LifeWay

Group Ministry

Conversations on Group Practices

Church Leadership

Top Easter Studies

By

“He is not here; he has risen, just as he said” (Matthew 28:6). 

Easter is one of the most celebrated times in our church calendars. Jesus has risen! Remembering His birth, mourning His pain and suffering, and then praising the incredible power of our risen King, we are excited about Jesus.

How can we keep the momentum and focus on Jesus’ life and the gospel implications in our small groups and churches? During the Easter season, you can choose Bible studies that dive right into focusing on our Savior and the saving message.

  1. Foundations: New Testament (Robby Gallaty)

The Bible, in and of itself, is a miracle. Think about it. Over centuries of time, God supernaturally moved in a number of men’s hearts, leading them to record the exact words of God. God then guided His people to recognize these divine writings and to distinguish them from everything else that had ever been written. Later, God’s people brought together these 66 books. The preservation and survival of the Bible were as miraculous as its writing. Finally, God gave men technological knowledge to copy and transmit the Bible so all people could have it. All this took place because God has something to say to you. 

In Foundations: New Testament, Robby and Kandi Gallaty lead individuals through the 27 divinely inspired books of the New Testament in one year, while still offering the flexibility of reading only five days each week. The HEAR journaling method will allow individuals to read and respond to God’s Word as they highlight, explain, apply, and respond to passages throughout the yearlong plan. 

  1. Disciples Path: The Beginning – First Steps for New Disciples

The Beginning is an intentional Bible study for new disciples of Christ that can be used in one-on-one discipleship or small groups. It introduces the basic practices and elements of the faith, including the centrality of Christ, the crucial practice of prayer and Scripture reading, community, and what it means to be on mission for God. Exercises put weekly topics into practice, and meeting times work as well in one-on-one discipleship relationships as they do with typical small groups. This resource is attached to the broader Disciples Path series, but can also serve as a stand-alone product.

This disciple-making resource includes discussion questions and group exercises every week to reinforce the primary teaching points of each topic. Individual study and out-of-group activities have all been crafted with a new believer’s spiritual maturity and commitment level in mind. These optional activities include but are not limited to reading plans, prayer exercises, personal study, and journaling.

  1. Gospel Above All (J. D. Greear)

Jesus promised to build His Church and said that the gates of hell would not prevail against it. Along with this promise, Jesus gave clear instructions for how the Church would prevail. He promised to build it on the Rock of the gospel. 

This eight-session Bible study will give you a fresh perspective on the supremacy of the gospel over the trappings and temptations of modern society. Lead your group to a greater awareness and practice of gospel culture, gospel mission, gospel renewal, and gospel unity. 

In the video sessions, J.D. Greear is joined by David Platt, Jen Wilkin, Vance Pitman, Walter Strickland, Rosaria Butterfield, Greg Laurie, Albert Mohler, and Kevin Smith to examine what it means for believers to elevate the gospel above all other priorities in our lives and in our churches.

Church Leadership

4 Expectations to Establish In a New D-Group

By

A year ago, a friend of mine asked me to be in a D-Group. He had never started a D-Group before. He didn’t even know it was called a D-Group. But, he did it. He wanted to study the Bible and walk in accountability with two other men and he set the right expectations toward that end. A year later, all three of us have been hugely impacted by our time together and we owe a lot to how the group was launched.

Here are four expectations that were established up front that helped discipleship actually happen in our group.

1. A D-Group should confess consistently.

My friend made it clear he didn’t want to gather and pretend to shepherd one another. He didn’t want to talk around sin in hopes of feeling better for having been together. He asked us to update each other on how we were falling short of holiness and joy in Jesus, respond with grace, and push toward repentance every week.

He was willing to go below the “line of shame” and work to apply scripture to his own struggles. Now, every week, we all know we have the attention of friends who love us and are ready to help us struggle closer to the abundant life Christ wants for us.

He set the expectation of confession up front and we have benefitted from it ever since.

2. A D-Group should study the Bible.

This might seem obvious, but you’d be surprised how easy it can be to get together for discipleship and never open the Bible. My friend who started our D-Group expressed, before our first meeting, that we would read scripture together. The Bible teaches us who we are in Christ and how we live in Him, so trying to “do life together” without it makes no sense. We’ve tried reading commentary together. Or we’ve selected passages each week. If you want something more consistent, you might consider the Foundations reading plan from Robby Gallaty. However you approach it, establish the expectation that the Bible will speak the loudest in your group.

3. A D-Group should end on time.

The tendency is for small groups of close friends to ignore the clock during meaningful conversations. That will be a temptation in a D-Group. That is especially true as relationships deepen and discipling each other gets easier. However, as a rule, the clock should decide when the meeting is over. That might sound unspiritual, but a meeting without a consistent end time can’t be a consistent part of your life. For the sake of next week’s needs, this week’s conversation has to end on time.

When launching a new D-Group, ensure your partners that you’ll start and end on time. Then prove it.

4. A D-Group shouldn’t cancel.

I imagine many D-Groups die the death of a few missed meetings. With only three of four people in a group, it can be easy to cancel for travel, sickness, oversleeping, and any number of reasons.

Our group committed to getting together every week if at all possible. Sometimes that means only two of us make it, but two is all it takes. We’ve also “met” over the phone when we’re out of town. The point is to fight for consistency together so you can keep fighting for joy together.

Brandon Hiltibidal is a former church planter and multi-site pastor, and he is now part of the Groups Ministry team at LifeWay Christian Resources. He also serves as an elder and a member of the preaching team at The Bridge Church in Middle Tennessee.
Church Leadership

Biggest Wins for Your Group

By

by David Apple

Have you ever thought that groups are more successful only when they increase attendance?  These four categories will help us celebrate strategic wins for your group.

  1. Celebrate when discipleship becomes strategic. Every believer needs to be on the receiving end and the giving end of disciple making.  This must be an intentional part of our strategy.  Every believer, whether they are active in the group or not are to be on the receiving end of Christian disciplines (Bible reading, prayer, ministry, worship, giving).  These disciplines help a believer grow as a follower of Christ.  Likewise, every believer, whether they are active in the group or not are to be on the giving end of Christian disciplines.  These disciplines help the believer help other believers grow as followers of Christ.  Chances are increased that Christians are growing as followers of Christ when they are engaged through a group that focuses on growing as disciples.  Celebrate the win!
  2. Celebrate when God’s Word is vital.  Although every group should celebrate ministry, fellowship, and enlargement, don’t apologize for taking priority time to let God speak through His Word.  We cannot afford to merely share our own thoughts without being focused on the message and meaning of the Scripture.  We win when we stay focused on letting God direct our group through His Word.  Celebrate the win!
  3. Celebrate when every person is a possibility.  We win when we help every possible person encounter God through His Word and be receivers of and givers of Christian disciplines.
  • It’s wonderful when “members” attend the group, participate in Bible study, engage in ministry and fellowship through the group.  Some members are regular attenders while others are unable or unavailable to routinely attend the group.  The group wins when we actively invite and enroll people to be part of the group.  Chances increase that individuals will participate when they are invited or enrolled.
  • Every group needs to develop and nurture a group of people who are not participating in a Bible study group; let’s call them “prospects.”  Every group wins when they are nurturing at least as many prospects (including unsaved persons) as they have people enrolled in the group.  Chances increase that individuals will connect with Christ and with His people when we nurture individuals.
  • Also, every group is looking for workers – those who will help the group focus on teaching, reaching, ministry, and/or fellowship.   Some people will prefer a title (if they do the work or not) while some people will resist a title (but will help with the work).
  1. Celebrate when people come as well as go.  The group wins when we include new people or reclaim people who have not participated in Bible study, ministry or fellowship.  One of the greatest wins we can celebrate is when a person follows the direction of the Lord to leave our group and serve elsewhere.  Other ministries and age groups in the church need the adults in our group.  We can celebrate and nurture them as missionaries.  Celebrate the win!
David Apple is a Ministry Specialist at LifeWay since 1985 where he develops and leads training experiences for volunteers and staff who work with Adults.  David serves as a Pastor and Bible teacher; he also volunteers weekly with inmates on death row in a maximum security prison.  David is married to Karen, Dad to Ben and Christine, and Poppi to Madison, Wilson, and Miles.
Church Leadership

Launching Groups After Easter

By

by Jared Musgrove

It can be commonly accepted in our groups world that there are times of year that are just not good time to launch a group. Spring Break is one. After a late Easter going into Summer is another one all together. I understand the tension point. And while it’s true that these may not be optimal times, they’re not impossible times. It might even be part of the plan.

For years we’ve been trying to whiteboard our way out of the alleged conundrum of starting a group during one of these periods. We will probably keep trying. Because if you have one group, you have one group. They are all unique.

So as we head into the months when our people’s vacation, sports, and fireworks schedules reign over weekday evenings, don’t abandon the basics. I propose to you that we stick to what it time-tested in group life season after season, even if that season is after Easter.

Why Does This Group Exist and Meet?

A group that meets after Easter should have the same rhyme and reason (even if the rhythm of meeting is different) as a group that starts any other time of the year. Can this new group answer why the group exists and meets? What is the compelling biblical reason you are giving them all year round? That will be what carries a group through the dog days of Summer.

Who Is the Leader(s)?

An identified leader or leaders is essential to the success of a group, in season or out. Are these leaders committed, calendared, and have conviction about the group’s purpose and time together?

When and Where Do We Meet?

“Even if three people come, we are still having group.” Let this be the resonating resolve regardless of the season. Have that place and time set. Don’t decide to have group or not by consensus. Even if three people come, have group. This builds expectation and solidifies group time as a calendared constant.

What Do We Follow and Submit To?

In season and out, God is still at work in your group. Even if three people come, the Scriptures can be opened, read, considered, prayed through, members prayed over, and spiritual fellowship can be had. Because the group submits to the Lordship of Jesus Christ unity may be had, Christian practice and partnership deepened, and the biblical purpose of your groups furthered.

How Do I Participate?

Is the connection to group life in your church as clear after Easter as it is the rest of the year? This also shouldn’t change. If there are system considerations, get creative and still capitalize on the fact that people are coming and want(!) to be in a group. Make sure their pathway is straight as it would be any other time of the year.

Sometimes a smaller group can be a blessing of warmth and intimacy for a season. And even if numbers are down in your group for a month or so, who knows what the LORD has in store to grow you in gospel partnership together. He put these people in your group for this time in this Summer season. He has work to do. This group that begins after Easter was His plan all along for the spiritual growth of those in it. Including you.

 

Church Leadership

Unlocking Balanced Disciple-Making

By

by Reid Smith 

Balance has always been elusive for me in ministry. Earlier on, I grew skeptical of it because I pictured it as being something that literally meant I was giving equal time and attention to multiple things but somehow not cheating anything. Life rarely allows this luxury. So when I heard balance applied to small groups, my instinctive reaction was “Nope – that’s just setting leaders up to fail.”

If we’re honest, we’re probably not doing all of the things we’ve learned that we should be doing in our groups. People connect and grow together regularly through some form of fellowship, Bible study and prayer in most groups. Far fewer develop a plan for building in other spiritual practices, different expressions of worship, and outreach to make a group experience well-rounded, or dare I say, “Balanced!”

Over time, however, “balance” for me became less about maintaining perfect equilibrium, and more about planning ahead on how you can incorporate activities that are commonly omitted from group life, but vital to the health of it. You need to have a plan to have balance. 

The group leader is the person responsible for driving the process of developing a plan with the group about how they will be intentional about including spiritual practices that do not normally occur in their gatherings. I’ll share a few pointers on how group leaders can lay the groundwork for balance by planning ahead for it followed by practical ways members can pursue balanced group life together.

Laying the Groundwork for Balance

  • Pray – The most powerful thing you can do to facilitate the work of the Holy Spirit in people’s lives is to pray specifically for your group members to exercise faith and take steps to grow ever closer to Jesus!
  • Have a Sidekick – You need a close companion who sees the vision of balanced group life and understands the “why” behind it before you share it with the group. This is important because you need feedback and somebody who is in the room with you affirming the dream as you share it with everyone.
  • Maximize your Kick-off – Be highly-relational, but very strategic during your first session of a new study or season as a group. Get to know each other better, but be sure to discover how each person would like to grow as a result of being part of your group. Help them unearth their spiritual growth goals before diving into curriculum.
  • Have a “Locker Room Talk” – Before an important game, a coach will get the players fired up by telling them why he sees them being victorious and what they need to do to get there. Is a group’s life together any less important? Of course not!
    • Start by explaining how a well-rounded group will support each member’s personal transformation and help everyone grow stronger spiritually. Then share how the Lord has a purpose in each one playing a part in fulfilling it because of how He has gifted them (more on that in a moment).
    • This builds buy-in to the vision, increased participation in living it out together, and consequently, the group will have healthy longevity and greater impact.

Balancing Group Life Together

  • Serving Together – Engage in a service project or group outreach at least once per season / semester. Present this idea at the outset of your group and schedule it in advance. You might choose to do this in place of your group meeting for a week.
  • Worship Together – Click HERE to access ideas for “Unleashing Creative Group Worship.”
  • Remembering Together – Celebrate communion once per season / semester – Talk with your church’s leadership to learn about how you can do this in your group.
  • Confession – Some spiritual breakthroughs necessitate confession, which opens the way for God’s light to shine on the dark places sin wants to remain hidden. As a group deepens its bonds with one another, subgroup by gender to minister to one another. Refer to Ed Stetzer’s article on “Accountability Questions” for examples that you can select and use in your own group.
  • Spiritual Gifts – If you believe that every Christ-follower has been graced with spiritual gifts to build up one another as the Church then don’t you think He has a purpose in them for your group (1 Cor 12:7)? Group members provide the necessary feedback and encouragement for one another to identify their God-given spiritual gifts and begin to use them in faith and boldness. Step-by-step guidance for group leaders on how to have conversations to help members find and use their spiritual gifts can be found HERE.

This last point is a master key to balanced discipleship in your group. Maybe the Lord has a unique purpose for every group that is unique to it based on the supernatural composition of spiritual gifts represented in its group members. Maybe every group has its own divine palette of colors that can be mixed together to produce a one-of-a-kind work of art to the glory of God.

If this is so, it stands to reason that a group will experience “balance” as each member of it works in concert with one another to make his or her own special contribution to God’s mission in the world. Group leaders can catch a vision for unlocking balanced disciple-making when they tap into the spiritual growth goals and gifts the Lord has planted in their group members.

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

What is the Balanced Discipleship Pathway?

By

As Christians, we understand the importance of balance. Balance in our lives, our family, our prayer time, and even our health. Do you ever stop to think about balance in your discipleship plan?

Being a group leader, there is nothing more daunting than picking out the next study for your group. If you start by searching for small group Bible studies in your search engine, you are immediately given 57,300,000 results. It’s going to take some time to sifter through those results to find the perfect Bible study for your group.

Our goal as the LifeWay Groups Ministry is to help the Church in Her mission of making disciples. This applies to small group ministry. Having a balanced discipleship plan should be easy, but it can oftentimes be difficult to remember and keep up with.

In an effort to make it easy for small groups and their leaders, we have the Balanced Discipleship Pathway. This pathway, or plan, is built on three characteristics of Bible study: centered on the Gospel, expanding in scope, and displayed in real life.

LifeWay research has done studies to find out what would be included in a balanced discipleship plan, and these steps on the pathway are lifestyle patterns that ought to be growing in ever-increasing measure the longer a person walks the pathway of discipleship.

The eight signposts on this pathway are:

  • Obey God & Deny Self
  • Engage with Scripture
  • Share Christ
  • Exercise Faith
  • Seek God
  • Build Relationships
  • Live Unashamed
  • Serve God & Others

By choosing a study from each of the following categories (signposts) over the course of a year, you will ensure your group is taking a balanced approach to attaining spiritual maturity.

Church Leadership

The “Why” Behind Small Groups

By

by Jared Musgrove

Why do we do Groups? Why does any church have some type of smaller group context? Even if your church does not have a formalized pathway for this, I can almost guarantee you that it is happening in some informal sense. 

We do groups because we’ve always done them. As the church of Jesus Christ, We have 2000 years of God’s people leaving large teaching gatherings going into smaller contexts, usually homes, to encourage one another and build each other up. 

We see this as early as Acts 2. They met in First Century homes and groups, gathered around the Word (at that time the apostle’s teaching), they broke bread to mark and celebrate milestones, had fellowship out of the shared story of life transformation in Jesus, and they prayed with and for one another. And it had an incredible evangelistic effect as “the LORD added to their number day by day.” 

“Why groups?” is a question each of us needs to be asking. Where in your church context are you making time and space for Christians speaking words of life, for Christian practice of the 59 One Another passages of the New Testament? Where is the context for Christian courage to be enflamed? For believers to speak a word in season to a soul who needs it?  Where is there time and space into which others, maybe even outsiders, may be welcomed in to see Jesus at the center of our circle? Where are Christians getting personally encouraged in your church?  

Encouraged Christians are incredibly brave with the gospel. 

One example of this is from our own Home Groups: We had a man very hesitant to join one of our groups. “Why share my feelings?” he said. “What more do I need but my Bible and a study guide that tells me exactly what God’s Word says?” But he did reluctantly joined a Home Group. And it so happens that the group was halfway through sharing their individual testimonies of Christ transforming their lives. And this man, sitting in that circle, was so powerfully affected by each of these stories being told that he was given the courage to share his Christian testimony with a group of people for the very first time. 

And he wouldn’t stop sharing it after that!

What happened in this 21st Century small group was that this man sat in the center of Christian practice of sharing his testimony. Out of this he was given Christian courage to continue sharing it with believers and non-believers alike. That’s plugging into the ancient stream of what brothers and sisters have been doing in and out of smaller groups for 2000 years. This is why we do Groups. 

So I encourage you to consider in your church where you are making time and space for such a circle to encourage one another and build each other up. Groups are a standard part of almost every church, but why are they so important? For almost 2,000 years, groups have provided a critical space for Christian practice. And Christian courage to share the gospel. 

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.
Friday Features

Friday Feature: Counter Culture

By

This article is an excerpt from the Bible study Counter Culture.

Christianity and culture. Our faith and our world. Truth and love. How do we engage with our culture in a way that both shows the compassion and love of Jesus while also pointing back to the foundational truth of the Gospel?

Often, instead of doing this well, we in our churches and Christian communities can engage with culture in ways that are not helpful to others or ourselves.

In his Bible study A Compassionate Call to Counter Culture: In a World of Poverty, Same-Sex Marriage, Racism, Sex Slavery, Immigration, Persecution, Abortion, Orphans, Pornography excerpted below, David Platt lays out different approaches Christians often take to culture. We can aim to identify which category our group might fall into as we seek to lead ourselves and others into healthy, constructive engagement:

For the sake of simplicity, let’s say we can have one of four possible responses in engaging our culture.

  1. WE CONFORM. We start compromising what we believe and the way we act in order to appeal to and appease the surrounding culture. We may even genuinely believe that doing so is both loving and strategic, hoping somehow people will be attracted to Jesus through a less offensive form of Christianity and will ultimately be saved. However, we have to realize that our goal isn’t to make following Jesus easier. We’ll look more closely … at the message of the gospel, but we’ve already seen that at its core, it’s necessarily countercultural and offensive to the human heart.
  1. WE CHECK OUT. The opposite extreme is to secede from culture, distancing ourselves so completely that we never have any interaction with the world around us. Again, the intent may seem honorable and sincere because we want to remove even an appearance of evil and the temptation of sin. But Jesus specifically prayed that His Father wouldn’t take His followers out of the world but protect them while they were sent into it (see John 17:15-16). The world around us desperately needs the life-changing power of the gospel. Forming an isolated, insulated subculture may feel countercultural, but it isn’t an appropriate response. Countering culture doesn’t mean withdrawing and isolating ourselves from culture.
  1. WE COMBAT. This approach is antagonistic and defensive. While the intent begins moving in the right direction, refusing to give in to or give up on the world around us, it misses the heart of Jesus. This response sees culture as an enemy to be defeated instead of people to be saved. Our desire mustn’t be to prove ourselves right or to force our way on the world around us. Instead, our goal is to show Christ to be true and worthy. Just as wrong as running away from our culture is driving people away from the church. Countering culture doesn’t mean attacking it.
  1. WE COUNTER. Countering culture means engaging culture with conviction and compassion. We stand firmly on the truth of God, empowered by the Spirit, to extend the love of Christ to a lost and dying world. Our desire isn’t to conquer but to redeem. It matters what we do, how we do it, and why we do it. A wrong response to culture is more than unhealthy or unhelpful. It’s potentially damning. Engaging our culture is literally a matter of life or death—eternal life or death.
How do we move past these three harmful responses to culture and engage with “countering” like Jesus would? Platt dives deeper into the problem, the solution, and practical ways to start living in the remainder of his Bible study. Find out more at LifeWay.com/CounterCulture. 

 

Church Leadership

When Panicky People Go To Small Groups

By

by Scarlet Hiltibidal

I had just started taking brain medicine again for my hyperventilations. I’d grown up with anxiety—anxiety that was so crippling at times that it landed me in the hospital as a child and in urgent care as an adult. Anxiety that had led me, during one season, to step out of a small group leadership position because I didn’t feel capable of leading.

So, I was dealing with debilitating panic (again) in this particular season. I found myself (again) in an office with a sound machine, (again) picking up a prescription that would, as I knew from some experience, help me stop panicking. My response to all these anxiety-related agains was to become very hermit-like and refuse to tell people about my situation.

I felt ashamed. Leading a small group again was the furthest thing from my mind. Instead, I just attended one and mostly kept my mouth shut.

But, here’s the beautiful thing. When I finally opened my mouth and shared my struggle, I wasn’t mocked or shunned and kicked out of the group. I was given grace and love. A moment of vulnerability that could have caused yet another run of panic instead brought peace. It was special and powerful.

If you are a small group leader who struggles with anxiety or panic disorders, or if you lead people who do (chances are this is always the case), here are three things I’d encourage you to keep in mind as you lead your group.

Lead with Vulnerability

A former pastor of mine, Josh Howerton, spoke a lot about “going below the line of shame.” He would encourage our congregation, as they met together in small groups throughout the week, to share, not just surfacey or relateable struggles, but to go below that line we all have, the line that makes us question, If I share this, will I still be accepted? Will I still be loved?

The reason he encouraged this in our church body was because he knew the truth and beauty of a Biblical community centered around applying the gospel and living in the light.

“But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” — 1 John 1:7

This is completely transformational — believers exposing and turning from their sin in Biblical community. We should share our sins, our struggles and the “agains” that are trying to crush our hearts.

When I was walking through that season of medicating my panic and trying to hide it, I finally decided to share. It felt impossible to even let the words leave my mouth, because I assumed I was more broken than everyone else in the room.

But, my small group surprised me by not being surprised. Instead, they were kind and loving, and my willingness to share about this struggle that embarrassed me, prompted others to share theirs.

If you are the group leader and anxiety is an issue in your life, sharing it really sets the tone for your group to look to you, not as a “perfect” or “together” leader, but as a co-laborer who understands struggle, just like they do.

Lead with Hope

In the past, I’ve been part of unhealthy small groups that were basically clusters of people who would open in prayer, complain for fifteen minutes each, and say, “See you next week!”

It is so healthy to share struggles within the context of a small group, but it is vital that the tone of the group be one of gospel hope and encouragement. As a small group leader, you can be intentional about steering your group members away from negativity and toward hope.

If they battle anxiety, your group can spend some time sharing verses of comfort and hope. I would also encourage group leaders to make it a point to always end your time together reflecting on the finished work of Jesus..

This is what our lives are about and this is the way we should lead one another — to share our burdens, but look to the cross.

Lead by Listening

I think it’s really important for a group leader to be open and share struggles, as a way of encouraging other members of the group to do the same, but a group leader should definitely not be the only person talking.

Once you’ve shared your own struggles and how you apply the gospel to it, listen to the other members of your group. Let them process through their feelings and questions, but don’t just leave it there. Don’t simply wrap it up with a “Let’s pray.” In a small group setting, you have this beautiful opportunity to take sin and struggles of all kinds to the Bible. You have this guide that we hide in our hearts. Share the worries. Then, share the Word.

Don’t be afraid to confess your struggles, and always, always, always, point your own self and your people to the hope of the world, our Jesus, who died to defeat everything we’re afraid of.

Scarlet Hiltibidal is the author of Afraid of All the Things and He Numbered the Pores on My Face. She also writes a regular column for ParentLife magazine. She loves sign language with her daughters, nachos by herself, writing for her friends, and learning how to be a pretend-farmer with her husband in Middle Tennessee.
Church Leadership

Why the Image of God is So Important to How You Lead

By

The image of God.

What does it even mean? It can be like a vague idea that doesn’t impact how we lead at home, work, or church. But what if it actually played an important role in our daily lives? Turns out, it does.

  1. Sin corrupts

We are made in the image of God. Made to know God and make Him known. Made to be ambassadors of reconciliation. Made to bear God’s image in all the ways that he equips us. But sin. We all have sinned and just miss the mark. Romans describes how we can fade (Romans 1:18-25). Our thinking becomes worthless (v. 21). Our hearts are darkened (v.23). The image of God that could be showing so clearly through us now isn’t everything that it was intended to be.

  1. We exchange

Yet it doesn’t stop with our lives being corrupted by sin. We start looking, but as we are no longer reflecting God’s image and his goodness like we could, we make an exchange. We decide seeking other things, lesser gods–idols–to worship. And? We begin to reflect whatever it is that we worship. One psalmist describes it this way:

“Those who make them [idols] are just like them, as are all who trust in them” (Psalm 115:8).

As we give our lives over to seeking and worshipping anything less than God himself, we reflect those things in place of the Creator who gives it all life. Power, money, fame, sex–the image we begin reflecting can be deeply scarred.

  1. We change

We become blind. No longer worshiping God’s image, we start to be blind to seeing it.

“The god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

Then, we can’t see Jesus as He is. Life becomes hopeless, apart from the grace of God. And this grace? Changes everything. The grace enters by the Holy Spirit’s power, and just as Jesus healed many from physical blindness, our spiritual blindness is lifted. It shows us the sinfulness of our fallen world, God’s righteousness, and the judgment coming and our rebellion. Only when we see the depths of our sin can we see the power of Jesus’ redeeming life.

  1. He restores

Seeing Jesus as He truly is, is our first step toward the imago Dei being restored within us. The step that can bring us back into reflecting his image as we were made to, and being the men and women God has created us to be. This restoration doesn’t stop with our first step; it continues as we live for Jesus, following Him and trusting the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We start changing, being restored, more fully reflecting God’s image.

“We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

And your journey with the image of God is just beginning.

These ideas are adapted from LifeWay’s Imago Dei Bible study created in partnership with The Gospel Coalition and Mike Cosper. Check out the resource to see how understanding the image of God can continue to impact your life as you understand it biblically, relationally, and missionally.

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.

 

All Ministry Sites

Pastors
Leadership
Kids Ministry
Student Ministry
Groups Ministry
Women’s Ministry
Worship Ministry

Digital Resources

Ministry Grid
LifeWay Worship
Digital Church
KidEvent Pro
MyCurriculum Manager
Simulcast Manager
LifeWay Reader eBooks
Generosity
WORDsearch
SmallGroup.com

LifeWay Network

LifeWay Research
B&H
Ridgecrest

[gravityform id=6 title=false description=false]