 1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (v . 1). And then, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (v . 14). Jesus is God’s Word to us, breaking through our dark, silent prison and saying, “Let there be light!” (“In him was life, and that life was the light of men. That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it” [vv . 4-5] .) In His perfect life and sacrificial death, Jesus revealed God to us. He showed us God’s character. He demonstrated the love at the heart of the Father’s authority.

This same heart of love, grace, and compassion is on display as God listened to the cries of His people. Just as He would later do in the gospel, God would take action on behalf of the Israelites. He would do for them what they could not do for themselves— bring them into freedom and, in so doing, continue to keep His covenant promise to Abraham.

What have you experienced or are you experiencing that might make you doubt whether God is listening to your cries?

How can reminding yourself of the gospel also remind you that God is indeed hearing you when you cry out to Him?

This article is an excerpt from Gospel Foundations Volume 2: A Wandering People (Exodus – Judges). Gospel Foundations takes groups through the storyline of scripture in one year.  Learn more and preview three free sessions at lifeway.com/gospelfoundations. Fill out the form below before tomorrow night at 11:59pm for an opportunity to win a free bundle of this resource. The bundle includes 10 Volume 1 Bible Study Books and 1 Leader Kit.

Group Answers Podcast, Uncategorized

Group Answers Episode 72: Holidays with Groups

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On today’s episode, Chris, Brian, and Michael discuss how to navigate the holiday season successfully with your group.

Quotes:

Halloween is great time to get to know your neighbors.

The holiday season can be a small group killer.

You have to be intentional with what you’re going to do during the holidays.

You want to avoid doing something just for the sake of doing something.

You have to have a sense of reality and clarity when it comes to your group during this time.

The holidays are great time for discipleship. There’s a natural vibe in culture to focus on the things of God.

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

Remove Your Masks

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by Tyler Quillet

It’s that time of year when kids (and some sugar-craved adults) are running around your neighborhood in crazy costumes to collect candy. Each Halloween, we all think to ourselves at some point, “I wonder who is under that mask?” If you are a small group leader, you’ve probably asked that question about folks in your group as well. They may not be wearing a Spiderman mask to small group, but they certainly aren’t revealing their hearts either. So, how do we as small group leaders create an environment where the masks come off? It’s an important question, because masks hide important issues and struggles.

Nine years ago, my wife and I experienced our first of many miscarriages. We were broken. As much as we wanted to cancel small group that week, we knew that as leaders we had an opportunity to be vulnerable with our group. This could go a long way toward us all doing life in Jesus together in the years ahead. We were done with our study and it was time to share prayer requests, so we shared our news from that week. We wept as we opened ourselves up and shared our hurt, our anger and our confusion. The group’s response was something we could have never imagined. Crickets. Nobody said a word. They just sat there and stared at us. It took awkward to new levels. They didn’t know what to do or say, so they did and said…nothing. I finally broke the prolonged silence by praying a general prayer and as people left that evening, a few of the ladies gave my wife a hug to say they were sorry. That was it.

It would be really easy for me to get angry with our group for this. Clearly, we were hurt. We were a newer group of young couples and people weren’t totally comfortable with each other quite yet. However, do you know where the blame lies for that awkward evening? Right at my feet. As the leader, I hadn’t created an environment of transparency. I hadn’t yet modeled vulnerability. To that point, our new group was a bunch of people wearing masks who got together to eat good food and read the Bible together. We didn’t yet trust one another, and so everything shared up to that point as a group was fluffy and superficial. I had failed them, and so when we opened our hearts up, it was something they hadn’t experienced before and they didn’t know what to do.

A good friend of mine who I co-led a group with years ago often jokingly used the phrase, “It’s time to get naked.” Now, please don’t take this literally at your next small group meeting. It won’t go over well and you’ll end up in jail! But I love what that entails when it comes to our hearts. It’s time to strip away the pride, the embarrassment, and whatever else you are trying to cover your heart up with. It’s time to take the mask off of your heart and allow those you are in community with to see your struggles, your hurts, your emotions, your flaws, and your desperation for Jesus.

Doing this once isn’t going to make you a transparent group (see story above). However, modeling a transparent heart, asking transparency of your group each week, and loving and encouraging each other through the transparency is, over time, going to bring you all closer to one another. More importantly, it’s going to bring you all the closer to Jesus.

It’s up to you to ask the Lord for discernment in what to share with your group and when. As group leaders, we have to lead the way in bringing our people to a place of transparency. It may be difficult at first, but true discipleship begins to happen when we are doing life together, sharing our hearts and pointing one another towards Jesus each step of the way.

May your group continue to grow in heart-level sharing with one another, may you be faithful to care for one another as you share from the depths, and may you pray fervently for those who take off their masks and share what they desperately need from Jesus.

Tyler Quillet is the Discipleship Strategist for the Custom Bible Study team at LifeWay Christian Resources. He lives in the Nashville, TN area with his incredible wife, Cathie and two boys, Cylas and Bowen. Tyler spent 15 years as a pastor in Ohio before moving to the Nashville area and is passionate about serving churches and pouring into church leaders in a variety of ways.
Church Leadership

3 Advantages of Small (groups and the microchip)

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by Dwayne McCrary

The November 15, 1971 issue of Electronic News included an ad that read, “Announcing a new era in integrated electronics.” The ad announced that the first commercially available microprocessor was hitting the market. With that announcement, the Intel® 4004 chip launched a revolution we continue to see unfold today. The 4004 chip reminds us of the advantage of small.

Small also contributes to the effectiveness of a Bible study group. I don’t pretend to know what number makes a group small or large in your context, but for me, once a group exceeds 20, it is no longer small. And remember, 10 couples equals 20. In my experience, something is lost when a group exceeds that number.

So what makes small so powerful? There are at least 3 advantages.

Advantage 1: Teaching Options. The larger the group the more limited our options when it comes to how we can teach. Large groups tend to move us into presentation mode and out of teaching mode (which explains why a professor teaching a class of 100 usually lectures). Presentations are about content. Teaching is about engaging the people in the group; tailoring the group time to fit their experiences, needs, and learning styles. Small makes it possible for us to use a variety of teaching approaches, giving us more tools to use when tailoring the group experience.

Advantage 2: Flexibility. A strength of a large group is mass. That mass is also a weakness, limiting the places they can go as a group. For example, if the focus of a particular study was serving, we might move the group meeting to a local ministry location where we can meet and then serve through that organization. The larger the group, the less likely we will be able to do that. Small makes it possible for us to meet in all kinds of locations without overwhelming the location.

Advantage 3: Trust. Our willingness to share is a function of trust. The greater the trust, the greater our willingness to share. When we feel like we know the others in the group, we are more willing to take the risk of sharing our ideas and experiences. Informal conversations that take place as people arrive, when they are sharing a snack, or gathering their stuff to leave nurture this trust. The larger the group, the less likely these trust-building informal conversations occur on a broad scope which lowers group trust.

When a group becomes large, however you want to define large, we may want to begin the process of starting a new group so we do not sacrifice the items listed above.

What other advantages have you found for creating smaller groups?

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.

 

Thursday Giveaway

Thursday Giveaway: Explore the Bible

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Each week on Thursdays we highlight a trustworthy discipleship resource that can help you in your mission to make disciples. This week’s post is from Explore the Bible: Genesis – The Life of Jacob Fill out the form at the end of this post by Friday, September 7th at 11:59pm to enter for a chance to win this free resource!

What may cause a person to intentionally deceive others? How do you typically
respond after you discover that you were deceived?

You view a social-media post that promises a free getaway, noticing that it came from a friend. You click on the image only to discover that the free getaway has some catches. You’re required to use a specific airline and a specific booking agency. You also discover additional fees for the “free” trip. You then discover that if you share this post with other people, some fees will be waived. Suddenly you’re not nearly as interested in the trip.

Understand the Context

Abraham died when he was 175 years old, leaving behind two sons, Ishmael and Isaac (see Gen. 25:7-9). Because Ishmael wasn’t the promised son (see 17:18-19), Isaac received God’s blessings (see 25:11), including the covenant God had made with Abraham (see 12:1-3; 26:1-5). Isaac married Rebekah (see 25:20), and they had twin boys, Esau and Jacob (see 25:24-26). Born only seconds before Jacob, Esau was the oldest and, as a result, first in line for his father’s patriarchal blessing. But God selected Jacob instead to be the patriarch (see 25:23). Although the word patriarch doesn’t appear in the Old Testament, the New Testament uses this descriptive title to refer to Abraham (see Heb. 7:4), the sons of Jacob (see Acts 7:8-9), and David (see Acts 2:29).

Isaac’s family was divided by marked favoritism. Isaac favored Esau because, like him, Esau was an outdoorsman, while Rebekah favored Jacob (see Gen. 25:27-28), creating conflict and competition between the two sons. One day when Esau came home exhausted and hungry from hunting, Jacob offered his brother a meal, only after Esau promised him the older brother’s birthright (see vv. 29-34).

 As Genesis 27 opens, Isaac was old and nearly blind (see vv. 1-2). Before giving Esau the patriarchal blessing, Isaac asked him to hunt some wild game for a meal. Rebekah, who was secretly listening, quickly devised a deceptive plan whereby she cooked a similar meal, dressed Jacob to resemble Esau, and had him steal his brother’s blessing (see vv. 3-17). Although the plan was his mother’s, Jacob eagerly went along. Because he was ambitious, his only concern was that he might be caught (see vv. 11-12). But when his mother agreed to take his father’s wrath (see v. 13), he concluded that the reward outweighed the risk.

Explore the Text

Isaac was old, no less than one hundred (see 25:26; 26:34), and believed he was approaching death (see 27:1-2). In Old Testament times a father’s blessing was more than an expression of love. The blessing of the father, as the patriarch of the family, was an official, binding transfer of the patriarchal line, along with a prayer for prosperity and superiority. Isaac’s blessing also meant the recipient and his descendants would be heirs of the covenant God had originally
made with Abraham (see 12:1-3) and extended through Isaac (see 26:1-5).

When Jacob came to his father, posing as Esau, Isaac sensed something was wrong. After lying about his identity, the meal, God’s help, and his appearance, Jacob deceived his father.

When dealing with people who don’t always act with integrity and transparency,
what can believers gain by setting an example?

The kiss was a formal part of giving and receiving a blessing. Here it marked the end of the ceremonial meal (also a formal part of the blessing) and the beginning of the spoken blessing. Isaac’s doubts about his son’s identity had been removed. How was Isaac so easily deceived?
His preferential love for the older son led to his deception. He heard (see 27:24), tasted (see v. 25), touched (see v. 26), and smelled (see v. 27) what he was looking for—Esau. Because of his unrelenting favoritism, he believed because he wanted to believe.

What are some ways favoritism is manifested in the church? What are some consequences that result from favoritism? How can we prevent it?

Through an act of deception, the blessing went to Jacob. Although Jacob took what God had promised him (see 25:23), this deception wasn’t God’s doing. We can’t justify using deceptive means to obtain worthy ends.

In spite of Jacob’s deplorable actions, God was faithful to His promise. God’s promises are immutable, that is, unchangeable, based on His divine wisdom. They don’t rely on our actions but on His absolute faithfulness. Although Jacob’s life journey could have been more enjoyable if he had waited on the Lord, God delivered on His promise, as He always does. Because Jacob did things his own way, God sent him to the school of hard knocks. Along the way God broke
Jacob’s selfishness and transformed him into a man He could bless.

What are some occasions in Scripture when God accomplished His purposes despite a person’s sinful conduct? What can we learn about God from those examples?

Apply the Text

❯ Believers are to act with integrity and transparency when dealing with others.
❯ Believers must guard against favoritism, knowing it leads to personal deception.
❯ God can bring to pass His sovereign purpose despite the selfish actions of a sinful person.

 

Group Answers Podcast

Group Answers Episode 71: Trillia Newbell

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Our guest today is Trillia Newbell. Trillia is the author of the kids’ book God’s Very Good Idea, as well as Enjoy: Finding the Freedom to Delight Daily in God’s Good Gifts (2016), Fear and Faith: Finding the Peace Your Heart Craves (2015) and United: Captured by God’s Vision for Diversity(2014). Her writings on issues of faith, family, and diversity have been published in the Knoxville News-Sentinel, Desiring God, True Woman, Christianity Today, The Gospel Coalition, and more. She has spoken at numerous conferences, churches, women’s retreats, colleges and seminaries, including True Woman, The Gospel Coalition Women’s conference, Southeastern Theological Seminary, and more. She currently is the Director of Community Outreach for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission for the Southern Baptist Convention.

Questions:

  • In your book you say there is a richness in knowing — really knowing — someone who is different from you. Trillia, can you elaborate on this, maybe with a personal example, of what you mean here by “richness”. This is about as close to the heart of group life as it gets.
  • As you have addressed issues like reconciliation and diversity, what biblical foundations have you tended to draw from?
  • Let’s challenge ourselves with a different perspective. You are at times very transparent about your own experiences in United. You use words like fear, ashamed, and embarrassed. How would you articulate the experience of feeling alone even amidst hundreds of people.
  • A church’s group ministry would seem to be uniquely positioned to serve others in ways that combat sentiments of isolation as it relates to diversity. How have you seen or can you see groups in their various expressions help churches work towards greater diversity and unity?
  • How do you think groups can counter a sense of rejection that some carry?
  • Trillia, why would a church work towards greater unity? It’s hard and in some places simply because of location and a city’s profile it feels almost impossible. In your opinion, why is it worth the effort?

Quotes:

“In any group situation, we want people to go from surface to deep. We want them to know one another.”

“One of the great benefits of knowing people is knowing people who are not like you.”

“We are all made in the image of God. That is the foundation for how we think about other people. God values all people.”

“Throughout the scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, we see a picture of God creating a people for Himself, to be saved by His son, to be in community with one another, and to one day be ultimately worshipping together for eternity.”

“In a group setting, it’s good to ask people how they are doing, and then probe a little bit deeper.”

“It’s so easy for small groups to be comfortable and insular. It’s really difficult to break into a small group that has been together for a long time.”

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: The 4 D’s – The Debater

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Okay, we’re having a conversation about the EGRs in your group and that stands for extra grace required people. And Those are just simply people that may take a little bit more of your patience, a little bit more of your time than everybody else in the group. Also refer to these as the four D’s and the first week we talked about the dominator. That’s somebody who just dominates the conversation during the group time. Then you’ve got the dodger, which is the opposite of the dominator, and they’re somebody who doesn’t enter into the conversation. Then you have the debater and the drainer. And today for just a minute, I just want to talk about what do you do if you have a debater or debaters in your group time. So these are people who want to debate the study. They want to debate the conversation. Now, some debate is, okay, and if you’re studying the whole Bible, you’re going to have some controversial topics that are going to require some discussion, but at the end of the night, we want the truth of God’s word to the land. So what do you if you have somebody who always wants to debate it, there are four things that you can do that I think will help as you lead your discussion.

The first thing is to prepare. Be prepared before the group time. Read through the discussion guide, make sure you know where the finish line of the discussion needs to go, so when you have that debate, you can kind of move them towards God’s word.

Second thing that you want to do is study. So make sure that you study the whole passage, the whole scripture that it’s not just one or two verses, so as you studied together with the group, refer to other passages that kind of bring more light to the topic than just one or two verses refer.

Refer to a study Bible like the CSB Study Bible that will help shed a little bit more light on the topic that you’re studying.

And then finally, don’t be afraid to ask for help. If there’s a debate in the discussion and you don’t know the answer or you don’t know where to take it, be okay with saying, you know what? We’re going to stop it right here for tonight. I’m going to ask a pastor this week and then we’ll refer back to it in our group meeting next week, and that’s okay to do so. Make sure that you prepare you study, you refer, and then be okay to ask for help.

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

Free Bible Teaching: For the Busy Leader

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by Deborah Spooner

Your friend texts with another crisis, yet your group start date-—ust two days away—feels like a crisis since you haven’t had time to prepare.

Your small group resource catalog has cushioned the bottom of your work bag for weeks as you’ve tried to figure out what, how, and when to order, and the process seems complicated.

The people. The time. The money. The hassel.

Why are there so many  barriers to getting to Bible teaching we need?

Life’s daily demands can keep us from what we really want. We want to be good disciples of Christ who are pouring ourselves out to make disciples of others. We want to be good small group leaders, leaders who are following the true Leader.

We want to grow ourselves, but we don’t know how.

We want to grow others, but we don’t see the way this fits into our life’s rhythm.

What if there was a way we could effectively address our over-scheduled and under-resourced challenges? What if we could quickly and easily access content that could catalyze us to be disciples making disciples?

Meet Free Bible Teaching. 

From authors like Jefferson Bethke, Tony Evans, J.D. Greear, Randy Alcorn, and D.A. Horton, you have access to the audio of full Bible Study teaching sessions—for free.

From topics like the power of God’s name to happiness, you can fit this quick, hassle-free learning experience into your schedule.. You can develop yourself as a disciple through the biblical messages and advice for specific real-life challenges.

Barriers removed.

Discipleship engaged.

Lives? Preparing to be changed.

Welcome to your new resource. Free Bible Teaching.

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

Planning for Spontaneity

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Are you a planner, or do you prefer to fly by the seat of your pants?

I’m sorry. That didn’t sound very spiritual. Let me put that in churchy language: Do you make plans, or do you just let the Spirit lead?

Order v. freedom. These two approaches don’t have to live in opposite corners, but unfortunately, the “Orderites” view the “Freedomites” with disdain,  and the “Freedomites” look down their spiritual noses at the “Orderites.”

It’s nothing new. In the 2nd century, the Montanist Movement arose with an emphasis on the spontaneity of the Holy Spirit. They saw the church as becoming too structured; conversely, the established church saw this movement as venturing into heretical territory with too much emphasis on prophetic revelations instead of the written Word of God. There was some validity in the accusations of both groups.

Another example comes from colonial America. The established churches with their rules and order looked down on those who emphasized the “inner light” (to borrow a Quaker term). While schools like Yale and Harvard were still institutions with a Christian emphasis, they had concern over the “spiritual enthusiasm” of students influenced during the Great Awakening.

The tension continues, as churches stare down each other over the question of how much emphasis should we give to the Holy Spirit. Order v. freedom. This should not be an either/or matter. It should be both/and. We need to plan—and we need to let the Spirit lead.

“Everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way” (1 Cor. 14:40).

Confession: I am a planner. I live by this verse. I have a love for to-do lists. My prep for Sunday’s sermon begins on the previous Sunday.

Planning is good, but too much reliance on that plan can be bad. On previous occasions as I’ve prepared to lead a Bible study group, I have created teaching plans I was sure would lead those in my group to (1) bring five more people with them next week, (2) go on the mission field, and (3) spearhead revival in America. But then someone would raise a question or an idea would surface that wasn’t in my well-orchestrated plan. I can’t help but wonder if I have been guilty of quenching the Spirit because I wouldn’t deviate from my plan.

Once when I was preparing to lead a group through Experiencing God, I was captured by something I heard from the author, Henry Blackaby.

Plan, but be prepared for the Holy Spirit to work.

In the Book of Nehemiah, we find Nehemiah grieved by a report he received about Jerusalem. He rightfully turned to God and prayed for the city and for himself. He wanted God to work. He sought God’s leadership, but at the same time, he planned.

The king said to me, “What is it you want?”

Then I prayed to the God of heaven, and I answered the king …” (Neh. 2:4-5).

And Nehemiah laid before the king a detailed plan. He had prayed. He had planned. He prayed again. And now he presented the plan he had prayed over.

Order and freedom are not mutually exclusive. Planning and relying on the Spirit should go hand-in-hand.

  • Creating plans without a reliance on the Spirit’s leadership is presumptuous on our part. I can figure this out on my own,
  • Simply waiting for the Spirit to lead us at the critical moment is equally presumptuous. God will tell me everything I need to know at the last minute.

Prayer—a dependence on God—must permeate our planning and our action. God will often change our plans at the last moment, but if we have been dependent on Him through the whole process, we are in a far better position to know what is of God and what is not.

Plan, but be prepared for the Holy Spirit to work.

Lynn Pryor is the publishing team leader for Bible Studies for Life. He is serving a Nashville church as their transitional interim pastor. Lynn and his wife, Mary, have survived raising two sons to adulthood. A graduate of Southwestern Seminary, Lynn has previously pastored and served churches in Texas. Read more from his blog at lynnhpryor.com. Follow him @lynnpryor.