LifeGroup & LifeMission Pastor Blog

RSS Feed

September 2010
M	T	W	T	F	S	S
« Oct
	1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30

The Right Group Purpose

Posted by: admin : Category: LifeReach

David Foster wrote a blog post about a great group hot button. You can read it by clicking here.

Essentially what he says is that group ministry is failing in many churches because our purpose for groups is wrong. In his estimation healthy groups serve the church (serving teams).

I think that he’s right to a certain extent. Serving is the most important thing groups do, but I don’t think it’s serving the church…it’s serving the world. (Can anyone say “LifeReach”?)

Here’s what I posted as a response on his site. Tell me what you think.

———————————————

Thanks for pushing this hot button David. On one hand I agree with you: Groups should serve. On the other hand I disagree. If I’m hearing you correctly, a win for small groups is serving the church (greeting, driving carts, etc.). I believe that a good group serves the community not just the church. God created us to change the world so like David said, “Rethink your small groups”. I’d like to encourage all of us take things a step further and
get our groups off the couch and into the community. That’s where our groups should be found…after all that’s where Jesus led his Group.

The exception for Jesus and his group was to meet in a house or an “upper room” (living room in our culture). It was also not the norm for his group to meet in the Temple. Jesus’ group was most readily found on the street touching the untouchable and loving the unlovable.

Serving the Body of Christ is a start, and a good one. Serving the world is where we all need to wind up!

Love Ya David!

Alan Danielson,
LifeGroups Team Leader
LifeChurch.tv

19 Responses to “The Right Group Purpose”

Anonymous Says:
June 20th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Hmmm…not sure that’s what Jesus modeled with His small group. Somewhere, somehow he struck a balance of building into His group then impacting others with His group. We have it written down that this is important: Bring in, Build up, Train, and send out. When broken people come into our groups they need to be build up. This can happen simultaneously while being “sent out” but it must be addressed.
Kevin Says:
June 22nd, 2008 at 8:14 am
It’s really tough to compare our LifeGroups to Jesus’ small group. Those guys quit there jobs and hit the road. That is not happening today. There needs to be come time along the way for teaching (as Jesus did with his disciples) and a time for serving. There is nothing wrong with getting out of the living room for the teaching and doing it somewhere people will be…
db Says:
June 23rd, 2008 at 10:00 am
I think Group Health is the ONLY answer to a thriving church community. What we see in all of nature is that all healthy things grow - period. Growth in numbers and spiritual depth and serving and giving and so on… if the group is healthy, all of these things would happen as a natural extension of that health. At the same time, the ‘health’ of a group is a somewhat relative concept. I tend to think of healthy lifegroups as I would a healthy family. Good communication, learning with and from each other, serving each other, giving, loving, caring, sometimes arguing, but accepting. I’m working on a list of what I think represents health for the Edmond campus, and I plan to put all my eggs in that basket. If I teach people how to Walk with God, I believe I will have done everything I’m supposed to do as a leader of this community, and the health will be evident from the top of the head, to the hem of the garment, all the way thru the organization. Health is everything because all healthy things grow.
Alan - CEN Says:
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:34 am
To me it’s obvious what Jesus modeled with his group…it’s right there in the gospels. He said, “follow me”, then they went out in to the community and recieved on-the-job-training. Jesus brought the disciples in, built them up and trained them out in the community, and then sent them out to do the what he had done when he ascended into heaven.

His idea of building up and training took place outside 95% of the time and took place indside 5% of the time. To Jesus, “build up and train” didn’t involve a curriculum…they involved action.

What does that say about the way we tend to lead our groups?
Jeff Galley Says:
June 23rd, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Alan, strongly agree with what you said to Foster. Service is the glue of a good group, but it’s not internal service - it’s to the communities we live within.

As much as I believe in the fact that service is the glue for a great group, practically speaking it’s also critical that a group knows how to have a good conversation in a living room or coffee shop on a topic that sparks personal/spiritual growth. And they have to be able to know that someone cares about them and is praying for them.
db Says:
June 24th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
But what we’re forgetting in this equation is the fact that we’re not asking people with the spiritual credentials of Jesus or even the disciples, to lead our groups. We’re more saying to the woman at the well, pick up a DVD and start a group.

Our groups are going to look different because we aren’t ensuring spiritual leadership as a leadership basic requirement. Spiritual formation of the leader is the only thing that will get our groups healthy. In our model, I see more and more how impossible any of our best goals will be long term without the right leadership coaching model to support it. I see my coaches as the 12 who I’ve got to take from the upper room breaking bread, into the community to build them up and train them in love and compassion, and believe in them so they can cast out demons, then they will start and grow “churches/lifegroups” in the ways they themselves have been taught.

The catch. It took Jesus 3 years of 24/7 ministry to prepare the way for the disciples, and years more for them to build the church. At lifechurch.tv we hope to double our numbers in 3 months. With Christ, anything is possible, no doubt. Yet I am asking myself constantly about the ROOT issues, and is doubling our numbers fixing the longer term issues of group health, and maybe even further diminishing our efforts to do so?

Isn’t this matter of us picking between leading versus managing?
Alan - CEN Says:
June 24th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Doubling our numbers is the right approach because it forces us to look at the root issues. If we don’t think about the impossibly huge task of doubling groups we won’t arrive at any new or profound conclusions about filling and keeping the groups. The “doubling” challenge makes us consider things we’ve never considred before! God’s going to show up big time!

The point of considring Jesus’ group is not to say that all of our leaders are like Jesus…no one is TRULY like Jesus.

The point is that “discipleship” with the 12 took place in the real world, not the laboratory. When we sit in our homes talking with our LifeGroup, we’re in the lab. When we hit the streets and reach out to those in need we’re in the real world…that’s where life-change happens, both to the people we are serving and to us! The 12 were changed more by actions than by words.
Jeff Galley Says:
June 25th, 2008 at 6:58 am
David, really good thoughts man. While I agree with Alan that we can’t slow the process of getting people into groups because it has value all alone, we have to ensure the spiritual growth of the leadership so it trickles down.
pictures of halloween costumes Says:
September 11th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Beautiful design.
Thanks, admin.
halloween costume for s Says:
September 11th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
Beautiful design.
Thanks, webmaster.
Elena Says:
September 12th, 2008 at 11:14 am
Nice site.
Thanks, webmaster.
Marina Says:
September 12th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
Nice site.
Thanks, admin.
Pavel Says:
September 14th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Amazing site.
Thanks, admin.
Pavel Says:
September 14th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Nice site.
Thanks, webmaster.
Maria Says:
September 14th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
Cool blog.
Thanks, webmaster.
Boots travel insurance uk Says:
September 14th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
Interesting news
Thanks.
Marina Says:
September 14th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
Beautiful design.
Thanks, webmaster.
Sveta Says:
September 15th, 2008 at 8:01 am
Amazing site.
Thanks, admin.
embraer regional jet for sale Says:
September 15th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Cool blog.
mckenna flatflame burner
Thanks, webmaster.

You must be logged in to post a comment.

RSS Feed

Categories

Archives

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Tags

The Right Group Purpose

19 Responses to “The Right Group Purpose”

Leave a Reply