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Group Answers Podcast

Group Answers Episode 83: Scarlet Hiltibidal

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Our guest today is Scarlet Hiltibidal. Scarlet is a very professional wife and mother to her family in Middle Tennessee. She loves sign language with her daughters, nachos by herself, writing for her friends, and dreaming of being a famous chef while spilling the cheese dust from the macaroni box on the kitchen counter and using it anyway. She treasures the freedom of resting in the work of Jesus and hopes to help others rest as well. She is the author of the just released, Afraid of All the Things: Tornadoes, Cancer, Adoption, and Other Stuff You Need the Gospel For.

Questions:

  • What was it like growing up, as you say, “in the green room” of SNL and other national TV shows? How has it shaped your adult life?
  • What prompted you to write your first book, Afraid of All the Things? Who did you write it for?
  • When do you first remember being crippled by fear and anxiety? What was it like and how did it shape your childhood?
  • When did you first learn to hold the gospel up to your fears, and how did that change things?
  • How do your fears and anxiety play out as a small group leader? What advice would you give small group leaders on overcoming their fears, and at the same time, helping their small group members work through their own?
  • Do you still struggle with fear and anxiety, and what do you do to combat it?
  • What are your hopes for readers after they finish the book?

Quotes:

You have to force yourself to live in the light.

I was afraid that people would not accept me if they knew about all of my flaws.

I grew up hearing the gospel, but I thought I needed Jesus to die to save me–but I better do a really good job of being a Christian.

“Am I good enough” caused an underlying panic all of the time.

The gospel is for every moment.

Resources mentioned:

www.afraidofallthethings.com

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.

Group Answers Podcast

Group Answers Episode 82: Launching Your Group Well

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On this episode of Group Answers, Chris, Brian, and Brandon discuss how to launch your small group well in the new year.

The 6 “Don’t’s”:

  1. Don’t assume everyone you ask will show up.
  2. Don’t take the Bible study portion of the experience lightly.
  3. Don’t be unintentional about when to launch and how much lead time to build in.
  4. Don’t conclude that your winsome personality will be enough.
  5. Don’t be flippant about the schedule.
  6. Don’t create false expectations early in the group life.

Blog Post:

Don’t Do These 6 Things When Starting a New Small Group

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.

Group Answers Podcast

Group Answers Episode 81: Jeremiah Johnston

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In this episode, Brian and Chris speak to Jeremiah Johnston. Jeremiah J. Johnston, Ph.D., is president of Christian Thinkers Society, a Resident Institute at Houston Baptist University where he also serves at Associate Professor of Early Christianity. His latest book is “Unimaginable: What Our World would be Like Without Christianity.”  He also wrote the Bible study Unanswered, published by LifeWay. You can listen to him regularly on his nationally syndicated radio program, The Jeremiah Johnston Show.

Questions:

1. I heard it said one time, We cannot abandon the intellectual struggle. How would you define intellectual struggle?

2. How do you think the difficult questions contribute to discipleship?

3. How would counsel a group leader about how to navigate a group members unanswered questions?

4. How would you advise a group leader to lead a discussion that includes spiritual warfare references?

5. What’s the hardest question for you to answer?

Quotes:
The greatest thing about our faith is that it is holistic, we are always growing.

There is always a Pharisee in the crowd.

Where the intellectual struggle has been forfeited, that’s where faith becomes irrelevant to life.

We no longer, as a society, think in Biblical terms.

Jesus was all about addressing the difficult questions in his discipleship.

We have to give permission for our group to question our faith. Questioning your faith is not a sin.

Everybody has unanswered questions.

Questions create conversations, assertions don’t.

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.

Group Answers Podcast

Group Answers Episode 80: Group Trends in 2018

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On this final Group Answers episode of the year, Chris, Brian, and Brandon talk about group and discipleship trends from 2018. They also take a look at what might be coming for 2019.

Trends in 2018:

  • Discipleship intensive smaller groups
  • Intentional discipleship plans
  • More strategic training for leaders
  • Hybrid models of group systems

This Episode’s Sponsor:
What happens when the Bible and humanity collide? Not what you’d expect. Living & Effective, a podcast collaboration between Christianity Today and the Christian Standard Bible, journeys through history, current events, theology, and the human condition to uncover surprising ways the Bible accomplishes God’s plan in the world.”

 

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.

Group Answers Podcast

Group Answers Episode 79: Dean Inserra

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Our guest today is Pastor Dean Inserra. Dean is the Lead Pastor of City Church, a church he started in his hometown of Tallahassee, Florida in 2007. Dean has a passion to reach his hometown for Christ through the local church and to see healthy churches planted across the South and the nation. He is a graduate of Midwestern Seminary and is pursing a doctoral degree from Southern Seminary and serves on the Leadership Council for the Southern Baptist Convention’s ERLC. Dean is married to his wife Krissie and they have three children, Tommy, Ty, and Sally Ashlyn. He loves baseball, Starbucks, the New England Patriots, and the indoors.

Questions:

1. What do you think it is about the Bible belt that is different when it comes to group life?

2. What have you learned about cracking cultural Christianity that might help a group leader?

3. What approaches have you found to be successful in making groups more missional and engaged in their cities and towns?

4. On the show we’ve had several people address the political division we’re currently seeing, particularly in group life. I’d be interested in your thoughts about managing differing political and social positions and perspectives within a community or small group.

Quotes:

Church is not something that is treated with hostility in the south.

A group is another thing that would inconvenience people.

There are no next steps taken to live out the Christian life.

We have a lot of unsaved Christians who carry the label, but there’s no context to it.

We need to equip group leaders on how to unpack years of this theistic – where Jesus isn’t necessary – kind of Bible Belt Christianity.

You’ve got to get them lost before you can get them saved.

Resources mentioned:

The Unsaved Christian: Reaching Cultural Christianity with the Gospel

This Episode’s Sponsor:
What happens when the Bible and humanity collide? Not what you’d expect. Living & Effective, a podcast collaboration between Christianity Today and the Christian Standard Bible, journeys through history, current events, theology, and the human condition to uncover surprising ways the Bible accomplishes God’s plan in the world.”

 

 

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.

Group Answers Podcast

Group Answers Episode 78: Family Discipleship

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On today’s episode, Chris, Brian, and Michael talk about what discipleship in the family can look like.

Questions and topics discussed:

  • Discipleship doesn’t begin and end with our small group. It has to include our families.
  • A lot of parents feel guilty because they don’t know where to start with discipleship in their family. What can they do right now?
  • What if discipleship was never modeled for the parents?
  • What practical tools are out there to help families develop a discipleship rhythm?

Quotes:

It is easy to congratulate yourself for some practices you may have instituted, but at the end of the day, time will tell if it’s effective or not.

Faith is being confident that the Lord is going to make up for what we lack in all circumstances.

It frees you to actually engage and do some things, rather than always wishing that your family had more spiritual conversations.

The most obvious and easiest place to start is to commit to having a single conversation after church once a week.

When you make this choice, you start normalize spiritual conversations.

Quantity time paves the way for quality time with your family.

It is important as a parent that you make your kids go to church.

Resources mentioned:

This Episode’s Sponsor:
What happens when the Bible and humanity collide? Not what you’d expect. Living & Effective, a podcast collaboration between Christianity Today and the Christian Standard Bible, journeys through history, current events, theology, and the human condition to uncover surprising ways the Bible accomplishes God’s plan in the world.”

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.

Group Answers Podcast

Group Answers Episode 77: Robby Gallaty

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Our guest today is Pastor Robby Gallaty. Radically saved in 2002, Robby was mentored and discipled by former Senior Pastor of The Church at Brook Hills, David Platt. Robby completed his Masters of Divinity Degree in Expository Preaching in 2007 and his Ph.D. in Preaching in 2011 from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Robby is the founder of Replicate Ministries and the author of seven books, in addition to his pastoral leadership at Long Hollow Baptist Church. Robby is married to Kandi, and they have two young sons, Rig and Ryder.

Questions:

  • What are you learning about discipleship in groups as you lead Long Hollow and interact with other churches?
  • How do you move people from being insider focused to discipling others?
  • What is the leading indicator of a growing disciple of Jesus and how can group leaders leverage it?
  • What’s the most interesting disciple-making or group practice (approach) you’ve been exposed to as you have engaged different leaders and churches?

Quotes:

We have to mobilize people from coming to the church building once a week and show them that ministry happens Monday through Saturday.

Lost people don’t wake up and say, “I think I’ll go to church today,” but they will come to your house.

There’s no greater joy as a pastor than seeing your people in church on Sunday morning taking notes during your sermon. They realize they’re not learning for them. They’re now learning for the person they’re passing the information on to.

The gospel came to you because it was heading to someone else.

Most churches that are declining or plateaued are because the pastor and staff are executing the ministry themselves.

We have taught people what they’re saved from, but not what they’re saved for.

Resources Mentioned:

This Episode’s Sponsor:
What happens when the Bible and humanity collide? Not what you’d expect. Living & Effective, a podcast collaboration between Christianity Today and the Christian Standard Bible, journeys through history, current events, theology, and the human condition to uncover surprising ways the Bible accomplishes God’s plan in the world.”

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.

Group Answers Podcast

Group Answers Episode 76: Avoiding Burnout as a Leader

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In today’s episode, Brian, Chris, and Brandon talk about the signs that you may be headed for burnout as a leader, and a few ways to hopefully avoid them.

Signs of burnout discussed from Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Peter Scazzero.

  1. You are using God to run from God.
  2. You are ignoring the emotions of anger, sadness, and fear.
  3. You are dying to the wrong things.
  4. You are doing for God instead of being with God.
  5. You are spiritualizing away conflict.
  6. You are living without limits.

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.

Group Answers Podcast

Group Answers Episode 75: Power Ranking Disciple-Makers in the Bible

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On today’s episode, Chris, Brian, and Brandon power rank disciple-makers in the Bible.

Criteria:

A. Degree of Difficulty (How challenging was their discipleship situation?)

B. Disciples’ Impact (How world-changing were their direct discipleship descendents?)

C. Paradigm Development (How much did their discipleship example shape future disciple-making ministry?)

Chris’ Top 5

  1. Jesus – 30
    Degree of Difficulty – 10
    Disciples’ Impact – 10
    Paradigm Development – 10
  2. Paul – 25
    Degree of Difficulty – 8
    Disciples’ Impact – 8
    Paradigm Development – 9
  3. Peter – 23
    Degree of Difficulty – 8
    Disciples’ Impact – 8
    Paradigm Development – 7
  4. John the Baptist – 19
    Degree of Difficulty – 9
    Disciples’ Impact – 6
    Paradigm Development — 5
  5. Elijah – 16
    Degree of Difficulty – 8
    Disciples’ Impact – 5
    Paradigm Development – 3

Brandon’s Top 5

  1. Jesus – 30
    Degree of Difficulty – 10
    Disciples’ Impact – 10
    Paradigm Development – 10
  2. Barnabas – 26
    Degree of Difficulty – 9
    Disciples’ Impact – 9
    Paradigm Development – 8
  3. Paul – 24
    Degree of Difficulty – 8
    Disciples’ Impact – 7
    Paradigm Development – 9
  4. Jethro – 18
    Degree of Difficulty – 4
    Disciples’ Impact – 4
    Paradigm Development – 10
  5. Elijah – 15
    Degree of Difficulty – 10
    Disciples’ Impact – 4
    Paradigm Development – 1

Brian’s Top 5

  1. Jesus – 30
    Degree of Difficulty – 10
    Disciples’ Impact – 10
    Paradigm Development – 10
  2. Paul – 27
    Degree of Difficulty – 8
    Disciples’ Impact – 9
    Paradigm Development – 10
  3. Moses – 26
    Degree of Difficulty – 10
    Disciples’ Impact – 10
    Paradigm Development – 6
  4. Peter – 25
    Degree of Difficulty – 9
    Disciples’ Impact – 8
    Paradigm Development – 8
  5. Aquilla and Priscilla – 18
    Degree of Difficulty – 4
    Disciples’ Impact – 9
    Paradigm Development – 5

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.

Group Answers Podcast

Group Answers Episode 74: Barnabas Piper on Dealing with Doubts and Unbelief

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On this week’s episode, Brian and Chris sit down with Barnabas Piper to discuss his book, Help My Unbelief: Why Doubt Is Not the Enemy of Faith. Barnabas is an author, podcaster, and speaker who lives near Nashville, Tennessee. He writes regularly for He Reads Truth and blogs at BarnabasPiper.com. He has authored three books, The Pastor’s Kid: Finding Your Own Faith and Identity (David C. Cook, 2014), Help My Unbelief: Why Doubt Is Not the Enemy of Faith (David C. Cook, 2015), and The Curious Christian: How Discovering Wonder Enriches Every Part of Life (B&H Publishing Group, 2017). He also co-hosts The Happy Rant podcast, a popular show discussing issues of faith and culture in a light-hearted, humorous manner.

Questions:

1. Talk to us about your personal struggles with doubt. In what ways have you found doubt to be redemptive?

2. What are some things that the church can do to help with Christians struggling through doubt and unbelief?

3. How important were relationships and community in your process of working through your unbelief?

4. Is it ok for a small group leader to still have unbelief and doubt? How much should he/she share those doubts with the group members?

5. How can a group leader best navigate those group discussions where doubts are shared and answers are not evident?

Quotes:

I knew everything I was supposed to know, but there was a disparity between that and those core beliefs that my hope rests in. That’s where the doubt lived for me.

That doubt ended up leading me all the way through college…and eventually hit a wall.

In the church, we get nervous about questions because it sounds like somebody is rejecting God, but often that’s an invitation for the Holy Spirit to speak into that person.

There is distinctly a redemptive opportunity in questions and doubts if we see them as an opportunity and not a challenge.

You have to be willing to answer the same questions over-and-over again, because some people will struggle with the same doubts for a long time.

The group context is vital to this, because that’s where the doubts come out.

There are doubts that you can put on the table that can rattle other people. You’re going to introduce a doubt to them that they have never considered.

You have to have a barometer of what’s the right thing to say here, and what’s the right thing to say just to that other member.

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.