First Night of Group, Part 2: Lesson and Prayer
On your first night of small group, your lesson is very important. This is your one chance to set a tone for your group for the rest of the semester or year! So, I want to share a possible template to use for your lesson for the first night of group. Lesson: Welcome everyone to group. Explain group big picture. I hope this will be a safe place. I hope we’ll grow together. Everyone comes into group with different backgrounds. It’s ok to ask questions and not have the answers. Ask if anyone’s been in a group before, and if so, ...
First Night of Group, Part 1: The Template
Your first night of small group will always be a little different. People are meeting each other for the first time and wondering if they'll like each other, and what to expect from the group. It's important to know that your first night of group will set the tone for what your group will be like, so you need to have a plan. Here’s a template of what a typical first night of group should look like. With Dinner: 1. Dinner (30 minutes) 2. Icebreaker Game (15 minutes) 3. Lesson (45 minutes) 4. Prayer (15 minutes) Total: 1:45 Without Dinner: 1. ...
Be The Fun You Want to Have
My boys helped me pass out fliers a few weeks ago, inviting people to our house for a cookout. Together we would walk up to someone’s door and knock. When they answered, my older son would say, “We’re having a get together at our house this Sunday,” and my younger son would finish, “…and you're invited,” then hand them a flier. I would follow up with a quick affirmation that what my kids said was true. My kids had a blast! But, there was one house on the corner near us whose owner answered our invite in the strangest way ...
How to have a neighborhood cookout
I’ve always dreamt of living on a street where everyone knows each other (kind of like Cheers, but on a street instead of a bar). I presently live on a street where that’s very far from reality- but we're trying to change that. My wife and I have lived in our house for almost 6 years and have slowly worked on getting to know the neighbors bit by bit and year by year. This past Sunday, we hosted our 3rd neighborhood party and had 38 people come. They had a great time and profusely thanked us for hosting the get together. I ...
7 Simple Questions to Begin a Small Group (with free download)
As we began our yearly preparations for small group to begin about a year ago, I began to feel bad about how many times I had to e-mail our leaders for their group info. It felt like I was bugging our leaders- which I never want to do. Finally, I decided to sit down and figure out all the info I needed so I could ask them in one easy step. After I received their info, I made a simple excel sheet to find out where there are holes and could easily follow up. As I'm working through this process ...
If My Dad Could See Us Now
My youngest brother got married this past weekend in Omaha, Nebraska. My wife and I had an amazing time (without kids, making it even more awesome) with my aunts, uncles, and cousins. As I sit down and think about my weekend I realize my brother’s wedding signifies the closing of an important chapter for our family, and I find myself emotional. When I was in second grade my dad was diagnosed with Leukemia and near the end of my third grade year he died. In a lot of ways I feel like I’ve spent my life hoping to make my ...
Video: Classic Jesus Video Parody
What was Jesus like? I've heard it said the biggest job of discipleship is to bring people to Jesus. Then Jesus can do His work in their life. The problem is many people have big misunderstandings about what Jesus was really like. These 4 classic Jesus parody videos play off those misunderstandings. They're meant to poke fun at misperceptions of what Jesus was like and not make fun of him in anyway. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQeFG6Q87uA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAb8qoXraGw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCTAgxsLE3Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hUaMahxXi8 What was Jesus really like? How would you describe Him based on the Bible?
Where to Find Small Group Study Material
If you're trying to figure out what your small group can study for the upcoming semester or year, check out the links/ideas below. Here are some specific links to try: Northpoint Community Church Small Group Studies Saddleback Church Small Group Studies Small Group Studies from Lifeway Smallgroups.com- seems to be some more options here Try these specific studies: The Daniel Plan A group in our church went through the Daniel Plan and liked it. It's a group based on exercise and eating right, so if people don't understand what they're getting into and aren't committed, they'll drop like flies. But, those who ...
6 Different Group Discussion Styles
After a church decides the purpose of their small groups, the next big task will be to decide what sort of lessons their groups will use. Our church has used different types of lessons over the past few years and I thought I'd share 6 different group discussion styles a church could decide to use. Mirroring the Sermon Storying the Bible Inductive Bible Study Using Study Material Teaching Responsive Discipleship 1. Mirroring the Sunday Sermon: This is where all small groups lessons reflect the main point of the Sunday morning sermon. The idea is to take the point further and discuss how ...
Discipleship is _________________?
If you had to answer the question, “What does discipleship look like at your church,” what would you say? What kind of disciple is your church trying to create? Every book/article I’ve read on discipleship recently keeps coming back to this main question. Since our church (Velocity) began 5 years ago I've always thought we answered that question pretty clearly through our mission statement. “Velocity exists to Ignite the Faith that Fuels Your Life to Impact the World.” For the last 5 years we've explained our statement in the following way. We want to help people Ignite their faith for ...