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Group Answers Podcast
December 16, 2020

Group Answers Episode 183: Reid Smith on Leader Self-Care

By Group Ministry

https://media.blubrry.com/groupsmatter/p/media.blubrry.com/lifewayleadership/p/groupministry.lifeway.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2020/12/GA-183.mp3

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On this episode of Group Answers, Chris and Brian talk to Reid Smith about how small group leaders can keep themselves spiritually healthy — especially during this season.

Reid Smith has been equipping leaders in churches of all sizes and stages of growth for effective disciple-making since 1996. He lives in Wellington, Florida where he serves as a Groups Pastor at Christ Fellowship. You can find more of his helpful resources at www.reidsmith.org.

Resources Mentioned

Small Group Leader Self-Care Blog Post

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 Leading Small Groups.

Group Leadership
November 5, 2020

Three Guidelines for Talking About the Election in Your Group

By Group Ministry

By Will Johnston

I once convinced someone to switch to my political party by berating their beliefs and saying that they must be stupid if they didn’t come around to my way of thinking.

Find that hard to believe?

Me too. It didn’t happen. I’ve actually never seen that strategy work, although that doesn’t seem to stop people from trying it out.

There’s a good chance that your small group members don’t all agree on politics.  Even if you think they do, they might not actually. I’ve got friends who are tight-lipped about their politics because they live in an area where their livelihoods would be impacted if they were too open.

Things are crazy right now. We’re all a little unsettled. We’re not sure what direction our country is going or how this election season is going to play out.

You’ve probably heard the old adage to avoid discussing religion and politics in polite company, but small group isn’t polite company.  At it’s best, it’s the people we can be the most real with, and politics has a real impact on our lives. It matters, and if it matters, then it’s fair game for groups.

That doesn’t mean every group needs to discuss politics, but you should be ready in case it comes up.  Here are three simple guidelines to keep your group discussion from going the way of the comments on nearly every Facebook post about politics.

  1. Focus on “I” rather than “you” or “they.”

Keep the conversation focused on who each person supports, why they support them, and even why they don’t support the other person.  For example:

  • “I supported Donald Trump because I think he has the best plan for XYZ.”
  • “I voted for Joe Biden because I believe he better reflects ABC.”
  • “My concern about Trump/Biden is that he DEF, and I think that reveals some character issues.”
  • “I understand why you would vote for Trump/Biden because of his position on HIJ, but I think XYZ is a higher priority, so that’s why I voted for Biden/Trump.

What we want to avoid are statements that disparage the other person or their positions and shut down discussion.  For example:

  • “I just don’t see how a Christian could support Donald Trump/Joe Biden. He’s for XYZ!”
  • “All Christians should support Donald Trump/Joe Biden because ABC!”
  • “Democrats/Republicans are for DEF, and that’s just plain ungodly.”
  • “Jesus cares about HIJ, so Christians should support Democrats/Republicans.”

Do you see the difference there?  The first set of statements expresses what I think and why I think it. The second set of statements tells everyone else that they have to agree with me.

  1. Jesus called us to unity, not to a political party.

I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be Republicans, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

I love those words from Jesus, praying that we would all be Republicans so that the world may believe.  Or wait… was it Democrats? Did Jesus pray we would be Democrats?

Look, I think politics is important. I used to work on Capitol Hill. I truly believe that it matters. But ultimately, Jesus called me to follow Him, and he called me to unity with other followers, even the ones I disagree with politically.

At the end of the day, the world will see there’s something different about us when we can love people with whom we disagree because of the love of Jesus.

  1. Pray.

I probably should have started with “pray,” but the truth is we may not be able to open every discussion on politics that happens in our group with prayer.  Regardless, we can pray for our group’s unity ahead of time, just like Jesus prayed for the Church’s unity.

And when a political conversation starts up in our groups, we can pray silently that the words of our group members would be infused with love. We can pray that those nervous to share their thoughts would have the courage to do so, and that those who are outspoken would have the love and humility required to listen.

And sometimes, if a political discussion looks like it might heat up too much, you just might need to stop everyone, pray, and lay out some ground rules for the discussion. Feel free to use points one and two above.

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.

Group Leadership
September 10, 2020

10 Tips for a Brand New Group Leader

By Ken Braddy

I wish someone had written this article for me “back in the day.” My first step into becoming a group leader took place right after I got married. My new bride and I were recruited to teach a group of eighth grade girls. I had no clue how to be an effective leader at that point in my life, but I had the job of leading those girls, and as I remember, we had a bunch of them!

As I reflect back on that experience, and as I have spoken with hundreds of group leaders across the country, I’ve come up with a “top 10 list” of things that brand new group leaders should consider. I’d have been a better teacher if someone had shared these with me in 1987. Yes, I just dated myself. If I could tell my younger self only 10 things, here they are in no particular order.

    1. Teaching is not telling. Learning is not listening. I remember telling my wife something really dumb after accepting the group leader position with those eighth grade girls: “Charles (my pastor) has his 45 minutes, now I have mine.” Yikes. Because no one told me differently, I thought my job was to prepare a lesson and do all the talking. After all, I’m the one who studied and prepared, and I had a lot of important things to tell those girls. Wrong. I would have been a much better teacher if I had learned to more fully engage them in the Bible study. Little did I know that there are 8 learning approaches. I learned to incorporate those in time, but boy do I feel bad for that first group of girls. I was a “talking head” and I’m sure they were bored to tears.
    2. Don’t take yourself so seriously. Yes, leading a group is important. Yes, it’s a serious thing to be responsible for the spiritual growth of a group of people. But don’t take yourself too seriously. Have fun. Laugh at yourself. Realize that if the group is laughing at you, that’s OK. You really only have an audience of one—the Lord. Don’t worry what others think about you, your teaching, or a host of other things. Seek to please the Lord in all you do, and if you trip up, know that gravity is going to still work, and the sun will rise tomorrow. The world won’t end, so loosen up.
    3. If you have to choose between being a great teacher or a great shepherd, choose shepherd. My son entered the 12th grade when our family moved to Nashville, Tennessee. He began his last year of high school at a strange new school, and he had to find new friends. One place I hoped that would happen was our new church. He only had 5 other young men in his Sunday School class, but when he began missing on Sundays (he visited other churches with Christian guys he met on his football team) his teacher never contacted him. Not once. Not in twelve months. Although this man was a good teacher, I’m sure, he was a lousy shepherd. My son learned all too quickly that he didn’t matter to his 12th grade teacher, and it soured him on the church. The old saying is true: “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
    4. The person with the biggest group doesn’t win. As a new group leader, I thought the goal was to have the biggest group. And we did. It was great. Everyone wanted to be in the groups my wife and I taught. We learned how to teach, we had fun with the students outside of Sunday School, and we hung out. No one ever told me that having the biggest group wasn’t the goal. What I should have been told was that the goal was to grow my group to the point I could start a new one. Another teacher could have then come along to shepherd and teach half my group.
    5. Your group exists for people far from God. One thing I learned about group life: if you aren’t careful, your group will turn inward pretty quickly. It takes strong leadership to constantly remind your group members that the group exists to reach new people. After a group has been together 18 months, it naturally begins to close. Reaching new people gets hard. You must consistently help your group see the many people in your community that might go to your church and attend your group if they were aware, invited, and cared for.
    6. Work hard to include new people in the group. People will not assimilate themselves. You have to work hard to help new people fit in, and your group members are the key. This is why it’s so important to become great at inclusion. It is possible to be a member of a group, but never really belong to the group. That’s a terrible feeling, and one reason people drift away and are never seen again.
    7. Your group isn’t your group. Read Amos 3:12. It contains a prophecy about Israel, and it is couched in shepherding terms. Part of this verse gives us insight into the life of a shepherd. “As the shepherd snatches an ear or a piece of a leg from the lion’s mouth…” tells us that shepherds protect their sheep. Nothing new there, right? Well, read the verse again; the sheep had already become lunch for the lion. Why would a shepherd risk life and limb for an animal that was already dead? The answer is, “Because the shepherd is not the owner of the sheep.” The true owner has temporarily given the shepherd responsibility for his sheep. If the shepherd goes out with 100 sheep, he’d better come back with 100, or have a good explanation (hence the reason he was so concerned about grabbing a piece of the sheep from the lion—it served as proof that he hadn’t stolen the sheep to begin his own flock). All this to say, as a group leader, the people in your group aren’t yours—you’re the stewarding shepherd. The “owner,” God, has given you temporary responsibility to care for His sheep—His people. Never use the words “my group” or “my classroom.” Everything belongs to God, not you. I needed to hear that as a new group leader.
    8. You should hold onto your group members with a loose grip. Because of #7 above, I must let people go if my group gets too large. The goal is to see people discipled, and that happens best in the context of smaller groups. Larger groups are fun to teach, and they can be a sign that you’re doing something right, but when the pastor asks you to divide your group so that greater care can be given to the members, do it! They aren’t “your” people anyway, right? Right.
    9. You should spend more time in prayer. Spending time with your group members is commendable. Spending time studying your lesson is also important. Doing ministry together as a group is important. But the most important thing you can do is to spend time in prayer. Pray for your pastor, pray for your group members, pray that the Lord protects you from the fiery darts of the evil one.
    10. Don’t do anything stupid to lose your position of leadership. In today’s world, someone is always watching. Always. Be mindful of the places you go, the things you look at online, and the words you use in social media. Everything you do is a potential skeleton in the closet years from now, and you don’t want to do anything that disqualifies you from serving the Lord. Too many ministers have learned this the hard way, and lifetimes of schooling, experience, and wisdom have all been erased instantly by a misspoken word, a lapse in moral or financial judgment, or some other reason. Finish the race you’ve begun. Don’t disqualify yourself. The church needs godly men and women now more than ever. Be strong. Be smart. Be one of the ones the Lord commends when He says, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” 

 

Group Answers Podcast
September 9, 2020

Group Answers Episode 169: 10 Tips for New Leaders

By Group Ministry

https://media.blubrry.com/groupsmatter/p/media.blubrry.com/lifewayleadership/p/groupministry.lifeway.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2020/09/GA169.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 30:05 — 41.5MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Email | RSS

On this episode of Group Answers, Chris, Brian, and Ken discuss 10 tips to help brand new group leaders.

Tips:

  1. Teaching is not telling. Learning is not listening.
  2. Don’t take yourself so seriously.
  3. If you have to choose between being a great teacher or a great shepherd, choose shepherd.
  4. The person with the biggest group doesn’t win.
  5. Your group exists for people far from God.
  6. Work hard to include new people in the group.
  7. Your group isn’t your group.
  8. You should hold onto your group members with a loose grip.
  9. You should spend more time in prayer.
  10. Don’t do anything stupid to lose your position of leadership.

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 Leading Small Groups.

Group Leadership
August 20, 2020

Challenging Paradigms

By Group Ministry

By Reid Smith

All of us come to the table with our own experience, biases, and presumptions about what works best with starting and multiplying healthy groups in a church. Over time, paradigms (or ways of thinking) about groups formulate in our minds, which in turn influence the culture of the community being built. This is natural, but should be challenged so that the culture of community in your church is being shaped strategically around informed convictions instead of unchallenged paradigms.

One of the best ways of challenging paradigms is by asking questions. As you search God’s Word and your heart, your paradigms might change or be further solidified. These inquiries are meant to be thought-provoking and are good to process with other trusted leaders whether or not you’ve launched groups in your church yet.

Are you ready to begin building a strategic culture of community in your church? Clear your mind and honestly grapple with these 10 questions:

  1. Do you think of groups as a “ministry” of your church or as the building blocks of every ministry area of your church?
  2. Is there a clear vision for groups? What language does leadership intentionally use to support this vision?
  3. Does your church put more emphasis on joining or starting groups? What are the pros and cons of the language leadership uses to support this emphasis?
  4. Do you consider it to be more advantageous to have a broad/open-ended or narrow/specific definition of what constitutes a “group” in your church? Explain.
  5. What is the primary motivation of getting people in groups (retention, member care, increasing engagement in church activities/volunteerism, spiritual maturity, mission, etc.)? Are other critical things being under-communicated as a result of this emphasis?
  6. On a scale of 1-10 (with ‘1’ being “if I have time and feel like it” to ‘10’ being “a vital spiritual habit I prioritize weekly”), how important do you think your average church member views their personal involvement in a group? Explain.
  7. What are the qualifications for serving as a group leader? Would you consider yourself to have a high or low bar? Explain.
  8. Do you have an ongoing rhythm of equipping leaders once they get started? Describe any gap you see between what this looks like now and what you hope it will look like.
  9. What does success look like to your group leadership? How is it measured and celebrated?
  10. How is growth and multiplication built into the way groups are communicated and stewarded in your church?

It is actually a good thing if you’re walking away from this exercise with more questions than answers. Take time to figure out how the Lord wants you to plant, prioritize, and prune your group life so that Christ-centered community can grow healthy and strong.

If you’re not the Lead/Senior Pastor, then find a way to process these questions together, agree on responses, and document them. This will establish and maintain a strategic culture of community that will start and multiply healthy groups throughout your church moving forward.

Reid Smith has been equipping leaders in churches of all sizes and stages of growth for effective disciple-making since 1996. He lives in Wellington, Florida where he serves as a Groups Pastor at Christ Fellowship. You can find more of his helpful resources at www.reidsmith.org.

Group Leadership
August 6, 2020

Leadership Investment Rhythms

By Group Ministry

By Reid Smith

Intentional investments made over time into developing group leaders will empower them to create healthy environments where biblical community can grow. This requires meaningful touchpoints in different ways with enough frequency that leaders feel known, loved, included, and challenged and they continue learning and growing.

Different leaders need different kinds of care. This care will look different for each leader based on their experience in leading groups. There are repeatable investment rhythms you can easily put into motion to build relationships for healthy leadership development. A group leader will fall somewhere on the spectrum of new to experienced. For simplicity sake, we will only look at these two general categories:

  • New leaders typically want time to interface with you in person and be connected with other leaders. They are helped by a higher frequency of touchpoints that are more personalized. You want to love on these leaders and provide ample attention and direction, especially within the first few months as they begin leading. 
  • Experienced leaders typically prefer a lower frequency of touchpoints that don’t require as many in person meetings. They need to know you’re there and care, but they don’t need the same level of engagement as new leaders. Keep these people in the loop and show your appreciation for them.
NEW EXPERIENCED
  • Pray for them regularly
  • Call or text 1x/mo*
  • Meet in person 1:1 or group format 1x/1-2 mos
  • Send email or note 1-2x/mo
  • Visit group twice in first 6 mos
  • Be available as needed
  • Pray for them regularly
  • Call or text 1x/mo
  • Meet in person 1:1 or group format once per semester
  • Send email or note 1x/mo
  • Visit group 1x/yr
  • Be available as needed

* Weekly frequency during their initial training & up through their first study

The concept of “span of care” applies as the scale of your group leadership grows. For example, let’s say you have eight group leaders. You’ve built relationships with them over time and have been able to provide the necessary care, but you want to do more. About this time, four new leaders emerge out of these groups who are eager to launch their own groups. 

You quickly realize that you can’t maintain the same level of care with your first wave of leaders and also pour into the next wave. To meet this growing demand, you select one of your most capable and available leaders to function as a “coach” and invest into half of your experienced leaders (4) and half of the new leaders (2). Instead of your span of care becoming unmanageable at twelve, you equally divide care for the whole group of leaders between you and your new coach resulting in a 1:6 span of care.

Keep in mind that span of care is an elastic concept in practice. For example, coaches with greater margin and leadership competency can care for a greater number of leaders. Yet, it is important to continually assess what level of care leaders need because even the most experienced leaders face personal crises and challenges in group life that will require greater investment at times. 

Occasionally, you and your coaches should plan to substitute an in-person touchpoint with a half-day retreat or conference that will develop your leadership community. There is an array of top-notch content available on demand for this type of setting. Adding variety into how you invest in your leaders will help guard against these rhythms falling into ruts.

The table above can serve as a rule of thumb to help you determine what healthy investment rhythms should look like in your church as you assess the maturity and specific needs of your group leadership.

Reid Smith has been equipping leaders in churches of all sizes and stages of growth for effective disciple-making since 1996. He lives in Wellington, Florida where he serves as a Groups Pastor at Christ Fellowship. You can find more of his helpful resources at www.reidsmith.org.

Group Leadership
July 23, 2020

Politics and Your Small Group

By Group Ministry

By Jared Steven Musgrove

As group leaders, we take a lead role in maturing disciples of Jesus Christ. Tense conversations are often part of growth together. Perhaps nowhere is that more apparent in the 21st century than in our politics. 

Even when we aren’t facing a global pandemic, fruitful, meaningful, and productive political conversations can’t be had if we jump to conclusions about each other.

Politics may be defined as “the struggle that determines who gets what, when and how.”  This struggle is rife with contention, war, conflict, influence, and power. 

Yet, the church does not wrestle against flesh and blood. We are in a spiritual battle of Word, love, and actions and our call is to maintain the unity of the Spirit. 

Below are some ground rules for navigating political conversations in your group. You might even consider sharing these points in your group meeting, letting group members know that you are praying about the coming elections and your time together as brothers and sisters. Invite them to join you in this. 

  1. Talk face-to-face. If you want to talk politics, it’s best to do so face-to-face. 
  2. Respect one another. Does this conversation seek to practice the “one anothers” of Scripture? 
  3. Speak with honesty and candor. If you disagree, say so politely. If a statement is hurtful, say that it was, and be quick to forgive. If you make a hurtful statement, be quick to apologize and seek forgiveness. 
  4. Give goodwill. Are you seeking to understand over being understood or validated? Are you seeking to be righteous over being right? 
  5. Be informed. Be okay with admitting if you are not informed and wish to talk about something else.

Dr. Jared Steven Musgrove is Groups Pastor at The Village Church in Flower Mound, TX and co-founder and Executive Director of communityleadership.org. He is married to Jenny and father to Jordan and Joshua.

Church Leadership
August 23, 2019

How to Encourage 1:1 Mentorship in Your Group

By Deborah Spooner

You spend time together as a group. You talk about following Jesus. You encourage each other to confess, repent, and keep pushing forward.

But, even though you do this more intentionally through a small group separate from the larger Sunday congregation, there’s a level of accountability and discipleship that still can’t happen in a larger group setting.

When 1:1 mentorship develops within small groups, the group itself can be strengthened as well as individuals’ relationships with the Lord. Even Jesus had his ministry to the masses, his specific ministry with the twelve disciples, and more ministry with the three closest to him. 

Here are three practical ways to encourage 1:1 mentorship within your small group. 

1. Talk about it

Sometimes, when people get into small groups, they assume their discipleship and mentorship needs are being met. They can assume the accountability and natural growth from group discussions is enough. And this makes an impact! But, when a group leader reminds the group about the value of intentional, outside-of-group 1:1 mentorship, people can remember the impact of personal accountability and discipleship plans.

Try encouraging 1:1 mentorship in your group by talking about it. Simply bringing up the biblical value and role of deeper mentorship and challenging your group to mentor each other or others outside of the group can be a first step towards this type of life-change. 

2. Provide resources

People can be intimidated when they hear the word “mentorship” or even “discipleship.” They might not think they’re qualified. They might never have had a mentor and don’t have an idea of what this relationship is “supposed” to look like. They simply might not know where to start.

Try providing them with resources as they begin their mentorship journey. This could be as simple as a list of questions you’ve found helpful when discipling and mentoring, or it could be more substantial such as a Bible study to work through. Either way, giving practical resources makes a big difference in the effectiveness and confidence of the mentors as they begin. 

3. Provide feedback

Checking in on your group’s mentors will help them grow in their mentorship skills so they can be as effective as possible with their mentees. When people know that, as they begin to mentor, they are not alone, this can increase their confidence in wanting to step into such a role. If they know they can trouble-shoot with you as a trusted leader or have consistent suggestions for how to continue to strengthen their mentor/mentee relationship, they can gain courage from this type of support.

Consider having monthly or bi-monthly meetings with your group’s mentors to check in and offer any support or encouragement that might be necessary. 

Mentorship is worth it. The type of personal discipleship that comes when we take our small groups and encourage intentional mentorship is powerful as we all seek to follow Christ day by day.

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, Group Leadership
August 8, 2019

Coaching Webinar Replay

By Group Ministry

Please enjoy this replay of our recent webinar: Developing an Effective Coaching System for Your Group Leaders.

Sponsor: Smallgroup.com

Resource: Group Answers Podcast

Church Leadership
August 5, 2019

Two Ways to Craft Effective Small Group Questions

By Dwayne McCrary

Developing good question sets may be the hardest action taken on by a Bible study leader. Question sets are designed to move people through the learning process. For every question included in the set, ten or more should have been left on the table. In the creation of a set of seven questions, one should not be surprised to find that they created one hundred different questions in pursuit of the seven. 

Lots of systems exist for creating question sets, but let me share two that I have found helpful and the steps that are needed. 

Approach 1: The Inductive Chart

Step 1. Read the Bible passage, and list people/places/things/words.

Step 2. Use Bible study resources to define and describe the items listed in Step 1. Star key discoveries that speak into the overall understanding of the passage or give deeper insight.

Step 3. Read the passage again, and list the actions taken or directed in the passage. Include actions taken by God in the passage.

Step 4. Identify principles and personal actions. Use the actions taken or directed as a starting point, seeking to place them into a question. Here is an example from Matthew 2, where the angels delivered God’s message to the shepherds: How does God deliver His message today? What role do I (we) have in delivering God’s message? What message do I (we) have to deliver? How can I (we) deliver that message? As principles are identified, look for ways the actions are tied to the principle(s).

Step 5. Organize question sets. Look for paths from the action questions back to the items in the text that feed into that question. Create question sets that move people through the discovery process to the action question(s). For example: What was the message delivered by the angels? moves to What message are we to deliver today? and How do the two compare? 

Approach 2: The Big Idea

Step 1. Read the Bible text, identifying the main points. 

Step 2. Using the main point, write your own summary statement of the main truth or principle discovered in that section. (Example: God desires for everyone to come to repentance.) The main points should be subsets of your summary statement. 

Step 3. Generate questions borne from the summary statement. (Example: What is repentance? What other passages support this idea? What does God do about those who refuse to repent? What keeps a person from repenting? From what are we to repent? Have I repented? Have you repented?)

Step 4. Convert the open-ended questions to close-ended questions. (Example: What keeps a person from repenting? might become Does a person’s pride keep them from repenting?) Convert the close-ended questions to open-ended questions. (Example: Have I repented? might become Tell about how you came to understand your need to repent and how you did that.)

Step 5. Organize the questions into logical sets. For example, before a person can determine if he or she has repented, he or she needs to know from what and how.

Step 6. Cull and refine the questions, focusing on the sets that get to the core of the Bible text and that lead to concrete action. Most people find it helpful to work backward, identifying the final question in the set and then taking a step back, looking for the question that moves the group forward. 

Both of these approaches take time and practice. The end result shows. The person who claims that creating questions is easy and can be done quickly is trying to sell you something he or she knows little about or that reflects minimal thought, especially if we are talking about an intentional question set that moves people to purposeful action. 

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, and serves as an adjunct at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. 
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