Class Project: Small Group

            This past semester I had the privilege of hosting a small group at my home. At our church we call them lifegroups. This was the second semester in a row that I had done this with my wife and we were really exited about being able to study the bible and grow together with our peers. Our group was held on Sunday nights at 6. During the fall we had it on Tuesday nights but because of my school schedule this was not possible so we changed the date. We chose to study the book of Philippians this semester. The book was used to lead the study was from a series of bible study guides called LifeChange. The reason we picked this book was because my wife had done another bible study that used this study guide and she had a great experience with it.

            One of the first things that were different about this semester was that our group changed pretty drastically. We only had 4 returning members from the previous semester. This was a bit sad because our group grew really close the previous semester and we saw some great growth in the people attending. Our group got 19 sign ups out of the possible 20 that each lifegroup was limited to. So this was a new group with all new personalities and this would allow for some new insights and experiences to be had. Another difference was that we were now studying a book of the bible instead of a devotional personal growth type book which is what we did the previous semester. In the fall it was our first lifegroup so we decided that doing a personal growth book would be better to help people get comfortable and be able to share more. Not everyone has great understanding of the bible so we wanted the group to get comfortable with each other first and knew that we would study a book of the bible in the spring.

            I want to talk about what one of the greatest difficulties throughout the semester. This difficulty was attendance. Most of our group was comprised of college students and we soon came to learn that they would not be consistent in their attendance. It seemed like every week we had about half of the group missing for one reason or another. My wife and me discussed this and came up with the answer that there are a lot of weekend holidays and school vacations that happen throughout the semester. Sunday night is not a good night to lead a lifegroup that is made up of mostly college students. There was one week where not one person came that night for lifegroup out of the 19 people who signed up and a good number of them never gave any indication beforehand that they wouldn’t be coming.

            This difficulty then lead to the study not flowing as well as it could have because of the inconsistency of the people attending. Every week people were coming in that had not been there the week before and things that were being built upon and verse that overlapped studies were being discussed a bit again. Though this was not a great difficulty it still was something that had to be overcome every week.

            Things were not all bad throughout the semester and that is why I wanted to get those out of the way first. One of the great successes we had in our group was the continued growth of some of the members in their walk with Christ. We had members who had recently come to Christ and really did not know much about church, the Bible or what it meant to be a Christian. Throughout our time studying I could see them getting more and more involved and contributing much more to the conversations. This was really exciting to see and watching them learn about living as a Christian and applying it was worth every second.

            Although people could not come out every week the relationships that were built with the attendees was another great success of the lifegroup. People really were interested in the lives of others and one of the best times every week was sharing prayer requests. As the semester moved on more and more people were beginning to share prayer requests that were more personal. The lifegroup really grew closer as people would open up more and bonds were created as we prayed for each other. There were always people praying for each other and this was amazing to witness.

            Throughout the semester I learned lessons about leading people that are important to ministry. People may not always be able to come to services or lifegroup gathering but making sure that I reach out to them and keep in touch goes a long way. There was a person who came for the first month and couldn’t come anymore after that time but still emails us every week letting us know what is going on in her life. Sending a text and giving a phone call to our lifegroup members goes a long way in establishing relationships and keeping the communication going. The reason of the lifegroup is to develop relationships and grow in our walk with God. There was never a time where we made anyone feel bad for not coming although they displayed that they did many times.

            Another thing that I learned was that it is important to just spend time talking about how the week has been and what is new in our lives. We would do icebreakers most of the time but there were a few days where the conversation was going well and people were interacting with each other and we felt like an icebreaker would put a stop to something good that was going on. Having a plan is very important but allowing things to flow naturally is also something that needs to be allowed.

            Food is a great way to bring people together. Eating snacks or having a dinner together was some of the moments that we will never forget. We just had fun breaking bread together and talking about anything really. A lot of laughter was shared during meals and after lifegroup while we had something to eat. Everyone contributed and different people brought things every week.

            Everything that happened throughout the semester in our lifegroup worked as something I could learn from and analyze to see how it could be done better. Things were never perfect by any means but a lot of good happened. These are relationships that can last for a really long time. Having a lifegroup meet at our home and providing an atmosphere for spiritual growth was an honor for us. We loved it even with the difficulties. It is a sacrifice of time that bears great fruit. Small groups are an important part of every Christian community and I really see myself always having one in one form or another. It has been a great experience that I will continue to study and look to be more effective in.

Church Planter Assessment

      On April 10 we had a class that really opened my eyes to what my future looks like. We were able to take a church planter assessment together as a class. Our teacher Pr. Rees called us up one by one and had as do a quick version of a section of the assessment. The reason I say this opened my eyes to what my future looks like is because I want to plant a church someday. I really had not much of an idea what the process is like and what things districts look for when approving a person to become a church planter.

      It was interesting to observe as different classmates went up and sat on the "hot seat" and was asked questions about their life regarding whatever section they were on. Some sections were vision, motivation, relationship building, flexibility and many others. It was cool because non of us had any idea what the questions would be so we didn't have any prepared answers unlike what a real interview would be like. As different people went up I tried to answer these questions that were asked to myself about myself to get a gauge of where I am. I discovered that I do have things to work on and areas where I need to grow before I can be more prepared to go off and plant a church.

      I got to go up and answer questions about motivation. These questions had to do with my time and how well I do with a lot of things on my plate. It was a fitting area for me to discuss for the class because I currently have two jobs, I am doing an internship, taking 3 classes and I am married. My time is very spread out and I must say I have handled it pretty well considering all the areas I am being pulled to. So our teacher said I would get a high for this area.

      I can not express how much good this class did for me. I was able to pick up on so many things that I could work on right now even before being in a ministry situation. I am grateful that I will be going to a church where I will have opportunity to work on so many things that I need more experience in. I am going to print out a list of the key questions for each section and hang them up on my bathroom mirror and pick one everyday to focus on and grow in. Along with God's help I know it is all possible and the future is bright. I am so excited for planting someday. Until then I have work to do. I look forward to it.

Courtney Good

      Courtney is the Pastor of assimilation at Glad Tidings church in Reading, Pa. I walked into class a few minutes late and we were discussing what they do with their youth group at the church. They went through a number of different phases in the church in how they did youth group. The did the junior and senior high together on wednesdays, then they split wednesdays and had small groups for each age level. Then they had youth group on different nights for junior high and senior high. They currently have youth group on sunday mornings and on wednesday nights they run their small groups program.

     The strategy for discipling young people who accept Christ at the church is relied upon the small group leader. The small group leaders graduate with their students in the sense that they spend the next 4 years with the students. As the students grow up the leaders are there with them. They make a long term commitment to the youth group and the students they are ministering to. The small group leader is the front line person for living life with the

      The church has a program called Serve where they can learn about all of the different opportunities to serve at the church. They meet with a serve coach and discuss what they like to do and where they can be the most useful and do what they are good at. This process was created so that better follow up can be had and people can go to one place for everything they need to get involved and not get lost in the process.

      A program that Courtney shared with us in class is one called Fellowshipone. the church uses this basically to have a profile for every person at the church. They run background checks through this, keep church attendance, have their small groups listed along with more information. She said it is a bit complicated to navigate through but that it worked great for being organized in all of the different tasks they need to do in the church office. All interactions with the members are recorded on this program so that accountability can be kept.

Six Tough Questions for the Church

      Last week on April 3 we had two books presented to us by students. we spent a good amount of time discussing them and what we could learn from them. In this blog post I want to discuss the book by Dr. Reggie McNeal called "Six Tough Questions for the Church". This book brought forth lots of great information and ways to really take a hard look at your church and see how effective it is being in missional ministry.

      The first question that we discussed had to do with how to change the culture of churchianity to one of Christianity? The thought process behind churchianity is that we are a club and people have to work to feel like they belong to our club. The author of the book says that instead of trying to get people to become church members we need to have Jesus and His mission be our objective. Church culture is not the prevailing culture anymore and people do not just go to church for the most part. When we are going out to reach the lost we really can't assume they have any knowledge of church or what it means to be a Christian. this affects the way we speak and look to relate how a relationship with God is important.

      Another question that we talked about in class that I found interesting was dealing with whether we want to focus on church growth or kingdom growth. There are numerous books out there on different ways to grow a church. The author feels that instead of doing things in our buildings to get people to come we need to go out into the communities and reach people for Jesus. People are just not going out looking for a church to attend like in the past. Now Jesus really needs to be brought out to the people where they are at. This involves equipping people in our churches to bring Christ to all those that they know. Not just equipping them to get their friends to church and let the pastor do the rest from the pulpit.

      The last question I want to discuss in this blog has to do with how we can turn church members into missionaries? I found this to be an interesting concept because at times it seems like churches are trying to do everything they can to keep members in the building. Instead of releasing them and trusting that God will keep the church thriving and growing. So many programs are made to bring people to the church building but not enough of an emphasis is done to send people out into the communities where they can reach people who would never step foot in a church building. This means that people will be encouraged not to spend so much time in the church. This is not a radical idea but is one that many pastors at times fail in doing. Christian culture, in America at least, likes to create programs that get people to the building and keeps those who are there coming back. At times this could be 3-4 times a week. It seems that maybe spending this time with non-beleivers for a couple fo those days would benefit everyone involved.

Making Disciples Interview #2

            For the second interview of someone from a church dealing with Disciple making and equipping ministry I interviewed my small group coach from Victory Christian Fellowship. His name is David Appel and he is the young adults life groups coach. His role is one of lay leadership. He does not get paid to do this role and he is in charge of leading about 6 young adult life groups at the church. So I spent some time with him having him answer some questions about what his processes are for making disciples through this ministry he is involved with.

            The first question I asked him was what his process was for making disciples?

David first told me that he believes making disciples to be taking someone from where they are and helping them to become what God wants them to be. His process for this is an organic one. This requires meeting people where they are in their lives, seeing where God is working in their lives and encouraging them to have trust and faith in God to pursue God’s desire for their lives. This is a process that varies from person to person and really depends on where they are with their walk with the Lord.

            The second question that I asked David was what the biggest challenge that he faced in making disciples?

David said that the biggest challenge is find the time to develop a trusting relationship with someone and finding someone who is willing to let others speak into their lives. Also something really interesting that he said was that as he disciples others he has to be willing to allow others to speak into his life also. He said that their needs to be an openness to this idea as we disciple people. He believes that developing a relationship where both parties are open, honest and vulnerable is difficult to attain but very important in making disciples. A disciple has to have willingness to change and grow despite any obstacles that may come. Also a person who is being discipled needs to have an honest look at who they are and how they are.

The third question that I asked David about disciple making was what are some of the ways that he equips people for ministry?

One of the ways that he equips people for ministry is to teach people to listen to God’s voice in their lives. He says that if he can teach people to listen to God and his direction, teach them to yield to the Holy Spirit and to obey the direction of God in their lives then everything else will fall into place. Another way that he equips people for ministry is by helping people to discover their spiritual gifts and to encourage them to step out in faith and try new things.

The third and last question that I asked David was how does he measure his effectiveness?

In order to evaluate his effectiveness David has a list of questions that he asks himself and then he evaluates the answers and assesses where they are growing and where they may need support. The questions are as follows:

Are they growing in the knowledge of God?

Are they making disciples of others?

Are they using their spiritual gifts?

Are they nurturing their relationship with Christ through spiritual disciplines?

Do they participate actively in a small group?

Do they attend worship regularly?

Do they actively serve others?

Are they growing in their relationships with family and friends?

Are they exceling or succeeding at work or do they have a good work ethic?

            After going through these question and spending time with the answers he says he can gauge where a person is at in their spiritual growth and see what else can be done to help them become better disciples.