GRACE Group Leaders
Building followers of Jesus
Christ…
4/8/08
So now I am giving you a new
commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each
other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my
disciples.” John 13:34-35 (NLT)
GRACE – Relationships - Actively
engaging in community with other believers where we learn to love each other,
pray for each other, care for each other, be there for each other, and together
seek God’s will for our lives. We believe this happens best in the context of a
small group of people who are meeting often and are learning to do life
together.
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Great News |
I want to
thank everyone who took the time to come out and be a part of our Leader’s
Gathering last Monday Night. We had a
big crowd and it was fun to interact with so many group leaders. Many of you brought someone along to invest
in. I hope everyone took something away
that will be useful in their ministry. I
was very challenged as Mark Norman asked us to think about what kind of person
we need to be in order to invest in someone’s life. Scot McKnight painted a big picture of the
possibilities of our groups if we will live in community the way Jesus lived
and taught. Have you thought anymore
about Blue Parakeets since Monday? I’ve
included an article this week from Scot that continues the discussion.
Mark shared
terrific news with us that evening when he told us that 34 people had accepted
Jesus into their lives during the Sunday Morning services the day before. Pray with us as we follow up with each of
those individuals and help them with the next steps in their new lives. It doesn’t get any better than this!!
Wait. It does!!
More great news comes from one of our newest GRACE Groups. One of our groups which started during our
Winter Launch has reported that a women in their group trusted Jesus with her
life for the first time last week. The
group was studying “Compassion for the World” and talking about how important
it is to share their experience with Jesus with those around them. One member realized that she had never had an
experience like they were describing and began to ask some important questions. Before the night was over, there was one new
member in God’s family and at least one other seeker in the group still asking
questions.
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Care & Repair |
Do you know
about our Care & Repair Ministry?
This team does yard work and basic handyman work in and around the homes
of folks who are unable to do it themselves.
The Second Saturday of the month is their big Service Day and they enjoy
helping and meeting new people. Do you
know someone who might need their help, (ailing, aging, single parent, friend,
or neighbor)? Just contact Bret
Canterbury at canterburybldrs@comcast.net or
410-442-5979. Thanks for caring!
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New in the Small Groups Library |
Small Group Studies for “Family Groups”
These studies are for small groups with children included in the
study. Leading a small group that
includes several families and children studying together is very different from
a group of adults studying while the kids play in the other room. It means different goals, expectations, and
the way each time together functions.
Children learn differently than adults do. But you will be amazed at the insights they
will give you from God’s Word. This
curriculum gives parents the opportunity to experience Christian growth right
alongside their children, while experiencing group life with other families.
I have
been looking for years for curriculum that would support “Family Groups” at
Grace. This year, one church decided to
write their own and they are willing to share this resource with us. We now
have approximately six months worth of studies in the Small Group Office. If you know someone who would like to start a
“Family Group” where parents and children do group together with other
families, give me a call in the office, or send me an email to michael@gracegroups.net .
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Group Leader Essential #4 |
GRACE Group
leaders are charged with an incredible responsibility. Because they are
involved in the day-to-day lives of their group members, they have tremendous
influence on the spiritual lives of the people in their groups. With this in
mind, we encourage them to prioritize their own relationship with God. From
there, we ask them to focus on six key aspects of group leadership - six
essentials that are critical to the success of their groups.
Replace Yourself
This essential encourages us to intentionally apprentice someone in
our group for future leadership. The apprentice is someone who has the
potential to replace a leader, not simply assist him. Since adults often learn
on a need-to-know basis, apprenticing is the most effective way to identify and
train group leaders. When we put someone into the game, he or she learns
quickly. Ideally, we should identify an apprentice within the first six months
of the group. This assures that the group is fully prepared to multiply as new
members come their way.
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More Bird Stories from Scot McKnight |
The Great Connection
by
Scot McKnight
I don’t know about you, but often the
inner promptings I get from God to reach out in love to someone are
inconvenient. I could be preparing a sermon or a talk or I could be on an
errand and – to quote John Madden, one of my favorite sportscasters – “Boom!
There it is! Love that person!” Now let
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Jesus Creed,
which is the form of the Shema, as often as the
ancient Israelites did
(as often as hummingbirds feed), Scot McKnight |
If we
recite the 
me dig a bit
deeper and I confess that evangelism is frequently inconvenient for me. I find
I’d rather talk to someone about sports or politics or even theology.
Evangelism is not as easy as I’d like.
I want to suggest that our inconvenience
with living out the Great Commission is tied to the Great Commandments. How so?
The best evangelism, as nearly every statistic tells us, emerges from love and
out of a relationship. Whatever we call it, the best evangelism is nurtured by
love.
I teach at a college where only about 50
percent of our students are Christians, and the incredible “gig” I’ve got is
that I get to teach students the Bible and Jesus. Annually we see numbers of
students come to Christ or have their childhood faith reawakened, and I can
count on one hand the number who didn’t find that faith as a result of a
personal relationship.
One of my all-time favorite stories is
the student who was shocked that I knew her name, told me she got interested in
the Bible because I learned her name, and then over the course of a semester
her heart was “strangely warmed.” Her comment to me at the end of the semester:
“Dr. McKnight, I don’t know what is happening to me, but whenever I open my
Bible I get a warm feeling in my heart. Can you tell me what it is?” In my mind
I wanted to say “regeneration” but she didn’t have terms like that in her
toolbox. So I said, “It is God’s Spirit speaking to you. Please listen.”
Andrea became a Christian that semester
and I know in my heart all I did was learn her name and guide her into the
Bible. Relationship is the heart of evangelism. The Bible teaches us that the
Great Commandments (Jesus Creed) and the Great Commission are connected. It’s
the Great Connection.
Our example, the hummingbirds
Last summer Kris (my wife) and I
attracted hummingbirds to our feeders for the first time. We put out about five
miniature feeders, followed all the advice, cleaned them out every third or
fourth day, and one morning, “Boom! There one was!” It was about 7:00 a.m., and
I was reading on the back porch and Kris was driving to her office. I saw the
little hummer and I had to call Kris to inform her that we had successfully
attracted hummingbirds. I’m embarrassed by how excited we were so I’ll move on
to my main point: we were shocked how frequently they came to the feeders
throughout the day.
So one day, when I had a bundle of
things to read and decided to spend the day on the porch reading, I started
counting. By my calculation, they (or he or she … never could tell if it was
the same hummer) fed from the feeder about five times per hour. Adding it all
up, I calculated the hummers came to the feeder about 50 to 60 times a day.
Imagine sitting down for a meal 60 times a day!
After a little reading, I learned that
hummers expend so much energy and have so little space for storage,
they are in need of constant feeding. Hummingbirds, I am suggesting, follow the
pattern God gave for the Great Commandments. In Deuteronomy 6:4-5, God told
About five years ago I started
practicing the ancient Israelite custom of reciting the Shema
when I got up and when I went to bed, when I left the house and when I entered,
and whenever I was on the way. I learned that I was saying it about 50 times a
day. It began to work its way into my own DNA.
The Great Commandments
When Jesus was asked by a scribe what
was the greatest commandment of all, Jesus recited the Shema
and then, rather surprising to the scribe, added an obscure command from
Leviticus 19:18: “The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is
no commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:28-32). Because Jesus amended the historic
creed of
The essence of living before God is to
love God; the essence of living with (inconvenient) others is
to love others. If we recite the Jesus Creed, which is the form of the Shema, as often as the ancient Israelites did (as
often as hummingbirds feed), it works into our DNA. Like hummingbirds, we don’t
have much storage and so we need to recite this often.
The Great Commission
Now my claim: those who let the Jesus
Creed work into their DNA discover that the Great Commandment is far more
natural and far less inconvenient. In fact, at times those with Jesus Creed DNA
are asked what makes them tick. When they are asked such a question, the answer
is rather natural: love of God and love of others, the kind of Great
Commandments that make the Great Commission our delight.
Those who live the Great Commandments
discover themselves setting up Jesus Creed feeders for their neighbors.
Thanks for all you do!
Information, questions, comments.
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