It’s exciting for me to encounter good things going on in our small groups. It’s even more exciting for me when I encounter these good things and I realize that I had nothing to do with them. For example, when Darrin Clark was interviewed during the service a few weeks back about his volunteer ministry role as an usher I lost count of how many times he plugged his small group. That was good. But what made it great was that he was applying and championing what he was learning in his small group, specifically that he gets to serve, not that he has to serve. And when he mentioned that it was a member of his small group who invited him to serve with him on his team, that made it even better.
Another example of one of the good things going on in small groups came from one of our young adult groups. Earlier this semester I caught wind of something Chad Huss was doing for the young adult group he leads. Each week he creates a newsletter for his small group concerning all the goings on for the group that week, including prayer requests and praises, information about their study, and other pertinent info for them. And it’s pretty sharp looking. Take a look at their newsletter for the first week of the year here: The Wednesday Night Post.
I heard from Tyler Cormeny that they have chosen a curriculum for their group this session to help them teach their members how to dig deeper into the Bible on their own. They’re working with their group to ease them in to this kind of study. Tyler even “gave them a simple guide for digging into the bible which includes writing down what is new to you, what is impactful to you, what questions do you have, etc. Also, with some ground rules of don’t make assumptions, don’t take a single verse out of context of the rest of the bible, don’t try to make the bible fit your lifestyle –the bible need to shape you, etc.” I love how Tyler and Susan saw what their group needed and then catered the structure of their group in such a way to grow their members. That’s a great thing.
I could go on and on with good stories like these. I’m always jazzed to hear what God is doing in our groups, to see the life change that takes place as a result of people encountering Christ and connecting with His people in our groups. I love hearing your stories of the good things happening in your groups, so please keep sharing the stories, and please continue to pray with me that God will grant us many more.
