Holidays Archives - Group Ministry

December 26, 2018

Group Answers Episode 80: Group Trends in 2018

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

Trends in 2018:

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

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

The Group Answers Podcast is a weekly show designed to resource, train, and encourage small group leaders. Each episode considers current trends and resources as well as timeless truths and methods of discipleship. It is hosted by Brian Daniel, a Bible study and discipleship expert in LifeWay’s Groups Ministry, and Chris Surratt, the small group and discipleship specialist at LifeWay and author of Small Groups for the Rest of Us.

Church Leadership

December 10, 2018

Christmas Gifts for the Small Group Leader

By Group Ministry

by Deborah Spooner

What if you could do more than spread holiday cheer to your group this Christmas season?

What if you could give gifts that spread faith, hope, and love? Relieve fear, stress, and anxiety? Point to Christ through Scripture?

You can.

These Christmas resources will equip your group members to finish off 2018 with a focus on Christ and catalyze them into Gospel-centered living as they enter 2019.

10 Minute Audio Devotions: Finding Strength in Faith, Hope, and Love (Only $5!)

This 10-Minute Audio Devotions CD contains twelve audio devotions by best-selling authors that will inspire you to find strength in God as you set your mind on eternal truths from His Word.

In the hurry and stress of life today, strength often seems to be in short supply. Maybe you feel that you’re running on empty. But God has an endless supply of spiritual resources to give you strength, perseverance, and victory. These twelve short audio devotions by best-selling authors will set your mind on eternal truths from God’s Word, inviting you to drink deeply of the faith, hope, and love that are always available to you in Jesus Christ.

10 Minute Audio Devotions: Finding Victory over Fear, Stress, and Anxiety (Only $5!)

This 10-Minute Audio Devotions CD can help you deal with the crazy twists and turns on the road of life, especially when you’re on the road. They can be perfect for commutes but can also be used anytime you have a free ear and a few minutes of downtime: exercising, folding laundry, tinkering in the garage.

Brief but powerful, these audio devotions will help you navigate through fear, stress, and anxiety while covering topics such as renewing your mind, overcoming various fears, the role of suffering, and battling temptation. The two-disc set containing 12 devotions, each about 10 minutes in length, features teaching from some of today’s best Christian communicators including Tony Evans, David Jeremiah, Matt Chandler, and more.

Gospel Foundations: A one-year journey through the storyline of Scripture

Jesus’ first appearance in the Bible was not in a manger. This new small group Bible study series will lead believers on a one-year journey through the entire storyline of Scripture, showing how Jesus is the Hero from beginning to end.

Used in sequence, you’ll journey through six volumes, seeing the Gospel from Genesis to Revelation. Used individually, you can journey through any section of scripture through a stand-alone volume. There’s even a student version.

What makes it even better? You can try it now, for free. You can download the first two sessions of volume one, take a peek at the sessions of volume two, get free sermon outlines, and see the method behind it all. Find the free content here.

Merry Christmas!

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

November 16, 2018

The Transformational Practice of Thanksgiving

By Group Ministry

by Reid Smith

I love Thanksgiving! Most people love the holiday because it’s a time to enjoy family, friends, and lots of great food! Most of my favorite memories in life revolve around the combination of these three things, which is why this time of year brings the hope of passing it on by making similar heart-warming memories with my own kids.

Thanksgiving, however, is more than a holiday for groups: it’s a transformational practice that we can’t do without in our small groups. God uses thanksgiving that honors Him to build community, boost faith, and bless the people circled up with us. There are biblical truths about what the Lord does in our lives as a result of showing God-honoring gratitude in our relationship with Him and one another. Thanksgiving:

Deepens our communion with God and one another, which advances the Church’s mission (John 17:20-21; 1 Cor 11:23-26, 33; 2 Thes 1:2-3)
Strengthens our worship and prayer life because we’re being obedient to give thanks as a part of each (Ps 69:30, 95:2, 100:4; 1 Cor 1:4; Col 1:3)
Ushers in the peace of God, which protects one’s whole being against the enemy (Php 4:6-7; 1 Thes 5:11; Heb 3:13)

Experientially, I’ve found that giving thanks reminds me of God’s nature and what He has done for us all. I believe this is one of the reasons why we see so many laments turn to praise in the Psalms and why the Apostle Paul usually opens and closes his letters with giving thanks. Thanksgiving helps me to set my mind on things above and fix my thoughts on Jesus (Col 3:2; Heb 3:1). It helps me to be more forgiving and full of faith, and it even has a way of enhancing my love for my brothers and sisters and Christ.

There’s power in giving thanks. It goes hand-in-hand with encouragement. For example, when I’m encouraging people, I’m usually showing gratitude for something I admire or appreciate about them. Furthermore, when people thank others out of their love for them, how can they not be encouraged? God uses encouragement and thanksgiving together to build community and further His purposes in the world (2 Cor 13:11).

The more I express thanks to God and encourage others, the better I’m able to walk in God’s will, which 1 Thessalonians 5:18 plainly spells out: “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” Regardless of what we’re facing or up against, God’s will for us is that we are to give thanks. Let’s be honest…that’s a tall order! However, when thanksgiving is a regular practice, it becomes more a part of my natural disposition and response.

Giving thanks invites God’s blessings into our lives because we’re being obedient to live according to His will in Christ Jesus. Consequently, we get to walk in the favor and power of the Lord, which overflows to the people He has put in our lives. As you circle up with the people in your group, give thanks in everything that you do together – fellowship, eating together, worship, prayer, Bible Study – so that you can experience more of God’s life-changing power in your life together.

Reid 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.

Group Answers Podcast, Uncategorized

October 31, 2018

Church Leadership, Group Leadership

May 7, 2018

When Mother’s Day Hurts

By Lynn Pryor

Mother’s Day. It’s almost a sacred institution in our culture. If you think I’m exaggerating, ask any preacher who’s ever failed to preach on the topic or have a Mother’s Day emphasis on the second Sunday of May.

I’m all for honoring mothers, but not everyone looks forward to Mother’s Day, such as:

Those who grieve over what once was. Many people still feel the pain of the death of a mother or a child.
Those who grieve over what could’ve been. Many women have suffered a miscarriage. (Read The Silence of Miscarriage.)
Those who grieve over what never was. Many women want children but have never been able to conceive.

Let’s find ways to encourage people to honor their mothers while being sensitive to those who hurt.

Acknowledge the hurt. Most of those struggling with painful emotions on Mother’s Day do so in silence. They endure the emphasis during a worship service, but it’s not easy. Let’s be open and acknowledge that many of us feel pain when we talk about motherhood. People are encouraged when they don’t feel forgotten or overlooked.

Avoid overstating the worth of mothers. I’d better explain that. Mothers are important. The Bible is clear on the importance of the family, and its pivotal role in all our lives. But consider the message we send when we make motherhood the greatest task a woman can undertake. For those women whom God has not blessed with children, they can be made to feel they have no worth. For women who’ve lost a child through miscarriage or death, they can be led to think their worth has been taken from them.

Make it a day to appreciate our own mothers. To put it bluntly, my role as a church leader is not to honor all mothers; my role is to encourage and challenge everyone to honor their own mothers (and fathers). That’s biblical.

“Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise” (Eph. 6:2).

We can honor our mothers whether they are living or not.

Honor is seen in our attitude toward them.
Honor is seen in what we do when we’re with them.
Honor is seen in how we talk to them or respond to their advice.
Honor is seen is how we talk about them.

Make this Mother’s Day a day that honors Christ in the way we both honor mothers and love those who are hurt.

Lynn Pryor is a team leader for adult resources at LifeWay. He serves a Nashville church as their transitional interim pastor. Lynn and his wife, Mary, have survived raising two sons to adulthood. A graduate of Southwestern Seminary, Lynn has previously pastored and served churches in Texas. Read more from his blog at lynnhpryor.com.

Group Leadership

April 12, 2018

Four Things to Do With Your Group Before Summer Hits

By Chris Surratt

Easter has come and gone, and now the countdown is on for summer vacations and activities to kick in. The temptation for a lot of leaders at this point would be to mail in these last few weeks and let the group slide into June. You can avoid that natural slump by doing these four things before Memorial Day.

1. Choose a 6-week study that follows up on Easter.

Easter is always a wonderful time to celebrate the death and resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Now is the perfect time to follow that celebration with a study that takes a deeper look at the impact Jesus has in our world and lives today. My small group is starting the study, Jesus Among Secular Gods, by Ravi Zacharias and Vince Vitale. The Forgotten Jesus by Robby Gallaty would be another great study to check out.

2. Start planning fun group activities for the summer.

Just because your group may not meet every week during the summer months does not mean that you should stop meeting as a group. Take a portion of an upcoming group meeting to discuss fun things for the group to do each month during the summer. Go to a baseball game. Meet for a picnic. Go whitewater rafting. Take in the 4th of July fireworks together. The summer is a perfect time for your group to laugh and play together!

3. Start researching a summer missions opportunity for the group.

Ask one of the group members to start looking for an organization to partner with on a weekend during the summer. Your church may already have opportunities or a list of organizations you can start with. For example, volunteering to help build a house with Habitat for Humanity is a great way for your group to bond and serve your community at the same time.

4. Choose an online study to do during the summer.

Choose a study on smallgroup.com. But instead of meeting together every week for the discussion, set up a Facebook group page to go through it online. Your group members can watch the video on their own, and then post comments on the page. This will allow the group members to do the study at their own pace, but still participate in the discussion. A great study to check out is Onward, by Russell Moore. All of the videos and study guides are available at smallgroup.com.

Let’s take these last few weeks of spring and prepare our groups for a strong summer!

Chris Surratt is a ministry consultant and coach with over 23 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 is also the Small Group Specialist 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 recently released by Thomas Nelson. You can follow his blog at chrissurratt.com or follow him on Twitter @chrissurratt.

Uncategorized

December 27, 2017

Celebrating the New Year With Your Group

By Chris Surratt

The new year always brings feelings of hope and excitement for what’s possible in the next season of life. There’s nothing specifically different about the actual day or month, but we often use it to reset our life goals and aspirations. It’s a great time to kick off that fitness goal, or Bible reading plan, or debt retiring budget.

The hard part is continuing the momentum into February and beyond. Those aspirational goals often become forgotten promises halfway through March. That’s why fitness gyms always plan on selling more memberships than they can handle. They know January’s crowds will settle back to normal levels soon.

Since one of the keys to sticking with a goal is accountability, why not build it into your group experience this year? Research shows that it takes around 21 days for a habit to form. Use this first month of 2018 to help your group build and keep those new productive habits. Here are a few ideas to kick the new year off right with your group.

Commit to a daily Bible reading plan through January. There are great plans available through online tools like YouVersion.com, and you can keep each other accountable through the app.
Go through a financial planning study as a group. A group study like Financial Peace University can help establish biblical financial habits with built-in accountability.
Commit to a balanced discipleship plan for the year. You can see an example of one here.
Have fun with a group fitness goal. This can be a weight loss challenge (use percentages), or a weekly boot camp class that the group attends together. A group that sweats together, loses pounds together.

Make this the year that personal goals were met because they were tackled as a group. You might also have some fun in the process.

Group Leadership

December 19, 2017

If Jesus Was Santa Claus: Approaching Perfectionism in Your Small Group

By Caroline Case

Like most Americans this past week—in hopes of amping up my Christmas cheer—I began decorating my house for December 25th. Naturally, Bruce Springsteen’s “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” was on the holiday decorating playlist. But as I listened to the music, I began to hear the lyrics differently. Although I didn’t grow up in a house that preached “Santa,” I never questioned the veracity of the lines:

He’s making a list, he’s checkin’ it twice,

He’s gonna find out whose naughty or nice

Santa Claus is coming to town

I never believed in Santa, but I found this man’s desire to “check his list” for the good kids and the bad kids absolutely plausible. Why wouldn’t the good kids deserve toys and the bad kids deserve coal? That’s called justice.

And now, twenty years later listening to the song, I began to wonder, “What if Jesus had a list?” Turns out He does.

“And anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.” – Revelation 20:15, CSB

God’s got His own list of names, and the placement of your name determines the status of your eternal destination. But thankfully, Jesus manages His list a lot differently than Santa Claus. Santa knows if I’ve been bad or good, erasing my name if I don’t meet his standard. Jesus never erases my name because He met the standard for me and paid the price for my own shortcomings.

“In the same way, the one who conquers will be dressed in white clothes, and I will never erase his name from the book of life but will acknowledge his name before my Father and before his angels.” – Revelation 3:5, CSB.

I can confidently say that my name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life—not because of anything that I’ve done, but because I have trusted in the Lamb that was slain for me. I laugh at the thought that I could ever scribble my worn, sinful name onto His holy list.

And yet sometimes in our small groups, we unintentionally preach perfectionism. At times, we view God as the Big Man Upstairs who’s checking His list, separating the rule followers from the rule breakers. Hear the accusation in this holiday tune:

He knows if you’ve been bad or good

You better be good for goodness’ sake

Can you imagine if Jesus were more like Santa? What if He’s looking down from heaven, waiting to cross our names off His list when we sin? This Christmas, as group leaders we have the opportunity to seriously question some of the core beliefs we have about God—and how we communicate them to our group members. Do we really preach grace? Do we subconsciously think God expects perfection? Do we think God is keeping score? How can we better preach the God of second chances and erasers?

How much more enriched would our small groups be if we reminded our group members of the freedom that is imperfection? Of the freedom that is grace? We can remind them of the spotless Lamb who came down to save us from ourselves.

And finally, when we no longer live aiming for perfection, we can aim a little higher. Jesus knows our every thought and move. Jesus “knows if we’ve been bad or good,” but by His grace, we are good for His sake—not goodness’ sake.

Caroline Case is a proud Nashville transplant from Naples, Florida, who serves as the Production Editor for LifeWay’s SmallGroup.com and Discipleship in Context teams. Caroline has a Bachelor of Communication from Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, FL. She is pursuing her Master of Arts in English at Belmont University in Nashville, where she will go on to pursue her doctorate and teach.

Group Leadership

December 12, 2017

Three Obstacles to Weeping With Those Who Weep This Holiday Season

By Michael Kelley

Every year, this season brings a mixture of emotions. Joy and pain. Gratitude and loss. Anticipation and dread. Christmas is powerful like that.

But these conflicting emotions also provide an opportunity for the church to step in and obey Paul’s command in Romans 12:

Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep (Rom. 12:15).

The second half of Romans 12 is exceedingly practical. You find statements in there about hospitality, love, perseverance, and then this—a command to rejoice, and a command to weep. There are a couple of things we should note about this simple, but powerful statement.

First of all, Romans 12 is set in the context of the church. So when we are told to rejoice and to weep, it’s not specifically about the circumstances in our own lives, but rather a reminder that we ought to be so closely aligned with our brothers and sisters in Christ that we are not only aware of, but we also deeply feel what is happening in their lives.

Secondly, this is a command. It is not a suggestion. This is a bit strange, because we think of things like rejoicing and weeping in the emotional realm, and they are. But when we think of these things exclusively as emotional, then we don’t see these actions as issues of obedience. We tend to view them, instead, as things that we do when we feel like doing them.

But if rejoicing and weeping are commands, then by the power of the Holy Spirit we can actually give ourselves to obeying them rather than just waiting for the feeling to hit us right. We are certainly living in a time when there is an occasion to weep with those who weep, so we would do well to consider how we might live out this communal command from Scripture.

It might be helpful to think about what stands in the way of obeying the command to weep with those who are weeping. Here are three such obstacles:

1. Our fear.

If we are going to weep with those who weep, it means we actually have to make the intentional effort to involve ourselves deeply with those who weep. That means hard conversations. It means being in and near the hospital. It means entertaining the pain that others are experiencing. And when we start to do that, we inevitably come up against the thought, This could happen to me.

This natural disaster. This persecution. This hatred. This cancer. This could happen to me. Many times we don’t emotionally involve ourselves with others because we are just too afraid of being confronted with the fragile nature of life.

2. Our busyness.

Practically speaking, weeping with those who weep takes time. A lot of time. Time spent in conversation, time spent in prayer, time spent delivering meals or gutting houses, or any number of things.

But we’ve got travel ball teams and season premiers of TV shows to watch. Who has time to invest in these kinds of relationships? If we want to weep with those who weep, then we will have to take a hard look at our schedules to see if there is any margin left for tears.

3. Our faithlessness.

Times like these—times of weeping—force us to ask ourselves the fundamental questions of life. It’s during times like these that we cannot afford any longer to be casually committed to our faith—we either believe God is good, or we don’t. We either believe that He is in control, or we don’t.

But as long as we aren’t too close to any situations like these, we can maintain the luxury of a sidelines faith that has never been forged or tested. The moment we start shedding tears with those in the middle of the storm, we will come to reckon with whether or not we actually believe what we claim to.

Weeping is an issue of obedience. And it we want to do it, then we will have to commit ourselves to doing so. As we step out on that emotional ledge, the one that requires us to confront our fear, our priorities, and our insecurity, the good news is that ledge is supported by the sure and certain love of God in Christ. And this love can actually flow through us as tears along with those who are already weeping.

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.

Group Leadership

December 11, 2017

My Beef With Santa

By Lynn Pryor

DISCLAIMER. I am not a Scrooge. I enjoy Christmas. I am not opposed to kids and families enjoying the story of Santa, reindeer, trips down chimneys, and Buddy the Elf.

What’s not to love about Christmas?

But I don’t love what we do with Santa Claus.

First, there’s the whole “Santa Claus is real” thing. Why do we keep insisting with our children that Santa Claus is real, even when their young minds see some of the inconsistencies in the story?

Before you scroll down to the comments section and leave a scathing remark that I don’t like children: we did the whole Santa Claus routine when our sons were little… and I plan to do it again when grandkids enter the picture. We had fun with Santa Claus—as a story.

Did I rob my kids of any joy? Far from it. It’s no different than the way we enjoyed The Wizard of Oz without once thinking it was real. I never lied to my sons.

“Dad, is Santa real?”

“He is just a fun story we tell. Now let’s put some milk and cookies by the fireplace and enjoy the story of Santa and his reindeer.”

The thing I really dislike, though, is the way parents use Santa to make kids behave. You know, the whole naughty or nice list.

Consider the words of my least favorite Christmas song:

He’s making a list
And checking it twice
Gonna find out who’s naughty and nice
Santa Claus is coming to town

He sees you when you’re sleeping
He knows when you’re awake
He knows if you’ve been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake!

We’ve made Santa a little too godlike.

Because we’ve painted Santa to be godlike and all-knowing, we’ve painted the wrong picture of God. Too many people already view God as a keeper of a naughty or nice list. Be good, go to heaven. Do more bad than good, and you go to hell. Most religions and Eastern philosophies follow that thought, which is why a person has to work hard to make it to heaven.

To be fair, the Bible also calls us to be good to go to heaven, but with one big difference. God calls us to always be good, to never falter or fail. God’s standard is perfection, and it is a demanding standard that far exceeds what any other religion calls for. And it’s a standard we can’t meet. Only the perfectly righteous make it to heaven, and we don’t cut it. None of us.

The good news in all this is God’s love. He knows no one can meet that standard, so Jesus met it for us. That’s the whole point of the cross. He met the standard for us… and took the punishment we rightfully deserve for not meeting that standard.

Scripture calls this justification. You may have heard people define being justified as “just as if I’d never sinned.” (Unlike Santa, Jesus removes us from the naughty list.) But justification carries an additional truth; it also means “just as if I’d always done right.” (Jesus puts us on the nice list!)

In your group, discuss ways parents can help their kids have fun with the story of Santa Claus, without subtly teaching bad theology! Some ideas for discussion are:

How do we help our kids separate the fiction of Santa Claus from the truth of Jesus Christ?
What are some ideas to avoid when dealing with the traditions surrounding Santa Claus?
What are some good principles we can derive from the story of Santa with which we can communicate biblical truth? (Example: the generosity practiced by the historical figure Nicolas).

Lynn Pryor is a team leader for adult resources at LifeWay. He and his wife, Mary, lead a Bible study group for young adults and have survived raising two sons to adulthood. A graduate of Southwestern Seminary, Lynn has previously pastored and served churches in Texas. Read more from his blog at lynnhpryor.com.

Group Answers Episode 80: Group Trends in 2018

Christmas Gifts for the Small Group Leader

The Transformational Practice of Thanksgiving

When Mother’s Day Hurts

Four Things to Do With Your Group Before Summer Hits

If Jesus Was Santa Claus: Approaching Perfectionism in Your Small Group

Three Obstacles to Weeping With Those Who Weep This Holiday Season

My Beef With Santa

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