Skip to main content

10 Questions To Help Develop Life-Sharing Relationships

Getting to know one another requires conversations to go deeper than, "Nice weather, huh?"

We all want the people in our small groups to develop life-sharing relationships. We all want them to have the kinds of relationships that will permit them to open up and talk about the deep hurts and struggles in their lives. We want them to have the type of relationship that enables them to celebrate one another's victories.

So how do we build those kind of relationships? By listening to people as they talk to one another.

Here are a series of questions you can use to help the people in your group get to know each other a little bit better:

Who are your heroes? Why?

What do you think are your greatest strengths?

What unique skills do you have that you enjoy using?

Using only 1-2 sentences, explain your belief about God.

What is something you value more than most other things in life?

If you had a mission statement for the coming week, what would it be?

What television show or book interests you so much you can never stop watching/put it down?

If you could accomplish one dream in the coming year, what would it be?

What is something no one here knows about your life story?

What song best expresses the way you feel right now?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Discussion Questions for Easter

Have several people ask the question, “What’s the most important thing you’ve ever done?” Ask other people, “What do you hope to accomplish in the next several years of your life?” Tell your class that today you’ll be talking about “life mission” or the one most important thing you do that drives everything else. Tell them that Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is the defining moment in history, so it should be the defining moment in our lives. Read 1 Corinthians 15:12-19. How does the resurrection impact some of the crucial beliefs of Christianity?  How would Christianity be different if there was no resurrection? How would you be different without the resurrection? Read 1 Corinthians 15:50-58. What are some specific ways that the resurrection gives us hope? If you had been a friend of Jesus when he was on earth, how would the resurrection have impacted your life?  How do you think his followers then were effected by the resurrection? Read 1 Corinthian...

FIGHT CLUB! (iron sharpening iron)

Our youth pastor, Keith Sandison, has implemented "Fight Clubs" with the young men of our church. While these teenagers and young adults aren't actually pummeling each other physically, they are using the opportunity to aggressively challenge one another to be more attentive to their spiritual formation. Right now my son is participating in a fight club focusing on Proverbs. I love it. Keith has created a handout he uses for the fight clubs which lists seven different methods of "generic Bible study". I think the idea started with this post a few years ago, but as he often does; Keith took my thoughts and made them immensely more substantive and beneficial. Check out his system below:

Community Killers: Crisis

Here is Part Two in my series on dealing with "Community Killers". Today the topic is "Crisis". Every group experiences crisis at some point. Death, illness, divorce, and financial ruin are just some of the issues that can threaten to destroy a group. These crisis, however, are not to be feared. Rather, they should be embraced as an opportunity for the group to care for one another in unique and deeply meaningful ways. The following are five suggestions (certainly not an exhaustive list) which can help a group handle crisis successfully: Openness. The first step in a group’s efforts to deal with crisis is simply knowing about and understanding the crisis. If a member does not feel comfortable sharing the crisis issues in their life, the group cannot come to their aid. A willingness to share not only the crisis situation, but also the details can significantly impact the degree to which the group can offer assistance. The role of the leader sometimes requires a per...