Creative Community

A friend once suggested to me that some of the discipleship methods we had been taught in college and seminary were creating Christians who were "100 verses overweight". It's a funny mental picture, but it's also probably a sad reality. I am sometimes afraid that we have churches full of people who know the Bible from cover to cover but have no idea how to live it out. Small Groups should be the lab where people figure out how to live the things they are learning. A Sunday (or Saturday) sermon which feeds your mind is great, but what you do with it is most important. Hopefully, your small group is helping you to digest the teaching, and then invest it in your daily living. The other day I came across this blog post about a group who couldn't invest in their neighbors or community because they were too busy with nightly Bible studies. Studying the Bible is great, but at some point, you have to put it into practice. I've summarized some of the content below, but...

These are some great thoughts from the Disciple Making Leaders blog: “Having loved His own who were in the world, He now showed them the full extent of His love.” —John 13:1b Jesus showed His disciples the “full extent of His love” by taking up a towel and wash basin and scrubbing their feet. He then instructed them to follow His example. This snapshot from the life of Jesus and His disciples reminds me of some very important principles… First, Jesus did life in a small group. Jesus didn’t take a towel and basin into the multitudes. He took His towel and basin to His small group. Jesus had compassion on the masses, but the full extent of His love was demonstrated to those with whom He had a relationship. Are you close enough to a small group of people that you could wash their feet? Is your life filled with a handful of relationship that are so close you want to express the full extent of your love? Secondly, Jesus served those with whom He shared community. Community is not ab...

I'm a firm believer in the potential of small groups. I believe spiritual formation happens best when we are willing to share life with and submit to a small group of people who will lovingly build our character and help us be attentive to the work of the Spirit in our lives. But there are dangers in small groups. I recently came across a blog post which discussed the fine line between healthy small groups and unhealthy "cliques." Below are some excerpted statements from that post. You can read the entire post at The Spiritual Formation Blog . A while back, I blogged that healthy small groups are friends. I’m not sure why, but this has recently become the most popular post on my blog. Debra commented, Small groups often divide the church into cliques. The group forms, bonds, and no new people stand a chance of joining them. The more groups there are, the more segregated the church. New people see this right away, feel like an outsider, which they are, and don’t go back....

At Calvary, we talk about growing small groups that are "formative, caring, and missional." Our desire is that every person in every group is being formed into the image of Christ, that they are being cared for and using their gifts to care for others, and that they are partnering with others to accomplish the mission of Jesus in the world. What makes a small group into a "formative" experience? This is certainly not an exhaustive list. But here are a few elements that when present will aid in a group's formative journey. dedication to finding the best representation of truth possible communal sensitivity to the moving of the Spirit humility to avoid authoritative posturing and proclamations acceptance of Scriptural authority...being mindful of appropriate interpretation openness to new ideas and new paradigms desire to be corrected and re-formed ability to live with tension (mentally, socially, spiritually, etc.) I believe that as group members bring these char...

The following is a blog post by Rick Howerton (you can read the whole thing here). It's a great reminder of what is REALLY important for small group leaders to be thinking about. Sometimes we can get so caught up in the details of planning, growing, and leading our groups that we forget our primary job is to help disciple these friends of ours. Rick suggests four questions we ask ourselves about our group members: 1. Is he or she a follower of Christ? If a small group leader realizes that a group member has not yet crossed the line of faith and become a Christ-follower, the leader needs to 1) make the most of every opportunity the Holy Spirit creates to voice the gospel to that group member, 2) watch the group member closely during group meetings and capture a transformational moment when it occurs, 3) carefully answer any question the group member has and bathe that answer in the person and story of Jesus. 4) Integrate the Gospel into every group conversation when it is possib...

i have this idea for small groups in churches that emerge up out of the ground. pastors nurture them, fertilizing the ground, watering, weeding, providing stakes when necessary, but don't try to force them into a template. they allow them to find their way. there are no objectives or outcomes. the expectation is simply that they continue to journey together. the question that is asked is not "where are we going?", but rather "who's coming with me?"

Many large churches provide a coaching structure for the small group leaders. I'd love to be able to do that at some point, but for now... the coaching is pretty much up to me. That means our leaders need to be a little bit self-sufficient in how they evaluate their small group gatherings. The following lists originated as a series of questions for coaches to ask leaders in their weekly sessions (see the original article here) . I've modified it to become a list of FOUR QUESTIONS SMALL GROUP LEADERS SHOULD ASK THEMSELVES : 1. What is the best thing that happened in your group meeting this week? This is not a question about numbers. It’s a qualitative question. Think about key comments in the meeting or important prayer requests, or positive interactions. Who is really demonstrating spiritual growth right now? 2. What’s the worst thing that happened in your group meeting this week? Are there things that aren’t working? Think about why these things happened, and how they could...