June 29, 2009
Church to the People (part 1)
A church’s goal to get groups into the world
My local community of Christ-followers, since starting over 8 years ago, has always had the decentralization of discipleship and evangelism through home groups at the center of our strategy. However, we are taking that to a new level this summer.
We have a weekend worship gathering as most churches do, but we have decided to make that gathering a training ground for reaching the world. Here’s a quote from one of our recent weekend teachings: "There are a lot of churches out there that are really good at attracting people to Sunday morning service or to some program. Thank God for those churches, but we have to be honest and admit even those churches fall way short. There are still way more people who will never come close to a church building on Sunday morning. So our goal is not to attract people to our Sunday morning service. It’s to attract people to Christ, by going to the people, going 'out there' and loving people."
The week after this talk, we took our entire Sunday morning crowd (kids and adults alike) and organized them into a “grocery sack” assembly line. We acquired a large quantity of fresh produce and filled grocery bags with the produce and a simple message of Christ’s love. Once the sacks were filled, we sent our people out in groups to deliver these grocery bags to specific neighborhoods in our community. It was a great morning and there was some great chatter on the local news online discussion groups from our town.
Continue reading Church to the People (part 1)...
posted by Dan Lentz | Comments (0)
June 29, 2009
Lead Yourself Well
So that you can be a leader worth following
In 1 Corinthians 11:1, Paul states, "imitate me, as I imitate Christ." On one hand, that makes discipleship an easy process. I don't have to be a theologian or Bible scholar; I just have to be willing to bring other people on a spiritual journey with me. We are simply saying "imitate me. Do what I do."
But on the other hand, it makes the discipleship process very scary, because we are simply saying "imitate me"—and, well, I'm just not sure that would always be wise. It makes me realize that my greatest challenge and priority as a leader is to lead myself well so that I become a leader worth following.
Here are just a few disciplines that I have prioritized in my own life to ensure that I am leading myself well.
1. Feed Yourself. I think there are two dimensions of feeding yourself. First, leaders must be immersed in Scripture. Reading it, meditating on it, studying it, putting it into practice. There is absolutely no substitute. About four times a year, I develop a Bible reading plan for myself that is separate from any small-group leadership or other teaching responsibilities I have. I don't want to just read the Bible to get a word of truth for my group; I want to read the Bible so that I can grow as a person.
Second, I believe that leaders are learners. I try to be very intentional about reading books that help me lead better. A few that have helped me in recent months include Simple Small Groups (Bill Search), Making Small Groups Work (Henry Cloud and John Townsend), and Renovation of the Heart (Dallas Willard).
2. Stretch Yourself. It's easy to lead when there are no challenges, difficulties, or tensions. But real leadership happens when we face something that makes us uncomfortable or disturbs our normal routine in some way. If we lead for long enough, then we will find ourselves in stretching situations whether we want to be in them or not. So I've made it a practice to stretch myself regularly and intentionally in order to prepare myself better for leadership challenges when they come my way.
Stretching myself might mean serving in an area that is not part of my natural ministry affinity, being intentional about sharing my faith with someone, or slowing down long enough to talk with the homeless man that I pass on my way to lunch. All of us have spiritual muscle groups that aren't worked as much as others. Locate those muscles in your life and put them to work.
Continue reading Lead Yourself Well...
posted by Sam O'Neal | Comments (1)
June 29, 2009
Week 4: A Better Look at God's Face
Give your group a chance to experience God in a new way.
A good Monday morning to everyone!
Just a reminder, these weekly blog posts correspond to a 10-session Bible study called Essentials in Knowing God. You can download this study for free by using the coupon code DC0609—but that coupon will only last until June 30.
While I'm mentioning links, be sure to sign up for our Dot Com(unity) newsletter if you haven't done so already. You'll get helpful icebreakers and other tools delivered to your inbox each week—all of which apply directly to the study material we're looking at. Click here for more information.
Teaching Points
Okay, let's dive into the content for this week's study. There are two options in the study material for opening excersises, and I'm intrigued by the red/blue/green church idea. I'm curious to know your opinion about it: would it be useful and informative for your group, or is it too simplistic?
In either case, the Teaching Points for this week are fairly straightforward. The first explains the language about "God's face" that is used often in the Bible. The second emphasizes that God cannot be pinned down to a single character trait. And the third reminds us that Jesus is a perfect image of God, and we can follow his example in regularly approaching our heavenly Father.
Of those three, the second point has the most potential to serve as a stumbling block to your group members. They may have questions about God's actions in the Old Testament:
--Why does God act in wrath?
--Why did he order the destruction of entire civilizations? Even women and children?
--Why did he demand the death of animals from his servants?
These kinds of questions may very well come up when you discuss the diverse and multi-faceted character of God. How would you answer them?
Teachable Moments
For most group members, the subject of "father" is going to be a point of emotion. For some it will include pride and love; for others it will include shame and sadness—maybe even hate. These emotions are something you need to embrace in your group, not run away from.
For that reason, I think just about everyone should use this question as the introduction to Teaching Point Three: "Our view of God the Father is often connected to our experiences with our earthly fathers. For you, is that a positive or negative connection?"
As I say, be ready for emotion when you ask this question. But remember that emotional expressions in your group are not a bad thing at all, even if people are sad or disturbed for a time. We benefit when we express both pride and shame to a community of caring friends.
What other moments from this study do you believe have the potential to become a strong learning experience? Are there any other activities or questions we could use to emphasize these moments? If you think of any, please let the rest of us know!
posted by Sam O'Neal | Comments (1)
June 24, 2009
Update on "Uh Oh"
The rest of the story about the California pastor forced to shut down his small group.
A couple weeks ago I posted a small blurb about a California pastor who was being harrassed into shutting down his small group by a county official. The upshot was the pastor had to stop hosting the group meeting at his home, or else pay thousands of dollars to secure a permit.
Now, our friends at Your Church have produced a quick video on the topic featuring Rich Hammar. If you're not familiar with Rich, just know that he is "the man" when it comes to church law.
Rich gives us the rest of the story and explains whether the same thing could happen to your group. It's worth the four minutes.
posted by Sam O'Neal | Comments (0)
June 22, 2009
Space Age Relationships (part 2)
The importance of intentional relational training
The importance of intentional relational training
As I mentioned in my previous blog post, being a space/astronomy nerd, I have paid some attention to how NASA does relational training among their astronaut corps, particularly as astronauts work in small groups in confined living spaces.
Regardless of whether we are talking about “church sponsored” small groups or small group teams in the marketplace, relationships always work best when biblical principles are followed. NASA seems to have confirmed this in their approach to astronaut training, as well.
I was struck by the amount of effort being put into relational training among astronaut teams, who have to work well together in order to complete their mission. It made me wonder how much relational training we are doing in the church where our team has the most important mission on earth. Here’s a quote from a NASA aritcle:
Continue reading Space Age Relationships (part 2)...
posted by Dan Lentz | Comments (0)
June 22, 2009
Week 3: That First Word
How do you address God in prayer? And what does that say about you?
Hello Friends!
Before we get into the material for this week, let me reiterate a request I made in last week's post: I need your help to know how this Dot Com(unity) thing can improve. This is all very new, and I am flying blind. So if you are using this for your own growth or as material for your group, I could really use some feedback.
What's working? What isn't? What is missing that you would like to see? Post a comment below or send me an e-mail.
Okay, enough of that. Let's get to this week's material: "How Should We Address God?"
Continue reading Week 3: That First Word...
posted by Sam O'Neal | Comments (2)
June 18, 2009
Space Age Relationships (part 1)
You can never get enough training
I’m sort of a space buff. I love looking and learning about God’s creation, and have a couple of telescopes that help me do that (which I don’t get out as often as I would like). I also keep up on a few astronomy websites and take note when Shuttles are being readied for launch, as one is right now.
As part of that passion, I have paid some attention to NASA’s astronaut training program. Astronauts live and work in small groups to accomplish the objectives of the particular mission to which they are assigned. Astronauts also train to live in close “community” with one another in the living quarters of relatively small space vehicles. I have found there are some useful parallels with what NASA is doing and what the church can do regarding relational training. I’ve even borrowed some ideas from astronaut training to incorporate into small-group leadership training, and I wanted to highlight some of these concepts in a couple of blog posts.
First, no matter how well you think things are going in your small group community, ongoing training should never become secondary. You always need to work toward deeper unity and oneness. Check out an interesting quote from a NASA article about astronaut training:
Continue reading Space Age Relationships (part 1)...
posted by Dan Lentz | Comments (1)
June 17, 2009
A Different Look at Twitter
Margaret Feinberg says that "every leader" should use it.
In my last post, I shared some of the reasons why Twitter makes a little nervous.
If you want to get another point of view, our sister blog GiftedForLeadership.com just added a post from Margaret Feinberg called Every Leader Should Use Twitter. Check it out and let us know what you think.
P.S. Ironically, I learned about the GFL post because I am following that blog on Twitter... :)
posted by Sam O'Neal | Comments (2)
June 17, 2009
Improving Accountability
How to be the accountability partner everyone hopes to find.
Accountability partnerships typically go stale inside a year when the people involved don't take responsibility for their own healing, growth, and forward momentum. Here are a few principles to help you be the kind of accountability partner others want to meet with.
1. Confessing sin is the "what." That's what everyone knows how to do. But to be a good accountability partner, you need to also share the "why" behind the sinful action so that you get to the root of the problem. Just sharing the "what" may make you feel like you unloaded a pile of guilt, but your partner needs to know and see that you are working on the root issue and seeking deep healing.
Confessing sin week after week gets old for your partner and it means you are stuck! Go deeper. Get to the root of the issue and find freedom. Freedom is good for you and it makes your accountability partner want to dig deeper, as well.
2. Discuss important things you need or want to get done in life, ministry, work, family, and around the house. Just like the first point, go further than "what" by sharing your step-by-step action plan for accomplishing your goals with times or calendar dates. In other words, become accountable to get the project done by next Wednesday at noon. Make it a priority.
Sharing how you don't get things accomplished gets old for your partner and means you are stuck! Sound familiar? Share the particulars of how you plan to get that thing done and invite your partner to call you on it if he or she doesn't receive a phone call with a praise report.
Continue reading Improving Accountability...
posted by Sam O'Neal | Comments (0)
June 15, 2009
Sam O'Neal: Hypocrite or Just Plain Wrong?
I'll need your help to decide.
I'll start this post off with a little honesty: I've been telling people for about six months now that I am a little nervous about Twitter. It's not that Twitter (and other sites like Facebook and MySpace) are reprehensible in any way. It's just that in a fragmented and hectic society like ours, I think the need for constant information and updates and announcement can become harmful to us—like being poked in the brain a hundred times a day by a dull stick. And I have considered Twitter to be part of that phenomenon.
Wait a second, I'm being handed a special announcement: SmallGroups.com is now on Twitter! Our handle is SmallGroupscom, and you can check us out right here: http://twitter.com/SmallGroupscom.
See any disconnect between those two paragraphs? I certainly do. And it's something I'm going to try and figure out over the next few weeks.
Continue reading Sam O'Neal: Hypocrite or Just Plain Wrong?...
posted by Sam O'Neal | Comments (6)
