life walking

Adventures in Missing the Point, Matt. 22:14-40

2006-07-24T20:37:00.000-07:00

Adventures in Missing the Point
Matt. 22:14-40

This Sunday Grant did a great job of showing how even the most learned in scripture can miss the point as they tried to trap Jesus with what they thought were clever questions. Sometimes, we get so drawn to the things of this world that we lose sight of what God has called us to. Certainly that was true for the Pharisees and Sadducees. We went from the Pharisees questioning Jesus about paying taxes, to the Sadducees questioning Jesus about the resurrection, to finally the Sadducees and Pharisees gang up on Jesus: "Teacher, Which is the greatest commandment in the law?"

Grant made several interesting points that would be good to just, as he puts it, marinate on. So I encourage you to go to the church website and listen to it again.

At the end Grant challenged us to filter our activities as individuals and as a church body through these two questions:
Does it lead us to a better love of God?
Does it lead us to love others?

In light of these two questions ask your LIFE group to evaluate their past week. Now, challenge them to use this questions as a filter for their activities in the coming week.

Just one more question, is anyone looking at this blog? If so, please post a comment to let me know. Thanks, Keith.

Lazerus, John 11:1-44

2006-06-27T10:28:00.000-07:00

Lazerus
John 11:1-44

The climactic miracle of raising Lazerus from the dead was Jesus' public evidence of the truth of His great claim, "I am the Resurrection and the Life."

Jesus did not go immediately. But His delay was not from lack of love, or from fear of the Jews. He waited till the right moment in the Father's plan. Lazarus' sickness would not end in death; that is, in permanent death. Instead Jesus would be glorified in this incident. John 11:4, "....Jesus said, "this sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified throught it."

Both Martha and Mary expressed their belief in Jesus' authority when they stated that Lazerus would not have died if Jesus had been there (John 11:21 and John 11:32). Jesus told Martha that Lazerus would rise again but Martha thought he was talking about the resurrection at the last day. Jesus told Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die." Then He asks Martha a very important question, "Do you believe this?" Martha's answer is the incredible truth all believers confess, "Yes, Lord," she told Him, "I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the would."

Some tidbits
1. I am the resurrection and the life. This is the fifth of Jesus' great "I am" revelation.
John 6:28, "I am the bread of life"
John 8:12, "I am the light of the world"
John 10:7, "I am the gate"
John 10:11, "I am the good shepherd"
John 11:25, "I am the resurrection and the life"

2. The fact that lazarus had been dead for four days is significant, since early rabbinic sources suggest the Jews believed the soul hovered near the body of the deceased for three days.

3. This is one of the few passages that describes the emotions from Jesus. He was deeply moved and He wept. Deeply moved may either be translated "groaned" or more likely "angered." Jesus' weeping differed from that of the people. His quiet shedding of tears differed from their loud wailing.

Questions:
1. What was the purpose of raising Lazerus from the dead?

2. How does this event impact your life today?

3. John 11:27, Have you publically confessed who Jesus is lately?

4. Have you had the opportunity to lead someone to that confession for their first time?

5. Explore the "I am" passages.

6. Why was Jesus angry? (Could it be He was angry because of the people's unbelief or hypocritical wailing. Or was Jesus angry at the tyranny of Satan who had brought sorrow and death to people through sin. )

7. Why did Jesus weep? (Was He weeping over Lazerus death or was He weeping over the tragic consequesces of sin.) Remember, Jesus knew He was going to raise Lazerus from the dead. When was the last time you felt real sorrow because of sin in the world, in your own life?

Humility or Pride, Luke 18:15-27

2006-06-25T14:34:00.000-07:00

Humility or Pride, Luke 18:15-27

Luke:18:15-17, this short section was placed here to follow up on the message of the previous parable, Luke 18:9-14 (the pharisee and the tax collector). Jesus had taught that it was necessary to be humble before God. In these verses He compared humility to childlikeness: Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. In these words Jesus was stating that a person must come to Him in humility in order to enter the kingdom. Children come with expectation and excitement. They come realizing that they are not sufficient in themselves. They depend totally on others. If these same attitudes are not present in adults, they can never enter into the kingdom. Humility allows God to exalt the individual, while pride must be disciplined. Even the disciples were guilty of falling into a judgmental spirit, as seen in their attitude toward children.

1. Robert Upshaw challenged us with this question: when was the last time you approached Jesus like a child? Example?

2. In the parable, the pharisee used other people as his standard for measuring righteousness. The tax collector used God as his standard for measuring righteousness. What standard would you say you use?

3. It is so easy for us to justify our actions and at the same time stand in harsh judgment of other. What standard would others say you use?
Look for an opportunity to show God's grace and mercy to someone the same way God extended His grace and mercy toward you.

4. What areas of pride are keeping you from walking in humility? Use this time to confess them and acknowledge your dependence on God?

The transfiguration and healing of the demon-possessed boy, Mark 9:1-29

2006-06-15T06:53:00.000-07:00

The transfiguration and healing of the demon-possessed boy
Mark 9:1-29, also Matt. 17:1-23 and Luke 9:28-43, 2 Pet. 1:16-18

Mark 9:2-13

The term transfiguration comes from the Greek verb metamorpho, from which we get the word "metamorphosis." This means a change in outward appearance in keeping with one's inner nature. This was a revelation of Jesus' glory. The radiance of His glory was evidenced in His face and in His garments that became as white as the light. Jesus' transfiguration allowed what He is by nature to be shown publicly for the first time in His earthly life. For a brief time Jesus' human body was transformed (glorified) and the disciples saw Him as He will be when He returns visibly in power and glory to establish His Kingdom on earth (Rev. 1-14-15).

Why Moses and Elijah? Perhaps these two men and the disciples suggest all the categories of people who will be in Jesus' coming kingdom. The disciples represent individuals who will be present in physical bodies. Moses represents saved individuals who have died or will die. Elijah represents saved individuals who will not experience death, but will be caught up to heaven alive (1 Thes. 4:17). These three groups will be present when Christ institutes His kingdom on earth. Furthermore the Lord will be in His glory as He was at the transfiguration and the kingdom will take place on earth, as this obviously did. The disciples were thus enjoying a foretaste of the kingdom the Lord promised (Matt. 16:28).

1. What do you think God's purpose was in the transfiguration? For Jesus? For Moses and Elijah? For the disciples? What does it mean to us today?

2. Why were Moses and Elijah, of all Old Testament people, present on this occasion?

3. Why do you think Jesus took only Peter, John, and James?

4. In Mark 9:1, A few days before the transfiguration, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power." Do you think Jesus was talking about the transfiguration? Why or why not?

5. God spoke to the disciples, saying, "This is My Son, whom I have chosen; listen to Him." "Listen to Him" can be translated as "Be obedient to Him". How have you listened to Jesus this week? In what ways have you obeyed Him? In what ways has He transformed your life?

Mark 9:14-29

From this mountain top experience, Jesus, Peter, James, and John returned to the other disciples. They found them arguing with the teachers of the law. The disciples had been unable to cast out a demon from a boy. The demon was a deaf and dumb spirit. As Grant emphasized Sunday, what a contrast! From a mountain top encounter with God, to the disciples arguing with the teachers of the law. Jesus had given the disciples authority to cast out demons (Mark 6:7), yet they could not cast out this demon. Jesus was clearly frustrated with their lack of belief.

1. The teachers of the law may have questioned Jesus authority, thus causing the disciples to doubt. What do you think the disciples were arguing about? Have you had experiences where you have questioned Jesus' authority and thus hindered your ministry opportunities?

2. The disciples could not heal or cast out the demon of the boy because of their lack of faith as well as the lack of faith of the boy's father (Mark 9:24, "I do believe help me overcome my unbelief!") How is our faith increased?

3. Peter wanted to build three tabernacles where they had experienced God and stay a while. As Peter stated in Mark 9:5, "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here." But, Jesus took Peter, James, and John from that mountain top experience to the reality of day to day ministry. While those mountain top experiences are "good", Jesus has work for us to do. Have there been times when you have sought only the mountain top experiences and neglected your earthly ministries?

Feeding of the 5000, Matt. 14:13-21

2006-06-09T15:26:00.000-07:00

Feeding of the 5000

Matt. 14:13-21, Mark 6:30-4, Luke 9:10-17, and John 6:1-15

The miracle of the feeding of the five thousand took place in Bethsaida, the hometown of Andrew, Peter, and Philip. Bethsaida was a fishing village on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee where Jesus sought to retreat with his disciples. This is the only miracle recorded in all four gospels.

John called it a sign (6:14). In supplying bread for the people, Jesus demonstrated His role as a prophet, for two Old Testament prophets, Moses and Elijah, had been used by God to provide bread miraculously (Exod. 16:11-16 and 2 Kings 4:38, 41).

Jesus Challenged the Twelve to feed the multitude to make them wrestle with the fact that their resources were inadequate and that He alone could meet their needs. The leftovers revealed the gracious abundance of Jesus' provision for the people.

1. Jesus asked the disciples to feed the multitude. The disciples determined that it would be impossible for them to do that with the resources they had. Would Jesus ask the disciples to do something that could not be accomplished? They just need to understand the source of their provision and be obedient. Is there something that Jesus is calling you to do but you have questioned His ability to provide?

2. Give some examples when you have seen God provide in what seemed to be an impossible situation?

3. In Matt. 14:14, Jesus was compelled by compassion to teach and heal the multitudes. Though He may not have felt like it or may have been tired and needed some "alone time", His compassion for others drove Him to action. Is the Holy Spirit prompting you to perform acts of compassion? Have you acted upon that prompting? Why or why not?

Sending of the 12, Mark 6:7-13

2006-06-01T13:29:00.000-07:00

The sending of the 12, Mark 6:7-13 and Matt. 10:1-20

The gospel of Mark is thought to be written by John Mark who accompanied Paul on his first missionary journey and proved to be a less-than-dependable servant. Though he proved to be a reliable servant later. Mark was a companion of Peter, who was one of Jesus' closest friends in His earthly ministry. Therefore, the Gospel of Mark is believed to contain many of the thoughts, teachings, and firsthand impressions of Peter.

The whole gospel of Mark is summed up in a phrase from Mark 10:45: "Even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve." From Mark 1:1 to 8:30, the theme of this book is the ministry of the Servant, Christ. From 8:31 to the end of the book, the theme is the ransoming work of the Servant.

In Mark 6:7-13, Mark recounts Jesus' sending of the 12 to preach the message of repentance and that the kingdom of heaven is near (Mark 6:12, Matt. 10:7). He does not send them ill equipped. He gives them authority and instructions.

1. In Matt. 10:1 and Mark 6:7, Jesus gave his apostles authority over evil spirits and the authority to cure every kind of disease and sickness. As the apostles began their ministry, how do you think the evil spirits knew the apostles had authority over them and the people around them knew they had authority to cure sicknesses? Did the apostles have a sealed document, special clothing, a special mark, or maybe a secret handshake?

2. Do we have the same authority today as the apostles had then? If no, why not? If yes, why are we not exercising that authority or seeing demonstrations of that authority more often?

3. Jesus sent the apostles in groups of two. What was the significance in that? Does that provide a model for us today?

4. The apostles were to take no food, money, or extra clothing. What do you think was Jesus' purpose in that instruction? (This was an opportunity for both the givers and receivers)

5. What do you think was Jesus' purpose for sending the aposties on this short ministry trip?Was it to begin the spread of the gospel, to train the apostles while he was still on earth, other thoughts?

Healing the cripple, Mark 3:1-6

2006-05-22T09:55:00.000-07:00

Jesus knew healing the cripple would be another opportunity for an object lesson for the Pharisees concerning the sabbath. See Mark 2:23-28 for the first lesson. He knew all the regulations the Pharisees had placed on the sabbath and now it was time to see if they really understood the purpose of the sabbath. He asked them a question in Mark 3:4, "Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?" Jesus was angered by their silence and was grieved at their hardness of heart.

According to the laws of the sabbath, was Jesus wrong to heal the cripple? What is the purpose of the sabbath? In Mark 2:27-28, Jesus stated, "The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; so the Son of Man is lord even over the sabbath." (Quote from Zondervan pictorial Bible Dictionary, "Jesus came into conflict with the religious leaders of the Jews especially on two points: His claim to be the Messiah, and on the matter of sabbath observance. The rabbis regarded the sabbath as an end in itself, whereas Jesus taught that the sabbath was made for man's benefit, and that man's needs must take precedence over the law of the sabbath.")
This passage concerning the sabbath allows us to examine other areas in our lives where we may be following the letter of the law but missing the intent of the law. Describe a time when some spiritual area in your life became so legalization that you moved away from the true intent of God's word? What caused that to happen?
Are there areas like that now? Are you placing yourself or others under the bondage of your legalism and driving them away from the truth that you desire them to understand? Or perhaps you are using these legalistic areas to manipulate someone.
You may want to take time with your group to pray. Ask God to reveal any areas where your heart may be hardened to the truth of God. If there are, your group time would a safe place to confess and repent.

Solomon's Dedication

2006-03-26T07:53:00.000-08:00

Keith Bruns is going to be our resident sage!! He's agreed (with lots of pushing!!!) to throw some questions on the table for discussion for us. Here are some of his thoughts for this week:

In Solomon's prayer (1 King 8:54-61), he made 5 requests. What are they? Are they still valid today? Could this be a pattern of prayer you might want to try? Why or why not.

Israel celebrated for 14 days through prayer, sacrifices and thanksgiving. In 1 King 8:66, it says they were joyful in heart for all the good the Lord had done for his servant David and his people Israel. They remembered what God had done in their lives with joy and gladness. What good things has God been doing in your life? We do need to remember.

In 1 King 9:9, it said the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon. What did Solomon request of God, in 1 King 3:5-15? What was God's response to his request? If you only had one request of God, what would it be?

In 1 King 9:1-9, God appeared to Solomon. What was God's promise? This was a promise with a condition, what was the condition? What idols in your life have hindered you from realizing the promises of God?

Art of Skilfull Living

2006-03-20T12:39:00.000-08:00

Ken Wilson did a great job of overviewing Proverbs for us this weekend.

Some random questions I left with...

What 'sages' am I listening to? Who are my "Bill Gates" and "Yogi Berras"?
What is their advice based on? How much do I really FEAR the Lord? (The Lent Challenge is really changing this in me.)
What are the soundbites/proverbial statements that I'm passing on to my kids? "Clean your room." "Turn off the lights."
What proverbs drive me? Which ones would I want to be a motto of my home?

Next week, I'm going to get to look at Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes. (I know, I know...I get the good ones...) What do those books tell us about Solomon? What do they reveal about his heart?

Keep walking...

Leader Meeting, Wednesday Night

2006-03-20T09:10:00.000-08:00

From the Elders:

We first want to thank you for your service, and commitment to the ministry at Grace.  Know, that your role is crucial to the healthy 
function of Grace.  Again thank you.

Our intent with the meeting is to discuss with you as leaders, where we've been as a body and where we are going from here.

We will order pizzas, so if you plan to attend, please rsvp Kayla by Monday afternoon.  Childcare will also be provided, so include childcare needs in the rsvp as well. If you have any questions please contact one of the elders.

Thanks,
Elders of Grace Church

*Pizza Dinner 6:00-6:30, Discussion 6:45-7:30

Pray for the Greenwoods

2006-03-13T14:46:00.000-08:00

I just left the hospital with David Greenwood. Janet was found to have cancer in her surgery today. I'll try to keep you all posted as more information unfolds. Here's what I do know.

She is recovering from her surgery and other than the cancer, is recovering fine. We are all pretty shocked, this wasn't on the radar screen. She is at Baptist Hospital but I'm not sure if she is taking visitors yet. When I know, you'll know.

Please pray for the Greenwoods.

(They are in David and Annette Edward's LIFE Group.)

The Next Confab

2006-02-20T08:38:00.000-08:00

April 28th, Friday night, 6.30 to 9.30 pm at Grace Church.

The Confab is for Life Group Leaders, Interns, Coaches, and anyone who is interested in becoming a Life Group Leader at Grace.

What's on the agenda? Well right now I'm leaning towards Corky's but that's fluid. (Becky - that means that it could change!:))

Seriously, we looked at Interns in February, we are going to do health assessments! Potential answers to the questions:

How do I get my life group unstuck?
How do I get more sharing?
How do I move our group to more evangelism?
How do you remove red juice stains from white carpet?

If you need childcare - we've got it! Either email me or Renee' so that we know how many workers we need to get.

Now What?

2006-02-15T07:15:00.000-08:00

As narrated by Morgan Freeman:

Every year the human promises to slow down and do less things in the spring...every year the human does more.

That should be the voice over of the American household as it enters Spring. Ball games, Dance recitals, school projects, spring break...you name it - it happens in the spring.

And your Life Group could be causality number 1. Life Groups are normally the thing that first gets lopped off the family calendar. BUT it doesn't have to be.

You could demand signed contracts from your folks to show up every week. I've had limited success with this plan. (Read - NONE.)

But other ideas work tremendously better.

First, take a health assessment of your group. Doesn't have to involve the whole group - but the LGL and Intern...possibly your Coach should sit down and walk through these questions here. You might be miles away from birthing a group. That's not really the point. The point is to figure out where exactly your group is - because that's going to help you figure out what's next.

Second, make the relationships the priority, not the schedules. Instead of Life Group one week - pick a ball game of one of the kids and all show up to cheer and holler at the refs. Or, bring a ref with you to holler at. Keith Sanders is available if you need one.

Third, capitalize on meal times. For some reason, we'll miss alot of things but a meal. So leverage that. One week - crash Wendy's or Subway or whatever is available and eat together.

Fourth, keep trudging through it. Don't cancel hooking up just because somebody or even a majority will be out. Your only limited by your creativity. I about had a revolt in my Life Group by teaching them Mexican Train. But now they like it. Okay...they don't like it but they aren't complaining as much about it.

Keep walking!

I Want It Now

2006-01-15T16:30:00.000-08:00

Rowland really set the table for our life groups this week. Spend some time with 1 Samuel 8-12.

What word or phrase "shimmered" or stuck out.
What did you like best about the passage?
What did you like least?
What did you learn about God?
What did you not understand or find puzzling?
What do you think applies to people today?

What decisions do you see that you've made out of fear? Does fear normally paralyze you or force you to make quick/poor decisions? What lessons might you be missing?

One of the core disciplines we have in a life group is guidance. Remember that? We help each other listen to God. Where do you need help listening? What God moments were started on Sunday morning?

The Heart of a King

2006-01-04T14:16:00.000-08:00

We are about to start a very, very, very long series. Starts this Sunday and goes to Easter. I normally wouldn’t do that or even like that – my ADD kicks in and I just go to complete pieces. I do think however this is going to be a great series.

We will be looking at the leadership style, faults, and successes of 3 Kings – Saul, David, and Solomon. Each came to power in different ways, each led differently, and each one had public images that didn’t necessarily match reality. (More on that later)

What is true for all of them is that they led out of the overflow of their heart. Saul’s tenure was marked by decisions based on fear and self-preservation. David’s tenure was marked by his passion. Solomon’s was a divided heart, perhaps the most tragic of the bunch.

The one neat thing about the series is the Rembrandt did a series of paintings on the kings, so we’ll get to use his work as a backdrop to the series.

Confab on Friday, the 13th

2006-01-04T11:50:00.000-08:00

Next Friday night - the 13th...how do you feel about meeting on a Friday the 13th? Maybe I can counter those feelings by feeding you...and feeding you well!!!

We'll start eating at 6.30 PM, take a break at 7.30. Shut it all down by 9 PM.

Who's it for? If you lead a life group (student or adult), if you are interning (student or adult), if you are a coach (student or adult), or if you are remotely interested in becoming an intern...then the Confab is for you.

Childcare? IF you will email me BEFORE WEDNESDAY, the 11th, we will provide childcare up at the church.

Cost? A Friday night. That's it. We've got the meal and the childcare.

Topic? Everything interns. What do they do? How do I get them? How can I be one? What's the point? How do I release them to lead their own group? What do they eat?

Drop a comment or email to let me know you are coming.

Church Wide Fast

2005-12-21T08:44:00.000-08:00

The Elders would like to invite you to join them for a 48-hour fast starting December 29th, Thursday evening and ending December 31st, Saturday evening at the New Year's Eve Service.

As 2006 approaches, we would like the body to fast and pray for Grace church. To pray for unity, clarity, and provision. Pray for our search process for a student pastor and a teaching pastor. We will end the fast with communion at our New Year's Eve service, 6 PM.

It would be awesome if you could inform your Life Group of this.

Sacrifice & Truth

2005-12-18T07:33:00.000-08:00

There was so much more I really wanted to unpack in greater detail - like Aslan's breath bringing the stone creatures back to life after his resurrection. His battle was with the White Witch, only he could destroy her, noboby else.

Another story line I'd love to pursue one day is Lewis' understanding of Atonement. In LWW, he 'supposes' one them - the Ransom theory. Are there others? In what contexts in the scriptures are the different theories used and explained?

Since the Law hasn't been around forever, how did those born before it 'accomplish righteousness?' In other words, how was their sin covered? (Check out Romans 5 & 6 for some help.) Has that changed? If so, how?

In Narnia, Aslan tells the children there is no need to discuss the past. How do react to that? How come? Could (should) that happen in the 'real world?' Would that have been easy or hard for you why?

There's one question that has left some serious wounds in me over these last two weeks. We've looked at the hero who uses sacrifice and truth. We've looked at the villian who uses treachery and deceit. Which tools do I use the most? I'm not always real proud of my answer to that question.

Aslan gives Peter two plans for battle - in case he is not able to help Peter. Why? Is this Lewis supposing that Jesus, in his humanity had to trust the Father through death and had no assurance that he would come back to life?

Next week we will look at our role (the children) in the Christmas story. See ya' Christmas morning.

Treachery and Deceit

2005-12-12T15:08:00.000-08:00

Audio

Bullies use intimidation. Manipulators use deceit. And when we use those tools - guess who's tools we are using? Ouch...painful reminder isn't it?

How often have I parented with those two tools? Treated a co-worker that way?

Other Not-S0-Random Questions:

What's your Turkish Delight? What distracts you?
What kind of hero do you think can overcome this?

Although people may use these tools of the enemey - that doesn't mean that they are the enemy. Look at Edmund and the redemption process for him. How do you normally view people who hurt or betray you? Could you forgive?

Next week - the Hero.

January 29th - Chili Cook-Off

2005-12-12T14:59:00.000-08:00

The Women's Ministry will do a chili-cook off on January 29th, after church. The purpose is to raise money for their retreat but that's not all.

We also want to use it as an opportunity for new folks to get plugged in at Grace. We want to provide a relaxed, fun atmosphere for new folks to meet our Life Group Leaders and Ministry Leaders. We want to give them a chance to put a face with a name with a ministry.

So - bring the family and use this opportunity for new folks to join you in your ministry or Life Group.

To sign up to cook chili - drop an email to Linda Edwards. (Or leave a comment here, and I will get it to her.)

The Gospel Story In Warm Clothes

2005-12-05T07:09:00.000-08:00

What a great intro to Narnia by Jim Wilson. If you haven't read the Chronicles, this would be a great time to do it!

You can download the sermon here or subscribe to Grace's Podcast via iTunes here.

Some random questions you can walk through this week with your lifegroup...

What is your favorite story/movie? Why?
What deeper/higher truth does it 'cloth'?
What in that story convicts you? Challenges you?
What heroe are you most in love with or wish you could be?
What villians scare you to death?
What parallels do you see with your favorite story to the gospel?

Paul Shackleford, Engage the Culture

2005-11-27T14:22:00.000-08:00

What a great capstone to our Missions Month! Shack really did an outstanding job challenging us. Here is the sermon to download, here it is for iTunes.

My notes from Shack's sermon:

In order for God to do what He wants to do in us and through us, He needs to know we love Him. He asks questions like "Do you love me" to reveal the answer to US, not Him.

Compassion and humility are essential qualities for those who engage the King's flock.

Relationship is the key to ongoing "fruitful" involvement...and relationships take TIME.

Engaging means to go beyond providing basic needs and plan for ongoing involvement.

God's reward for a job well done will likely be more hungry sheep.

Don't expect anything more from Jesus than the humbling opportunity to show your love for Him in the way He ordains you have the best opportunity to do so.

Paul's "Something To Think About"

Is your life proof of your willingness to suffer OR evidence of your love for a gracious God? Do you truly love Jesus?
Is your love for Jesus sufficient motive for commitment to engage OR do you need/expect other forms of motivation?
Are you willing to alter your lifestyle to change someone else's? Is eternity really more important to you than ________ ?
What is the position of your hand - a closed fist or an open palm? What are you holding on to?

Responding to Jesus and engaging the culture means...

Putting your love for Him first
Putting your love for Him in action
Putting in some time.

Gary Hutchinson

2005-11-20T13:33:00.000-08:00

Gary's talk centered around two passages of scripture, Matthew 16 - where Jesus says that He will build his church and the gates of hell will not prevail - and Matthew 9 - where Jesus says whatever measure of faith you have it will be done to you.

Gary said that Jesus is building his church but whether or not we will be a part of that story is up to our faith.

Faith gives us perspective and takes risks.

If you could go and be a part of any one of the stories Gary talked about - which one would you pick? Why?
What dreams do you have that you are not pursuing?
What risks do you think God is calling us out to take?
Where or how do you think God has called you to join in missions?

Winter Turbo Group

2005-11-14T15:49:00.000-08:00

Next week we will finish our first Turbo Group. Give a shout to Keith & Becky Lloyd, Nathan & Lisa Tumlinson, or Chuck & Kathy Eckerson if you want to hear from someone who went through it as to how it was.

The Winter Turbo Group cranks up on Decemeber 4th and we'll meet through February 19th. Below is the "syllabus" if you will:

Week 1: Why are we here?
Week 2: Inner Disciplines, I
Week 3: Inner Disciplines II
Week 4: Community (LIFE Group) Disciplines
Week 5: Leading a Group
Week 6: Leading a Meeting
Week 7: Interns
Week 8: Holy Moments
Week 9: Birthing a Group
Week 10: Coaching

I need to know by November 30th who is coming and who is going to need childcare. I promise you it will change how you lead your group and how you view Life Groups! In a good way!

Narnia Series Overview

2005-11-14T15:36:00.000-08:00

December 9th, Narnia will be released in theatres across the country. It is THE MOVIE of the Christmas season (well, King Kong is coming out too but to do a sermon series on that was going to be really, really, really, hard). Mainly because the same folks that did the effects for Lord of the Rings are doing them for Narnia.

Here is the flow of how we're going to unpack the series. If you haven't read the book - now would be a great time to do it! It is a fantastic story and your kids are going to love it!

Dec 4th - Jim Wilson

Past Watchful Dragons
Audio

Dec 11th - Grant English

The White Witch who uses treachery and deceit
Audio

Dec 18th - Grant English

Aslan who uses sacrifice & truth
Audio

Dec 25th - Grant English

Children who are given relationship & reign
Audio

UPDATE: The Gospel Story in Warm Clothes, Week of Dec 4th
UPDATE: Treachery and Deceit, Week of Dec 11th
UPDATE: Sacrifice and Truth, Week of Dec 18th

David Goldmann's Message

2005-11-14T15:29:00.000-08:00

What a challenging book - Jonah. What's up with Jonah's death wish thing? I mean, instead of asking God to stop the storm so that he can obey - he'd rather drown at sea. Then he'd rather see the entire city destroyed than repent. Then he'd rather die under the withered plant than accept the discipline of God.

Good thing we aren't like that, huh? Or are we? How tightly do we hold on to our understandings and thoughts of how things 'ought' to be as opposed to flexing with God?

What about the mandate/example of loving our enemies?
What does it look like to take Jesus to the wound of those who don't like us or love us?
Why does Jonah end the way that it does?
What about Jonah do I see in myself?
Who are my modern day Ninevites?
What would have to change about me to love them?
What does loving them look like?

Lot's of questions - few answers.

Broadway Bridge Project

2005-11-11T11:51:00.000-08:00

This is the reason student ministry is so stinkin' important!!

Zack Sanders sent me this email....

The Broadway Bridge Project (BBP) is a small group of people who go down under the broadway bridge and feed and hangout with the homeless.

With the weather changing and getting into colder temperatures the homeless are going to need some heavier clothes and blankets.

Things needed for the BBP:
* Jackets
* Blankets
* Shoes and Boots (Boots help some of the men find jobs on construction sites)
*All types of clothing ( as long as they are in good shaPE)

There will be a drop place at grace which will be marked "BBP." If you have any questions please call Zack Sanders at 765-3589.

Mark Edwards also reminds us...

How about preparing a meal for the unsheltered homeless? We could use a meal for the third and fourth Tuesday nights this month. If your group would be interested, contact me and I will give you the info. You can also talk with Keith and Marvin who brought a meal down under the bridge last Tuesday.

My life group is doing the 29th - so that date is taken but the others are open.

Understanding and Reaching

2005-11-11T11:08:00.000-08:00

This Saturday, the Missions Team is hosting David Goldmann.

If you are planning to go, be sure to drop the Missions team a note at deb.618ATcomcast.net. You might get a door prize or something...(not really).

You can get a glimpse of frontiers ministry here.

Missions Month Speakers

2005-11-01T10:11:00.000-08:00

I just got this email from Debbie Schellhause concerning the speaking calendar for November.

Here it is gang - hope this helps you lead your LIFE Group. I'd say that if you have any questions, give me a call but...I don't know much of anything either. ha hah..

November 6th:
Rowland and Mark Tedder will lead us in the concert of prayer.
A time of praying for our missionaries and the nations and a time of worship.

November 12th: Saturday
Seminar with David Goldmann: "Understanding and Reaching Muslims"
9:00 to 12:00 noon in main worship center

November 13th: Sunday
David Goldmann gives sermon, using Jonah to teach on loving the hard-to-reach.
Chuck and Judy Brod - will share about their years on the field and what is happening in Nigeria.

November 20: Sunday
Gary Hutchison speaks on missions.
IFO will be featured

November 27: Sunday
Paul Shackleford - Here's Life Inner City
YoungLife - Mentoring Mom

Missions Month

2005-10-31T08:58:00.000-08:00

November is Missions Month at Grace! I love it but it does present some challenges - like how to lead your LIFE Group through this month.

Here are a couple of ideas:

Here's Life Inner City Boxes of Love - yesterday by the time I got to the top of the stairs, every one of the 150 boxes were gone! That doesn't mean you can't still do a few boxes as a LIFE Group.

From Jud Jones:

What is your Jerusalem, your Judea, your Samaria?
How and in what ways are you sharing Jesus in each of these?

From Chuck Eckerson:

This would be a great time for each LIFE Group to "adopt" one of the missionsaries Grace supports. Praying, writing letters of encouragement, finding ways to get what they need to them, and hosting them when they come to town. Teach the kids about their culture, food, and dress.

I'll keep you posted as to more ideas as they come in...or better yet, leave them here in the comments!

UPDATE: Here is the preaching calendar for November.

David Goldmann, Nov 13th
Broadway Bridge Project
Gary Hutchinson, Nov 20th

A Life That Rocks Posts

2005-10-30T20:06:00.000-08:00

Here are the posts, questions, and discussions for the entire "A Life That Rocks" series.

Inner Disciplines:
Prayer
Silence/Fasting
Marinate
Serve
Worship, Random Acts, More on Worship

Communal Disciplines:
Confession
Application & Accountability
Guidance
Encouragement, Questioning Evangelism

Questioning Encouragement

2005-10-30T09:35:00.000-08:00

Who are some people who continually encourage you? Why do you think they do that?
Who are some people that you try to encourage?
Is it harder or easier for you to see past faults to potential? How come?

Which of the disciples (or women) do you most resonate with and their reactions to Jesus' arrest?
I talked about the 'dark places' - ever had one of those times? Was the description accurate? What would you add?

What encouragment do you think Jesus is trying to communicate to you right now?
What makes that hard to hear?

Grant talked about the 2 obstacles to exercising the gift of encouragement - our personal stories and our maturity level. Which of the two do you struggle with most?

Does your faith need a 'retro-fitting?' Where or why?

Grant listed out some shifts - react to them....

When we look at how Jesus did discipleship, we see him make some value decisions that challenge us:

He chose transformational over educational,
interaction over instruction,
risk over caution,

He left his followers with more questions than answers.
He expanded the understanding and practice of worship and education to include the experiential.

Jesus chose authentic community over protective isolation.
He chose impacting and engaging the world around him over incubation and isolation.

We see Jesus embrace authenticity and transparency over protecting his image.

This week's sermon: Encouragment

2005-10-25T13:49:00.000-07:00

Just to give you heads up of where I am going this week - the disciples response to Jesus' crucifixion, then his to their betrayal and abandonment.

Ever thought about that? What did it feel like for Peter the first time he saw Jesus after his death? What about Thomas? What emotions were going through their mind?

Then Jesus - how did he respond?

Encouragment...the final discipline in the life that rocks journey.

I'll throw down some questions later in the week.

Guidance...better late than never

2005-10-25T12:42:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay/lateness of the post. Par for the course this week...

Anyway - guidance. It's helping others listen to the voice of God. Interesting definition isn't it?

Is that different than what you were thinking? How so?
Is it freeing or more burdensome to think that YOU don't have to fix people?

In my life group last night, we look at Saul's life - starting in 1 Samuel 12. It's pretty fascinating. It's worth the browse as a life group, walking through Saul's life until chapter 28.

In 1 Samuel 28, a couple of things really pinged in me...

Saul's consistent 'half-obedience' and 'spin-doctoring.' He's got an excuse for every mistake and someone else to blame. Until it is too late. Do I do that? How? Who are my normal victims of blame?

Saul's life is picture in the extremes of God - his wrath and his grace.

What is my witch of Endor that I run to when God is silent?

How do I normally listen to God?

What helps me in listening - do I internalize? Do I write? Talk out loud? Process with someone else?

What other disciplines cross-over and could help us in guidance?

How open am I to questions from other people when it comes to the decisions I make?

How much influence should other people have in my decisions?

What other questions/insights do you have?

Application & Accountability

2005-10-12T11:11:00.000-07:00

The original link for application.
The original link for accountability.

Now, for some crazy questions.

Why is application considered a communal discipline?
Where do you normally lean on accoutability - being or keeping?
What examples in scripture do you see?
Where in our culture do you see this? (Million Dollar Baby might be worth discussing!)
What's the benefit?
What's hard about accountability?
What are the barrieres to applying God's word?
Why are we resistant to these disciplines?

I'll write some more this week - but the sermon is going to camp in Mark 10 where Jesus has to have a remedial leadership lesson with his 'life group.'

OJT & Commissioning

2005-10-10T08:54:00.000-07:00

There is just nothing quite like "On the Job Training." That's what an Intern does. We covered most of this here, but let's hit a couple of highlights.

We spend (in most cases) a year getting an intern ready. What is ready?

We want a Life Group leader to be able to:

know why we do what we do - hence why we are here.

spiritually feed themselves - hence the inner disciplines.

take someone else on that journey with them - hence the communal disciplines.

share their story of what God is doing in them - hence telling your story.

effectively communicate and lead others into an encounter with Jesus - hence how to lead a group and meetings.

release another leader who can do the same things - hence birthing.

Commissioning
We cover most of this in Ready to Birth and How To Birth Without Creatin Mass Chaos. The bottom line is that we birth leaders, not groups. So if the Intern has a hold of the skills AND the heart - we're ready...and that is a thing to celebrate!!

Back to The Intern Process
Back to Life Walking @ 30,000 Feet

Intern Application & Interview

2005-10-10T07:41:00.000-07:00

Here is the application.

12 pages. Long, isn't it? It ought to be. If a LIFE Group leader is the front-line pastor, we better make sure there is a gifting and calling to do it.

Who can fill it out?
The short answer is anybody. I think the longer answer is better. As Coaches and LIFE Group leaders, we ought to constantly be looking for the next generation of leaders. Is she teachable? Is she responsive? Is she available?

Then ask them to take the leap. Find them and then take them on the journey.

I want to be an Intern but I'm not in a LIFE Group.
My question back is this - how can you learn to lead something you are not involved in? We (Grace) value community and authenticness. We are not going to elevate anybody that doesn't also have those values as part of their DNA.

So get involved in a LIFE Group and start lifewalking. Then let's talk.

Interview

After the application, the applicant, the LIFE Group leader that the Intern is going to serve with, the Coach and me will have a 'sit down.' Since we value community and authenticness, we want to make sure we start off the process well and everybody understands the process and the point.

We will ask questions of each other. We will spell out the expectations. We will be honest about the potential blindspots and obstacles that exist as well as incredible opportunities and giftedness that we see.

Back to The Intern Process
Next Session: OJT (On Job Training)
Back to Life Walking @ 30,000 Feet

The Intern Process

2005-10-10T07:34:00.000-07:00

Let’s be honest – being a LIFE Group leader is hard but good. It’s frustrating and fulfilling. It’s stretching and freeing. It’s awesome and horrible.

It’s also not for everybody. There are some people that should never be on the worship team. It’s just too painful – for everyone involved. The last place on the planet for some people is hanging out with teens. The last place I need to be is with young children. I’m okay for about 20 minutes, then I’m done.

And that is with my own kids.

Seriously, the reason God gave gifts was to equip the church for many different types of ministry for the same purpose – building up the body. And some people just aren’t gifted or called to be LIFE Group leaders.

So how do you figure that out? Well, that’s part of the fun. We ‘figure out’ our giftedness and calledness as we go along – seeing what fits and what doesn’t fit in community. That can be painful if not done in a context of unconditional love and honor.

That’s one of the reasons we have a process to be an intern. That's why these posts exist. What's it supposed to look like - the journey to an Intern to a LIFE Group Leader.

And processes can be good. Since no one is perfect, it allows everyone involved multiple chances to confirm gifting and calling. We can train and equip for years – but if you’re not gifted and called to be a LIFE Group Leader, you are going to make yourself and everyone around you miserable.

Finding Interns (Expectations)
Intern Application & Interview
OJT (On Job Training) & Commissioning

Back to Life Walking @ 30,000 Feet

Finding Interns (Expectations)

2005-10-10T07:31:00.000-07:00

What exactly are we looking for in an Intern? It comes down to two big categories – character expectations and practical expectations. Notice we are using the word expectation. We EXPECT these traits to already be in the mix.

Character Expectations – Interns
I didn’t intend for this to be an acronym…it just kind of worked out that way.

Responsive to Christ's leadership. When shown or challenged with a truth from Christ, do they avoid it, ignore it or allow it to conform them?

Available for ministry. Lifewalking takes time. Is there space in life to minister and be ministered to?

Faithful to Christ's expectations. Are they stable? Reliable? Committed?

Teachable regarding actions and activities. How do they respond to confrontation? How open are they to change and dialogue?

If we’ve got a couple that is close but is missing one of these key pieces – they are NOT intern material yet. Disciple them to the place where they can be an intern. Let’s not rush them into the position if they don’t meet the expectations.

Practical Expectations
We want interns to have as realistic of a picture as we can paint as to what they are signing up for.

Attend Life Group meetings. They’ll probably meet every week.

Attend and finish a Turbo Group.

Meet at least once a month with Life Group leader to plan & evaluate group.

Attend the 4 Confabs each year.

Why all the emphasis on 'meetings?' It's not because we like meetings. It's because we value community and it is not just the why but the how we do ministry at Grace. The meeting is a tool for the purpose of community and lifewalking.

Other Considerations
By choosing to be a leader, we’ve chosen a harder path. By choosing to do leadership the way we do it here at Grace, it’s even harder. We choose to do life in community.

That means the phrase “It’s not any of your business” can never justifiably be said again. It’s is our business because we’ve chosen to do life with each other.

An intern ought to get used to someone knowing them more than they are comfortable with. All of the ‘dark places’ and ‘hidden places’ will be exposed – hopefully in a loving, redeeming, and restoring way.

Comfort is not a value for us. Authenticity, unconditional love, and transformational living are non-negotiable values for us.

Character Expectations - Life Group Leaders

Not a new believer. A LGL should be a growing Christian for at least 1 year.

Above reproach. We are not looking for perfect people but people who are moving towards Christ-likeness. Is your goal in life to be who God wants you to be? Is the general direction of your life towards God? It should be very difficult for others to question your motives.

A disciplined devotional life. A growing disciple must spend time in God's word. There must be regular times of silence, worship, study, and prayer in your life.

Faithfully sharing your story. This does not mean standing up at your work or in Barnes & Noble screaming at the top of your lungs "TURN OR BURN, BABY!" It DOES mean that you are looking for opportunities to tell others about your faith. It is not forced, but it is not avoided either. It is strategic. It is not just about sharing your faith with your voice (but it does include that) but also how you live.

We DO NOT expect these things out of our Interns. We want to grow them to this place. Hence, the Intern process.

Back to The Intern Process
Next Session: Intern Application & Interview
Back to Life Walking @ 30,000 Feet

Questions for Confession

2005-10-09T21:36:00.000-07:00

"Can you promise me that if I take off my mask, I won't get hurt?"

"No. I can't promise you that."

"Then why risk it? Why take the chance? Do you have any idea of what you are asking?"

How would you have responded to that? What do you say? "I promise that if you risk, you won't get hurt at all. In fact, it will help fight cavities and lower your cholesterel."

But that's not going to happen...only diet and exercise. Seriously, there aren't any promises to prevent pain that can be kept.

I promise if you DON'T risk - you'll crater...eventually. You'll become bored with Jesus and look for some other drug of choice. You'll morph into a hollow poser that drifts through life missing the adventure. I promise that if you DON'T risk - you will avoid pain and uncomfortableness but you won't avoid insecurity. You'll never experience and know the fullness of the grace of Jesus.

Those are the promises I can make.

You can read more about confession and appropriateness here.

Health Questions

Where is your vulnerability level in your Life Group – low, medium or high risk? NOT your life groups level, but YOUR PERSONAL level.
Why are you at that level?
What is your own risk level?
What keeps you from being real?
Where is your Life Group’s vulnerability level at?
Are there sin/hurt feelings issues that have not been resolved in your group?
What would it take to get you to a place of complete, utter, nakedness, desperation, humiliation? Would you risk that if you knew that Jesus would be there?

More On Worship

2005-10-05T21:30:00.000-07:00

This is awesome! Another black sheep has returned to the fold - WELCOME Mile 20!!

This is of course in response to your comments here.

No. You can't throw water on the post. This is a DIALOGUE, not a LECTURE. So your comments aren't water at all but rather a HUGE, NEEDED PIECE of the conversation!

Points I wholeheartedly agree with you on...

If you are not having meaningful worship times during the week, then the group times will be just another event.

Man, how true is that? Not just on worship. I'd argue that the teaching/sermon on Sunday morning is 'just another event' if you haven't had any meaningful study times in the week.

Do other things in the group and encourage worship in personal situations.

Again - home run thought. But how does one encourage? If we 'encourage' as we normally do - via instruction and lecture - I think it puts us right back in the evangelical gettho of knowing so much and doing so little.

Is my critique fair? In other words, I'd 'argue' that instruction alone will not (has not) work. Does practice make perfect?

Stuff I'm less sure about

a group that is Forced/purposely different

That's funny considering those of us who are kicking around this discussion. We are all nut jobs! I suspect that most us are this way not because we WANT to be but because ...well....we just are that way.

Every Life Group is different - there is no "master plan." I would not like being in a group that all they did was sit in a circle and study the scripture. I want to try to encounter Christ in different ways...and yeah, alot of them have the possibility of not working, or not feeling comfortable...but there is a chance that one of them will work. One of them could provide a spark or insight or movement...I have to try.

Worship alone, without community is sweet - but incomplete. God calls us to do worship in both contexts - individually and communally.

Worship in community, without individual is the recipe for a 'whitwashed tomb.' Looks alive on the inside, but dead on the inside.

The journey to a disciplined/spiritual formational life starts with uncomfortable choices and situations...it's seems that Socrates was right...the greatest threat to finding the truth is contentment!

What do you think?

Random Acts of Worship

2005-10-03T08:11:00.000-07:00

Wayne, since this has become our personal way of communication...here are more of my random thoughts...

Have people bring something from their house that reminds them of a God story in their life.

Set up posters through out your house and have your life group members write out prayers to God on the top half, answers in the bottom. Then walk around the house to see all of the posters.

Set your house up as a prayer labrynth. Every room or closet has a candle and an index card as to what to pray for.

Instead of 'group prayer' during LIFE Group, pick one couple each week and ask them how to pray for them.

Renew your marriage vows at LIFE Group.

Dedicate a child...preferrably your own.

Propose. (Check out what Jason Lofton did here!)

Do a potluck but every dish has a God story behind it.

Take communion as a LIFE Group.

Fast then break the fast together.

Break out the guitar!!!

Write poetry.

Worship in a Life Group

2005-09-28T09:03:00.000-07:00

This is second most awkward thing in a life group. Mainly because I think we (leaders) force it. How? Because most of us, while have a BROAD DEFINITION of worship, we have a NARROW APPLICATION of it.

Worship = guy/gal with a guitar + everyone else singing.

So....do you play the guitar? What if you don't? What if no one in your Life Group can sing either? (I mean, they might have the ability to make noises with their mouth but we're not calling it singing.) What if the whole scene of sitting around in a circle, staring at each other and singing to each other just makes you feel ....well, like a bad 70's musical?

There has got to be another way, right? Well, if you just gotta sing - check out these. They are DVDs with praise songs and words on it. Think karoake worship. Good option if you just have to sing.

For the rest of us, what could worship possibly look like? If our understanding of worship is giving God His due - how else can that be done?

I'll post my own ideas later in the week.

Marinate Ponderings

2005-09-22T06:01:00.000-07:00

I'm not preaching this week, instead I'm leading worship. I like the change up. Gives a completely different pace to the week. Robert Upshaw is bringing 'it' this week.

We ate lunch with each other yesterday just rambling about life, the sermon, the series. Then it happened...a God moment.

He tells me - "Hey man, I haven't had a chance to listen to your sermons yet, but the text I'm going to use in the Old Testament....Deuteronomy 6 where Moses is telling the people to write the words of the Lord on their hearts and doorways and around their neck."

I about jumped up and down on the table! "DUDE!!!!! Do you know what verse is RIGHT before that PASSAGE???????????? The Shemah!!!! Love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, and your strength!!!!!!!!!! Do you have any idea how freakin' awesome this is????"

Yeah, I kinda a little animated. Then I told him about the whole premise of the series is figuring out how to do that - hence the disciplines.

Great time...and some questions popped up.

How do you most often approach the Bible - as an instruction manual or a love letter?
What is the difference between the two approaches?
How does that influence HOW you read the Bible?
How would reading scripture in community help?
What are your biggest obstacles in spending time in the Word? Ignorance? Time? Intimidation? Vocabulary?
What type of literature do you like better - poetry, history, prophetic, letters?

Looking forward to see how Robert unpacks it. Gonna be great time.

Turbo Groups

2005-09-19T14:51:00.000-07:00

A not-so-random question for us....If the bulls-eye of our LIFE Groups is to have a life-changing experience with Jesus, how do you get all the leaders on the same page as to HOW to do that and WHAT that looks like?

Hmmm. Intrigued yet? Don't worry - I am NOT going to go CONTROL FREAK on us. There is no way on the planet to wrap up "what is an encounter with Christ" so that every life group has the same exact experience. That's not only ridiculous but it devalues every one of us as a unique, gifted representation of God.

I do think there is a place to make sure we are all "shooting at the same target" as well as learn some skills and practices that will help us. And I love the idea of having leaders having some extended time learning from each other.

The need for these skills is pretty apparent for most of us. Most of us have got a Life Group that is too big to be effective but how do you birth a new group with out destroying the vulnerability that you've worked so hard to achieve? How do you know if the intern is ready? How do you decide which person goes in which group?

The Short Term Solution:

10-week “Turbo” Life Groups
September 25^th – November 27^th (Sep 20) Sunday Nights, 6-8 PM
December 4^th – February 19^th (Nov 30)
February 26^th – May 14^th (February 21)

We want every level of leadership in our LIFE Group structure to take 10 weeks to recharge AND reinvest. It’s not “training” as much as it is as opportunity to rub elbows with other leaders to hear what is working, what isn’t. To hear their stories of triumph as well as failures.

It’s ten weeks to solidify a foundation of skills and to ask questions that you’ve never had an opportunity to ask before. It will give us not only a common vocabulary about Life Groups, but reinforce that we are shooting at the right target.

What does the 10 weeks look like?

Week 1: Why are we here?
Week 2: Inner Disciplines, I
Week 3: Inner Disciplines II
Week 4: Community (LIFE Group) Disciplines
Week 5: Leading a Group
Week 6: Leading a Meeting
Week 7: Interns
Week 8: Holy Moments
Week 9: Birthing a Group
Week 10: Coaching

Now What?
Pick 1 of the 3 times the Turbo Group is offered. (This is for both husband and wife, by the way.) Let me know by the date in parentheses which one you are going to attend. We are going to provide childcare for this and we need to know how many workers to hire.

How can I do that AND lead a Life Group?
Let me throw a couple of options at you. My first response is – don’t. Let the Life Group Leader couple pick one 10-week rotation and allow the Intern to lead during that time. Then rotate – let the Intern go through the 10-week group while the Life Group Leader leads.

Another option is to tell your Life Group that you and your Intern are going on a 10-week sabbatical. If they want to meet together – great, but you are not going to lead that encounter for the 10 weeks.

A last option is for you to lead your Life Group on one night and go to the Turbo Group on the other. (I’m not recommending this option – just saying that it exists.)

Who’s this for?
This is for all Coaches, Life Group Leaders, Interns, and potential Interns.

UPDATE:
The December-February group is almost completely full.

Getting Ready to Serve

2005-09-14T06:34:00.000-07:00

If you haven't already read this - go ahead. It'll give you an idea as to where we are going on Sunday.

Awkward Silence Isn't

2005-09-06T06:44:00.000-07:00

"Awkward silence" isn't.

It's painful, harrowing, dreadful, and sickening...but it's not awkward.

A LIFE Group setting only compounds that feeling. Everything is quadrupled in silence. Sniffles, giggles, breathing, ....fears, hopes, doubts....the voice of God...maybe?

What scares me about silence? Why is it so uncomfortable? Why do we avoid it so much? Why does it seem to be so important in our journey to encounter Jesus? What keeps me from doing it?

Plus we are dealing with fasting - what do these two have in common? Why is fasting even on the list of "must" practices? What value does it bring?

As leaders, how can we utilize silence "for good, not evil"? Is there a place for silence in Life Group?

Lot's of questions...not many answers.

Preaching on Prayer

2005-09-01T14:05:00.000-07:00

Isn't it fun to preach on things that you feel so inadequate about? If I was leading a LIFE Group this week - these are the questions I'd like to ask...

Why does a 'to-do' list become so crystal clear in the middle of my prayer time?
What are the major distractors in my prayer life?
Is a prayer life even necessary? How important is it?
How important is it to me REALLY? In other words - how often do I do it?
Who am I praying with?
When I pray, who are the different audiences that I catch myself praying to?
What one thing would I want God to answer for me this week?
What answer would I expect?
Would I obey if He answered and it wasn't what I wanted to do?
How do I know if an answer is of God or just my ADD mind in action?
What keeps me from prayer?
Who dominates the conversation in my prayer life?
How much time am I listening? How do I listen? What am I listening for?
What is the dominant noise in my life that is making listening difficult?

New Families!

2005-08-30T11:07:00.000-07:00

I keep meeting new people every week but no contact cards or info are turning up. Is that odd?

Actually, it's pretty typical. I mean, let's face it...who of us wants to fill out that stuff. We get enough spam as it is, we get enough phone calls that we don't want to get as it is and filling out a guest card just feels like an invitation for more invasion.

After church this Sunday, I had family write down their email address. I got home. Couldn't read the writing. I tried 4 different variations of the email. I got 3 mailer-demons back. Hopefully it got through or some random family got directions to Lake Nixon.

So what exactly is the solution? The first lesson I learned is get multiple contact points from people. Like a phone number would have been smart.

The other piece is ya'll as leaders. It's easy to get the first part of meeting someone new out of the way - like name, school/work, new to town, new to Grace? The second part is risky but I think worth it.

"Are you interested in checking out a LIFE Group?" "Can I get a number and email address to reach you with directions and times?"

It's a little thing, but I think it's a start. And no - not every one is going to be peachy keen on giving out their info. But I think more people than not are going to be flattered to even be invited.

I've got more random thoughts about what happens after they show up...but I save that for a later post.

The New Series...A Life That Rocks

2005-08-24T11:25:00.000-07:00

Ever wanted to know exactly where the teaching was going to go so that you had a heads up of what to do with your LIFE group? Me, too.

So here it is. The basic overview is this is how a life that rocks is achievable. We are going to talk about the answer from Jesus' perspective. A life that rocks is one that is on the journey with Jesus and taking others along.

There will be hindrances along the way to be sure, but there are things to help us. Practices, if you will, disciplines that help us experience Jesus. I think there are 6 key Inner Disciplines and 5 LIFE Group (Communal Disciplines) that have to take place if we are going to experience life-change on the journey.

Below are the dates and topics of the Sunday morning encounter.

Sept. 4 Prayer
11 Silence/Fasting
18 Meditation (Marination)
25 Serving
Oct. 2 Worship
9 Transparency (Confession)
16 Application & Accountability
23 Guidance (Counsel)
30 Encouragement
Nov - Missions Month
Dec - Narnia Outreach Focus

A Life That Rocks...

2005-08-22T06:22:00.000-07:00

Our next sermon series after Ephesians will be called....

A Life That Rocks...

At some point I'll post the schedule, but it's basically a journey through the Inner Disciplines and the LIFE Group/Community Disciplines. We are going to ask every LIFE group to pause on what they normally do, and let's all go through this one together.

Good idea, or not? I normally don't like "everybody is doing the same thing" approach. In fact, I loathe it. It's often a lazy way of leading...relieving the leader of discerning and discovery the story that God is weaving in the community in front of them.

But I also recognize that there are times when the corporate community of God needs a common place to engage Him.

Hopefully, this will be one of those times.

A Blessing for the Journey

2005-08-18T20:52:00.000-07:00

This is going to be one heck of journey, full of messes, unexpected turns and miracles. And we are on it together…I think exactly the way God created us to walk.

A Franciscan Travel Blessing

May God bless you…
with discomfort at easy answers,half truths and superficial relationshipsso that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you…
with anger at injustice,oppression, and exploitation of people,so that you may wish for justice, freedom, and peace.

May God bless you…
with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.

Framing

2005-08-18T15:14:00.000-07:00

There is a danger for us leaders to be so intent on having a life changing encounter with Jesus that we start manipulating our meetings just to ‘have one.’ There is a temptation to force things to happen in LIFE Group or create unauthentic experiences just for sake of having an emotional ego trip.

Obviously, that’s not what we want. But I think we can do some things to avoid the hindrances. I think we can also do some things that will peak the spiritual eyes of our folks so that regular, routine things suddenly have deep spiritual meaning.

For example, let’s say your LIFE Group always has snacks or food at the beginning of your meeting. Instead of just milling around and small talking around the chips and salsa, through out a couple of questions that everyone has to deal with. What one question about this week’s sermon would you ask if you knew you were going to get an answer to it? What are you thankful for? What one thing did you do this week that you wish you had done differently?

The questions are just examples, but by asking folks to risk just a little bit over the snacks, you’ve just framed the evening’s discussion.

Framing is asking the participants to view something a bit different. It’s setting the table for an encounter with the Holy. It’s an invitation, not manipulation.

The Disciplines function this way – they are a kind of framing as well.

As leaders we always want to frame the evening or a meeting, but we never want to force or manipulate anything.

Next Session: Inner Disciplines
Back To Why Are We Here?
Back To Intern Track
Back To Life Group Leader Track

How To Use This Stuff

2005-08-18T12:18:00.000-07:00

I want to talk about airplanes for a second.

What? Yeah - airplanes.

Which wing is your favorite?

The Right Answer: Both.

Everyone realizes that you need two wings to fly, so favoring one wing over another is not only ridiculous, but it can get you killed.

Let's transfer that to developing a leader. A LIFE Group Leader needs both skill and heart. The danger of putting this stuff in writing is that it tends to focus mostly on the skills. Without a heart that is growing with Jesus, the skills are worthless. We are best ministering when we do so out of the overflow of our relationship with Jesus.

That's why we spend the entire first half of the Intern year focusing on spiritual disciplines. You will only be as strong as your relationship with Jesus.

So - let's get started. This site has two main purposes.

Purpose 1: Provide a foundational set of knowledge, skills, and vocabulary for our leaders at Grace. It's designed as a tool for Life Group Leaders to take Interns through, and Coaches to help Life Group Leaders.

Purpose 2: A "Virtual Coffee House" to unpack Life Group Issues for us all. To see what God is doing in the groups, to unpack issues and gain some insight and wisdom from each other.

Let's Lifewalk...

Worship

2005-05-31T18:41:00.000-07:00

Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name.
Worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness.
Psalm 29:2

That this is a core discipline probably isn’t that big of a surprise. John Piper in his book Let The Nations Be Glad says that the reason we do missions is because there are places on the earth that do not worship Jesus. And it is out of our overflow of worship to Jesus that we want to share His glory with others.

Worship answers both the why of the mission and the how to accomplish it. We’ve said all along that we best minister out of the overflow of our relationship with Jesus and worship is both the point and the fuel of that ministry. It’s what we will do for eternity.

What is surprising is how few of us do it.

I don’t mean singing. Hopefully, by now, we’ve developed (or are developing) a Romans 12:1-2 understanding of worship. What ever you do can be worship. Where is your mind in that task? For what audience are you ‘performing’?

I mean how many of us see driving to work as a potential worship experience? Taking kids to school? Being late to an appointment? Sitting in a waiting room? Playing a sport?

There is no way in one little post we are going to uncover all of the mysteries and possibilities of what worship could look like. I do want to challenge us as leaders to see all of the disciplines – both inner and Life Group – as worship. All of the disciplines can be seen as a submitting our bodies in worship to Jesus.

Or we can see them as ‘duties’ to be accomplished – which I don’t think is ascribing to the Lord what He His worth.

What are other ways you’ve found to ascribe worth to God?

Next Session: Silence & Fasting
Back To Inner Disciplines
Back To Intern Track
Back To Life Group Leader Track

Serve

2005-05-31T10:45:00.000-07:00

Read Ephesians 4:11-13. Anything strike you?

The only way to achieve maturity – the whole measure of fullness of Christ – is to serve out of the giftedness that the Spirit has placed in you.

Let that sink in for a moment. It isn’t about how much you know but how much you serve. Jesus said it this way in Mark 4:24-25 – “Whatever measure you use, it will be measured to you.” The more you use your gift – the better you will get at it. However much you invest, that much will be given back to you.

This is why we have this as a core inner discipline. It could be grouped with the Life Group Disciplines as well, but no matter where it is pigeon-holed, its importance can not be debated. God created and gifted us to be mature in Him – that is to experience the fullness (whole measure) of Him. And that is in lock step with serving. It’s inseparable.

The lack of this discipline turned the Pharisees into…well, Pharisees. Religious leaders with lots of opinions and ‘insights’ but incarnate very little of what they are teaching. It still happens today.

God’s perfect classroom of spiritual formation is wherever we serve. There are things that God can teach and form in us faster, better, and clearer when we serve than if we memorized the whole of the Bible. (By the way – I’m NOT saying that memorizing the Bible is a waste of time. I AM saying that most of us learn by DOING as opposed to HEARING.)

By serving we ‘join the team’ as opposed to being a critic or observing. So the next time you hear the phrase – “I’m not mature enough to serve” you can just agree with them and tell them they will never be mature enough UNTIL they serve.

Helpful Hints:

Not sure what your gift is? Start trying stuff on. Volunteer for a month in a ministry and see if it’s a fit.

Serve with somebody to begin with.

Think outside the church walls. Help with the Compassion Center, tutoring, or even under the Broadway Bridge

Next Session: Life Group Disciplines
Back To Inner Disciplines
Back To Intern Track
Back To Life Group Leader Track

Silence and Fasting

2005-05-27T14:34:00.000-07:00

There are times we need to withdraw in order to drink deeper of God’s presence. That is the purpose of both fasting and silence. That is also the reason we are going to deal with them together. It’s not just some physical exercise that glorifies God or speaks of our maturity. It’s creating space in our crowded world for more of God.

In Matthew 6:16-18 Jesus speaks pretty frankly about the issue in the same context he speaks on the subject of prayer. All of the principles there apply here.

Before we unpack some helpful hints, let’s be sure we get the point. One of the funniest exchanges I’ve ever had was a guy telling me he was fasting from video games because it was consuming his life.

While that isn’t the greatest motivation in the world to ‘fast’, it’s a start. And I would argue that it’s better to at least start and figure some things out on the fly than to wait until you’ve got it all figured out. I’m guessing that we would be waiting for a long time.

So this guy is fasting from video games and when he comes home he finds himself turning on the video game console. In a moment of complete spiritual insight and discipline, he stops himself because he is ‘fasting’ and instead – watches a movie.

Here is an incomplete list of helpful hints:

It’s important to have some consistent times like these in your life. So if getting started is a colossal undertaking for you, enlist a friend to try it with you.

Start small but purposeful. Turn off the radio in your car and spend some drive time praying and listening. Skip a meal and meet Jesus for lunch through His word one day a week.

Take notes during these times. Some of the stuff will be distractions, but some of it will probably be nuggets of insight.

Practice makes perfect, so if you ‘fail’ (whatever that means) keep practicing.

Concerning fasting – if you are pregnant, have diabetes, or some other health issue, then broaden your scope of what to fast from to include electronics, blogging, email, books, or kids…just kidding on the kids thing.

Keep remembering that the purpose of withdrawing from sound or food or electronics is to have deeper encounters with God.

Next Session: Serve
Back To Inner Disciplines
Back To Intern Track
Back To Life Group Leader Track

Prayer

2005-05-16T13:12:00.000-07:00

God speaks in the silence of the heart. Listening is the beginning of prayer.

Mother Teresa

Prayer is nothing else than a sense of God's presence.

Brother Lawrence

Prayer is not an exercise. It is the life of the saint.

Oswald Chambers

Prayer is so much larger than just the bowing of a head and whispering to God. It is a life-giving, life-changing conversation with God. Most conversations have two sides – the listening and the speaking side. No one likes to find themselves on the wrong end of a one-way conversation and I think God is the same way.

So when we speak of prayer – our definition must include listening. If your current prayer life does not have extended periods of listening – how effective can it really be? How life-giving and life-changing can a ‘prayer life’ be without ever listening to Him?

Paul writes to pray without ceasing, just like we breathe. That might be the best way to think of prayer – spiritual breathing. Instead of spending any more time defining what prayer is, let’s explore some practical ways to do it.

How To Pray, by Jesus
Jesus’ teaching on how to pray is nothing short of heretical. In Matthew 6:7-13, He lays down five principles that we still struggle with.

1. When you pray…
It’s not an “if” statement. It is expected of anybody who wants to know God.

2. Get alone…
It’s not for show. He desires an intimate conversation with us.

3. To your daddy…
He’s not distant or unapproachable. Climb up in His lap, enjoy the audience.

4. Don’t use big words…
You be you, let God be God. Speak plain and simple. You can’t impress Him.

5. Let Him reorient your world…
Check out the basic layout of his model prayer.
You are holy, I’m not.
You are the king, I’m not.
You take care of my needs, nobody else – including me.
You forgive and restore me in the same manner I do others.
You keep leading, not me.

It Can’t Be That Simple…can it?
It is that simple, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into easy. I’m probably the least qualified to write on this subject. My name is Captain Distraction when it comes to prayer. So just for the sake of vulnerability, I want to share some ideas and tools that have helped me.

Write ‘em down
Writing prayers down slows me down – which is a good thing. My mind can get going 500 mph and that is when the distractions and rabbit trails start coming in. So journaling helps with this. It also allows the privilege of seeing God working. Sometimes it is in the form of Him directly intervening, more times it is in the form of Him patiently listening to me rant madly, then changing my heart so that eventually my prayer changed.

Read other people’s prayers
There are going to be dry times. We don’t have to waddle through them alone. Take comfort and insight from others who have been down that road. The Book of Common Prayer is one of many possible resources. Personal journals and devotion books are other great resources.

Pray through Scripture
Take a psalm or passage you are wrestling with and just pray through it with the Father.

Have a distraction pad
Ever notice how crystal clear a “get done list” gets inside your mind once you get quiet enough to hear God? I now have a distraction column in my journal. Just write the distraction, I’ll get to it when I get done.

Have a sanctuary and an appointment
My sanctuary is a coffee shop in downtown Little Rock and we (the Father and I) meet there every Monday morning for an hour or two. Most weeks I get another day in as well, but I always get Monday. Your schedule might not have that kind of flexibility, but I challenge you to find it. For me, it’s better to find one extended time with Him to do nothing but listen and converse with Him.

Mix it up
Read, draw, write, talk out loud, get in a park, get quiet in a library, or put on some headphones and sing as loud as you can to Him. Spend some creative energy with your time of listening and engaging Him.

Get quiet…regularly
I turn off my radio a lot now. I just shut it off and drive in the quiet, listening to Him. If I drive to an appointment and forget to shut it off, I shut it off on the way back. My goal is to spend as much time in quiet as I do in noise.

These are just starting points from a fellow sojourner. What are yours?

Audio Version

Next Session: Meditate (Marinate) on God's Word
Back To Inner Disciplines
Back To Intern Track
Back To Life Group Leader Track

Meditate (Marinate) on God's Word

2005-05-12T11:06:00.000-07:00

If prayer is breathing, then meditating on God’s word is eating. Meditating on God's Word is very different than the "New Age/Eastern Thinking" mindset. The goal of most New Age/Eastern Thinking is to EMPTY your mind so that enlightenment can come. When we meditate on God’s word, we want to FILL our minds.

That’s why I love using the word marinate. Let it soak - just like a steak (sorry, vegetarians, it’s an illustration…just go with it). When we put a steak in marinade, eventually the steak assumes the flavor of that marinade. The longer the steak soaks, the more it tastes like the marinade. This is the same effect the Word of God has on us.

How To Marinate…Beginner’s Guide

If you already have a system in place, use it. This is just to get us started.

1. Start big, not small
I would start with chapters, not verses. Why? I want stories and big picture ideas that I can chew on. I want to know the whole arch of the story I’m dealing with. If I have the story in my head, I can muse and ponder the details during the day. If I’m unsure, I do a quick re-read of the story to make sure I have my facts straight.

I’ll stay in the same spot for a week or more, reading it over and over again. Does it get boring? Maybe… that’s why I also use a distraction pad/journal!

2. Have a distraction pad.
Just like we had one in prayer! Any question – whether it seems germane to the topic or not, I write down. I’ll refer back to it throughout the week. If I move on to another passage, I still have my notes & thoughts jotted down. When I come back, I don’t have to start all over again. I also try to answer theses questions for every passage I read:

What word or phrase "shimmered" or stuck out.
What did you like best about the passage?
What did you like least?
What did you learn about God?
What did you not understand or find puzzling?
If you were to choose a sentence or phrase to meditate on this week, which would it be? And why?

3. Work in, not out.
Try not to start your time in the Word with figuring out how it applies to your life. Figure out how it worked IN the context your reading. Why is it in this location? What are the major themes and issues being dealt with?

Free yourself from having to find an application for every single thing you read in Scripture.

4. Read more, not less.
Scripture memory is key. But I also want to know the larger context of that verse I am quoting. Quoting it and applying it in a way that it was never meant to be applied is just as dangerous as not knowing it at all.

That is why I read more, not less. If the story or issue is covered in other areas of scripture, I read it in those settings. I’ll read the passage in multiple versions of the Bible. In order to marinate, I want more information floating around, not less.

5. Don’t go alone
Try to take a Life Group Leader, friend, Coach, or somebody on the journey with you. They will have different takes on the passage. God could use you to speak to them and vice versa. We are less likely to miss stuff if we take someone else with us.

Audio Version

Next Session: Basic Hermeneutics
Back To Inner Disciplines
Back To Intern Track
Back To Life Group Leader Track

Increasing Your Intern's Role

2005-05-11T14:21:00.000-07:00

If you remember all the way back near the beginning, we said that an intern’s role was to be a sponge while gaining an increasing circle of responsibility.

What does that practically look like? Below is a guide, an idea, a suggestion – but it is by no means the Bible on the subject. The truth of the matter is that every one of our interns are going to have strengths that we need to capitalize on and work areas that we need to walk through. Figuring that out as soon as possible is going to go further in answering this question than anything else we do.

We are going to assume that during the application process for the intern, we learned a few things about him/her:

Their spiritual gifts – at least the probabilities
Their dominant relational style
Their strongest trait
Possible work areas

The following plan should be used with the above information taking precedent. For example, if you have a couple who is 4 kinds of shy – getting them to lead an icebreaker or opening question the first month or two might be an absolute disaster.

However, having them call half your life group every week to pray for them and check on them might be right in their strike zone. Give them tasks that are in their strike zone to start with. Why? Well, you’ll see in a minute…

1st 3 months
Let them organize meeting place and snacks. Seriously – set the expectation early that we are here to serve. During this time, your focus is going to be on the condition of their inner discipline life and any work areas that popped up in the application process.

Tackle the work areas first. Don’t brush them away or see if they will “grow out of it.” They won’t. If they were going to grow out of it, they already would have. They haven’t. So now love them enough to walk through it with them. Deal with the anger, pride, fear, insecurity, anxiety, or lack of assertiveness. Whatever the issues are, deal with them early and often.

By confronting the issues early, you’ll set your life group and your future leader up to win. It cements the reality that we are serious about lifewalking with each other. It demands high vulnerability among the leaders. It sets the tone for your relationship – you love each other enough to shoot straight with each other.

2nd 3 months
Find their strike zone. Is it leading an opening discussion or icebreaker question? Let them lead that. Is it praying or leading worship in the group? Let them lead that. Give the responsibility for praying specifically for half the Life Group to your interns.

3rd 3 months
Increase their role in leading the discussion. Let them bring the agenda one night. Give them the responsibility of discipling any new believers that are birthed in your Life Group. Assign half of the Life Group to them contact with every week. Start asking them to find someone to intern with them.

4th 3 months
Let them run a series of meetings, weeks in succession. Start to co-lead the life group with each other find new interns for you both.

During this whole process, you should be meeting with them every other week – checking on their walk with Jesus, dealing with any new uncovered work areas, and evaluating leadership of the meetings.

Again – the above is a guide, not the rule. The goal is to be progressive in releasing and empowering them as leaders, without ignoring the work areas.

Next Session: Ready To Birth A Group?
Back To: Life Group Leader Track

Telling Your Story

2005-05-10T07:55:00.000-07:00

A skill that we ought to have in our backpocket is the ability to tell our experience with Jesus. As a growing servant leader, I’m going to challenge you to have two stories ready to tell.

The first story answers the question – how did you first meet Jesus and make Him leader of your life? The second story answers the question – what is He doing now with you and in you?

The First Story
If we answer three questions, we’ll have most of this story played out.

What was your life like before you met Christ?
What was the crisis or situation that led you to make the decision to follow Jesus?
What has been the effect on your life afterwards?

Write it out at first if it helps you. After you get the first rough draft down on paper, tell it to your coach or intern. After you do that – make some of these adjustments.

Is your story longer than 3 minutes long? After 2 ½ minutes, most folks are checking out of our conversation. Try to get your story short, yet memorable.

When you get that finished, add these three questions to your story.

Do you have any questions about my story?
Where are you (the listener) in this journey?
Are you interested in taking this journey with me?

There really isn’t any point in telling our stories if we aren’t going to invite others to join us.

So what happens if they say yes? That's a great question – for you and your coach to life walk through!

The Second Story
Sorry, no formula here but here are some questions to at least get you started.

What is Jesus up to in your life right now?
What is He working on in regards to your character? Your circumstances?
What insights has He showed you recently that led to transformation in you?
What miracles have you recently been a part of?
What life-change stories are you in the middle of ?

Telling this story will require us as leaders to choose vulnerability over image manufacturing. That is where the real crux of leadership is – will we choose to be real or choose to perpetuate the image that we have it together? Only vulnerability leads to further healing and transformation. Life-changing leadership comes out of the overflow of our relationship with Jesus, not as a result of having all the skills mastered.

Telling our story is about humbly telling what our experience with Jesus is like.

Next Session: Working With Different Personalities
Back to Leading A Meeting
Back to Life Group Leader Track

Encouragement

2005-05-04T10:11:00.000-07:00

How careful are we in HOW we speak to each other? I notice that my conversations are peppered with zingers and one-liners. True, most of them are said in jest, just trying to have some fun and laughs...but they can leave a sting.

Why Is Encouragment A Discipline?
First of all, let's define Encouragement as an affirmation of God working inside someone else. Sometimes this is going to be cheerleading. Sometimes this is going to be a 'kick in the pants.'

This was a key tool of Jesus. He spent most of his time after the resurrection with the folks who hurt him the most by their betrayal. It was expected that the religious leaders would throw Jesus to the wolves. Those folks who followed Jesus around but never fully accepted his message were not expected to stand by him either.

But his disciples – that’s another story. They ALL had promised Jesus that they would never betray him. They ALL claimed they could be counted on to the bitter end. Yet, every one of them ran. Not one kept their promise.

When stories surfaced about Jesus rising from the dead, Thomas couldn't bring himself to believe it. Can you blame him? Do you think the disciples really wanted to see Jesus after their failures in Gethsemane? Do you think they had just a hint of nervous anxiety as well as excitement about seeing him? I'm guessing they had mixed feelings about it at first. That is why Jesus sought after them.

He seals the deal with words of encouragement. He knows that the tasks that lay ahead of these men were like no other in history. They needed to be affirmed and encouraged. So when Jesus walks through the door (literally) to show Thomas his scars, he doesn't lecture him. He says peace to you and blessed are those who don't see and still believe. He gives Peter another 3 chances. He seeks out confused believers on their way home to Emmaus to clarify some things. He seals the deal with words of encouragement.

Encouragement refills the tank, blows the wind back in our sails, and puts steel in our bones to continue on the journey of faith. It is an affirmation of God working in them.

Why Is This So Hard?
Part of the reason is that most of us grew up in homes where encouraging words were sparse. A few of us might have been lucky enough to have someone - a pastor, coach, teacher - to model it for us. As a result, we don't have that as a part of our history.

Another reason why this is difficult is because it takes some degree of spiritual maturity to see God at work in someone else's life. When we see someone risk or reach out, do we see a transformational fruit OR do we communicate an "it's about time" attitude? It's easier to have the 'attitude' than it is to see the fruit. Especially when there is a lot of failure to deal with.

Speaking of failure, it is in these times when God does His best work. It's our job to affirm that work.

For spiritual formation to take place, we must have verbal encouragement.

What are some creative ways we could do this?

Encouragement sermon

Back To Life Group Disciplines
Back To Intern Track
Back To Life Group Leader Track

How To Birth A Life Group

2005-04-18T13:04:00.000-07:00

….Without Creating Mass Chaos

Here’s a short list of things NOT to do:

Don’t start off a Life Group Meeting by assigning people to leaders and say “see ya’ in your new group next week.

Don’t drag your feet to the point that you have 30 people in your group, enough small children to open an elementary school, and no one else can show up because the “house you meet in is “too small”.

Don’t act like birthing is never going to happen. Talk about the elephant in the room.

Okay – enough negative thoughts. How about some real life ideas?

After we (as leaders) have asked the hard questions of IF we are ready to birth, let’s figure out a plan. We also are going to have to cast the vision of birthing to our group. We do this by talking about the elephant in the room – early and often. “We need to birth because healthy, growing things birth, dead things don’t.” “We need to take others on this journey with us.”

How do we determine who goes where? Which people go with what group?
You could assign them. That normally isn’t the best option. A better way might be for the leadership team for each of the new groups (LIFE Group Leader & Intern) to invite people to join them and ask for a “commitment” from them.

Now here is the cool thing – if during the past year you and your intern had certain people in your group to look after and lifewalk with – these invitations work those relational lines.

For example – let’s say that for the past year, you had care of couples A, B, and C. In the meantime, your intern was lifewalking with couples E, F, and G. You get to the place where all the Assessment Questions were good.

Now the two new LIFE Groups have an open invitation for anybody – but you’ve “stacked” the deck so that each leader has deep relational ties to start each group. The key is that since you are only going to birth if your group is at high vulnerability – you can talk about all the different options in your life group.

Start off small and easy.
Start off meeting in the same house in different rooms. You could meet in different houses that are close to each other after an opening time with each other. Do this for a month or two.

The next month, meet in separate houses 3 out of the 4 weeks, on the 4th week all meet together. Do that for a month or two.

Have family reunions every 6 months. Celebrate significant events with each other – like a new believer or major life event. Plan some group activities – like family picnic, bowling, sky diving – to start off the LIFE Group with a shared experience.

The options are many and are only limited by your own creativity.

Next Session: Correction, Functional & Spiritual
Back to Life Group Leaders

Ready To Birth A Group?

2005-04-18T13:03:00.000-07:00

Why birth in the first place? Let’s get real with each other – why is it even important to birth? If our LIFE Group is consistently having life-changing experiences with Jesus, we have incredibly high vulnerability with each other – why would we even want to jeopardize that by ‘splitting up’ the group?

Great questions that have great answers. I’m only going to unpack two here.

Groups that don’t birth, stagnate. Something happens to a group that has great vulnerability but has no vision or plan for birthing. That group becomes extremely hard for new people to get in. And when that happens, you will have stagnation. The people start to take each other for granted. There is a tendency to get complacent.

All of a sudden that high vulnerability becomes a seedbed for complaints and gossip that is packaged in ‘concerns’ or ‘confessions’ that has nothing to do with the individual’s spiritual formation.

Groups that reach the lost will birth. If our groups are truly Engaging the world – they are going to birth. It’s part of the Great Commission. We reproduce Christ followers. That means releasing them to do the same thing.

So, back to the topic at hand. Are we ready to birth another group? First of all this is a health question. It is NOT a length of existence or number of people question. If we have a LIFE Group that has been meeting for a year and we have tons of people showing up, that doesn’t necessarily mean we are ready to birth. Having said that, if we have a life group that hasn’t birthed in 2 to 3 years, we probably have some health problems in the LIFE Group.

The following questions are here to assess if our LIFE Group is ready to birth. I’ve tried to put the questions in order of importance, but a no at any one of these means “not yet.”

There are 7 key areas of evaluation.

Leaders
We reproduce leaders, not groups. The life of Christ is reproduced in individuals, not groups of individuals. The Great Commission is about personally lifewalking with others, not a group.

This is the single most important question to answer. Do we have enough leaders for both LIFE Groups? Do we have a LIFE Group leader ready for each group? Do we have an intern for each group? Does each group have a host home/couple?

If the answers are yes for those questions, we might be ready to birth. At the very least we now have the bare bones of infrastructure to birth another LIFE Group. With out leaders, we are not going to birth another life group. That is destining our life groups for failure.

Vulnerability
What is the vulnerability level of our group? Low, mid, high? If we have a high level of vulnerability – we might be ready to birth. We don’t want to reproduce anything less than high vulnerability because we know that it is in high vulnerability that transformation takes place.

There is another reason why the vulnerability must be at a high level. It will be next to impossible to talk about the birthing process without hurting somebody in a context that has less than high vulnerability. Without high vulnerability, people are not going to be able to dive into their feelings of insecurity or fear or dread of having to birth a group.

Life Cycle
Where is your life group at in the Life Cycle? If we are only in the Show Up to Shed Skin phase – we are DEFINITELY NOT ready to birth. If we are Sharing life and Shaping hearts, then we might be ready to birth.

We reproduce what we are – not what we would like to be. So we need to birth groups who have experienced the full Life Cycle.

LIFE
Has our group consistently experienced L I F E? That doesn’t mean we do that every week – although that might be true. What we are looking for is a consistent track record of L I F E. If our life group has a consistent track record in each of those areas, we might be ready to birth.

Critical Mass
If we have positive answers for all of the questions above but it’s only 3 other couples, it’s time to open up our life group. It’s okay to have a small life group as long as we are reproducing leaders. When we have an intern ready to lead but no critical mass, each of you go find someone else to build into and reproduce.

God’s Timing
I’m a firm believer that God speaks through community and there is such a thing as timing. Does every leader – formal and informal – around the table agree on the above answers? Do we all see the need to birth? What does our Coach think? Does anybody have a ‘gut check’?

Planned Process
Do we have a (somewhat) clear plan of HOW to birth? If we do have a plan, we are probably ready to implement it. It takes time to birth. If everything is healthy and there are no “hiccups,” it’s probably going to take around 3 months. The fewer green lights from the above list, the longer it is going to take.

If we rush in and try to birth with an unhealthy group, it’s going to take even more time. Why? Because after the rush to birth, we’ll have to do damage control which always takes longer than doing it right the first time.

Just remember that birthing is a process, not an event.

We’re close, but not quite ready
Good news for you! God has just gifted you with where to lead your life group over the next few months. Where we answered no, that is where we begin to lead.

Intern not ready? Get them ready. Get specific with him/her. Is there correction needed? Is it a heart issue or a skill issue?

Vulnerability level low in the group? Life Cycle issues? L I F E malnourishment? Whatever the issue, begin to lead the LIFE Group to health in those areas.

Next Session: How To Birth A Group
Back to Life Group Leaders

Guidance

2005-03-21T21:10:00.000-08:00

Guidance is when we help others learn to listen to God. It’s not just ‘good advice’ or wise counsel. It is about helping people discern what God is telling them to do.

The Quaker tradition has what is called Clearness Committees. The committee’s job is to ask questions, lots of them. By asking all those questions, they often remove the fog of a decision.

For true guidance to take place, I think we need one more piece of the puzzle. After all the questions, are we going to be vulnerable enough to say what we think God wants to happen? Is there a high enough level of trust to be completely honest – everyone around the table, not just the one making the decision?

John Ortberg tells this story as an example. A famous writer and educator was offered the presidency of a college. He came to his Life group and asked them to be his Clearness Committee. The questions were easy at first - what would you do, where would you live, what are your goals.

Then someone asked what do you think you would like about being president. He said, "I wouldn't like wearing a suit and tie, structured office hours, the politics, and fundraising."

They came back, "Okay; we know what you wouldn't like. Tell us what you would like."

"Yes, I know. I am getting to that. I wouldn't like that it would take me away from my writing, the travel, attending lots of meetings, and the pressure."

"Okay, but what would you like."

He was silent for a long time and finally answered in a meek whisper, "I would like having my picture in the paper with 'President' underneath it."

Nobody said a word. The answer was clear now. Finally someone asked, "Isn't there an easier way to get your picture in the paper?"

They laughed but the decision was made - he was not going to become the president.

If we are going to see and experience life change, we have to practice the discipline of guidance in our Life Groups.

Back To Life Group Disciplines
Back To Intern Track
Back To Life Group Leader Track

Accountability

2005-03-21T21:09:00.000-08:00

Debunking the Myths
Sitting across from someone, asking a list of sin management questions, then finally asking if they have lied to you is a poor imitation of accountability. Real accountability is getting ‘on the scale’ to see if the application is working. Ideally, what lifewalking means is that we are ‘in each other’s stuff’ enough to see what is working, what isn’t working, and what needs to be worked on.

True accountability attempts to answer the question "Is what I am doing facilitating spiritual transformation?" To put it another way, 'Am I allowing the Spirit to transform me in my habits, actions, and thoughts. '

Choose You This Day
I’m guessing that right now you are thinking – how in the world do you measure that? Most of that work is internal, some of it is external but if we only judge/evaluate the external we are on the road to becoming incredible legalists. To further complicate things, others can see more objectively what is working and what isn't in our lives than we can. How then do we exercise this discipline?

I think it all comes down to choices.

1. Choose to be real and authentic. Yes, it is risky and yes, you will be misunderstood. Yes, you can and probably will get hurt. But there is NO accountability without this.

2. Choose to engage. If you see a glimpse of something that isn’t quite ‘right’ or genuine – love them enough to engage in their world. Catch the wording of this – engage their world. Find out what is going on by lifewalking with them. Earn the right to speak truth.

If we are honest with ourselves, most of us have a leaning. We either lean toward loving and caring but find it excruciatingly painful to speak truthfully about stuff we see in someone’s life, OR we lean toward speaking truth to people that we know nothing about their context or situation. We’ll be quick to give advice, but sit in a waiting room for an hour just listening is a waste of time in our minds.

They are both needed. Remember our airplane talk? Same principle here. It’s imperative for you to speak the truth, but it is equally imperative that we do that in love. The best way to communicate love is still time. So choose to lifewalk with people AND speak the truth.

3. Choose to be teachable, not broken. If you have to have it all together and perfect, guess what gift God is going to bring to your world? Brokenness. He will wreck something in your world that you can’t fix if only for the reason to break your will. So be teachable, no matter what side of the conversation you find yourself on.

4. Choose grace over book-keeping. Since we are all messes, let’s choose grace over keeping the books. Let’s choose to celebrate wins and to learn from our losses as opposed to grieving over them. Sin and screw-ups have their own consequences to deal with without adding a layer of guilt to them.

Final Not-So-Random Thought
We must focus on BEING accountable, not keeping others that way. That’s the key in seeing if God’s word is working in our life. We must CHOOSE to be accountable.

The focus can never be on KEEPING other accountable. It just doesn’t work. That is why it’s possible to meet every week for breakfast at IHOP for accountability and still be shocked to read in the paper that one of the guys has a lover and is leaving his family.

If we want to see a Jesus transformation take place in us, we must be accountable.

Back To Life Group Disciplines
Back To Intern Track
Back To Life Group Leader Track

Application

2005-03-21T21:08:00.000-08:00

It is not merely enough to study and know God's word. It must be applied to real life. That is the definition of application - putting the Word of God on our real-life situations. Immediately we are faced with two problems.

The first problem can be found with the wonderful WWJD cliché. “What Would Jesus Do?” Sometimes this can be helpful, but too often we answer it so abstractly that it is toothless. “Jesus would be loving, kind, patient, and meek.”

Honestly – that isn’t very helpful. What does love look like in an abusive relationship? How would Jesus ‘love’ the person who has a string of lies and half-truths behind him, ruined a friendship, destroyed a Life Group, and is wrecking a marriage?

The second problem is that we are extremely good at manipulating the situation or rationalizing our convictions so that the application may not always be what God intended. Ever notice how we tell stories about ourselves? We are either the victim or the hero. Makes for applying God’s word a little difficult.

So what is the solution? Each other. When we surround ourselves with people who love us but aren’t impressed with us – they can see through the fog and insecurities. When we allow them access, they can be tools of God in helping us applying God’s word. They bring perspective to our worlds.

For spiritual transformation to take place, God's word must be applied to our lives.

Back To Life Group Disciplines
Back To Intern Track
Back To Life Group Leader Track

Correction, Spiritual & Functional

2005-03-21T14:08:00.000-08:00

Correction, Spiritual & Functional

Our leaders will need correction in order to develop. Let's first make a distinction between two types of correction. It's important that all parties involved know the difference AND know which one is the topic of the day.

Spiritual Correction is about sin issues. Gossip, slander, breaking confidences, and lying. More often than not these are going to be "elephant in the room" issues. In other words, every one knows it's there. It's our job as Coaches to deal with it, gracefully and biblically.

Functional Correction has to do with skill level or lack thereof. Does the leader let discussions wander off and never closes them? Is the leader allowing one person to monopolize the group? Are there habits that are limiting the vulnerability level of the LIFE Group? These are NOT sin issues - these are just skills that need to be sharpened.

There might be times when an issue is both spiritual and functional. In those instances - shoot for the heart issues first.

Correction doesn't have to be a nightmare confrontation. Let the leader do a self-evaluation. Chances are the issue is already known. In fact, the best way to coach is to ask questions to see if the leader can figure it out on their own. Some examples:

How did you think the meeting went?
What went well and what could improve?
If you could do this meeting over, what would you do differently?
Do you feel like you adequately prepared for the meeting?
How could you have prepared better?
What did you enjoy most about tonight? Least?
How can I help you continue to improve?

Helpful Hints of Correction
Correction is done one on one, NEVER in front of the LIFE Group. Do we really need to explain this one? Talk about creating bitterness in our leaders.

Use the praise sandwich. Start off by praising what was done right. Next deal with the correction area. Before we end, affirm the things they are doing well.

Have action points. Give the leaders something concrete and measurable they can work on.

Follow up and feedback! Always check back in after correction to see how their heart is doing. Allow some time to hear what they've learned through the process.

Back To Coaches
Back To Life Group Leaders

Encourage

2005-03-21T13:26:00.000-08:00

Before you get images of standing on the sideline screaming "L-I-F-E!" at your leaders, let's get a biblical understanding of what encouragment is.

Let's start with Hebrews 10:24-25.

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds…let us encourage one another.

The word encourage means “to make sharp, to irritate, to provoke." Doesn't exactly bring images of cheerleaders, does it?

Here's the picture I have of encouragment - it's in Matthew 16:16-19. Jesus does 3 key things.

1. He praised him for his success (v. 17a). This is absolutely a verbal thing but if you really want to make a marker for one of your leaders - write a note. Or show up at the beginning of their Life Group and "crash" for the first few minutes just bragging on what he or she did.

2. Jesus points out that God is working in and through Peter (v.17b). Affirming that someone is being used by God, then pointing out how will do more to make solid your leaders than anything else you do.

3. Jesus gives Peter more responsibility (v. 18-19). Jesus gives Peter more responsibility than he could handle. Peter was going to fail. Jesus knew it. More than likely the other disciples knew it. The only person who probably didn't know it was Peter. Yet - Jesus gave it to him.

What does this mean for us? It means we risk. If we want to reproduce LEADERS, then we are going to have give them the freedom to fail. With out this freedom - we are going to have a hard time getting our leaders to step into new terroritory.

This is why the relational aspect to coaching is so huge. We must have safe, loving, but honest arenas to unpack our failures so that we can learn and grow from them.

Back To Coaches

Vision

2005-03-20T21:19:00.000-08:00

We are the vision casters. We lift heads up to 're-see' the goal of why we do this. We are the champions for life changing experiences with Jesus.

How do we cast vision?

Communicate
Verbally confirming the goal of encountering Jesus and being changed by Him. Putting the "pursuit of Jesus and His purposes" in our own words in order to tell someone else. Celebrating ‘wins’ in our Life Groups cast vision. What we celebrate communicates what we value.

Guard
There are too many options competing for priority in our programming, resources, and time. We must ask the hard questions of "Is what we want to do (or doing) going to lead us in experiencing Jesus? Reproducing a leader? Does it lead to spiritual transformation?"

We guard by also evaluating our groups according to our purpose, not by just how many show up.

Back To Coaches

Model

2005-03-20T21:11:00.000-08:00

John 13:1-14 Jesus does something nobody expected. He washed their feet. At the end of the shocking event He tells them they should do the same.

Jesus never asked anything of His followers that He himself did not do. We have to be the same. As coaches not only will we lead out of the overflow of our relationship with Jesus, but we will also lead out of the overflow of our experience!

The leaders we are discipling have to be able to see at least a glimpse or a part of the target in us. 1 Corinthians 11:1 ought to be our motto!

We lead out of the overflow, being a model.

Back To Coaches

Coaches

2005-03-20T20:44:00.000-08:00

Our definition of a coach is clear – we are disciplers of leaders. Specifically Life Group Leaders and Interns. If we, as coaches, are planning and leading a Life Group - we are failing at our prime mission. In fact, it is going to be extremely difficult to lead a Life Group and Coach more than one couple effectively.

Our goal is to have one Coach for every 2 to 4 Life Group Leaders.

So what does discipling a Life Group leader look like? There isn't a cookie cutter answer to this. I do have some guardrails for us, though.

1. Relational Proximity
This is just fancy speak for living close with your leaders. We expect you to at the least do these things. Visit their groups four times a year. Have weekly contact with your leaders via email or phone. Grab some face time with them once a month. With consistent contact, you won't have to start at ground zero every time you talk.

2. Soul Care
When you have that interaction, get good at asking lots of questions. How are your leaders' souls? Where are they at in their journey with Jesus? What is the relationship like with the intern? How's their marriage and/or kids? What is the biggest celebration point in their life? Their biggest disappointment? What heart issues are being ignored or glossed over?

3. Stay Macro
Your job is not to fix every problem in your Life Group Leaders Group. That's the Life Group Leader and the Intern's problem. Think big picture, Kingdom mentality. Get in the habit of answering questions with questions that will force them into deeper areas of trusting Jesus. Let them fail, then redeem/restore them.

I've broken these out into 4 main areas for us:

Model
Vision
Correct
Encourage

Life Group Leaders

2005-03-20T20:33:00.000-08:00

I know what you're thinking...you're thinking, "Man - that looks a lot like the Intern track."

You'd be right. Now that you are leading a group - some of this stuff is going to be a lot more valuable to you. Plus we've thrown in more bonus features for you!

Increasing an Intern's Role, Birthing a Group, and Correction.

As usual - this stuff isn't all that useful unless you're walking through it with someone. So grab your Coach or your Intern and start digging.

The Life Group Leader Track:

Why Are We Here?
The Inner Disciplines
Life Group Disciplines
Leading a Meeting
Leading a Group
Increasing Your Intern's Role
Ready To Birth A Group?
How To Birth A Group...
Correction, Spiritual and Functional

Leading A Group

2005-03-20T15:02:00.000-08:00

Leading a meeting is a good thing to know. Leading a group is better. I think you'll catch the difference once you go through these sessions.

If the purpose of our groups is to encounter Jesus and be changed by Him, that may or may not happen in your meeting.

Leading A Group

L I F E Unpacked

Life Cycle

Holy Moments & Highlights

Life Group Covenant, Sample Covenant

Handling Conflict

Assessing Health

Leading A Meeting

2005-03-20T14:49:00.000-08:00

There is a difference between leading a meeting and leading a group. Of the two - leading your group is more important. BUT, it is going to be hard to lead your group if you don't have some skill in leading a meeting. Hopefully these sessions will help.

Leading A Meeting
Leading A Discussion
Inductive Bible Study
Questions and Skills
Telling Your Story
Working with Different Personalities

Life Group Disciplines

2005-03-20T14:38:00.000-08:00

These are the disciplines that have to happen in community in order for Spiritual Transformation to take place. These are what marks the difference between a Life Group and just a group of people who meet together. These disciplines can help you evaluate whether or not your group is hitting the bullseye of having life changing encounters with Jesus.

Life Group Disciplines

Confession, Audio

Appropriate Confession

Vulnerability Levels & Hindrances

Application

Accountability, Audio for Application & Accountability

Guidance, Audio

Encouragment, Audio

(As a sidenote, almost all of this material is from two ‘mentors’ I have never personally met – Richard Foster and John Ortberg. Foster's work Celebration of Discipline still stands as THE classic on spiritual formation. Ortberg’s session at the 2000 Willow Creek Small Groups Conference framed these sessions as you see here.)

Inner Disciplines

2005-03-20T14:29:00.000-08:00

These are the practices (disciplines) that have to happen in the Individual arena in order for us to experience spiritual transformation. They help feed our souls. We want practice these individually to the point that we minister out of the overflow of them.

All of that to reinforce what I said earlier – all the skills in the world will not make a difference if I’m bone-dry in my relationship with Jesus.

Inner Disciplines

Prayer, Audio
Meditate (Marinate) on God's Word, Audio*
Basic Hermeneutics
Being a Strong Interpreter
Big Picture Theology
All Those Versions
Worship
Silence & Fasting, Audio
Serve, Audio

Interns

2005-03-19T09:00:00.000-08:00

This is good stuff, but it's only half of it. Plus, it's not all that valuable unless someone is walking through it with you. That's part of your Life Group Leader's job.

Some of it is going to be "no-brainer" stuff. My advice - don't spend a lot of time there. Focus instead on the stuff new to you or you're having a hard time mastering. And also realize that this stuff is heavily skewed on the skill side.

The other part of your Life Group Leader's job is focusing on the heart side. This is going to be stuff like a teachable heart, home life, devotional life. All kinds of 'personal stuff' that if left alone will sink us as leaders.

Get used to someone knowing you more than you are comfortable with - that is Lifewalking and that is where true spiritual transformation takes place.

The Intern Track:

Why Are We Here?
The Inner Disciplines
Life Group Disciplines
Leading a Meeting
Leading a Group

How To Use This Site

2005-03-18T20:16:00.000-08:00

I want to talk about airplanes for a second.

What?

Yeah - airplanes. Which wing is your favorite?

The Right Answer: Both. Everyone realizes that you need two wings to fly, so favoring one wing over another is not only ridiculous, but it can get you killed.

Let's transfer that to developing a leader.

A Life Group Leader needs both skill and heart.

This site is mostly about skill. Without a heart that is growing with Jesus, it's worthless. We are best ministering when we do so out of the overflow of our relationship with Jesus. That's why you will notice we'll spend most of the Intern year focusing on spiritual disciplines.

You will only be as strong as your relationship with Jesus.

So - let's get started.

This site has two main purposes.

Purpose 1: Provide a foundational set of knowledge, skills, and vocabularly for our leaders at Grace. It's designed as a tool for Life Group Leaders to take Interns through, and Coaches to help Life Group Leaders.

Purpose 2: A "Virtual Coffee House" to unpack Life Group Issues for us all. To see what God is doing in the groups, to unpack issues and gain some insight and wisdom from each other.

Let's Life Walk...

All Those Versions

2005-03-18T18:46:00.000-08:00

Chances are most people are going to bring a New International Version to our small groups. It's the most popular version of the Bible in the world. So as a leader - be familiar with it. BUT - be familiar with a couple of other versions as well.

There are 2 major ways translations differ. The first way is the underlying text that is used for translation. For example, the NIV Bible uses Greek and Hebrew manuscripts but the old Good News Bible used an English translation to base its paraphrase on. The Today's English Version now uses a Greek and Hebrew manuscripts as their basis. If the translation is of another translation, it will be weaker than one that uses Greek and Hebrew manuscripts. (See Hosea 4:7 as an example)

The second way translations differ is the theory of the translator. Notice our "line of translators." On one end we have Word Correspondence Theory, the other Paraphrase.

Word Correspondence............................DE.........................Paraphrase

If you want to go nuts with this stuff, check out this website. Otherwise, I'm gonna give you the quick version.

The Word Correspondence Theory's goal is to maintain as close as possible to the grammatical relationship with the original language. These translations are closer to a word for word translation. They prefer literalness to readability. These are very strong translations but the danger is that Greek doesn't always translate well word for word. The New American Standard and American Standard Version are examples of this theory.

At the opposite end of this line is a paraphrase. A paraphrase is concerned with meaning. It will use words that the original author would not use. There is a danger of writing theology into a paraphrase, especially if it clarifies the meaning. The Preface of the Living Bible gives an excellent definition of paraphrases. The Real English Bible and the Good News Bible are examples.

Somewhere in between these two is what is called Dynamic Equivalent. With DE, meaning is priority but grammar, syntax, and style play a part in how the words are translated. The New International Version is an example of the Dynamic Equivalent.

Most translations use committees to translate. The larger the committee, the better the translation. This is one reason why the NIV is as popular as it is. With larger committees, there are fewer opportunities to translate with a particular denomination's viewpoint.

What translation should I use?
That's part personal preference, part figuring out how you are using it.

Are you going to use it for preaching, teaching, devotional, deep study, or story telling? I love The Message translation by Eugene Peterson. I use it for devotions or when I am trying to feel the punch of a verse.

For deep Bible study or sermon preparation, I'll use the English Standard Version, the NIV and NAS.

It is only going to help you to look at other translations. I'd encourage you to use them in your life group emphasize a point or bring out the emotion in a passage.

Further Resources:
The English Bible from the KJV to the NIV by Jack P. Lewis
So Many Versions-20th Century Versions of the Bible by Kubo & Specht

Next Session: Silence & Fasting
Back To Inner Disciplines
Back To Intern Track
Back To Life Group Leader Track

Big Picture Theology

2005-03-15T19:43:00.000-08:00

Trying to intrepret the Bible can be daunting. Fortunately, there are some guidelines to help interpret scripture. Most of this came from the book How To Read The Bible For All It's Worth, by Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart.

Essential message of the Bible is clear.
Here's an assignment for you - can you put the meaning/story of the Bible in one, short sentence? Try it. How will this help? It will help when you run across a difficult to understand passage - you can run back to the "basic" story and ask how does it fit?

They all are NOT going to fit - so what do you do with them?

Try to understand them in light of what is clear. No doctrine should be built solely on obscure passages. Doctrines are more secure as they are taught in multiple parts of the Bible. Passages that are brief should be studied in light of passages in greater length & depth.

Certain biblical paradoxes are just going to have to be lived with. Such as the Incarnation and the sovereignty of God versus the freedom of man.

Scripture best interprets Scripture. The Bible was not put together by accident. It has a unity to it. Although many different authors wrote it over an incredible amount of time, it is coherent and it "speaks with itself."

God's revelation of Himself was progressive. God chose to make Himself known in stages. He did not reveal His plan all at once. Jesus Christ was the final revelation of Himself, therefore when interpreting scripture; the New Testament takes priority. This does NOT mean that the Old Testament is unimportant. It does mean that we read Old Testament in light of what we know in the New Testament.

Must be aware of the possible cultural conditions of Scripture. Some passages may contain advice or commands intended only for an ancient historical setting. In other words - some of scripture is DESCRIPTIVE and some of it is PRESCRIPTIVE. Some things are in there because - well, that's what happened but it was never the author's intent for us to do the same. Holy kiss, hairstyle, and dress are just a couple of examples.

Of course the question is how do we determine ancient history from applicable truths?

The book How To Read The Bible For All It's Worth gives great guidelines.

Recognize behind cultural conditioned counsel lies eternally valid principles. (1 Pet 3:3)

Remember central core of biblical teaching is never culturally conditioned.

Determine whether the matter is inherently moral or non-moral. Morality is not subject of cultural issues; it is for all people for all times.

Note whether the Bible has a uniform witness to the subject or whether there are differences in how the matter is handled. (1 Tim 2:11-12 & 1 Cor 11:5) If tension exists there maybe a cultural issue at stake.

Note possible differences between 1st & 2nd centuries and our cultural today.

If the issue is not dealing or affecting the essential biblical message, then exercise some Christian charity.

Next Session: All Those Versions
Back To Inner Disciplines
Back To Intern Track
Back To Life Group Leader Track

Being a Strong Interpretor

2005-03-15T19:36:00.000-08:00

You are gonna need 2 things to be a strong interpreter. The Holy Spirit and a mind.

Believers have a stronger position to understand Bible because of the Holy Spirit inside them. This of course does not mean that every believer is a strong interpreter. There are some other factors.

Some one who seeks after the deep things of God makes a strong interpreter. One who is open and dependant on the Holy Spirit is normally a stronger interpreter. Methodically and systematically studying the scripture lends itself to a stronger intrepretation.

Concerns/Hinderances For Strong Intrepretation

Lexicography
This is etymology (word origin) and context. Context is the biggest clue as to what a word means. Not just in the immediate verse, but in the chapter and book as well. Different authors may have slightly different meanings for the same words due to the context in which they write in. Lexicons and theological dictionaries help in this area.

Grammar
Is the word a verb, participle, adverb, or noun? Is the statement a command or a question? Remember sophomore English class? This is what we're talking about except with Greek and Hebrew.

Most of us don’t know Greek and Hebrew. Most of us don't WANT to know Greek and Hebrew. Which is cool. You can be a strong interpretor without knowing a stitch of Greek or Hebrew. What will help is reading your text in multiple versions.

Literary genre
There are all kinds of different types of literature in the Bible. Prose, poetry, figurative language, literal language, narrative history, prophecy, and gospel are just a few. Each one should be handled differently. For example, we don't handle John 4 the same way we handle Job 4. One book that is indispensable in this area is How To Read The Bible For All It Is Worth by Fee and Stuart.

Historical/Cultural Concerns
Paul's letters are extremely sensitive to historical/cultural context, whereas Proverbs are not as tied to its context.

Look at 1 Corinthians 11:5-7. What could this mean? Does this mean every woman who has short hair is living in sin? The Greek god Aphrodite had temples in the city. The temple priests were no more than prostitutes and they had short hair so it would be known who they were. So Paul's command was basically don't act or conform to this world.

Political setting, social setting, economic background, and religious background are the major important historical concerns. Books on manners and customs of biblical times and history books are very helpful in this area. Some of the newer Study Bibles come with some of this information in their introduction to the books.

Contextual Concerns
Just because someone quotes the Bible, doesn't mean it is biblical. Look at Ephesians 6:5. Paul tells slaves to obey their masters. So this means that the Bible supports slavery, right? Not exactly. Once we begin to look at the chapter as a whole, we see something else. It appears that Paul is giving specific instructions to folks in specific circumstances. It appears that he is "fleshing out" what he told them to do in Ephesians 5:21 to submit to one another. This is what we mean by context.

What is the message of those verses immediately surrounding the verses we are studying? This is called the immediate context. There are two other major contexts to consider: the book and the Bible. How does the text fit into the book that it is located in? How does the book fit into the Bible? Not all books have the same theological weight. We treat the book of Leviticus quite differently than we do Romans.

Next Session: Big Picture Theology
Back To Inner Disciplines
Back To Intern Track
Back To Life Group Leader Track

Basic Hermeneutics

2005-03-14T20:15:00.000-08:00

The word has its root from the Greek god Hermes, the messenger god. He conveyed meaning or information. Hermeneutics is basically interpreting the Bible with an aim to applying it to today's world.

The first task is to discover what the text meant in its original setting. We call this exegesis. The word means 'to lead out of.' We are going to try to allow the Bible to speak for itself as opposed to eisegesis.

Eisegesis is a barrier to good intrepretation. This means 'to read into' a text. This is coming to the Bible looking for it to support a meaning that we want.

The second task is to discover what the text means in a contemporary setting. This is the "So What" of Bible study.

Barriers to Good Hermeneutics

Language
The Bible was written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. Fortunately, there are some very good translations so this is not a significant barrier at this point.

Historical Distance
Most of the New Testament was written in between the years 39 AD to 90 AD. The Old Testament was written over a period of 2,000 years before that with over 50 different authors. That is a significant amount of time. Plus, the further away we move from an event, the harder it is to get a clear picture of what really happened.

Cultural Distance
We live in a western, democratic and individualistic culture. The eastern culture was (and is) highly communal and community living. The rights of the many are more important than the rights of the one in that culture. This is the context of the Bible.

Presuppositions
It is impossible to come to the Bible neutral. We bring our heritage and background into the mix. We bring our predispositions, preunderstandings, or biases. It's incredibly difficult to come to the Word unbiased.

A classic example of this was during the Civil War. Many folks in the South used Scripture to support the practice of slavery. Many others used the same Scriptures to fight against it.

Personality
Our temperment, educational background, and personality effects how we interpret the Bible. A Type A person is going to read the Bible differently than a Type B.

Two people can study the life of David completely different. One might camp in the Psalms focusing on the cave times of David. The other might run to the battle scenes and the crumbling of his empire.

Next Session: Being a Strong Interpretor
Back To Inner Disciplines
Back To Intern Track
Back To Life Group Leader Track

Confession

2005-03-14T16:43:00.000-08:00

Mark 5:22-25

Most of us have a mask that we wear. The mask, we think, keeps us safe. It keeps us from being vulnerable so we don't get hurt. But by the same token it keeps us from being vulnerable so we don't get healed either. Confession requires risk. The ultimate question that we most fear the answer to is this: Will you love me if I show you who I really am?

This is what confession is:

An appropriate disclosure of my failures, temptations, struggles, victories, and thoughts for the purpose of healing or celebration.

This is what it isn't:

a laundry list of sins that you have no intention of doing anything about.

Confession is not your brag list of disobedience or "failures" that you really don't think are failures. It isn't veiled gossip time - where we confess what we did wrong but the real reason we did it was "because Stanley did this first."

Confession is about being real - being vulnerable about the real issues.

I think it's key to unpack a crucial word here - purpose.

We want our Life Groups to be the places where we can take off our masks. I don't think there is a subject that is off-limits in our life groups. I really don't.

Sex? Politics? Religion? Parents? Drugs? Skipping School - pros and cons? I can't think of a topic that should be off limits in a Life Group - with this little disclaimer on it.

What is the point? Why are you talking about it? Why are you sharing this?

If I am "sharing" because I want the attention but I am not really open to what someone else in the group might have to say about it - it's not confession. If I am "sharing" because I want to trash someone else - we call that gossip. Am I "confessing" something that I own? Am I doing it to celebrate a win - which is a good thing. Am I doing it because I need healing and help? That is a good thing too.

Next Session: Appropriate Confession

Leading A Discussion

2005-03-14T16:31:00.000-08:00

All that has been given up to this point will make us better interpreters and better conduits of the Spirit. The disciplines will give us enough “fuel in the tank” to have the ability to minister out of the overflow. That, however, does not always mean will be better communicators of those experiences. So how do we take WHAT we have learned and communicate it in an effective way?

The basic guideline I'd give you is this - learn to lead by asking questions, not giving directions. I challenge you to try to lead only using questions. With that in place, here are some basic "rules" of planning a discussion.

Start with the END in mind. What questions or crossroads do you want to be at the end of the night? Work backwards from there.

Don't use 10 words when 4 will do. Along the same line, don't illustrate the illustration.

Don't answer most questions. We want people to engage the living God, so don't rush in to answer every question.

Give the Spirit some space to interact with the rest of the group.

Ask more questions than you think you will ever use.

Be visual.

ALWAYS use the back door first. Take your crew on a journey. Don’t start the lesson off by saying "Tonight, I am going to tell you the 35 reasons why you should believe this!" Give some room and time for them to come to that conclusion on their own.

Next Session: Inductive Bible Study

Questions & Skills

2005-03-14T16:30:00.000-08:00

Asking good questions is going to be key for leading a great Bible study AND other discussion as well. It is not possible to ask too many questions.
Opening Questions.
These break the ice or introduce a subject matter. These questions are normally low to medium risk. These are supposed to be "safe" questions. The purpose of these questions is to build community and to warm up. They don’t have to always be safe but they should all be provocative enough to stir conversations?

Examples:

If money were no object what vehicle would you drive?
You have a 5-night coupon to eat anyplace you want, which 5 restaurants would you eat at?
If you could attend any one non-biblical historical event what would it be?
If you could be doing anything else right now, what would it be?

Thought Questions
These questions will be key in maintaining discussions. The goal is to get feedback and stir up further discussion. These questions can never be answered with a simple yes or no. Thought questions can also introduce new material. They can present ‘devil’s advocate’ positions or may not even be answerable.

Examples:

What are the possible consequences for the disobedience of Moses?
What does Nicodemus being a Pharisee tell us about Nicodemus?
What are the possible explanations of the empty tomb?
How can we minister to the poor? What will that cost us? Is it worth it? Why?
What character issues do you think God would want to change in you immediately if He had His way with you?

Clarifying Questions
These allow us to summarize what has been said. They will also help communicate the essence of what someone is saying on both the thinking and feeling level.

Examples:

Are you saying that this parable only applied to the disciples?
So you think that's okay for us to have tattoos?
Did I hear you correctly when you said that only lost people will suffer in the Tribulation?

Directing Questions
These questions allow us to maintain focus in our discussions and Bible studies. They are an attempt to redirect a wandering discussion. They can also be an attempt to pin down a principle or point.

Examples:

That is a great insight, does anyone else see something different?
Why Is Nicodemus going to see Jesus at night significant?
When did you go see Jesus at night and why? Why not?
That is great rabbit to chase but for now what is the major point of this passage?
When Jesus says to feed the poor, help the sick – did he mean us as individuals or ‘the church’ in general?

Active Listening
75% of all communication is non-verbal. We want to observe things like eye contact, posture, tone, and inflection. A good active listener will maintain eye contact at all times. They will lock on to whoever is speaking. A good active listener will nod or give verbal encouragement while listening. When someone listens like this it encourages vulnerability.

Supporting
People need encouragement and support. Try to find something positive to affirm with everyone. This is equally important to do outside the meeting time. We support by sending cards, offering help, or phone calls.

Next Session: Telling Your Story

Working With Different Personalities

2005-03-14T16:29:00.000-08:00

It is never fair to label an individual but there are some personality types that could prove to be more difficult than others. We all want to flex as best we can to help others fit and have an opportunity to experience Jesus. At the same time, we don’t want to sacrifice the goal of having that experience for the sake of not hurting someone’s feelings. Here are some ideas that might help us walk this tightrope.

The Talker
Talkers love being the center of attention. It does not matter the subject, he has an opinion - even if he has no idea what he is talking about. Obviously this hinders community. Before you duct tape his mouth shut:

1. Sit by the Talker. This will lessen the eye contact with the leader. Eye contact is an invitation to talk. If he interrupts, you can softly touch him as a cue to wait.

2. Harness his leadership skills. Ask him to lead a discussion or icebreaker. This not only gives the Talker an avenue of release but develops leadership skills.

3. Speak to him privately. Be loving and honest and tell him the dangers of speaking too much. It crowds others out, you are communicating that you have it all together, you’re not still or quiet enough to hear God’s voice.

4. Develop a way of communicating to him when he is close to the "Obnoxious line." Try to observe a "3 opinion limit” per LIFE Group meeting.

The Thinker
She is usually quiet and reserved. She will not speak unless specifically asked but notices everything that goes on within the LIFE Group. The Thinker has a tendency to be drowned out by louder personalities. Yet, the thinker must also get out from behind her mask if she is going to experience spiritual transformation. Before using water torture:

1. Sit across from her. Eye contact invites response.

2. Direct specific questions her way. Only direct low to medium risk questions unless you have an extremely close relationship. Allow her time to respond.

3. Positively affirm when she does respond.

4. Spend one-on-one time with her so she will open up easier.

The Theologian
The Theologian has forgotten more scripture than we know. He has the danger of either intimidating or annoying non-believers and young Christians. The Theologian can be more concerned about the "right" answer than being real. Before packing a NIV in his mouth:

1. Push him to dig deeper. Never be satisfied with his first answer. Get him to be specific and push him to the next level.

2. Why is always a great follow-up question.

3. Play the devil's advocate with him.

4. Avoid asking easy questions.

5. Let the Theologian lead a Bible study one night.

The Distracter
The Distracter makes coffee nervous. She is a walking bundle of energy and ends up being the focus of the LIFE Group. Before shoving Prozac down her mouth:

1. Ask her to bring snacks or lead an activity. This will give her some direction for her energy.

2. Make sure to use active learning with the Life Group - a lot!

3. Give her something to do during Life Group - write poetry, art, story - that can later be brought in to the discussion.

4. Spend some one-on-one time with her and ask her what would help.

The Debater
He challenges every point - not because he necessarily disagrees with it, but because he can. While this is conducive to great discussions every now and then, it can shut others up in the group and make them feel threatened and stupid. People aren't vulnerable when they feel threatened or stupid. Before getting violent:

1. Establish some safe ground rules for the group. It is okay to disagree, not okay to attack. Only one person may talk at a time.

2. Talk to the Debater alone and point out that while he has a lot to offer the group, he is hurting community by constantly attacking. The point of small groups is spiritual transformation, not to win an argument.

Next Session: L I F E Unpacked

Vulnerability Levels & Hindrances

2005-03-14T16:28:00.001-08:00

Not everyone shows up and starts vomiting their issues. We will start with low risk, then move to medium risk, and then high risk. Low risk are items like the weather, sports, clothes, or music. Medium risk is when I risk disagreeing with someone.

High risk is when I share something that you could hurt me with if you choose to. Temptations, failures, feelings, and struggles are high risk. High risk is going to be different for different levels of maturity.

High risk for a junior high student is revealing who they have a crush on, their fear of sitting alone at lunch, getting acne, or body odor. As we grow up, our high-risk confessions change. (Hopefully.)

If our Life groups never move into high-risk confession, they will stagnate. Individually, we will stagnate in Christ if we never engage in high-risk confession.

High-risk confession is accomplished over time and when the group proves itself trustworthy. High-risk confession may never be on the Life group agenda. It may occur between certain individuals within the Life group or there may be a holy moment that brings a high-risk opportunity into play. The reaction of leaders will determine whether or not your group will get there and stay there.

Leaders hinder high risk in one of two ways.

If we keep our masks on, the group members will keep their mask on. If we choose to NOT risk - neither will anyone else in the group.

Secondly, our reaction to someone else's high risk confession. We will either lead them to further healing OR further guilt, fakeness, and shame.

What kind of reactions are we talking about?

Inappropriate use of humor. When things get uncomfortable or too vulnerable, we'll crack a joke. Humor can be an anesthetic. There is a place for humor but it can also be inappropriate.
Quick advise. Nothing shuts up someone quite like someone else rattling off what they should have done. This screams "You idiot, that is so simple. I can't believe you are struggling with this."
Broken confidences. Want to destroy a Life Group? Let this happen, then act like it didn't. If folks can't trust whom they are talking to, they will quit talking and showing up.
Trite unauthentic responses. These are responses like "Well, God is in control." "It will be okay when you get some rest." "I am praying for you."
Judgmental statements. "I have no idea how you feel." "How can you say that?" "Don't say that!"

Any one of these will blow up a Life Group. People are only going to be real in a place that they think is both safe and they are loved.

Next Session: Application

Appropriate Confession

2005-03-14T16:28:00.000-08:00

Here are some guardrail questions: Does the issue involve someone else or is it just "my stuff?" If it involves someone else, have I attempted to work through the issues with them first? If I haven't - probably isn't appropriate.

Ultimately, I think it all goes back to purpose. What is the point of me sharing this? Do I want the attention? Am I needing and calling out for help? Am I open to hear what others have to say about the issue? Is it to celebrate or for healing?

For adults who work with students - it gets a little cloudier. I think all of the above questions are appropriate but there are few more things we should chew on before we pull the trigger on being vulnerable.

First, if the issue is a past event - have you really dealt with it or is it still in process? Don't portray a situation as a victory if you are still in process. Is it an issue they deal with? If you have a nagging wife, they aren't going to get it. So save that discussion for your peers.

Do the students you are leading have the skills and maturity to help you with your situation? Do they have the relational, emotional, mental maturity to help you or hold you accountable? If they don't have the capacity to help, it isn't appropriate to share.

Second, don't share a condemnation. If you think that no teenager should watch R rated movies and you are "struggling" with some of the decisions that some parents are making in this area - keep it to yourself.

First of all - that isn't so clear to many other parents. Second of all, that kind of "sharing" could be misunderstood as gossip.

Finally, as an adult who has chosen to serve students....it isn't about us. So if we are struggling with what to share - maybe we are talking to much in the first place.

I feel like a parrot but the bottom line question is "Why am I sharing this?" Don't settle for the first answer that pops in your head. Really dig deep.

Generally speaking - it's completely appropriate to share with students your failings and the lessons learned. Let's just be careful that the focus of the sharing doesn't turn into "look what I did and got away with" or "look how spiritual I am now."

If you still aren't sure whether something is appropriate or not - bounce it off of another coach and let them help you decide.

Next Session: Vulnerability Levels & Hindrances

Handling Conflict

2005-03-14T16:25:00.000-08:00

If you have more than two people around, you are going to have conflict. If you don’t deal with the conflict, it only gets worse. Left alone, conflict brings with it destruction and bitterness. When we have been wronged and have every right to be bitter, it is important to remember why we confront.

Biblical confrontation has restoration and redemption as its point. We confront to restore and redeem, not to be proven ‘right’ or justified. Jesus was the same way. His whole point of confronting our sin problem was not to send us to hell but to bring us to right relationship with Him.

Our LIFE Groups are about living in relationship with each other and God. That means that it is going to get messy. Sin alone can destroy these relationships, but unconfronted and ignored sin will destroy the entire group.

Jesus left for us a model for handling conflict. It’s found in Matthew 7:3-5 and Matthew 18:15-17.

First, check your own eyes for the logs. Jesus says “How can you help your brother with the speck in his eye with a plank in your own? First take out your plank, then help with the speck.”

How is our own walk with Christ? Do we have the same problem and need to ask for forgiveness before we confront the one who wronged us? It’s important to be honest about the stuff we own in the process.

Next, we must love the person enough to go to them personally. This means that we do not talk to others about it or garner support for our position. We first work it out with the person individually. Remember, the point of confrontation is restoration. We are to build up the body of Christ, not tear it down. 97% of all conflict ends with the one on one confrontation.

If the person will not listen, we are to take two or three others with us. I would recommend one of those be your coach. Get wise counsel around the situation at this point. They will be able to discern if the issue is a sin issue or just a point of disagreement.

It is possible for someone to disagree with us and not wrong us. Differences of opinion need not escalate into full-fledge fights and arguments. These differences of opinion fall into sin issues when attitudes change and we begin to gossip, backstab, and lie.

As a leader – you are going to be disagreed with. Get used to it. If no one ever disagrees with you, you aren’t making any hard decisions and your impact is questionable at best. The responsibility we have as leaders is to listen to those who disagree with us and seek to understand their point of view.

That doesn’t mean we do what they want to do. It does mean we lovingly lead them as best we can in the direction we think God is leading us. We still are going to live and lead for the audience of the One. There are going to be disagreements. We don’t have to be disagreeable.

If the issue is deemed as a sin issue by your coach and other leaders and the person will still not listen to the two or three, tell it to the church. In our setting, this is could mean a couple of things. It could mean the entire LIFE Group. It could mean the entire Coaching team or Elders. How will you know what to do?

The entire LIFE Group leadership structure will be walking through this by this time and we will have enough people around the table to discern what is best.

Again, let’s remember the point of confrontation – restoration. So the LIFE Group should pray and seek opportunities to restore him/her to the group. This may mean taking some LIFE Group meeting time and honestly unwrapping all the feelings involved in the situation. It may mean calling in other Coaches.

If the person still refuses to listen, treat the offender as a non-Christian. This sounds harsh at first, but think of how we are to treat non-Christians. We are to love them unconditionally. We are to pray for their repentance. We are to ask God to open their eyes of their heart to see their need for repentance. We are to serve them. No different here.

If a conflict reaches this stage, there is going to be plenty of leaders in on it and we’ll come to solutions that hopefully will allow the offender multiple opportunities for resolution.

Back to Coaches
Back to Life Group Leaders
Back to Interns

Life Group Covenant

2005-03-14T16:24:00.001-08:00

A mini-sermon to help understand the importance of a covenant. We need community. God created us for community (Genesis 1:26-31; 2:18-25). What held the community together? God did by setting in place a set of common values and expectations that everybody understood and agreed to. However, sin destroyed this community (Genesis 3). God redeemed it again with another value – Jesus Christ. So what does that all have to do with a LIFE Group Covenant?

We will have broken, destroyed vessels in our Life Groups which if left alone will create broken, destroyed community. If our Life Groups are going to be places of true heartfelt, loving community, then we must have a set of common values to agree upon. These common values make up a Life Group Covenant.

The Value of a Covenant

First, it explicitly states our LIFE Group’s purpose and direction. To have life-changing experience with Jesus.

Secondly, it allows the group to evaluate and determine growth. Key evaluation questions can be answered honestly and openly when there is a covenant to support it.

A Life Group covenant allows newcomers to get a good, quick picture of the LIFE Group. This is key if new people are going to open up and be vulnerable in a short amount of time.

Finally, it places everyone on equal footing. No one is above being held accountable. If for some reason, a confidence is broken within the LIFE Group, the covenant acts as a protector of the group. It will be easier to confront when everyone has signed off on the same expectations - no matter the age or 'status' of the group member.

The Life Group leader is responsible for walking the Life Group through establishing their covenant. Basically, the group itself determines what standards they want to be held accountable for. There is no set formula for a group's covenant but there should be at least five areas covered in the covenant.

First, it needs to be clear how conflict and wrongdoing are going to be handled.

Second, there needs to be an understanding of confidentiality. Nothing damages community like broken confidences. Cases of abuse, suicide, or someone else getting hurt will require us to involve other parties.

Third, a commitment to show up regularly.

Fourth, an understanding of the purpose of Life Groups.

Finally, the whole group must promise to uphold these guidelines.

Sample Life Group Covenant

Next Session: Handling Conflict

Sample Life Group Covenant

2005-03-14T16:24:00.000-08:00

Here is what one Life Group Covenant looks like.

We commit to:
Meeting weekly for community times together, worshipping together, and studying God’s word together.

Serving others outside of our group on a bi-monthly basis.

Coming prepared to the group by praying for one another and studying God’s word.

Holding each other accountable

Pray for and reach out to our spiritually lost peers.

Working together to share the gospel with our spiritually lost peers.

Confidentiality – whatever is shared in the group, stays in the group.

A Matthew 18:15-17 process of dealing with a wrong committed against us.

Remaining teachable and open for rebuke or correction when we are in need of readjusting our lives to experience the presence and blessing of God.

We the undersigned, agree to uphold these values and goals both inside and outside our Life Group by depending upon God, praying for one another and encouraging one another to live according to them. We will do this with grace and truth, forgiving and restoring one another with love.

Holy Moments & Highlights

2005-03-14T16:22:00.000-08:00

Highlights about the life cycle

The first two - Show up and Shed skin - almost always happen in that order. Those are the two key questions that every person MUST HAVE ANSWERED before they will choose to be vulnerable OR fit a LIFE Group in their schedule. People will not be vulnerable with people they don't trust. They will not show up to things that aren't worth the time.

The second two - share lives and shape hearts - are less sequential. A couple of people may decide that they want to hold each other accountable about a specific stumbling block issue. That would be share lives that hopefully would lead to a shaping of their hearts.

However, the reverse could just as easily happen. For example, a shared worship experience may have produced a profound insight for someone, who then shares that insight at LIFE Group. So he confides in his LIFE group a major decision he made in light of that experience. In that instance, the shaping of the heart came first then the sharing.

The result is the same - spiritual transformation. What moves a LIFE Group from one part of the cycle to the next?

Holy Moments
Mark Edwards calls these moments "Thin Places." These are moments where your LIFE Group sits at a crossroads that will either move them towards more vulnerability or less. These moments will move your group towards more intimacy of Christ or less. They can throttle your LIFE Group into the next cycle or stall it out.

Space should be created in your LIFE Group for them to happen - but they can't be manipulated. They are Spirit driven. They can be spontaneous.

We don't want to do anything that "quenches" the Spirit. We don't want to manipulate a situation to get an emotional response. But we DO want to capitalize on moments that the Spirit brings to us by boldly following His lead. We DO want to create space for the Spirit to bring those Holy Moments to the surface.

As leaders we have to help others see these moments and anticipate them. This is part of the framing process. Examples are moments of vulnerability from Life Group members, a shared worship experience, or a crisis that explodes in your group.

A Map, Not A Destination
The Life Cycle is NOT the goal. A transformed leader is the goal. The Cycle is a map that tells you where you are at in the journey and what might be coming ahead.

Next Session: Life Group Covenant

Life Cycle of a Life Group

2005-03-14T16:21:00.000-08:00

So we show up at our first LIFE Group meeting and all of this just happens, right? We immediately start hammering on the 5 spiritual disciplines and LIFE. Yeah, right.

If you have spent anytime at all in a group, you know it takes time to build trust. So how does a group move from a bunch of individuals who know little to nothing about each other to a small community that is encountering Jesus and being changed by Him together? Time and tools.

The tools are blending the 5 disciplines while doing L I F and E. The time issue has to do with the life cycle of a Life Group.

Cycles of A Life Group

Show Up
Key Question: Is this worth my time? Are they real?
Getting people together is the first step of building any kind of community. The key question that must be answered: "Is this worth my time." People may never verbalize this but they want to be a part of a group that is growing, fun, vibrant, caring and real.

Other key questions are: Are they real? Do they deal with real life stuff? Are they fake? Are they 'touchable'?

Shed Skin
Key Question: Can they be trusted?
If our LIFE Groups are going to get to this phase, it will require vulnerability - from leaders. The main reason we don't get vulnerable is because we are afraid of being rejected or condemned. So our LIFE Groups have to be a safe place to be real. We unwrapped how to do this in the Community Disciplines section.

Share Lives
Key Question: Will I Let Them In?
The more time a group spends together, the easier this becomes. This is beyond just hanging out with each other and being present at significant milestones. It is also an issue of access.

Shape Hearts
Key Question: Will I adjust my life?
This is life change. This is where we begin to see the influence of God on each other by the decisions we are making.

Next Session: Highlights & Holy Moments

L I F E Unpacked

2005-03-14T16:20:00.000-08:00

The purpose of a LIFE Group is to have a life-changing encounter with Jesus. That is the BULLSEYE we are shooting after. The outcome of these experiences will be fully mature believers of Christ (Ephesians 4:11-16). So how do you get from the purpose to the outcome? The acronym LIFE is a tool to help our leaders travel that road.

Love God
Invest yourself
Feed on the Word
Engage your World

Every activity or event of a LIFE Group should be evaluated as to if it will lead to a life-changing encounter of Jesus. And if it does, it probably fits into one of these four categories.

Love God
(Revelation 19:1-10; Isaiah 6:1-8; Romans 12:1-2)
Loving God is simply worship. It is expressed directly to God. It is giving God His due. So can your LIFE Group worship if none of your members can sing or play a guitar? Well, absolutely! Prayers, letters to God, art, drama, and acts of service are all ways to worship God.

What are some ways we can worship God and not sing?

Invest Yourself
This is an investment of your time, talents, and treasure. The investment is a total giving of ourselves.

How do you spend your money? Do you give to the church? Do you support financially a missionary or mission?

Where do you spend your time? Are you available to serve, to disciple, or to lead? Are you intentionally pursuing a discipling relationship with someone else?

What are you good at or like to do? How are you using that in the Kingdom? Maybe it’s acts of compassion or serving in the community somewhere.

Feed on the Word
It is impossible to grow in Christ without studying the Word of God. If prayer is breathing spiritually, then the study of God's word is eating spiritually. It is impossible to be transformed without the Word of God. It is the guide book. We will unwrap this further in the Leading A Discussion and Marinate on the Word sessions.

Engage Your World
All of the spiritual transformation in the world is worth nothing if it never intersects the real world. In Matthew 5, Jesus puts it very clear - we are the salt and light of the world. Living at the crossroads of the Greats requires us to engage the world.

This engagement is more than just standing in your world and screaming "Turn or Burn!" It's about serving those outside the group. A group's ability to serve those outside themselves often parallels the community a group is experiencing. If there is good community, there is a desire to serve others. If the group is closed to others, that group does not have community but rather co-dependency.

Next Session: Life Cycle

Spiritual Transformation, 101

2005-03-14T16:17:00.000-08:00

Suppose we have a LIFE Group that is loving, caring and all the warm fuzzy words you can imagine. Tina is a member of this group and she has a problem with gossip. She is a member of this LIFE Group for a year. She continues to gossip and the group continues to love her and make her feel good about herself.

Is this discipleship? Is this transformational? NO! This enabling situation has all the spirituality of a Hallmark commercial - it is warm. It's fuzzy. It feels good. But it is not bringing her into an encounter with Jesus and therefore resulting in her becoming more Christ-like.

Transformational Principles

First, all growth - spiritual and otherwise - comes through a disciplined, many times painful process. Think about it. From learning to walk, ride a bike, to trust or not trust a friend, learn a skill, or program your VCR - all these things took discipline, failures, and many times painful failures in order for us to acquire to those skills. It is no different spiritually. A Christian will not grow without pain or trials. It is impossible to read the Bible and not see this pattern in scripture. Listen to any Christian leader and it is plain to see that growth is not without pain and struggle.

Secondly, spiritual transformation is intentional. It does not happen by accident or by osmosis. It is the result of an individual intentionally yielding his or her heart to God.

Spiritual transformation, while happening to individuals, best happens in Life groups. The capacity for the human mind to hear a sermon, write notes on it, and it never penetrate the heart and affect how life is lived is staggering.

Finally, being in a Life group does not guarantee spiritual transformation. I’ll talk about this in the next session in more detail but for now let’s understand that as leaders our primary responsibility is two-fold. First, we are to be about spiritual transformation ourselves. In other words, we must be people who constantly seek life-changing encounters with Jesus. We can’t take people where we are not going.

The second responsibility we have is to help provide an opportunity for others to have a life changing encounter with Jesus. We ‘frame’ the picture. It’s not our responsibility as to how people respond to that opportunity. People must choose for themselves if they are going to engage in that process and allow God to transform them. Just because someone has choosen to show up to a LIFE Group, it doesn’t mean they are willing, ready, or able to allow God to meet them.

So why is spiritual transformation so hard? Simply because there are some hindrances to spiritual transformation. Here's my short list...

1. Satan - 1 Peter 5:8 says it best. He does not want to see anyone changed.
2. Our culture - Ephesians 2 calls the devil the ruler of this earth so it would follow that our culture reflects this. Our culture celebrates freedom without discipline and rights without responsibility.
3. Our Selves - transformation is hard, it isn't easy, and often times it means enduring something that is avoidable. However, the greater reward is later, not now so our flesh gets in the way at times. See Romans 7:15-20.
4. Lack of faith - Matthew 17:14-21, we don't think we or anyone else can be changed.
5. Lack of knowledge - Acts 18:1-4; 24-26
6. Drifting - This would be unintentional. This is someone who is easily swayed by what is going on around him and just goes with the flow.
7. Rebellion - this is intentional. This is someone who knows the truth and chooses to reject it.
8. Distraction - Matthew 19:16-24
9. Fear - It is scary to trust God.

There are other things that help. We call those things "disciplines" or "practices." The Disciplines allow us to place ourselves before God so that He can transform us, writes Richard Foster in Celebration of Discipline. The disciplines themselves are not transforming. They are a means to an end. God is and must be the focus of these disciplines.

There are three arenas where spiritual disciplines are practiced. In the Corporate arena we would see singing, teaching, and praying. The Sunday morning, large group worship time is a corporate arena.

Over the next couple of chapters, I want to unpack the other two arenas – community and individual (inner). I think there are some core disciplines that HAVE to happen in order for there to be spiritual transformation and they take place in these two arenas.

Before we do that, I want to cover one more thing - framing.

Next Session: Framing
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Purpose Of A Life Group

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So let's put what we know so far together. Our mission, as given by Jesus, is the Great Commission and the Great Commandment. The manner in which this best happens is out of the overflow of a life-changing experience with Jesus. The arena we think this best happens in is the Life Group.

Transformation
Transformation is a fancy word for life-change. And the Bible talks a lot about transformation. Galatians 4:19 talks about "Christ being formed in you." The word transformed is metamorphoo in Greek - where we get our word metamorphous. Makes you think of this, doesn't it?

The word means to be changed inward not noticeable to the human eye, like an embryo being formed in a mother's womb. This is a wonderful word picture of how Christ changes us. It starts inward unnoticeable to the human eye. Eventually it affects every aspect of our life.

Paul uses this word often. Romans 12:2 - Do not conformed...but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. 2 Corinthians 3:18 - And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness. Philippians 3:21 - who will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

The essence of spiritual transformation is living in the presence of God. It is Christ being formed in us. Sounds a lot like discipleship doesn't it? Because that is exactly what it is! This means growth and change in our lives.

So what exactly does spiritual transformation look like and how does that happen in a LIFE Group? Great questions that we are going to attempt to answer in greater detail as we go on.

The Seeds of Multiplication
At this point, I think it important to understand that transformation should lead to multiplication. The making of a disciple is quite simply the multiplication of a follower of Jesus. When Jesus set out to change the world, he started by changing 12 men. We too are called to change our worlds, so we must start sowing the seeds of multiplication. What I have learned, I will lifewalk through with you. What you learn on our journey together, I expect you to take someone else on next.

That is why it really doesn't matter how big or small our LIFE Groups are. If a LIFE Group has only 4 people, but 2 of them go on to lead a LIFE Group, then that is a successful LIFE Group. We multiply leaders who are having life changing experiences with Jesus. We don’t multiply groups. That is Great Commission work at its core.

Next Session: Spiritual Transformation, 101
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Our Structure

2005-03-14T15:57:00.000-08:00

It’s not enough to know the reason behind LIFE groups and the bullseye. We need some structure to get anything out of it. Having blueprints are great, but it is better to have an actual building.

The ideal size of a LIFE group is between 10 to 15 people. It is very hard for a Leader and Intern to give front-row care to more than 15 people. So the goal is to birth a new LIFE group when we hit that number.

We have 3 key roles: Coach, LIFE Group Leader, and Intern. Inside a particular LIFE Group you might have a host couple or even a social guru. You can be as creative, lazy, or efficient as you want here, but the core leadership consists of these three.

Let's start with the Intern. The main responsibility of the Intern is to be a sponge. We want him/her to observe and absorb both the how's and the why's of LIFE group. An intern will gain an ever-increasing circle of responsibility within the LIFE Group. This includes discipling new believers, specific care for certain LIFE Group members, and leading a meeting every now and then.

The LIFE Group leader shares the responsibility for the health of the LIFE Group along side an intern. The LIFE Group Leader's primary purpose is leading the Life Group into transformational encounters with Jesus while taking the intern along on the journey.

The Coach is responsible for discipling the LIFE Group Leader and the intern. The coach is the first line of help, encouragement, and guidance for the LIFE Group leader and intern. We will cover this in more detail when we talk about Coaching.

Expectations, Minimum
We want the Intern and LG Leader to meet every other week to not just plan the next meeting but to check on each other's soul. This would be a great arena to evaluate the health of your group and what you would like to see them doing in the future.

We’d like the Coach to be in on one of those meetings a month as well as in one of the LIFE Groups you are coaching.

As a leadership culture, we are going to have four Confabs a year. These are times to refresh our souls as well as celebrate what God is doing in our Body through our LIFE groups.

We also have four Connections a year in which we try to jump start new LIFE groups as well as plug new faces into our current LIFE Groups. We need you to be there as well.

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Life Walking @ 30,000 Feet

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How To Use This Site

Interns

Why are we here?

Why Life Groups?

Our Structure
Purpose Of A Life Group

Spiritual Transformation, 101
Framing

Inner Disciplines

Prayer, Audio

Meditate (Marinate) on God's Word, Audio*

Basic Hermeneutics

Being a Strong Interpretor

Big Picture Theology
All Those Versions

Worship
Silence & Fasting, Audio

Serve, Audio

Life Group Disciplines*

Confession, Audio

Appropriate Confession
Vulnerability Levels & Hindrances

Application

Accountability, Audio

Guidance, Audio

Encouragment, Audio

Leading A Meeting*

Leading A Discussion

Inductive Bible Study

Questions and Skills

Telling Your Story

Working with Different Personalities

Leading A Group*

L I F E Unpacked

Life Cycle

Holy Moments & Highlights

Life Group Covenant, Sample Covenant

Handling Conflict

Assessing Health

Life Group Leader Track Extras

The Intern Process

Finding Interns

Intern Application & Interview

OJT & Commissioning

Increasing An Intern's Role
Ready to Birth A Group?
How To Birth A Group...
Correction, Spiritual & Functional

Coaches

Model

Vision

Correct

Encourage

A Blessing For The Journey

Why Life Groups?

2005-03-14T15:47:00.000-08:00

I think the best place to have a life changing encounter with Jesus is in community. It’s not the only place – I myself love to be alone on a ridge with Jesus looking at the sunset. It’s an encounter with Jesus to be sure. And to some extent it is life changing.

But the fleshing out of that change will always happen in community. Always. Community will validate the alone experience. Like I said, community is the BEST place to have a life changing encounter with Jesus. In fact, I’d be so bold to say that it is impossible for someone to be mature in Christ without community.

So if community is so important, what is it?

It's hard to define - but here’s a start. It is belonging and making sure that anyone else can belong. Community is being in each other’s stuff. It’s lifewalking with someone else. It’s knowing someone and BEING known by someone else more than you're comfortable with. And they still love you. Community is trusting someone else with your baggage. Community is the flesh of God's unconditional love to others and it will change your life.

Community happens on a smaller scale. It’s about intimacy. All of these things happen in the context of a small group. We call our small groups “LIFE Groups.” And we have got some monster reasons why we think LIFE Groups are the best place to encounter and experience the life-changing unconditional love of Jesus.

It is how Jesus did ministry. Out of the hundreds of people who were following Him, Jesus picked out 12. These men would be his LIFE Group. Out of those 12, he chose 3 to be in His inner circle. He spent 3 years with these men. The Son of God was strategic and purposeful in this decision.

Life change happens in small groups. When we stop and think about the major decisions we have made - both good and bad - who was around us? More than likely, just a handful of people. Our hobbies, foods we eat, to accept Christ, to exercise more - whatever the decision - are normally made in the context of a smaller group.

Gives "front-row" care to each person. If we want every person to experience the love of God, how can someone feel loved with just being one of the masses? It is so easy to miss people in a group of 200 or more. It's impossible to forget about someone in a group of 7.

LIFE Groups are a better arena to apply God's word. Trying to make disciples in a corporate setting is akin to teaching a room full of 7th graders how to build a boat. I don't know if any of them COULD do it nor WOULD I be the test pilot to see if it worked. There are specific circumstances that some people need help in that we are never going to cover from "up front." LIFE Groups give us that arena.

Great arena for multiplying disciples. Every LIFE Group has a LIFE Group leader and an intern. Every LIFE Group leader has a coach. The goal is for the intern to lead their own LIFE Group after a year with their own intern. Life groups allow a greater number of disciples to be trained.

At Grace, LIFE Groups are not just some slick program. It is our lifeblood. We think pursuing Jesus and His purposes can't happen without them.

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