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How to Talk to Your Group about Making a Difference

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The leading cause of death in the United States is heart disease. In 2015, 633,842 American lives ended as a result of heart disease, almost a quarter of total deaths that year (1). Steven Houser, the president of the American Heart Association, believes “the future of cardiovascular research is to stop the disease before it starts” (2).

Perhaps this goal explains the increasingly common labeling of various foods as heart-healthy. Salmon, almonds, blueberries, dark chocolate—all of these are applauded as heart-healthy foods and are recommended to include in our diets.

As serious as these heart-health issues are in our society, you and I come into the world with a heart problem that can’t be prevented. Ever since the first human beings, Adam and Eve, sinned, we’ve all entered this world with hard hearts. Instead of loving God and loving our neighbors, we love ourselves most of all. Instead of worshiping God and honoring Him as Lord, we try to kick Him off the throne and take it for ourselves. And because of this heart problem, we come into this world as God’s enemies. It’s not His fault; we’re the ones who sin. And we make ourselves His enemies because of our sin. What does the condition of our hearts have to do with being difference makers? You see, before you and I can be difference makers, a difference must be made in us. We need our unhealthy hearts to be replaced with healthy hearts.

An Old Testament Answer (Isaiah 1:1 – 15)

The Old Testament Book of Isaiah was written between the years 740 and 700 BC. The book has one major theme: trust God. In the Old Testament, Isaiah was a difference maker in the highest degree.

Isaiah was writing to people with hard hearts. They had a heart problem. They trusted in anything and everything before they trusted in God. They trusted in their kings and their military. Then when that strategy failed, they tried to make alliances with other nations so that they could trust in those kings and armies. They trusted in their external religion to keep God off their backs. But meanwhile Isaiah was speaking to their hearts, trying to help them understand that their greatest need was to trust in God.

Isaiah painted a bleak picture of rebellion against God. Through Isaiah, God said His children had “rebelled against [Him]” (v. 2). He called them a “sinful nation” and a people “weighed down with iniquity” (v. 4). As a result, God had made their land “desolate” (v. 7). He rejected their offerings and hated their festivals (see vv. 11-14); He stopped listening to their prayers (see v. 15). The Bible tells us that before we can make a difference in the world, a difference has to be made in us. But how? What can be done? The words of Isaiah give a clear outline.

Stop Doing Evil (Isaiah 1:16 – 18)

First Isaiah told the Israelites to stop sinning. Stop doing evil. Coming through loud and clear, Isaiah! Verse 16 says, “Wash yourselves. Cleanse yourselves. Remove your evil deeds from my sight. Stop doing evil.” When it comes down to it, sin is always the problem. And God is serious about sin. Why? Because He’s holy.

To be holy means to be distinct and set apart. There’s no one like God. He’s completely, uniquely holy, and all of His characteristics flow from His perfect holiness. In God’s total otherness and His complete purity and perfection, He exercises all of His other characteristics. God is concerned about human sin because it’s an affront to His holiness. Choosing evil is rejecting God, and rejecting God is never good for us. However, God doesn’t just ask us to stop doing something bad. He always points us toward something better. All of God’s commands are meant to lead us to life.

Start Doing Good (Isaiah 1:17)

In verse 17 Isaiah told the Israelites not only to stop doing evil but also to start doing good. When we hear the command to do good, we immediately think, I’ve got to go to church more. I’ve got to work really hard to be religious. I’ve got to make sacrifices for God so that I can please Him and get Him off my back. But the Lord knew that response was coming.

We pursue religious activity because it seems easy and achievable. Isaiah’s point was that God isn’t interested in our attempts to earn His favor. They can never be enough. We don’t worship to get God off our backs; we worship because we love God. If we really love God, our devotion to Him will be evident in the way we love our neighbors.

Rest in the Finished Work of Christ (Isaiah 1:18)

Seven hundred years before Jesus walked on earth, God promised His people that He would remove their sins from them, and they would become pure. How does this happen? Only by an exchange. Jesus came to trade places with us. He came and lived the life we failed to live and died the death we deserved to die so that we could be cleansed of our sin and enter a right relationship with God.

We can’t stop doing evil and start doing good on our own. First our heart problem has to be fixed. Once that happens, God also enables us to do good. When God gives us new hearts, he gives us new affections. On the cross Jesus took on Himself the punishment for our sin, and He gave us His righteousness so that we’re no longer enemies of God but sons and daughters of God. This is the difference God has to make in us before we can be difference makers in the world.

Make a difference today by admitting you need a Savior.

This content is excerpted from Pastor Gregg Matte’s Difference Makers Bible Study. Find out more about living a difference making life here.

Church Leadership

#GroupGoals

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It is sometimes hard to know what is real in our society. We live in a world where we judge ourselves with comparisons to viral hashtags and perfect Instagram filters. Everyone’s best life is on full display 24/7. We all have our #SquadGoals and #RelationshipGoals.

Ironically, those Instagram and Facebook posts signal the presence of authenticity. “I’m being authentic by letting you in to what’s going on in my real life.” But we all know that’s a fake authenticity. There is a near-paralyzing fear that comes with true authenticity. The thoughts bombard us every time we start to grow in relationship with others. If people only knew . . .

·   The things I have done in my past

·   My shortcomings as a spouse

·   My failures as a parent

·   My private thoughts

·    Sin based in my insecurities

The beautiful and freeing truth of true authenticity is that being open and vulnerable to a group of people doesn’t require walking in perfection; it requires walking in confession. Scripture lays it out this way in 1 John:

Now this is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in Him. If we say, “We have fellowship with Him,” yet we walk in darkness, we are lying and are not practicing the truth. But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say, “We have no sin,” we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:5–9 hcsb)

Our natural reaction to sin is to run and hide in darkness, but the power of the gospel frees us to come out into the light. Because of the blood of Jesus, we don’t have to be afraid of confessing our sin—not because we don’t sin or our sin doesn’t have consequences, but because through the gospel, we know we are forgiven of our sins. That allows us to confess without self-justification. Now we can confess to one another not just so we will receive forgiveness from one another, but so that the forgiveness Jesus has already given to us can be pronounced again and again in our communities.

The picture is found in James 5:16: “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The urgent request of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect” (hcsb).

 This verse is transparency at its best. It’s a picture of someone who, convinced of the limitless grace and promised forgiveness of Jesus, confesses their sin. They lay themselves open and bare before others, not expecting shame or guilt, but instead expecting healing. It’s a crucial step on the road to holiness, but that’s just the thing—it’s one step on the road. It’s not an end in itself.

 The gospel both enables us to be truly transparent and compels us toward a greater end that lies beyond transparency. We confess to one another not so we can be real with one another; we confess to one another because we have a desire to be made holy. To be healed. To stop sinning. And we are responsible and even blessed for aiding one another on that journey. James continues on in verses 19 and 20:

My brothers, if any among you strays from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his life from death and cover a multitude of sins. (hcsb) 

The work of Jesus makes confession and repentance more beautiful than burdensome. We can share “below the line of shame” because we already know we are so broken that Jesus had to die for us. But we also know we are so loved that He was willing to die for us.

 The only way for a small group to embrace this power of healing is for the leader to model and practice it from the beginning. That is how our group can finally achieve #groupgoals.

 

Chris Surratt (@ChrisSurratt) is a ministry consultant and coach with more than twenty years of experience. He served on church staffs prior to becoming the discipleship and small groups specialist for LifeWay Christian Resources. He is the author of Leading Small Groups: How to Gather, Launch, Lead, and Multiply Your Small Group, from which this is excerpted and adapted with permission from B&H Publishing Group. You can follow his blog at ChrisSurratt.com.

 

Church Leadership

4 Bible Studies about Jesus

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“He is not here; he has risen, just as he said” (Matthew 28:6). 

Jesus. From WWJD used in casual conversation to images of the cross venerated in sanctuaries, Jesus Christ is a rightful focal point for Christians. We’re even called Jesus followers. 

But how many of us really know many things about Jesus? Have we taken the time to study Him as well as get to know Him personally? It can be easy to say we love and follow Him, but it’s dangerous to not know the One we follow.

These four Bible study resources tackle just that: Jesus. Try one of them to deepen your faith in the Savior.

  1. Forgotten Jesus (Robby Gallaty)

Most Christians would say they know Jesus, but do we really know Him? Through the years our understanding of Jesus has been shaped by different cultural influences. Many Christians have forgotten that Jesus was a Jewish man living in a Jewish land, observing Jewish customs, and investing His life in Jewish men and women. 

This disciple-making Bible study takes us on a journey back to biblical times to rediscover who Jesus really was by seeing Him in the cultural and religious context in which He ministered. Exploring the implications of Jesus’ teachings and actions as a first-century rabbi will give you new reasons to fall in love with Him all over again. 

  1. Jesus, Continued (J. D. Greear and Trevin Wax)

Why do so many of us think of Christianity as a lifestyle to which we conform, rather than a God with whom we commune? Jesus gave His disciples the audacious promise that it was to their advantage that He go back to heaven because the Holy Spirit could then come to live inside of them. How many of us consider our connection to the Holy Spirit so strong and so real that we would call his presence in us better than Jesus beside us?

Throughout his Christian life, J.D. Greear felt disconnected to God and unsure about how to interact with Him. Although he had learned a lot of truths about God, these truths didn’t seem to bring him any closer to Him. He tried to have such a relationship, but all of God’s work seemed stockpiled in the past: He created the world, died on a cross, and left a Bible. God seemed like a busy teacher who had given an assignment and then stepped out of the room, leaving students to get the work done on their own.

But Greear discovered it doesn’t have to be like that. And this Bible study has been created to help you relate to the Holy Spirit in new ways. Over the course of this study, you’ll see how you can have a satisfying, powerful relationship with God through the Holy Spirit.

  1. Jesus > Religion (Jefferson Bethke)

Jesus>Religion will help readers abandon dead, dry, rule-keeping and embrace the promise of being truly known and deeply loved. The study unpacks and highlights the difference between teeth gritting and grace, law and love, performance and peace, despair and hope. Bethke is quick to acknowledge that he’s not a pastor or theologian, but simply a regular, twenty-something who cried out for a life greater than the one for which he had settled. Along his journey, Bethke discovered the real Jesus, who beckoned him beyond the props of false religion.

  1. Bible Studies for Life: Like No Other – The Life of Christ (Tony Evans)

Jesus Christ is central to the Christian faith. That statement may seem obvious, but even Christians need a constant reminder that everything in our faith is built upon the person and work of Jesus Christ. Every aspect of Jesus’ life—from His birth to His current exalted state—is unique from any other person. His uniqueness means His life and character merit our fullest attention, and because He is uniquely God, His life and character greatly impact our lives.

Church Leadership

What Your Priorities Really Reveal

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“Who are you really?” It’s a fundamental question we all have to answer. Our first instinct may be to respond with a name. After that we tend to share a résumé of what we do or whom we’re related to. Should we define ourselves by the members of our family or even by what other people say about us? Maybe who we are is something deeper.

Identity is what people believe to be most true about themselves. It’s their source of value and worth. Tim Keller has written, “Our need for worth is so powerful that whatever we base our identity and value on we essentially ‘deify.’ We will look to it with all the passion and intensity of worship and devotion, even if we think ourselves as highly irreligious.” (1)

If people deify or idolize whatever they base their identity on, what happens when that source of meaning fails us or is taken away? It doesn’t just alter a worldview. It crushes the soul.

Enter Overcomer. Regardless of the intention with which you approach this study, the goal is a definitive answer to the basic question “Who are you?”

This Bible study, featuring group discussions, film clips, and personal studies, is designed to help you firmly establish your value and worth in Christ. You’ll encounter a variety of Old and New Testament giants who either demonstrated an identity firmly rooted in God’s truth or warn you of the danger of choosing alternative identities. Along the way you’ll have opportunities to determine whether your identity may be ill-defined and to be drawn back to the only source of meaning in life, ever closer to Christ.

1. Timothy Keller, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism (New York: Penguin, 2018), 164.

Who You Are Starts with Where You Come From

Create a list of people and priorities in your life that are important to you. Be as specific as you like, but in some cases a category will suffice. For example, you can record “My family” instead of listing each individual member.

Take inventory to make sure your list is complete, including items of even nominal importance.

Now the exercise becomes more challenging. Start marking entries off your list in order, from least to greatest importance. Which ones can you live without? Narrow your list to only two or three of your top priorities. Those indicate not only what’s of great worth to you but also what’s absolutely vital in making you who you are.

The old expression “You are what you eat” reminds you to make wise choices about healthful eating, but it holds little weight in creating an identity. A truer phrase is “You are what’s important to you.”

You define yourself by your values. The problem with that truth is the word your, which implies your own sovereignty despite your vast limitations as a mortal. Who are you to determine who you are? Even if you have that authority, where was it derived from? Scripture has the answer.

God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness.

They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock,

the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.”

GENESIS 1:26

What description of humanity’s inherent nature and position did God offer in this verse?

God didn’t wait to confer with the man to determine what his nature should or shouldn’t include and what his calling or direction in life should be. God also created you to bear His image. Right from the beginning, before any of us were formed, God had a plan. For the couple in the garden, that included a definitive purpose.

Read Ephesians 2:10 and rewrite it in your own words.

These words by Paul follow a powerful description of salvation (see vv. 8-9). God has miraculously and graciously saved us to accomplish the purpose He intended.

How does knowing and being reminded of where you come from and why you were created shape your identity?

Revisit your lists for the week, both the one you created in the group session and the one you recorded at the beginning of this personal study. Which descriptions of you and values you hold are consistent with the image of God in you and the good work God planned for you?

Which ones might you need to reevaluate? End today’s study by asking God to show you the priorities and pursuits you need to eliminate and the ones you need to embrace in order to define yourself by His purpose for you.

All content above is excerpted from the Overcomer Bible Study. Find out more about the Bible study here.

Church Leadership

Depression, Solitude, and the Small Group

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by Jared Musgrove

We are so hurried. Busy-ness is truly the ultimate virtue of the age. Henri Nouwen phrased it this way, “In many people’s lives, there is a nearly diabolical chain in which their anxieties grow according to their success.” Such 21st Century souls demand that the truth be stated in an elevator conversation, because we are moving on to the next projected “success”. But this attitude misses the biblically human truth that transformation by the truth takes time, examination, and community. 

Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ collection of sermons on the matter of Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cures has always been a personal friend to me, but I’ve begun to look at it all over again as a community resource when I consider our small groups and the transformation we all pray happens in them. The way to go about this will be both the individual being led by the Lord into holy introspection and then to processing in the community of God’s people in a smaller group. 

Lloyd-Jones writes, 

“We are meant to examine ourselves periodically, but if we are always doing it, always, as it were, putting our soul on a plate and dissecting it, that is introspection. And if we were always talking to people about ourselves and our problems and troubles, and if we are forever going to them with that kind of frown and saying: I am in great difficulty – it probably means that we are all the time centered upon ourselves. That is introspection, and that in turn leads to the condition known as morbidity.” 

Maybe you’ve had that member in your small group. Maybe you even recognize yourself in the above paragraph. We are designed to spend times of solitude with God, to read His Word, to hear from Him, to pray, and commune with Him. Jesus, our Master of Model of living, did just this. And so too should we encourage our small group members to cultivate a life with God outside of our community time. 

But our life with God cannot stay in solitude. That’s the tricky part. There are introverts and extroverts and we approach solitude differently. Lloyd-Jones is helpful here: 

“We have to watch our strength and we have to watch our weakness. The essence of wisdom is to realize this fundamental thing about ourselves. If I am naturally an introvert I must always be careful about it, and I must warn myself against it lest unconsciously I slip into a condition of morbidity. The extrovert must in the same way know himself and be on his guard against the temptations peculiar to his nature.”

But we can’t know ourselves or God fully if we try to do so apart from the community of saints He has given us. This is what we do in small groups. We help each other process our introspection and remind one another of the gospel’s application in both our solitude and our solidarity. 

Jared Steven Musgrove serves as Groups Pastor and elder at The Village Church in Flower Mound, Texas. He earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from The University of Oklahoma, a Master of Divinity in preaching from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a Doctorate of Ministry in leadership from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is the husband of Jenny and the father of two sons, Jordan and Joshua. You can follow him on Twitter @jsmusgrove 
Church Leadership

How to Engage with Big Questions on a Personal Level

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As small group leaders, we can become used to leading groups, and we start to approach our topics, Bible studies, and even the Bible from such a perspective.

How can I talk about this topic with my group?

What does my group most need from these Bible study videos?

What discussion question will most resonate with my members?

This way of thinking can be deeply helpful, but sometimes, those who help others can neglect to be helped themselves.

How can we make sure that we are not only aiding others in studying the Bible but engaging with it personally?

LifeWay might just have something to assist.

Meet Personal Bible Study, a new way to study with some of your well-loved Bible study experts. These studies take the traditional group-centered Bible study content and adapt for personal use while maintaining the theological depth and practical application that you rely on.

Try them today in paperback or in digital format. We’d love to hear your feedback in the comments below!

Unanswered Personal Bible Study 

Includes an individual study opportunities for each day of the week and applicable Scripture.

We live in a radically skeptical age. Tough questions are being asked about Christianity. And most believers are ill-equipped to provide the answers our culture and communities desperately need. Many in today’s church do not know the Bible as well as they should and they struggle with their own “big questions” about the faith.

This study provides precisely what the church needs today: tools and answers! It addresses several challenging topics, including mental health and suicide, paranormal activity, the resurrection, how we got the Bible, suffering, and why God is sometimes silent. The study will show you how to answer, how to explain, and how to respond in a deeply winsome and attractive way, as a thoughtful ambassador of Jesus. You will leave this study enriched, characterized by a thinking faith, capable to communicate confidently, and committed to escape the tendency to offer trite answers to a skeptical world.

Power of God’s Names Personal Bible Study

Bestselling author Dr. Tony Evans shows that it’s through the names of God that the nature of God is revealed to us. Who is God in His fullness? How has He expressed His riches and righteousness? How can you trust His goodness? As you get to know the names of God and understand their meaning, God’s character will become real to you in life-changing ways.

You will explore the depths of God as

  • Elohim: The All-Powerful Creator
  • Jehovah: The Self-Revealing One
  • Adonai: The Owner of All
  • Jehovah-Jireh: The Lord Who Provides
  • El Shaddai: The Almighty Sufficient One
  • El Elion: The Most High Ruler
  • Jehovah Nissi: The Lord’s Banner of Victory
  • Jehovah Shalom: The Lord Our Peace
  • Jehovah Mekadesh: The Lord Who Sanctifies
  • Jehovah Rophe: The Lord Who Heals
  • Jehovah Tsikenu: The Lord My Righteousness
  • Jehovah Robi: The Lord My Shepherd
  • Immanuel: God With Us

By studying and understanding the characteristics of God as revealed through His names, you will be better equipped to face hardship and victory, loss and provision, and all of the challenges life throws at you.

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

8 Ways to Make Your Bible Study More Engaging

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I loathe lectures. I suppose there’s a place for them in learning somewhere, but I don’t think group Bible study is one of them. Unfortunately, lecture is a common method used in Bible study—as if imparting knowledge is the number one goal—and it’s the reason a lot of people write off an invitation to join  a group. They equate Bible study with a misguided approach to Sunday School where someone lectures and reads to them.

I don’t blame them. I would dread that too. But there’s a better way.

Think back to your childhood. In the early years of school, you drew, told stories, interacted with the others kids, and even played games as a part of learning. Somewhere along the way, though, we were expected to grow up, which means sitting quietly in chairs, reading a book, and listening to the teacher. Play was reserved for recess.

I propose we recapture the ways we used to learn, because we never outgrow the ways we like to learn. 

Educators like Thomas Gardner and Thomas Armstrong have identified eight ways we learn. We can all learn using these eight approaches, but individually, we gravitate to certain ones. There are certain approaches to learning that connect with each if us and make learning and applying quite easy and natural. It’s time we brought these back into our group Bible study.

Here are the eight approaches to teaching and learning. See which ones resonate with you.

  1. Relational Learners. Some of us learn well when we get to interact with others in the process. As we work together, they learn from each other. This can happen through personal sharing, storytelling, debating, and brainstorming. The key is that we’re doing it together. (In fact, as we look at these others ways we learn, many of them can be incorporated with relational learning and working together.)
  2. Musical Learners. For some of us, music enhances the environment for learning. They don’t have to be musicians, but they enjoy music. Let them listen to a song and consider how it connects to the Scripture being studied. They can rewrite lyrics of a well-known song to capture the essence of your study. Even playing music in the background during other activities gets them in tune with learning (no pun intended).
  3. Logical Learners.  OK, so these people often enjoy lectures, but they also like problem solving. They like to reason through things and analyze them. They enjoy an outline, word studies, analogies, and even statistics.
  4. Natural Learners. When nature and God’s creation are brought into the mix, these people become more attune to learning. They’re the ones whose quiet time is enhanced with a walk though nature. But you can bring nature—physical objects—into the group as well. For example, as you discuss Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well, pass out water. Or better yet, give them salty pretzels, and they’ll be thinking about water. A physical object helps them make the connection and discover biblical truth.
  5. Physical Learners. The physical learners in your group don’t always like to sit still! Physical movement engages their brains. Use hands-on activities. Let them role-play. When asking a question that calls for an agree/disagree response, place the words on different walls. Let the group members move and stand based on how they agree with the statement. Let me stress again, movement engages their thinking.
  6. Reflective Learners. These learners don’t mind quiet. They like to internalize and think things through. Like logical learners, they don’t mind a lecture, because they want to think and reflect. Instead of talking, occasionally direct the group to write down their responses to a discussion question.
  7. Visual Learners. Anything they see with their eyes engages learning: visuals, PowerPoint, movie clips. Let them draw or illustrate something from the study. Drawing is not a juvenile activity. I’ve done this with senior adults, and they loved it. Why? We never outgrow the way we like to learn.
  8. Verbal Learners. These people in your group connect with words: writing, reading, and speaking. Give them a moment to read a small portion of the book you might be using. Let them write a prayer oru how they will apply the Scripture. Let them use words!

Some of these learning approaches will take you out of your own comfort zone if they are not how you like to learn—but others in your group will love it. They will feel more engaged. But don’t try to do all eight approaches in one study! You’ll wear yourself and your group out. Instead, incorporate one or two different learning approaches each time you meet. Thirty-five years of leading groups has shown me that by using these eight approaches on a regular basis, everyone is more engaged. They learn better, which leads to transformation—and that’s what it’s all about.

NOTE: LifeWay’s ongoing Bible studies—Explore the Bible, the Gospel Project, and Bible Studies for Life—offer ways to incorporate these learning approaches in their group plans.

Lynn Pryor is the publishing team leader for Bible Studies for Life. Read more from his blog at lynnhpryor.com. Follow him @lynnpryor.

Church Leadership

Why Does Your Group Exist?

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Every small group needs a reason for existence. Why should we carve out more time in our busy lives to spend it with people we might barely know? For most people and groups that reason is the desire for community. We desire friendship, and that is a good thing.

We all need community. In fact, we were designed by God to be in community. You can see it modeled for us with the perfect relationship of the Trinity in Genesis.

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, all the earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.” (Gen. 1:26 hcsb)

We then see it prayed for by Jesus with His final prayer before His death on the cross:

“May they all be one, as You, Father, are in Me and I am in You. May they also be one in Us, so the world may believe You sent Me.” (John 17:21 hcsb)

Community is important, but a problem arises when community is the destination of the group. A small group that gathers strictly around the desire to make friends will live or die on the strength of those relationships. If those relationships begin to shift or separate, so will the group. Without the imperative of being on mission, community is fragile.

Like all aspects of God’s creation, our relationships have been broken by sin. In our sinfulness, we use other people instead of live in God-honoring community with them. But when we believe the gospel, our relationships begin to be reshaped. We, together, are meant to help each other follow Jesus more closely and in so doing to extend the gospel into all the world. This is our mission. This is the redeemed version of community—it’s relationships that are centered on seeing the mission of God come to pass first in our own hearts, and eventually in the world.

We can look at the life of Jesus to see how community was used as the foundation for mission. As we saw in Genesis 1:26, Jesus had this perfect community with the Trinity, but chose to not only leave home, but to leave heaven on a mission to die for those He came to reach. Jesus was the first and greatest missionary of all history!

John testified to the fullness of Jesus’ mission in John 1:

Indeed, we have all received grace upon grace from his fullness, for the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. The one and only Son, who is himself God and is at the Father’s side—he has revealed him. (vv. 16–18)

Jesus left His community to come to Earth, to realign our priorities, and to make us citizens of a new kingdom. Because of sin, our priorities are broken, but the gospel puts them back in line. The truth of this gospel was the sole mission of Jesus’ life on Earth.

When Pilate questioned who He was, Jesus replied, “You say that I’m a king . . . I was born for this, and I have come into the world for this: to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice” (John 18:37). Jesus was born to share this truth.

We can see clearly why living out the mission of Jesus is related to the gospel. After all, the final instructions of Jesus before He ascended into heaven were centered around this mission—that His followers should “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:19–20).

And as you align your group around this gospel-centered mission of Jesus, remember that we had to hear the good news before we could share the good news. We had to be brought to life by the message before we could be its messengers. What this means practically is that we have to be open to living out the gospel in our group by inviting those who need the gospel the most.

With time of living it out, this missional way of looking at our world becomes a natural outflow of what the gospel has produced in our lives. We desire deeply for others to experience what we have in our life-giving community. Helping group members see their world through this new missional lens will slowly move them beyond just the desire for friendships.

This article is excerpted from the just released book, Leading Small Groups: How to Gather, Launch, Lead, and Multiply your Small Group by Chris Surratt. Used by permission from B&H Publishing.

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

Letters to the Church

By

There is a great danger in becoming so consumed by doing good and important things that we forget the ultimate thing: to love God and others as ourselves.

As your group time begins, use this section to introduce the topic of discussion.

Spend a few minutes sharing stories about what your “first love” as a child was like, or what you have seen someone else experience with their first loves. How young were you? What do you remember most about that person and your “relationship”? Is that person in your life today?

How does your relationship with Christ now compare with what it was like when you first became a Christian? What are the key differences, and what are some of the reasons you can think of for those changes?

In the passage we will discuss today from Revelation 2, Jesus compliments the Ephesian Christians for their many good deeds but criticizes them because they no longer love Him or one another as they used to. From His criticism of this church, we will see the need to focus on the primary objective of love.

Have a volunteer Read Revelation 2:1-4.

“1 Write to the angel of the church in Ephesus: Thus says the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand and who walks among the seven golden lampstands: 2 I know your works, your labor, and your endurance, and that you cannot tolerate evil people. You have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and you have found them to be liars. 3 I know that you have persevered and endured hardships for the sake of my name, and have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you: You have abandoned the love you had at first.”

The simple phrase, “I know” carries much weight and is rich in meaning. John used the word “oida” instead of the typical “ginosko.” Oida emphasized absolute clarity in perceiving all happenings of life. In other words, Jesus doesn’t miss a detail. He knew intimately the goings on in the Ephesian church, not because He heard a report, but because He was with them. In Matthew 28:20, Jesus promised that He would be with His followers until the end of the age. Jesus was present among the Ephesian believers, and He is present among His redeemed today. He knows us intimately.

The letters to the seven churches in Revelation (not to mention the whole of Christian life) rests on the assumption that Jesus is our authority. These letters make no sense otherwise. Jesus’ authority over His disciples was established from the very beginning of His earthly ministry. Jesus is not only Savior, but also Lord. These letters to the churches are a pointed reminder that Jesus’ lordship over His followers didn’t end with His ascension. He continues to lead, correct, and mandate His followers.

The first element of the Ephesians’ obedience is usually translated “labor,” “toil,” or “hard work.”

Here, Jesus recognized that the Ephesian believers had become tired. Surely, the crisis and controversy with the false teachers took its toll on the church; but they patiently endured. They grew tired in their devotion to Jesus and the true gospel, but not tired of it. The Ephesian church marched forward in the faith, continuing to gather regularly for teaching, fellowship, the Lord’s Supper, and prayer. The Ephesian church continued to do the right thing, but something had gone awry.

Jesus rebuked the Ephesians for waning in their sacrificial, selfless love (agape) because it is this love that should undergird all of Christian living. This love is the proof and fruit of new life in Christ. It is this love that sustains and compels those that follow Christ. The Ephesians had remained orthodox in their doctrine by rejecting the false teaching of the Nicolaitans; yet somewhere along the way of guarding the purity of their faith, the personal devotion and love for their Savior and their brothers and sisters had cooled. This same pitfall is possible today. Our fight for orthodoxy has to be accompanied by our fight for joy and love. If a pure gospel doesn’t translate into a warm, gracious, and loving life, then something has gone wrong.

Jesus told the Ephesians to remember, repent, and do the works that they did at first. They ought to remember from what they had been saved and the great rescue that was accomplished. They needed to recognize that their loss of love was a sin, and they needed to repent of it. Finally, they were to return to the works of love that they did at first. This is a pattern that we can follow today.

This article is an excerpt from the study Letters to the Church from smallgroup.com. Get a free 30 day trial, and gain access to this study today!
Church Leadership

Character and Competencies of the Small Group Coach 

By

by Jared Musgrove and Justin Elafros

Group coaching is not an approach to manage leaders. Group coaching is an approach to lead leaders.  It is one of the most recognized necessities in our group ministries but one of the most underutilized. It does not have to stay that way.

Our friend Joel Deacon of City On A Hill Church in Melbourne, Australia shared with us recently that “Good leaders desire coaches and have coaches, top athletes have coaches, successful executives have coaches and our Group Leaders need coaches.” And we find this to be true. But the key for us in coaching was focusing first on the who of coaching and then the what. So who is the person of character and what are the competencies of a group coach?

First, not every great group leader needs to be a group coach, in much the same way as not every great history teacher needs to be a vice-principal. Some of our greatest leaders are needed (and happiest) leading life lessons in living rooms full of group members. Not every leader needs to lead leaders. But some will desire to do so in a way that identifies, develops, and influences. These men and women of character are good initial candidates for coaching a group. But you first have to know who it is exactly you might have coaching your leaders. 

 Who 

Who can coach the heart of the leader? Who has the capacity? A man or woman doesn’t need to be the most dynamic personality to coach, but they need to be curious and biblically serious about leading leaders into increased spiritual vitality. 

Identifying a coach who is able to identify leaders is more art than science. To know who needs to be a coach, you first need to develop a relationship with the people in your group ministry. Who is already living the coaching life you want to reproduce? Your group coaches may not be deacons, but you may find the character described in 1 Timothy 3:3:8-13 helpful as you consider the character of the coach. 

Once you identify a coaching candidate, meet regularly with them for a time and talk through the role of a coach. Perhaps even create a group of coaches and equip qualified saints for the work of coaching ministry. Some books we have found particularly helpful on coaching are The COACH Model, Sending Well, and Organic Discipleship. You may enjoy summarizing them or reading them with your coaches. This allows you to equip them as well as get to know who you are inviting into the role. 

What 

The joy of coaching is seeing saints equip saints. A manual for coaches can be helpful, but coaching is a lifestyle. Have guidelines and expectations but also leave freedom for the coaches to develop in their styles and spiritual gifts as they coach. 

Some of the essential components are that they have the time and capacity to coach. Can they make regular meetings to coach the leader (not the group) with personalized, open-ended questions that minister to the leader and increase their own influence on the men and women they lead in the small group? Your group coaches may not be deacons, but you may find the competencies described in Acts 6:1-7 helpful as you consider the capacity of the coach. 

Good coaches coach apart from distraction. They set a space and place to listen and then summarize what the leader(s) is saying. They ask more than advise. They take notes. They talk no more than a ¼ of the time. Along with their minister, they create personalized and ongoing development plans for each leader. They keep up on current and classic resources on group leadership so they can share them at the ready. 

Good coaches know to ask one crucial question, “What are you asking God to do in and through your group?” All coaching catapults out of the answer to that question. The coach is able to continually clarify the goal of group as well as coach the heart of the leader. And join them in prayer, asking God for what He has for the leader and group. 

Good coaches do pray specifically with and over their leaders. Coaches ask the Lord for insight, words, verses, and pictures for the leaders they coach. If the heart of our leaders is deep waters, we need coaches of understanding to draw them out (Proverbs 20:5). 

There is much more to the coaching discussion, and we love having that conversation with our own coaches and with you, our colleagues in groups ministry. 

—

Dr. Jared Steven Musgrove is Groups Pastor and an elder serving The Village Church in Flower Mound TX where he oversees Home Groups and Recovery Groups. He is a contributor to For The Church, PreachingSource.com,and LifeWay Groups. He serves on boards for Southwestern Seminary and Beta Upsilon Chi, is the co-founder of the Community Leadership Cohort, and authored the small group guide to B&H Academic’s Superheroes Can’t Save You: Epic Examples of Historic Heresies. He is the proud husband of Jenny and father of Jordan and Joshua. You can follow him on Twitter at @jsmusgrove.
Justin Elafros is Groups Minister serving The Village Church in Flower Mound, TX where he leads the church’s largest area of Home Groups, leaders, and coaches in addition to directing the Groups ministry internship. He is the co-founder of the Community Leadership Cohort. Justin earned his B.A. from Moody Bible Institute and his M.A. in ministry from Cedarville University. He specializes in shepherding ministry through small groups, care and counsel strategies in the local church, recruiting and equipping group leaders and coaches to meet the community needs of local congregations. He is married to Christy and they have three children, Cooper, Beckham, and Adelyn.

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