Delegate leadership responsibilities and serve together to build group unity.
by Life Together
If you lead a small group study, you have a servant's heart. As a group leader, your desire is to develop this same heart in the members of your group.
How do you build a muscle? You build it by using it. Similarly, you need to build the servant's heart by working it.
One way to do this is by rotating leadership. Think about the gifts and abilities of your group members. At the end of your meeting, ...
A small group's one-time mission project turns into a ministry.
by Life Together
When challenged to invest $100 in a mission project, I suggested to our small group that we partner with an inner-city church and host a neighborhood cookout where we would distribute clothes and Bibles.
Everyone agreed and chipped in a few extra dollars. Toys, clothes, and Bibles were donated. A few days before the event, we posted flyers in the neighborhood, unsure of what to expect.
Setting up task groups is a great way to develop a growing number of faithful volunteers in almost any area of ministry. A task group is distinct in that it isn't just a traditional fellowship-building group or a team of people simply fulfilling a task. By definition, task groups attempt to accomplish both fellowship and ministry at the same time.
The principle mission of a task group is to set aside ...
One of the great stories in the Bible about community involves a paralyzed man and the friends who brought him to Jesus (Mark 2:1-8).
Imagine what life was like for a paralytic in the ancient world. This man's whole life is lived on a mat three feet wide and six feet long. Someone has to feed him, carry him, clothe him, move him to keep him from being covered with bedsores, clean him when he soils ...
How to make serving the community an effective part of your ministry.
by Scott G. Wilkins
When my family and I started a new church in Lexington, Kentucky, one of the first things we did was perform a community act of kindness. Seven teams, a total of 21 families, met on a Saturday afternoon at a large subdivision close to where we plan to locate the new church. We went door-to-door handing out free light bulbs to every household. Along with the light bulbs, we handed out brochures describing ...
"The Holy Spirit blinded the people who bought the junk we sold at our home fellowship yard sale," says David. The group he is involved in had a yard sale for two families with unemployed fathers. Each family received $650 as a result of David's group being willing to serve.
One of our home fellowship groups hosted a nine-hole golf tournament for underprivileged children. Tickets and refreshments were ...
Pay attention to the five senses when preparing your home for a small group meeting.
Michael C. Mack
There is always a tendency of the body to sabotage the attention of the mind by providing some distraction," the poet Stephen Spender wrote. Who understands that better than the person in a small group meeting unable to focus on spiritual matters because of an uncomfortable atmosphere? Whether hosting or leading your small group you can create an environment that makes sense for study:
Provide a backpack to meet a student's need and lighten someone's load.
Sue Skalicky
This August, thousands of children around the world will receive donated brand new backpacks filled with school supplies. For example, stationed in Iraq as a National Guard chaplain, my pastor is helping to organize "Operation Backpack," a project that will provide hundreds of Iraqi children with necessary school supplies and a special backpack to start the new school year. Yet, it is just not the ...
A brief Bible study on the benefits and rewards of service
Mike Shepherd
Being a true spiritual guide to members of our small group requires us to have a spirit of service to them. Being a small group leader is not just about the up front leadership skills sets that tend to receive a lot of strokes. It is much more so the behind the scenes tasks that often are overlooked. Jesus modeled for us the ultimate example of serving our disciples as he performed a task that was ...
Creative ways to teach your children how to serve others.
Sue Skalicky
"Welcome to Burger Time, this is Matt. What can I get for you?"
"We'll have a junior cheese burger minus tomato and mayonnaise, a junior burger with just lettuce, mustard, and lots of pickles, a junior burger with cheese and jalapenos, one large fry, one large Dr. Pepper and two small Dr. Peppers."
...
"Thank you."
This scene is repeated more times with my family than I would like to admit. Yet, those ...
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