SMALL GROUPS MANUAL

SMALL GROUPS MANUAL Small Groups Manual Guide

The purpose of this study guide is to help leaders get the most out of the booklet Small Groups Manual, put out by Worldwide Discipleship Association. The leader can go through this discussion guide one-on-one with a new leader he is developing, or in a small group with a number of men or women who will be involved in leading small groups. The latter is recommended. It is also recommended that the book be reviewed periodically by the leadership of a house church, so that the principles for good small group leadership can be reinforced. The study guide for the book may be helpful in this way also.

USE OF THE STUDY GUIDE: The leaders should read the assigned pages in the book and then answer the questions in this study guide. These questions can then form the foundation for discussion at the leadership training meeting. The assigned portions of reading and answering the questions should take about 30 minutes for the average reader. The training discussion should be about 15 minutes, depending on the group and the leader. As always, the suggested discussion questions are only a beginning point. The leader should adjust these to the group of men or women he or she is training.

Study 1 Small groups: Read page 1-7

1. What small groups are currently operating in your house church?

2. Analyze each one you are involved in. In each one listed above, write beside it whether it tends to be knowledge oriented or experience oriented? If it is designed to promote ministry, note this as well.

3. Which type group (knowledge or experience) are you more comfortable with?

4. How will this affect your leadership of this or other groups?

5. What are the strengths of this emphasis? The weaknesses?

Strengths Weaknesses

6. In what ways might you be critical of someone who tends to lead with the opposite emphasis?

7. Who can you work together with in order to bring about a good balance?

8. How are the groups designed to equip the saints for works of ministry (Ephesians 4:11,12)? How effective are they?

Study 2: Leadership. Read pages 8-12

1. A leader often has a predisposition to go in one of two directions. He will emphasize relationship over truth, or truth over relationship. How might this affect his approach to his emphasis on small group meetings? (You might look at question No3 in study 1 above.)

2. Which tendency would you have?

3. What is a crucial requirement for you to become an effective leader?

4. Evaluate your love for the members of your group? What are some practical things you might do in order to strengthen this? (You might look at the list on page 10)

5. Who is emerging in the group with other leadership skills (See the list on page 11)? Write their name with the skill being manifested below.

6. What can you (and the other formal leaders) do to encourage each person in adding dynamic to the group?

7. How clear is the purpose of the group understood by each member? Remember as far as the church goes, this will largely be written in the Covenant and Vision Statement. Do you have these? Is each member aware of them?

8. Ministry meetings and Gathering meetings each need to have a clear purpose and method to meet that purpose. Are your methods achieving your purposes?

Study 3 Content of the Teaching time (Pages 13-17).
We will get into content of worship time when we cover Fellowship (Pages 17-22. Next study). It should be noted that the SGM has a content program (book) they go through. We encourage each house church to develop their own program of teaching. Below gives a guideline for doing this. It should be done in cooperation with the others who will be involved in the teaching.

1. Make a list of the needs of the group.

2. Which of these needs could require understanding in order to be met? Put a U beside those in the list above. Which would be best met in a group setting as opposed to a 1 on 1 setting? Put a G beside these.

3. Prioritize the above list. Then look for a reading schedule which the congregation could use as reading in the home which addresses this need. This will become the basis for Sunday teaching in the church. Each family is expected to go through the reading schedule (which should take 3-5 minutes each day) in preparation for the Sunday meeting.

4. If you can't find a reading schedule which can be adapted then look to develop your own. First try to find a book of the Bible which focuses on this theme, since this is the easiest way. Break it up into readable sections (10 or so verses). Develop a 5 or 7 day a week reading schedule where each day a section of scripture is assigned along with a question for discussion. Old Testament stories or narratives from the life of Jesus can be interspersed to illustrate the truths being taught. REMEMBER THE FAMILY SHOULD BE ABLE TO READ THE SCRIPTURE AND ANSWER THE QUESTION FOR DISCUSSION IN THREE TO FIVE MINUTES!

5. On page 13 of the Small Groups Manual it says "The measure of success is not how much material we cover, but how much the disciples' lives are changed."

Evaluate the last 3 months of teaching. What have you been focusing on? What progress
has been made in the group?
What methods have been used? Are they suitable for the K A B S test?
What are some new methods (activities) which you could use over the next 3 months? You might look at page 14, 15 at the cone of experience to get some new ideas.
You and those involved in leading your group should evaluate your methods every 3 months, or whenever you are winding up a reading schedule and planning to implement a new one.

Study 4 Page 17-21 Fellowship:

The things mentioned in this part of the guide probably best translates into our worship and sharing time which we often have as a part of our community meeting. The goal is to participate in the love of Christ and have that reflected in a deepening sense of our love toward one another.

1. How often does your group get to share aspects of their spiritual pilgrimage? What are some innovative ways you can encourage this (see the bottom of page 19, top of page 20.)?

2. How can history giving help new ones get acclimated into the fellowship? What are some ways you can do so without putting them on the spot?

3. Many of our churches have "affirmation meetings" where the members are affirmed in their ministry and gifts. Usually this involves members of the group offering testimonies about how others have been ministering to them in order to encourage them in the use of their gifts in ministry. Would a meeting like this or something similar be good for your house church?

What are some other ways you the members could affirm one another?
How often should such affirmation meetings take place?

4. Goal setting. We usually have fairly specific goals for the house churches. If you are in the work stage, your goal is to develop a covenant. If you are a church, your goal is to write and implement a vision statement. If you have a vision statement, your goal is to evaluate your progress and make revisions and adjustments.

What stage is your church at?
Is the goal clear to the community? How are you progressing?
What meetings are given over to accomplish this goal? How are the structured to achieve it? How might this be improved upon?
Most of our churches, once a vision statement has been developed have periodic "health checks" to see how they are progressing on it. This occurs usually 2 or 3 times in the course of the usual 6 month duration of the vision statement. This is a time for evaluation and possibly adjustment. Have you had any health checks? How effective were they at galvanizing action on the part of the community? How effective was your leadership of the meeting? How could the meeting have been run to more effectively hear what the Holy Spirit might have been saying?

5. Koinoni. How effectively do the individual members of your community minister to each other?

Do you see folks in the group emerging who might be good at some of the following?
- Barnabus ministry: Making newcomers feel comfortable.
- Hospitality: making people feel at home
- Recruiter: encouraging people to fit in by finding their place.
- Networked: brings new people to already existing webs of relationship and helps them make new friends.
- Fellowship initiator: very concerned about the intimacy of the group. Often looks for more. Willing to organize games, social gatherings in order to promote community intimacy.
. What are some ways you can encourage folks in your group to pursue these important ministries?

Study 5 Page 22-26.

Group development and the seven steps. This section reviews the seven steps in small group development. For our purposes the Stages in House Church Development would probably be a better guideline, although many of the different steps here are relevant to a house church reproducing. You would also want to refer back to Study 3 for insights in evaluating your group and developing study materials which will be helpful to them.

1. The three stages in house church development are: Gathering, Work, and Reproduction.

Which stage are you in?
What activities are essential to be moving the group forward? (You might look at the House Stages Activities List)

2. How can you encourage every member to be involved in ministry? (The booklet Finding Your Place in the Body can be helpful here).

3. How is you leadership development progressing? (See 2 Timothy 2:2 Discipleship Chains chart for help here).

4. Do you have plans for reproducing yet? How are you progressing?

5. Look at page 26. How reliant are you on the Holy Spirit? Are you sensitive to His leading, or more stubborn in your pursuit of your own agendas? How is your group at sensing his leading? How effective are your evaluation meetings?

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