Small groups are great! They are. Small groups are great for fellowship, bible study, and mutual encouragement.
The Apostle Paul did teach the importance of not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together. Even from a Biblical perspective, small groups are important.
How would like to take your small group to another level? In this article, I will teach you how to build your small groups as a team that helps each other to grow in faith.
It’s a different approach to what many people are familiar with regarding small groups. However, if you can make the transition, so will your faith, and the faith of those who make the transition with you.
Step 1: Change your small group’s purpose.
Change your small group’s purpose from meeting for the sake of meeting to meeting with the intention of helping one another grow in their faith.
Of course, everyone says helping each other to grow is the purpose of any small group. Is it? Really? How intentional have you been about checking in with Tom, Sue, Sally, or John, regarding their faith growth?
Most groups don’t do this. Most groups act as if faith growth just happens. Time to change that. Here’s how in the next step.
Step 2: Change your small group’s plan.
Change your small group’s plan from the typical format:
- Gathering
- Studying a book or topic
- Saying a prayer.
Instead do this:
- Gather
- Do an accountability check-in regarding each person’s faith experience since the last time you met
- Then ask each person how can the group help them grow in their faith.
Step 3: Change your small group’s practice.
Change your small group’s practice of faith after they leave the meeting.
Instead of just studying a book or topic, discussing it and going home, have each person state what they will do differently this next week as a result of the study.
If your study isn’t changing your life, you are not using study correctly. What you read and discuss in your group should change you. It should call you to do something. What are you being called to do?
The next time you meet, your first accountability question is “Did you do what we studied?”
Tough? You bet ya! But if you follow this plan, it will transform your faith and those who make the transition with you. Time to stop talking about discipleship and do discipleship.
