Community Archives - Group Ministry

January 9, 2020

Seven Keys to a Successful Groups Launch

The beginning of the year is a perfect time to launch new small groups at a church. January is normally a growth season for churches, as people return after making spiritual growth resolutions. Whether you decide to launch a campaign with all of your groups studying the same content for a few weeks, or just have new groups available for new people to join, there are a few things you can do to help the launch go as smoothly as possible.

1. Provide coaches for new leaders.

No matter how much training you provide for your new leaders, they will almost always run into issues during group meetings that they need answers for. The best source for providing those answers will be seasoned group leaders who have been there before. Every new leader should be assigned a veteran leader that can be one email or phone call away when questions arise.

2. Start enough groups for expected growth.

Before you launch your groups, make sure there are enough groups to accommodate the people wanting to join. It’s much easier for new people to stick to a new group than an existing one. Existing groups already have relationships formed and a new person will feel left out, no matter how open the group members are. Use last year’s January attendance numbers to help calculate how many new groups and coaches you will need to recruit before your sign-up weeks.

3. Use multiple weeks for sign-ups.

Most people only attend church one or two Sundays a month. If you only offer sign-ups for small groups on one weekend, you will miss over half of your congregation. Sign-ups should be offered at least two weeks in a row, with opportunities also available on the website for those who still missed it.

4. Have the senior pastor make the initial push.

If biblical community is an important piece of discipleship for your church, then the initial call should come from the senior leader. The congregation will need to hear the “why” behind small groups before they understand the “what.” No one can do that better than the lead vision caster for the church.

5. Provide biblically solid, easy-to-use curriculum.

It’s easy to spend a lot of time thinking about the details of the launch and little on what the groups will be studying. If groups are going to make disciples, they will need an easy-to-use Bible study to spur the necessary discipleship conversations. Aligning your groups with the Sunday messages is a good direction to start with. SmallGroup.com can help you write solid sermon-based studies without taking too much of your time.

6. Be ready to adjust after the launch.

It doesn’t matter much preparation you have put in before the launch, there will inevitably be groups that never get off of the ground. It may be because of location, time, personality or many other factors, but you have to be ready to adjust for those new leaders. Look for a way to combine groups in the same area, or ask the leaders to help another group for a semester before launching again in the spring.

7. Give groups a next step after launch.

If you want your groups to continue to succeed after the initial launch, you need to think about easy next steps for them. What will they study after the short-term campaign is over? Will they continue with a coach? Will they need to add group members at the next sign-up opportunity? Provide a roadmap for them, and your new groups will last beyond the first semester.

Chris Surratt is a ministry consultant and coach with over 22 years of experience serving the local church. Chris served on the Executive Team at Cross Point Church in Nashville, TN, and was on staff at Seacoast Church in Charleston, SC, for 15 years. He also manages SmallGroup.com for LifeWay Christian Resources. Chris’s first book, Small Groups For The Rest Of Us: How to Design Your Small Groups System to Reach the Fringes, was just released by Thomas Nelson. You can follow his blog at chrissurratt.com or follow him on Twitter @chrissurratt.

Church Leadership

January 6, 2020

How to Disciple New Christians

By Deborah Spooner

Do you remember what it was like?

You’d heard the word “Christian” before. Maybe you were a teenager, fighting the fact that your parents frequently brought you to church and you didn’t really see why. Maybe you were far along into adulthood, struggling with the purpose of what you did. Maybe you were yet a small child, hearing about concepts of Christ and the cross and trying to piece things together.

Whatever your story of coming to know and cherish Christ, we all began somewhere and had to then begin the next step in our journey: understanding more fully what we believe and how to follow Christ.

Where did you turn?

A specific person might have started to intentionally disciple you. Perhaps a book became pivotal in your spiritual formation. Maybe a church, through preaching and small groups, stepped into this foundational time.

Yet maybe the process of pursuing spiritual understanding and growth wasn’t so smooth. You could have floundered finding sure sources to teach you.

Now, you might be on the flip-side. Leading a small group, you might be surrounded with people new to the faith or asking how to rebuild their life on the foundation.

The need for accessible, direct, helpful, and deep discipleship resources for new believers cannot be understated. And, because of this need, we acted.

Meet My New Life: A New Christian’s Guide to Building Your Life on the Word of God.

This is a six week Bible study which covers the basics of the Christian faith for new disciples of Christ. Each session contains sections that introduce you to scripture with a specific focus, provide questions to help you engage with the scripture, and give a prayer focus and journaling sections to conclude your weekly study.

What topics are covered?

Week One: My New Life in Jesus
Week Two: Understanding the Gospel
Week Three: The God Who Made Us
Week Four: Abiding in Jesus
Week Five: The Importance of the Church
Week Six: Joining God on Mission

You can engage with this study on our own, give it to those in your group to do individually, or go through the content with a group.

No matter the way you use the resource, it is our hope that it can serve as a go-to for early discipleship, centering new believers on the Word of God and the cross of Christ as we seek to be faithful to the Lord and as He transforms our hearts.

Here’s to growing in our walk with Christ. Here’s to intentional, practical discipleship. Here’s to more new believers in 2020.

Find out more about this recourse, access the first session for free, and find more additional church items at lifeway.com/mynewlife.

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

January 2, 2020

Name Tags and the 3 Essentials of Group Ministry

By David Francis

LifeWay Groups Ministry holds to three essential qualities that every group ought to demonstrate:

disciple making
community building
culture shaping

One thing that can help build all three qualities are name tags. Some of you who know me or have read any of the twelve little books I’ve written about groups know how strongly I feel about name tags. Here is another installment!

1. Community Building. Nothing makes a newcomer to your group feel more at ease than a room full of people wearing name tags. Nothing! Community starts with names. Then stories connected to those names. Then stories that connect people to one another. So make a regular practice of sharing a piece of who you are everytime you wear name tags. Which should be every time! We can make tons of connections in just a few weeks of a new small group by asking everyone to print three lines on their name tags:

FIRST NAME (all caps)

last name (smaller)

Something about your assignment

The last line can be anything—post a topic in the room or on the table where people make their name tags. Favorite movie. Where you were born. Sports team you cheer for. Year you moved to town. Favorite book you’ve read this year. (Anybody can say “the Bible!”) I’ve seen tons of unexpected connections made this way.

2. Disciple Making. Discussion is more meaningful if the discussers can call each other by name. That’s another reason to print your first names in all caps. That way they can be seen easily across the room. I have visited dozens of Bible study groups all over America. The ones where almost everyone was wearing a name tag were not just more friendly. The Bible study was just better. Jack and Yolanda are new members of our small group. They were back again this week. They asked to be put on the email prayer list—and asked me to resend the link to a spiritual gifts inventory they had missed. Confession: We didn’t get out the name tags until they showed up. But we did get them out. It mattered.

3. Culture Shaping. One of the most inspiring stories I know about name tags happened in Boston in 2007. Forty thousand nametags were distributed at Fenway Park as fans entered a game. About half wore them. The sponsor? The Boston Police Department Crime Watch Unit! It was based on a program implemented in subway suburb Jamaica Plain by officer Joseph Porcelli. He began a movement that encouraged people to wear name tags everyday everywhere, and it actually had a dramatic measurable effect on the crime rate! Why? People who know each other by name are more likely to look out for one another. That’s all. That’s significant. That’s enough.

David Francis is Director of Sunday School at LifeWay. He is the author of eleven small books available for free at lifeway.com/davidfrancis or at the iTunes store. His interactive Bible study, Spiritual Gifts, is in its ninth printing and is not free! (But it is available to order at lifeway.com.) He and his wife Vickie teach four- and five-year olds in Sunday School and are members of a small group of empty nesters. Their three sons and their families live in three different time zones—Boston, Los Angeles, and Bryan-College Station.

Church Leadership

December 30, 2019

The Signposts of a Growing Disciple – Part 6

By Lynn Pryor

What does a mature disciple of Christ look like? Over the past decade LifeWay Research has delved into this with thousands of pastors and church leaders. Culling through the data, we discovered that strong discipleship ministries and practices could be put in eight categories. We call these eight categories the signposts along the discipleship pathway. One sign of growing disciples is that they exercise faith.

Faith may be a common word in our vocabulary, but we don’t all use it the same way. For some people, the concept of faith is essentially wishful thinking. “I have faith that they’ll win the championship.” For others, the concept of faith is tied to a set of beliefs. “I follow the Christian faith.” And others see faith as something they can use to manipulate God. “If you believe hard enough and have enough faith, God will do what you ask Him to do.”

Faith is trust, taking God at His word and confidently trusting that He will do what He said He will do. Faith can begin simply, even as we place our trust in Jesus as Savior and Lord. But as we mature in our faith, that trust only grows deeper and we are more and more adept at trusting Him.

In the research that indicated a mature believer exercises faith, it was noted that these believes knew the importance of living by faith as opposed to living by their own strength. Trusting in God deepens and reliance on self lessens. Exercising faith means risk-aversion is set aside. Maturing believers concern themselves with bold faithfulness to God’s work. The concerns of personal cost become less concerning. The transformation that occurs because we put faith in God’s power results in faithful obedience.

Two statements were strong among mature believers who exercise faith:

“I believe God has a purpose for all events in my life, regardless of whether I perceive each event as being good or bad.” Our faith in Christ gives us both new life in the eternal sense and redefines our perception about life here in this world. When we engage our faith in everyday living, it allows us to have a longer view of life’s events. Rather than wishing our way out of difficulty, it gives us the opportunity to simply trust God’s goodness no matter what we face.
“I express praise and gratitude to God even in difficult circumstances.” The believer who is exercising faith can look beyond the current circumstances to the greater issues at work. They do not ignore what is happening, but by trusting and living by faith, they see life in light of all of God’s providence. Faith looks beyond difficulty and trusts in the character of God.

The apostle Paul gave us a wonderful summary of what it means to exercise faith:

“I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).

Rather than sinking into the doldrums when things go wrong, we keep our eyes lifted toward Christ. Exercising faith is a result of God’s transforming work in our lives. As we grow in our sanctification and walk with Christ, we are able to follow more closely to Him. Our trust and faith only deepens.

Ways the Church Can Foster Believers Who Exercise Faith.

Challenge believers. Challenge people to give as an act of worship and trust in God’s provision. Challenge them to get involved in a mission project or ministry and trust God to work.

Provide opportunities to step out of their comfort zone. Point to specific ministry and mission opportunities and encourage participation. When people step out of their comfort zones, they can experience God’s presence and hand at work. The more they do this, the more they learn to trust God.

Give testimonies. Give a platform for individuals in the church to share how they learned to exercise faith. A testimony of how they learned to trust God in a specific situation encourages others to do the same.

Lynn Pryor (@lynnpryor) is a team leader in LifeWay’s ongoing adult Bible study department. He also serves as an interim pastor in the Nashville area. Read more from his blog at lynnhpryor.com.

Church Leadership

December 25, 2019

The Best Icebreakers to Start the New Year

By Group Ministry

Icebreaker exercises in small group settings can really make or break the discussion and participation. The start of a new year can also mean the start of many new groups or adding members to existing small groups. Having the right icebreakers for these beginning meetings can set the tone and determine who stays in the group or leaves for another group.

Here are the top three icebreakers for small groups to use in the new year:

1. Top 10 Lists:

The group leader finds a top 10 list online (such as the top 10 grossing movies of the year, the top 10 wealthiest male actors, the top 10 largest companies in the world, etc.).

Everyone in the class numbers off and gathers in their groups. The leader will announce the top 10 topic and puts 3 minutes on the clock. Each group will designate one person to write their 10 guesses and circle their number one choice.

As time is called, the group leader will read off the list and the groups will tally up their points. They are given one point per every right answer and a bonus two points if they can guess the number one spot.

2. Desert Island List:

Everybody has probably played this game at some point in their group life, but it’s a classic and gives everyone in the group a sense of who you are. In case you haven’t played this one before, here’s how it goes.

The group leader starts by posing the situation and question: You have just found out that you are going to be exiled on a desert island for an entire year. In addition to packing your essentials, you can bring one CD/album, one book (besides the Bible), and your favorite food. What will you bring?

After the leader reads the situation and question, every group member will have to answer the question and see how creative they can get!

3. Outburst:

Outburst is similar to the top 10 list, but it becomes more of a game of speed and creativity.

In Outburst, the group leader will find another top 10 list, but the group must now write down as many guesses as possible in the allotted time. These top 10 lists will be more topical, such as the top 10 things you find at a carnival, the top 10 things you find at a kid’s birthday party, or top 10 things you find at a small group Bible study.

Groups can choose to keep track of points from meeting to meeting or just play for the fun of it.

What icebreakers has your small group used before? Comment below with even more ideas!

Church Leadership

December 13, 2019

The Signposts of a Growing Disciple – Part 5

By Group Ministry

I’m sure I’m preaching to the choir here, but any who wants to grow in Christ needs to engage with His Word: reading, studying, and so forth. That’s obvious, right? After all, the bulk of most churches’ weekly schedule is worship services where the Word of God is proclaimed and Bible study groups where the Bible is studied and discussed.

The centrality and importance of Scripture in the life of churches and believers may be clear, but that does not translate into practice. The research that led us to see the importance of the Bible in the life of a maturing disciple also showed us that too few believers are actually engaging with Scripture as they should. When asked how often they read the Bible—not as part of a church worship service—19 percent said “every day,” 26 percent said “a few times a week,” 14 percent said “once a week,” 22 percent said “once a month” or “a few times a month,” and 18 percent said “rarely/never.”

Simply reading the Bible does not equate discipleship, (althuogh it’s a good starting point). Yet 40 percent of believers are not even reading it once a week. For a person to become a maturing disciple, he must regularly and consistently get his nose in God’s Word.

“All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16-17).

Paul told us why we should engage with Scripture: it’s God’s Word to us! That’s reason enough, but Paul also pointed out how the Word benefits us.

The Word of God teaches. Through the pages of Scripture, God has revealed Himself. We see what He is like and how He has worked throughout history. We see His purpose and plans for us. As God reveals who He is, we also see ourselves: both our sinful fallen state and who we can be through Jesus Christ.

The Word of God rebukes. Because Scripture reveals God’s law, commands, and will for our lives, it also reveals our sin and rebukes us. The Holy Spirit uses Scripture to convict us.

The Word of God corrects. The purpose of the Spirit’s convicting work is to bring us back to Him. Scripture reviews God’s plan of salvation that corrects the course we’re on and brings us into a relationship with Him. God’s Word continues to correct us as believers when we stumble and sin. It puts us back on the right path and helps us stay there.

The Word of God trains us in righteousness. God’s Word does more than just correct us; it helps us move forward and grow to become more and more like Christ.

Engaging with Scripture means allowing God’s Word to work in our lives in these four ways. Maturing believers don’t just read it to know what it says; they seek to let it change them. To live by the truth and precepts of Scripture is to increasing become more like Christ.

Ways the Church Can Foster Believers Who Engage with Scripture.

Preach the Word. Go deep. Don’t just read a passage and then get on with a sermon that never refers back to the passage! Lead the congregation to engage fully with the passage, seeing both its context and connection to their lives.

Promote Bible study. Whether you call it small groups, life groups, Sunday School, or That Thing We Do Before Worship, challenge every person to get involved in a group. In a smaller setting (6-15 people), people can study and discuss the Word. They can raise questions. They can encourage each other and challenge each other to learn and apply God’s Word.
Mention the value of Bible study groups frequently. Call attention to those who facilitate groups. Challenge group leaders and members to invite these not involved to join their group.

Provide resources. Encourage people to spent time in the Word everyday by providing devotional guides and books. Invest in devotional guides like Open Windows, Stand Firm (for men), or Journey (for women). DevoHub offers a great online, access-from-anywhere approach.

We’d love to hear from you. What are some ways your church is helping believers engage with Scripture?

Lynn Pryor (@lynnpryor) is a team leader in LifeWay’s ongoing adult Bible study department. He also serves as an interim pastor in the Nashville area. Read more from his blog at lynnhpryor.com.

Church Leadership

December 9, 2019

Three Ways to Take the Temperature of Your Group

By Michael Kelley

My family will tell you that I’m a thermostat control freak. I have a day marked on my calendar when I have arbitrarily determined it’s acceptable to flip on the air conditioning or the heater, depending on the season. And even when those systems come on, they’re never set quite how my family would prefer.

They’d sure like the AC to flip on before it gets to be 76 degrees, and they’d probably enjoy the heater coming on before it gets to 65. Thing is, though, I like it just fine. I actually get quite a bit of satisfaction when I’m sweating in our living room, or when I’m bundled up at the kitchen table. It makes me feel tough; it makes me feel frugal. (Notice I said frugal. Not cheap. Can I get an amen from the dads out there?)

But even as I write this, I’m realizing that those under my care don’t have the same sensibilities I do. I have created an environment in the home that I like, appreciate, and enjoy, but those within the environment I’ve created might not be having the same reaction. Sure, I can simply dismiss their feelings and keep the thermostat the way I like it, but as a leader in the home I would do well to “take the temperature” of my family to see how they’re responding to the temperature of our home.

It’s a bit of a silly illustration, but the principle is strong, I believe. When you find yourself in a leadership role, whether in an organization, a small group, or a home, there is a certain temperature you have created in that environment. As godly leaders, we are not only responsible for setting the temperature; we are responsible for knowing how the temperature we have set is affecting those who have to live inside it.

When you take the temperature, you are making sure that you have not done something detrimental to the people living in it. You are humbly acknowledging that the culture you have intentionally created is having its desired effect, which is moving people closer and closer to Jesus. And you are also acknowledging that you are not the ultimate authority, and that like any other human, you might have made a mistake and created an environment that is having unintended consequences.

So how can you take the temperature inside the environment you lead? I would suggest at least three ways:

1. Listen. Most of the time, people who sit in your environment are talking. Many times it’s the easiest thing in the world to become so convinced that you’re right and your decisions are valid that you purposely choose not to listen to those who are speaking. But if you really want to know the temperature of the environment you’ve created, you’ve got to make sure your ears are open.

Of course, when you’re listening to others, you must also be listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit. That’s because not every voice you hear will be right or even helpful. So through the wisdom that only God will provide, you and I must learn who and what to listen to and when is the right moment to take heed.

2. Observe. Let me go back to the illustration of our home. It’s possible that my sweet wife knows by now that I like the thermostat set at a certain temperature. And though she might not like it that way, she has decided in her godly heart to not press the issue; instead, she has decided to wear a scarf and gloves to the dinner table.

Many times observation is an even more helpful method of taking the temperature than listening. That’s because people always communicate even when they’re not speaking. They communicate through their body language, their gestures, and even the indirect questions they ask. Watch, observe, take note—people will tell you what the temperature is even when they don’t tell you what the temperature is.

3. Ask. Of these three, this is the most obvious, but it’s also the one I think we do the least. We can actually, verbally, ask the question. Why don’t we do this more?

I would posit it’s because we already know what the answer is, and we don’t want to really hear it. That’s because when we do, we have to react to what we suspect but are unwilling to admit to ourselves. This is a humbling thing; it means we may have to adjust the “perfect plan” we had in place, and it means we have to admit that we, too, make mistakes.

But in those moments, we would do well to ask ourselves whether we would rather live with an illusion or pursue a better future? We can actually find someone we trust, someone we know will tell us the truth, and actually ask the question.

If you find yourself in a leadership role, friends, be it of an organization, church, group, or something else, don’t be afraid to take the temperature of the environment you are stewarding. Don’t be so married to your good intentions that you fail to embrace reality.

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

Church Leadership

November 22, 2019

Five Ways to Help Your Group Make it Through the Holidays

By Chris Surratt

The air is getting cooler, the leaves are disappearing from the trees, and football season is in full swing. We are also heading into the toughest season all year for small groups. Winter brings a myriad of parties, vacations, and holidays. It’s tempting at this point to not fight against the busyness and just cancel group until the new year. But by the time January hits, the group has lost any kind of momentum and has to start over—or completely disband because of lost interest.

Holidays can look different when your small group is considered friends and family instead of just members of a group. I want to spend time with friends during those seasons. We may not choose to meet every week for a study, but I don’t need a break from my friends for a few months. That mind-set helps me stay excited about our group even when the schedule is inconsistent. With that in mind, Here are five things your group can do over the next two months to maximize the opportunities:

Have a plan.

The first step to your group surviving–and even thriving–through the holiday season is to have a plan, communicate the plan, and stick to the plan. Being proactive and getting ahead in scheduling gatherings as holiday seasons get closer is vital to ensure group health. Clarity is crucial. Let your group members know what the holiday plan is so they can prepare.

Schedule a pre-Thanksgiving alternative meal.

Everyone loves to eat, and what could be better than a Mexican-themed Thanksgiving meal? The crazier the food theme, the better. They will get plenty of traditional turkey and cranberry sauce on Thanksgiving day.

Serve together at a homeless shelter or ministry on Thanksgiving morning.

There are multiple opportunities around cities to serve on Thanksgiving day. You can be done by mid-morning and ready for your family celebration by 1:00 p.m. Nothing prepares your heart for being truly thankful than serving as a group for those without.

Plan an early December Christmas party and then take a break.

Most parties don’t get started until the second week of December, so prepare your group now to get their ugly sweaters washed before December 1st! Don’t worry about attempting to have weekly group meetings through December. The normal rhythm of work and school parties will soon wipe out everyone’s calendars.

Get your first meeting in January on the calendar now.

Instead of scrambling to put something together in the whirlwind of the new year, go ahead and pick the date so that everyone can be ready for it after the festivities and relatives have disappeared. If you haven’t already picked your study for the new year, go ahead and do that before your last meeting in December. This will give everyone something to look forward to coming back in January.

Holidays do not have to kill your group’s momentum. If you get creative and plan ahead, they can give your members something to look forward to every year.

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. You can follow his blog at ChrisSurratt.com.

Church Leadership

November 18, 2019

The Cost of Opening Your Home

By Group Ministry

by Jared Musgrove

Place matters. A person and a people’s story is impossible to understand apart from their place of origin and life lived in a place. They learn their way in a place, they show their way in a place, and they make decisions to be in a place. We see this in the Lord Jesus Christ. He himself was like us in every respect (Hebrews 2) including His attachment to and choice of place. So, it is important to consider what places the Lord Himself chose to spend His time. And what He did when he was in those places.

The Gospels record the ministry of Jesus occurring in three places: public spaces, the synagogue, and the home. Each has an obvious 21st Century counterpart. But in Jesus’ time it was the home that was considered the foundation stone upon which the rest of society was built. As went the home so went society. Considered rightly alongside Scripture’s teaching on the importance of family and home, it should stand out to us that Jesus placed a special emphasis on homes as a place of intentional ministry. There are over 50 instances of this across the four gospels. Even later in His ministry, Jesus began to move away from primary ministry in the synagogue and public spaces, moving more to homes.

I am not setting out to prove the home as a primary place of ministry and evangelism. I’m just saying that Jesus already did. His practice of proximity in the most personal of places matters for how we see ourselves and our ministry. If we model Jesus, we see that ministry is often best done in community that allows intimacy. And there are not many places more intimate than someone’s home. Home Groups at The Village Church are our effort to shrink the church from corporation to this kind of closeness of camaraderie centered in Christ. They are our effort to do the mission of God much like Jesus did in many respects.

Jesus used the home to build relationships and heal others, thus allowing Him to demonstrate the very power and truth He came to teach. It was His apologetic in many cases. He used the opportunities that were made available to Him through the relationships and miracles to teach on matters of faith, law, grace, and general truth on various subjects. If we were to say it in a way that includes the modern day believer living as Jesus did, we may see the home as a place set apart to build relationships and provide a healing presence so that others may be open to the truth of the gospel. That they would have a reason to wonder why we believe what we believe because we first lived our belief right before their eyes. And that place of intimacy and safety becomes a place of revelation.

In this, Jesus’ ministry in homes was a ministry of love. Such love in the most private of places was a most potent apologetic to an unbelieving world. It still is.

In Jesus’ day, homes were places of hospitality and intimacy where the host would, in a way, open up their heart like they opened up the physical door of their home to others. They were places for knowing others and being known in the context of family and friendships. They were a context for bearing burdens and in many cases the primary context for ongoing participation in Christian living and witness to neighbors.

The potential and potency of such a live parable still exists in our day. Jesus shared hard truths in homes. Could it be that in this context He might do so in a less confrontational manner where the persons present may have listened closer and accepted more readily the insight of the Son of Man? What does this mean for we who are being conformed to His image who have homes to open? Nothing but possibility, so far as I can see.

First Century Jewish homes were a place of belonging and hospitality known by other peoples/nations (i.e. Not God’s People), so anomalous was the practice of welcoming a stranger in those days. This was the first and final apologetic in ancient Jewish culture. It still could be. Should be. Jesus clearly took advantage of homes to instruct, develop relationships, and perform miracles such that everyone present in the home left saying, “we’ve never seen anything like this!” So too is the possibility when we see our homes as a genesis in ministering Christ to the believer, to the lost, and to spiritual skeptics. That’s the possibility of a gospel-centered community that meets in a home. We won’t innovate a faithful way around this and we are fools to think we ever could surpass the Master’s plan of evangelism and ministry.

God sent His Son to dwell with His people. Jesus came in the midst of a culture that, unlike the peoples/nations around it, welcomed strangers and were hospitable to all. This is as it should be. God expects more of believers than He did or does of nonbelievers. God expected His people to be hospitable. He still does. And Jesus demonstrates it in acts that resonate to set the desire and direction across space and time. The incarnational God is revealed not only by Jesus coming to this earth, but in Jesus going into homes.

Whether or not the home is or should be the primary and most effective place for ministry in these postmodern times may depend upon context. Certain urban areas will have a difficult time with such home ministry because people may not want people in their space. There may be safety concerns. There may not exist a cultural memory of having someone in your home. If you have a home at all this week. In such very real contexts, the church building can be a sanctuary of a place. But this does not tend to be our context at The Village Church. We are sub-urban, we have dwelling places prime with such potential to affect for Christ.

It doesn’t take a program. It doesn’t take a budget meeting. It starts personally and starts in your homes and Home Groups. Begin by opening your home for a community to be affected by Jesus.

The Village Church’s community is costly. If you think what God has done here is easy then you don’t understand. We cannot be explained merely by the clear biblical truth that is preached powerfully and effectively; we cannot be explained by the fact that we have a staff of heavy hitter ministers, capable men and women working at the top of their game unto God; Those two things are important and they are a gift but The Village Church cannot be explained if you remove the third aspect. And that is there has been community here. And it has been costly community.

It is a costly thing to open one’s home. My wife and I have lost wedding gifts and family heirlooms because of it. We’ve personally welcomed people — even pastors — who struggle with their faith in God, who struggle with sexual attraction to their same gender, struggle with being a minority person of color, struggle with deep grief and health defects. We’ve lost sleep and time and money; we know members of this church who’ve lost so much more than that but gained a brother or sister in Christ because of it. It doesn’t take a program to minister the gospel like Jesus did. You don’t have to convince the elder board. All you have to do is open your home. Francis Schaeffer writes, “And there is no place in God’s world where there are no people who will come and share a home as long as it is a real home.” A compassionate, open home is part of Christian responsibility, and each family should practice it up to the level of their capacity. Jesus made no distinction between home or foreign missions — it was all evangelism to Him. Home Groups are our attempt to regularly emulate this practice as a people after Jesus.

Place still matters. It did to Jesus and it should to you. The home as a primary place of ministry mattered to Him. That’s why Home Groups matter to this church body. When evangelism and ministry happen in homes it seems to Scripturally and experientially be more effective than not. That’s the plan. That’s the place. That’s the why, what, and wonder of Home Groups.

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

November 12, 2019

Praying Daily for the Unchurched and Unaffiliated

By Dwayne McCrary

Friends were asked to finish the statement “my day is not complete unless I…” Here are a few of the responses: get a large coffee, floss (this is the friend I worry the most about), eat an apple, check the weather, check social media, get a text or call from (name), workout, eat dessert, make someone smile, and read one Bible verse. Nothing inherently wrong or strange with the actions on the list, with the exception of flossing.

If a person had asked Arthur Flake this question, his response would have been to pray daily for a lost person by name with the hope to share the gospel with them specifically. Flake greatly impacted the growth of ongoing BIble study groups (what he knew as Sunday School) in the first half of the 1900s. He called on Sunday School teachers to pray every day for the lost people their groups were trying to reach.

Why Daily? There is a part of me that wonders why we don’t pray every day for people who are lost. We may pray every day for a friend going through a valley season until he or she emerges, so why does that garner our attention more often than a person’s salvation? The needs of these friends are real and pressing but so too is a person’s eternal destiny. Praying daily reminds us of the importance of salvation and of our responsibility to share with others. If sharing Christ is a daily activity, then praying for those with whom we will share should be a daily activity as well.

Why By Name? Names are important. When we hear a name, images of people with that name immediately flash in our minds. The simple mention of a name can cause us to smile, grimace, or feel other emotions. That name creates an identity that goes beyond a casual glance. Praying for a person by name also moves us beyond casual prayer. How many times have we prayed for “all the missionaries in the world” without a single face or name flashing through our minds? There is just something about praying for someone by name. We become connected to that person in a different way. Compassion, empathy, and urgency come as a result of praying for a specific person.

Why for the opportunity to share with them? Too many times, we find ourselves asking God to send someone to share Jesus with a family member or neighbor with the understanding that He will send anyone other than us. He may very well send someone else to share with the person for whom we are praying, but He may also be preparing us to have that conversation.

What would happen if we began to see praying for lost people as a daily necessity? How would that impact the Bible study groups we lead?

For more on this subject, take a look at Dwayne’s book It Begins with Prayer, releasing Dec. 1, 2019. You can download a free PDF at lifeway.com/trainingresources.

Praying Daily for the Unchurched and Unaffiliated

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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Lynn Pryor (@lynnpryor) is a team leader in LifeWay’s ongoing adult Bible study department. He also serves as an interim pastor in the Nashville area. Read more from his blog at lynnhpryor.com.

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Praying Daily for the Unchurched and Unaffiliated

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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