Tips for small groups

[Christoffer]

Me and my wife are in a small group that meets up weekly. Officially, I am also the "leader" (which means that I am responsible for practical arrangements and that we have some material to focus on when we meet up)

But it is really hard to make it work. The other members are hardcore lutherans, arminians and almost-liberals (or just confused). Our presuppositios are so different that it is difficult reading the Bible and coming to any conclusions.

Anyhow, I would like to hear about the small groups of the PB:ers, if you don't mind. I will write some questions below, I am not asking anyone to write an essay, I just want to illustrate the questions I am thinking about. If anyone will just give a short response to any one of them, it would be greatly appreciated. Links are also welcome.

1. Do you have certain routines that you go through every time you meet up (Bible reading, singing, prayer) and how does the set-up look?
2. Do you do topical studies or use some good material?
3. How much authority should the "leader" of the small group have?
4. How to deal with different theological perspectives (arminian, lutheran, calvinist)

 

[Calvinist Cowboy]

*bump* These are good questions.

 

[jambo]

Our church has three small groups that meet in homes during the second and fourth weeks of every month. The group I belong to has around 10 regular members and the other two groups are of similar size, maybe just a few more in number.

The format has been bible reading, discussion, prayer then a cup of tea and continued chat. Singing does not feature in any of the groups although if a group wanted to sing then it is free to do so.

We have three sessions. Sept-Dec; Jan-Easter; Easter-June. During one session a year, my co-elder and I would pick a bible study book or a theme for all groups to study. On another session we leave that up to each group to decide what it wants to study although they always ask us as elders for our approval prior to commencing a study. On the third session we decide according to needs of the church. A bible book, a theme, a bible study book or whatever.

Our church is currently vacant but we set a treaching programme in place and we give visiting speakers the theme. We sometimes ask them to provide questions relating to their sermons on the Sunday for the group to discuss in midweek. This has been quite profitable in discussing and applying the sermon.

When the house groups were set up, we as elders did not want to lead any group. Obviously the leadership of the groups are appointed by us and responsible to us but we felt we had gifted people within the congregation who could lead the groups and take responsibilty for them. As elders we would meet with the leaders 2-3 times a year.

We also made a distinction between the leaders and the hosts. Some would like to host a group but were not able to lead whilst ioothers felt able to lead but were not in a postion to host a group.

The different theological perspectives has never really been an issue. We are gracious and we learn from one another as we discuss biblical truths.

 

[Hawaiian Puritan]

Our church is big on small groups, partly because we are so large (about 1400 members at this point) so we feel it's important to encourage small groups so people don't feel lost. It's not only a learning tool, but a way whereby people in the group can care for and minister to each other.

Small groups vary. Some do direct Bible studies, either with the leader preparing the materials or using various study guides. Some may use various devotional or topical resources.

Our church also helps out, in that the pastor responsible for giving the sermon also prepares small group questions that can be used to talk about the sermon and the scripture passage that is the subject of the sermon. Those questions are emailed to the small group leaders. So a lot of small groups use the sermon/Scripture passage as the focus of their study.

The group I help lead is somewhat unusual because it is set up for business people during their lunch hour. So we have to be strict about keeping the meeting to one hour, so people can have an assurance they will get back to work on time. (I would say most other groups are in the evening and go from 1 1/2 to 2 hours.)

My group has two leaders, myself and another; that's basically so we can cover for each other if one has a conflict. We meet once a week. Attendance varies, from 4 or 5 to as many as 13 or 14. Depends a lot on people's work schedules. The mix of people seems to vary each week.

We are pretty simple, we open in prayer, talk about the sermon/scripture passage for about 45-50 minutes, and then close with about 10 minutes of prayer seeking particularly to address individual prayer needs of attenders. We meet in a conference room in the office of my co-leader. Some people bring a bag lunch; others don't.

The leaders are responsible for keeping things on track, which has not proven too difficult. We do get a number of viewpoints expressed in the group, but I think if we focus primarily on the scripture passage we don't get into too much trouble. We do have a range of levels of knowledge of scripture, but we are all fairly charitable of each other. Sometimes I feel obliged to interject, as when one attender recently got into something about whether the Gospel of John was really written by John, or was really a "gnostic" writing. (As I say, we get different levels of knowledge.) But again, if we keep on bringing it back to the Scripture passage, it isn't too bad.

Here's our church's small groups page:
First Presbyterian Church of Honolulu Ministry

May not be acceptable for many theologically, but Willow Creek in particular does have a lot of materials on how to do small groups, how to be a small group leader, how to deal with problems in the group, etc.

 

[Scott1]

Me and my wife are in a small group that meets up weekly. Officially, I am also the "leader" (which means that I am responsible for practical arrangements and that we have some material to focus on when we meet up)

But it is really hard to make it work. The other members are hardcore lutherans, arminians and almost-liberals (or just confused). Our presuppositios are so different that it is difficult reading the Bible and coming to any conclusions.

Anyhow, I would like to hear about the small groups of the PB:ers, if you don't mind. I will write some questions below, I am not asking anyone to write an essay, I just want to illustrate the questions I am thinking about. If anyone will just give a short response to any one of them, it would be greatly appreciated. Links are also welcome.

1. Do you have certain routines that you go through every time you meet up (Bible reading, singing, prayer) and how does the set-up look?
If it is not a burden and will not distract, have a light refreshment when people arrive- a small cup of juice, nuts, etc. Do not let food become a burden to the host or a distraction, however.

Have someone open in prayer (for reading of the Word only)
Have someone read the Scripture text
Then ask questions and let people discuss
Leader tries to bring questions to biblical conclusion
Ask for prayer needs, let everyone pray
Leader closes in prayer

Ordinarily, this should be about 1 hour, make an effort to start on time, and end within 5-10 minutes max. over time

The real focus is on the Word and prayer, a regular part of the Christian's life- not primarily on socializing, food, etc.

If you want to focus on fellowship, food maybe have a fellowship meal together or plan a fun activity say once a calendar quarter, or a couple times during the summer (or in Finland, maybe a cross country ski morning in winter).

But remember, the means of grace (Word and prayer) needs to be the focus, pray God will send people for that.


2. Do you do topical studies or use some good material?
You can do without Scripture alone, the leader can do some additional research or
John MacArthur has several books of chapters of the Bible, so do the Navigators


3. How much authority should the "leader" of the small group have?
Should keep to the agreed on time, keep people on topic, but not dominate. Let everyone talk, pray.


4. How to deal with different theological perspectives (arminian, lutheran, calvinist)
If you stick with the text of the Scriptures and focus on them, as you read and discuss, the overshadowing of these views will probably not dominate, and people will grow!

.

 

[Rich Koster]

Not a theological (or is it) perspective here but something I have dealt with in two congregations. I have been part of groups that unruly children have destroyed. Good content and good leadership can be undermined if tension arises over this issue.