Group Dynamics Archives - Group Ministry

August 16, 2019

Leading Inter-Generational Small Groups Toward Transformation

by Jared Musgrove

We adults have a lot to learn. One of the fantastic opportunities we have as small group leaders is to lean into the normal phases of adult transformation. Because isn’t that what we are all hoping and praying and working toward in a small group? To see lives transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. No matter the person’s age or life stage.

There are so many opportunities for leading an inter-generational small group. At the forefront, such a group looks a lot more like the body of Christ with varied ages and stages and backgrounds and ethnicities and ranges of walks with God in the living room. Together. For the gospel. That’s the immediate opportunity and your strategy can be to call this out at the start of your first night of group. And again on the second night and on into the second year. For however long the Lord has you together, never let your inter-generational group members lose the wonder of Christian unity across the ranges of our lives and experiences with Him.

Transformation in childhood is so different than what we as adults of all ages experience. Adult transformations tend to come not just from a new idea or knowledge, but a life lived, directed by truth. Know your Bible. And don’t forget to live your Bible. In the company of spiritual friends.

Small group is an essential environment for this type of adult transformation via life-on-life disciplemaking.

Here’s what we can know and pray and work toward in our inter-generational groups: Every adult, regardless of age, transforms via three core elements that correspond with our Christian faith and the Bible’s story:

A new idea encountered (John 3:18, Romans 12:1, Phil. 4:8)

This is Jesus with the crowds, perhaps even the 70 who regularly walked with Him. This is a sermon about that affected someone in the group. Or maybe a confession from a group member that signals to another that there is a way that seems right to man but in the end leads to destruction. Maybe a group member shares about a population in your city who need help. You were never before aware of these things.

Encountering can also offer a solution to the problem. Freedom, emancipation, is the main theme of this beginning transformation by the renewing of the adult mind, regardless of age (Romans 12:1-2). This is where the Philippians 4:8 command to think on “whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable… excellent” begins.

This is where the gospel begins to take root. Where you “know” that your old self was crucified, you believe that if you’ve died with him then you will live with him, you know that death no longer has dominion over him (Romans 6:6-11, 14-23). You know that you know. You are strengthened in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your heart through faith (Ephesians 3:16).

But it cannot end there. No adult truly thinks or transforms alone.

Community as core (Ephesians 4:1ff)

This is Jesus with the 12 disciples. At times even just with Peter, James, and John. This is the small group where honest questions are asked and answered forthrightly, wrestling and verbal processing can be done out loud and in a safe environment, admonishments occur based in personal love and concern for God’s design; the small group is where knowledge of God, self, and friends begins to form and transform the persons in the group.

This small group space is critical to how adults, of any age, conform more into the image of Christ. When you have an inter-generational group, recognize that we are all learning, forming, and transforming along this path. The community is key. The soul is the center of the action. The people in your group, regardless of age, are relational creatures. Ephesians 4-6 help use see is that there is no significant transformation in a person apart from another person or persons. Each man or woman in that small group is in danger of being tossed to and fro, but when we speak the truth to each other in love we grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.

But you can’t walk it alone. You have to step out.

Transformed action taken (James 1:19-25; 2:14, 26)

In your walk with God there is always the encounter, the community, and then the action taken. This is the journey outward, but it can and must not leave the learning or the community behind. You take it with you into the work, in to sharing faith. This is the step of the path where you are not a hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, blessed in your action (James 1:25).

This is Jesus sending His disciples to the crowds and the nations. This is the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) on display in the group’s life together. This is sharing the gospel, together. It may be serving shut-ins or a local nursing home. It may be blessing first-year teachers at your local schools. It may be street evangelism at your local shops. It is your journey outward, together. And it must occur. We know that faith — and community — without works is dead.

So regardless the age range in your group, there’s work to do together. We are all on a pathway to further transform and become more like Christ today than yesterday. That’s the constant commonality in an intergenerational group. There’s always opportunity for growth in the gospel. It never gets old.

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

Group Answers Podcast

August 7, 2019

Group Answers Episode 112: Trevin Wax on Discipleship Trends

By Group Ministry

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On this episode of Group Answers, Chris and Brian talk to Trevin Wax about discipleship trends.

Trevin Wax is Director for Bibles and Reference at LifeWay Christian Resources and a visiting professor at Wheaton College. He is the general editor of The Gospel Project, and the author of recent books This Is Our Time, Eschatological Discipleship, and Gospel Centered Teaching.

Questions:

What is multi-directional leadership? Why is this important not only for church leaders, but for group leaders as well?
In a groups context, what is the fallout of the apparent increase of polarization in our current climate?
There is a growing generational divide in how best to express our loyalty to God and our loyalty to our country. What are the takeaways as you have engaged both our culture and the church in this regard?
We all agree that community is essential and relationships are crucial for both the examined and the disciple’s life. So why are we so enamored with exploring a deserted island and what does this have to say about us?
What are some trends that you can share with us about Bible engagement?
What advice would you give group leaders about discipleship based on what you’ve learned over the last year?

Quotes:

A one-directional leader only looks in one direction for danger. A multi-directional leader knows that there are multiple ways in which danger might encroach upon a flock.
Social media exacerbates and polarizes so much of our discourse.
What group leaders have is an opportunity to actually speak truth to a small group of people.
Know the group you have and push in the direction they would be least likely to go.
Scripture speaks to a bigger variety of issues than our political parties do.
A lot of older Evangelicals see America as Israel, and a lot of younger Evangelicals see America as Babylon.
In life, you are thrown into a family you didn’t choose, and you have to make do.
You can’t know a hundred people really well, but you can know ten people.
How do people in our groups see the narrative of their lives?

This Episode’s Sponsor: With Ministry Grid’s library of over 3,000 training videos, it’s now simpler than ever to train every volunteer and leader in your church. And this is training you can trust. Each Ministry Gridvideo features an experienced ministry leader who has been where you are now. Learn how to get unlimited access for you and your church at MinistryGrid.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 Leading Small Groups.

Church Leadership

July 2, 2019

Looking Beyond Our Group’s Comfort

By Group Ministry

by Tyler Quillet

As a former pastor, I led a number of different small groups. Couples groups in our home, Sunday morning groups, men’s groups, young adult groups, you name it. I’ve led enough groups to ashamedly be able to say that I oftentimes preferred comfort and consistency over change. See, when my wife and I were in a group with the same couples, we got comfortable around each other. It was easy to get together, hang out, and talk about Jesus together. There was nothing difficult about getting together with good friends. The idea of bringing new people into the group oftentimes felt like a daunting task. What if they mess up the camaraderie we have? What if people don’t feel comfortable sharing in front of them? The new people won’t get our inside jokes. What if they just aren’t a good fit?

I admit it. I’ve been that leader. I’ve been the leader who got comfy and didn’t want to rock the boat. I’ve been the leader who liked the group I was with and didn’t want to chance shaking things up. I’ve been the leader who was more concerned about my own comfortability than new people in our church getting connected and being discipled. I’m ashamed to say I was that leader, which is no leader at all.

Fast forward from my time in church ministry to a new adventure for our family. We moved five hundred miles from anything we’d ever known. New state, new community, new everything. Before we even found a church home, we met a couple who would eventually turn out to be great friends. They invited us to their small group before we even visited their church! They were willing to invite two complete strangers into an existing group that had been together for a long time. They had no problem with us hopping in and potentially rocking the boat. And, for that, we are forever grateful!

You see, we went from leading groups for years in our own home to needing our navigation app to find the home of our new small group full of strangers. We walked into that house having never met anyone but our new “friends”, who we had just met weeks prior. They all welcomed us with open arms. We ate together, laughed together, got to know one-another, and spent incredible time in God’s word together. They weren’t concerned about someone messing up the good thing they had going. They were only concerned with a new family in town getting connected and feeling loved.

Almost two years later, and this is our church family, who we love dearly. A group stepped outside of their comfort zone, focused on the mission of Jesus Christ and not of their own hearts. This group could have stayed comfy, doing week after week together as friends. Instead, they stepped outside their comfort zone with a missional mindset. For this, we are thankful.

I look back on how blessed we were to be so welcomed into an existing group. At the same time, I feel guilty for not having that same missional mindset with our groups years ago. I made it more about me than I did the mission of Jesus. I wonder now how many families fell through the cracks or never got connected because we were comfortable within our circle. I wonder how many people still don’t know Christ because we never invited them into a discipling opportunity.

If you are a group that has gotten comfortable together, let me encourage / challenge you in five specific ways moving forward:

Begin to pray as a group for opportunities to invite new people in.
Have eyes open for potential group members or ask your pastor for suggestions.
Invite new people into your group and prepare your group to welcome new members.
Welcome your guests with open arms, make them feel at home, and love on them well.
Don’t stop inviting new guests and creating new groups!

Throughout scripture, we see those on mission constantly stepping out of their comfort zones. There aren’t many (or any) times that we see those on mission being comfortable amongst their circle, unwilling to step into new and unfamiliar relationships. May we the church, may we as leaders, may we as groups continue to step outside of what is comfortable, trusting Jesus to give us what we need to move toward others with the hope that we may have opportunities to point them to Jesus. What would it look like for your group to look beyond its own comfort today? Go do it, and ask the Lord to be glorified in it!

Tyler Quillet is the Discipleship Strategist for the Custom Bible Study team at LifeWay Christian Resources. He lives in the Nashville, TN, area with his incredible wife, Cathie, and two boys, Cylas and Bowen. Tyler also speaks, writes, and coaches alongside Cathie as they pour into and love on the infertile community through Cathie’s “The Missing Peace Project”. Tyler previously spent 15 years as a pastor and is passionate about serving churches and pouring into church leaders in a variety of ways.

Church Leadership

July 1, 2019

The Importance of Rest for the Small Group leader

By Group Ministry

by Will Johnston

Some of you don’t need this post.

If you feel like your day and your week have a good rhythm; if you aren’t burnt out, exhausted, or stressed; if you seem to have enough time to get everything done that you need to do, then feel free to skip this one.

This post is for the people who aren’t sure how they’re going to get everything done, whose task list outpaces their availability, who feel like they’re juggling not just one too many things but three too many things.

If that’s you, I want to let you in on a little secret. There’s always more to do.

I remember being in college and having this feeling of relief after finals were over. Suddenly, there was nothing more I had to do. There was no more homework, no more studying, no more stress. In an instant, it was all gone. It was a great feeling.

Unfortunately, I don’t get that feeling very often any more. There’s always another email, another meeting, another project. In fact, I’m writing this post at the last minute, the day that I need to send it in, because there’s been so much to do that I’m just now getting to it.

So how do we find rest in the middle of the busyness of life?

I would suggest that we need to find healthy and sustainable rhythms of life. Our world is not going to get less busy, less chaotic, less demanding. We have to make good (and often difficult) choices in the midst of the chaos.

What do you need to say no to?

It’s not hard to say no to bad things.

Hey, want to volunteer your time with a hate group?

It’s not that hard to say no to that one. But how about:

Don’t you want your kids to get into a good college? Make sure they’re well rounded and in lots of extracurriculars.

Want to be financially secure? A few real estate investments can help make that a reality.

The church needs people to serve on the missions committee. Would you be willing?

Those things are harder to say no to. Who doesn’t want their kids to go to a good school, to be financially secure, or to help missionaries share the gospel? But saying yes to too many things quickly leads to that all-too-familiar feeling of stress.

Just yesterday my pastor shared in his sermon that he and his wife capped their kids’ extracurricular activities to two at one time. With three kids, that’s still a lot of practices, recitals, games, and lessons, but it helped keep the pace of life more sustainable.

When you take stock of your life now, what are the things you’re currently doing or the “opportunities” that have been presented to you that you might need to say no to? You might not be able to stop everything you should right away. You might need to finish out the season, the ministry season, etc., but you can make decisions now that will impact your pace of life going forward.

When do you Sabbath?

Observing the Sabbath is one of the Ten Commandments, but honestly, I don’t think it’s a hard and fast command under the New Covenant the same way that it was under Mosaic Law.

Jesus said in Mark 2:27, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” Not keeping the Sabbath is like eating McDonalds for every meal. It’s not that it’s necessarily a sin. It’s just not a good idea. It’s not very healthy. God gave us the Sabbath as a gift, because He wants good for us.

God doesn’t need to punish us if we don’t keep the Sabbath. Never taking a day of rest is punishment enough in itself.

One of the best decisions I ever made was to set aside one day as a day of rest. I don’t do it perfectly. There are certainly weeks that I end up working on my Sabbath. But setting aside one day where I can do the things I want to do rather than the things I have to do helps keep me sane.

Just one quick note on the Sabbath… it’s not about a list of rules. You might have grown up in a home where Sunday was the Lord’s Day and that essentially meant you weren’t supposed to do anything fun. I don’t think that’s what Jesus had in mind when he said that the Sabbath was made for man. Don’t worry so much about what are appropriate and inappropriate Sabbath activities, and just do the things that bring you joy and life.

What is your small group rhythm?

Since this is a resource for small group leaders, I thought I should mention something about healthy rhythms surrounding small groups.

There are different ideas about this. Some people think small groups should take breaks, that meeting nearly every week all year long is too much. Others think that it’s weird to take a break from your friends. If we’re truly in community, truly doing life together, then why would we stop?

Here’s my take on it, I think it can be healthy for small groups to take a break occasionally. At my church we run our groups on semesters, and there’s a four to eight week break between semesters. A few of our long standing groups don’t really take these breaks, but they’ll take the summer off.

I don’t necessarily need a break from my friends, but I might need a break from cleaning my house on Tuesday nights or from preparing to lead a discussion every week or from making sure someone has brought snacks. When someone in my group needs a break, they just don’t show up. But that’s not really an option for me. They’re coming to my house.

I’ve found that these breaks help me stay energized and excited about leading a group. And honestly, I’ve found that they actually help my group members stay excited about being in the group, because even when they say and think they don’t want to take a break, after a few months, they get a bit burnt out.

Rarely will anyone make you rest. If you want to find rest, you’re going to have to go looking for it and be willing to make some hard decisions. But if you do, your small group, your friends, your family, and your own soul will thank you for it.

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.

Church Leadership

June 18, 2019

5 Ways to Choose Vulnerability in Your Group

By Group Ministry

by Reid Smith

Vulnerability is uncomfortable. A turtle that’s belly up is vulnerable. It’s stuck and has no defense. That’s what vulnerability feels like to most people, which is why it’s unnatural to choose to go there. People don’t naturally pursue ways to make themselves feel exposed to some kind of insult or injury. However, it is a path leaders must tread if the relationships within their small groups are to deepen.

God chose to be vulnerable with us. “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14a, NIV). Eternal relationship is possible because the Lord became vulnerable with us through His birth and crucifixion. Although vulnerability feels weak, it can be the result of one who exercises the strength of authenticity. A strong leader endures the risk of becoming vulnerable because he or she knows it is the pathway to biblical community.

One of the reasons group members complain of a group not being “deep enough,” is not so much due to shallow curriculum, as it is the lack of relational depth among participants. The vulnerability that flows from authenticity deepens relationships and results in group discussions that have more depth and challenge to them.

There is no greater influence on the dynamic of a group than how real the leader is with the participants. Authenticity is contagious! A leader who is transparent will inspire others to be more real with each other, and consequently, group members will look forward to getting together with more enthusiasm than you might have thought possible!

Like many leadership qualities, authenticity is something that can be developed and it’s worth the investment so that your group members will be free to be themselves and share from the heart. These five practices will enable you to become genuinely more authentic in how you lead so that your group can experience biblical community.

Be prepared to answer first and err on the side of risk. Look ahead at the questions to be asked and envision how you could answer with transparency. This will help you to take risks in the moment for the sake of others.
Be honest about the gap between desire and reality. None of us is where we want to be, and when the leader is transparent about the gap in their personal life, it invites others to deeper levels of participation. For example, “I know how important it is to have a devotional time each day, but there are seasons when I struggle with this…lately, I’ve let other things take priority in my life and I want this to change. Please pray for me.” Though some might view this as vulnerability that shows weakness, it is the exact opposite. People are more likely to be open about their personal needs when they hear others express struggles they identify with and this will generate more ministry moments in your group life.
Show grace and your need for it. Be a good listener, patient, empathetic and non-judgmental in response to others. This graceful disposition will encourage others to open up and share more. Group members will be further inclined to risk vulnerability when the leader expresses gratitude for God’s amazing grace and underscores our common dependency on Christ.
Don’t spin. When you get something wrong, acknowledge it openly and don’t be hard on yourself. Freely admit mistakes and share how you learned from them. Your imperfections make your group a safe space for people to be vulnerable.
Forgive. Grudges and unforgiveness toward others (whether they’re a part of the group or not) create barriers in relationships and make it more difficult to be vulnerable. Conversely, forgiveness cultivates authenticity and allows us to worship God fully (Matthew 5:23-24). It’s imperative for us to be right with people if we want to be real with others.

These practices will help you to be authentic and traverse the uncertain terrain of vulnerability. Know that the Holy Spirit will use your faithfulness in this area to break-through to real community, deepen relationships, fuel disciple-making, and compel your group members to also have the same mindset as Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5-8, NIV).

Reid Smith has been equipping leaders in churches of all sizes and stages of growth for effective disciple-making since 1996. He currently serves as a Pastor of Groups at Christ Fellowship in Palm Beach County, FL and has been a contributing author for various publications, including LifeWay’s Ministry Grid. Learn more about how to start and multiply healthy groups throughout your church at www.reidsmith.org.

Church Leadership

June 6, 2019

Depression, Solitude, and the Small Group

By Group Ministry

by Jared Musgrove

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

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

Lloyd-Jones writes,

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

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

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

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

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

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

Church Leadership

May 28, 2019

Why Does Your Group Exist?

By Chris Surratt

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chris Surratt is a ministry consultant and coach with more than twenty years of experience serving the local church. Chris served on the Executive Teams at Cross Point Church in Nashville, TN., and Seacoast Church in Charleston, S.C., prior to becoming the Discipleship and Small Groups Specialist for LifeWay Christian Resources. He is the author of Small Groups for the Rest of Us: How to Design Your Small Groups System to Reach the Fringes. You can follow his blog at www.chrissurratt.com.

Church Leadership

May 23, 2019

Character and Competencies of the Small Group Coach

By Group Ministry

by Jared Musgrove and Justin Elafros

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

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

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

Who

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

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

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

What

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Dr. Jared Steven Musgrove is Groups Pastor and an elder serving The Village Church in Flower Mound TX where he oversees Home Groups and Recovery Groups. He is a contributor to For The Church, PreachingSource.com,and LifeWay Groups. He serves on boards for Southwestern Seminary and Beta Upsilon Chi, is the co-founder of the Community Leadership Cohort, and authored the small group guide to B&H Academic’s Superheroes Can’t Save You: Epic Examples of Historic Heresies. He is the proud husband of Jenny and father of Jordan and Joshua. You can follow him on Twitter at @jsmusgrove.

Justin Elafros is Groups Minister serving The Village Church in Flower Mound, TX where he leads the church’s largest area of Home Groups, leaders, and coaches in addition to directing the Groups ministry internship. He is the co-founder of the Community Leadership Cohort. Justin earned his B.A. from Moody Bible Institute and his M.A. in ministry from Cedarville University. He specializes in shepherding ministry through small groups, care and counsel strategies in the local church, recruiting and equipping group leaders and coaches to meet the community needs of local congregations. He is married to Christy and they have three children, Cooper, Beckham, and Adelyn.

Church Leadership, Group Leadership, Uncategorized

May 21, 2019

Six Summer Strategies to Invigorate Your Group

By Group Ministry

by Reid Smith

By the end of spring, It’s not uncommon for groups to want to change things up for the summer instead of starting a new Bible study. This comes from a common felt-need to take a break and get refreshed before school, ministries, and so many other things restart in the fall.

However, if you only saw the summer as a chance to unplug, you’d be missing easy and effective opportunities to invigorate your group. Groups don’t have to break from being together in the summer and potentially breakdown their momentum of community-building. Rather, they can use this season to change gears with their regular meeting rhythms in order to find new ways to grow together in Christ.

Mix it up! Instead of your usual, say, Tuesday, 6:30-8pm time – decide to get together every other Friday for dinner and a movie together. If you meet weekly, try meeting every other week. Or everyone could plan to attend the same service and afterwards do an outdoor activity together.
Morph into a shared interest group. Discover who shares the same interests in your group and organize activities around them. Start out by asking:

“What do you enjoy doing the most with your free time?”
“If you could invite a few others to join you in an activity, what would it be?”
“What special interest, topic, creative hobby or sport do you enjoy doing?”

You don’t have to choose one! Create a “mixed shared interest group” out of the ideas that came up. You might do a specific topical study one week and then softball the next. Plan it all out, but don’t try to do too much; just enough to keep the relational connection and continue building upon the community that God has built so far.

Schedule it! Before the onset of summer, ask group members to bring their calendars to a meeting and plan around the dates people know they are going to be away. Before scheduling, appoint somebody to find out what is happening in your surrounding communities during the summer like farmers markets, festivals, outdoor concerts, etc. Besides community events, other examples of fun activities to put on the calendar include:

Going out to a restaurant together and/or the movies.
Grilling in a local park or the backyard of somebody other than your typical host.
Going to a sports event together or doing an activity everyone can get into like bowling, paddle-boating, volleyball, hiking, etc.
Taking a day-trip to the coast, mountains, or state/national park.
Watching July 4^th fireworks together (invite neighbors to join you and introduce them to others in your group).
Having group members pray for one person in their lives they can invite to your group by the end of the summer. (Take a meeting to pray for these people and for what group members hope to see happen in their personal lives by the end of the year.)

Plan a servant evangelism project together. Click HERE for ideas and select a project that would be low risk for people in your group and shows God’s love in practical ways.

Volunteer to help your church with an event or project.

Encourage group members to discover and develop their spiritual gifts. Here’s a simple three-step process: 1) Read and discuss 1 Corinthians 12; Romans 12:1-8; Ephesians 4:7-16; 1 Peter 4:10-11. 2) Have each one complete a spiritual gift assessment. 3) Affirm the outcomes for everyone and brainstorm how they could use them to build up the group in the fall.

Group members who wouldn’t take on new responsibilities for the group in the midst of a study might be willing to do so during the different pace of the summer. Seize this season to “test drive” potential co-leaders by giving them bite-size responsibilities that will help you implement any of the strategies above. Also, seriously consider sub-grouping by gender when you change things up in any of these ways because it will help relationships grow deeper and develop new leaders for future groups so more people can be impacted with the love and message of Jesus Christ!

Reid Smith has been equipping leaders in churches of all sizes and stages of growth for effective disciple-making since 1996. He currently serves as a Pastor of Groups at Christ Fellowship in Palm Beach County, FL and has been a contributing author for various publications, including LifeWay’s Ministry Grid. Learn more about how to start and multiply healthy groups throughout your church at www.reidsmith.org.

Church Leadership

May 17, 2019

4 Ways to Help Your Group Focus on God’s Promises

By Deborah Spooner

Our past. As we each live a new day, we leave a day behind. We can get caught up in what was or what might have been “if only things were different,” but this focus means we forget. When we hold onto our past, we neglect to cling to God’s promises.

In his new study No More Excuses (following the Kingdom Men Rising movie), Tony Evans helps believers focus on God’s promises. Learn personally and use your learning to help your group members through the wisdom from the No More Excuses study excerpt below:

(And, if you love the study, you’ll love studying it alongside others! Sign up for the No More Excuses online Bible study for a week to week experience alongside other believers).

Go Get It!

God has given us more than five thousand promises in Scripture, but He’s not going to force anyone to live in the victory of His fulfilled promises. You have to go get them. When the people of Israel entered the promised land, God promised their leader, Joshua, that He would be given any piece of land where his foot walked (see Josh. 1:3), but he had to go get it. He couldn’t stand where he was and simply claim victory over all of his enemies.

Here are four key principles for claiming the promises God has made.

1. Leave the Past Behind

Learn from yesterday; don’t live in it. As Joshua set out to take the Israelites on a military conquest across enormous geographical areas, he had to let go of Moses as the leader and commander. As we see in Joshua 1:1-2, Moses had died. The miracles Moses had performed for the Israelite people were in the past. God would use a new man and a new plan to secure the nation’s victories moving forward. Embracing that truth was critical for their progress.

2. Seize Your Spiritual Inheritance

Joshua had to take steps of faith to secure the promises God had made. God placed a condition on receiving His victories. Joshua had to place the sole of his foot where he might normally have been afraid to do so. Doing so required faith. Passively waiting for God to dump your spiritual promises onto you isn’t the way God operates. You have to go after them.

3. Focus on God, Not People

God promised Joshua:

No man will be able to stand before you all the days

of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will

be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you.

Joshua 1:5

No doubt Joshua faced oversized, overpowering enemies as he sought to gain military victories and conquer the promised land. But God assured him of victory. If Joshua had focused on the people in his way, he might have cowered in fear. Likewise, when you direct your focus on God and His assuring Word, you can reduce fear and doubt in your life. Keep your eyes on your Source and only on your Source.

4. Stay Tethered to God’s Word

A critical element in Joshua’s conquests was his consistency in staying tied to God’s Word. God instructed him:

Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to

do according to all the law which Moses My servant

commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to

the left, so that you may have success wherever you go.

Joshua 1:7

God’s Word gives wisdom on what to do, when to do it, and how to gain spiritual victories in the midst of physical limitations or obstacles. Men, as you move forward in life, meditate on and apply the truths of Scripture, and you’ll gain insight for accomplishing all God has in store for you.

This content has been excerpted from Tony Evans’ No More Excuses Bible Study, available now.

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.

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