As a church we just finished going through the book of 2 Timothy. Terry took a few minutes to highlight a few key lesson from group life from our time in 2 Timothy.
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First Saturday in February, 7:45 in the morning…I had left home about 5 to drive to Topeka. I wasn’t feeling exceptionally encouraged…I wasn’t feeling much of anything except tired. The person running the meeting looked at me and asked, “Chaplain, have anything for us?” I looked around the room of about 30 people…wearing masks…hard to discern what was on their minds. My mind quickly scrolled through some thoughts: -First of course… I’m tired and don’t really feel like saying…
Terry discusses the importance of viewing member care in group life as a spectrum. The spectrum goes from Necessary to Nice. Necessary are those physical, emotional, spiritual or relational needs in member’s lives where the need exceeds current capacity. Everyone is called to carry their own load so we can’t eliminate every burden, nor should we but at times people need help when the burden is to heavy to carry alone. At the nice end of the spectrum are those…
Rodney talks about Mission being the forgotten M of group life. Meetings are on the calendar and member care faces us at every meeting, but mission can be forgotten. Our role as leaders is to equip our people and to remind our members to engage in mission. Trace shared about how he is working in Christian Challenge to keep Mission on the forefront. Possible Mission Goals for Your Group Pray regularly for the lost in group Gospel conversation scoreboard Memorize…
Brenda encourages group leaders to remember the importance of member care in group but to not fall into the trap that member care is one size fits all. Individuals in your group feel love and cared for in different ways. Member care can look differently from group to group. Possible Member Care Goals for Group Get to know one another better – families, concerns, praises, etc. Serve one another in times of need. (Life events – babies, weddings, death, job…
Jim encourages leaders to think about the different components of their meetings. Meetings are important. They are the squeaky wheel of group life which means they get lots of attention and rightfully so because if you don’t meet you don’t have a group. The tension that is important is learning to get meetings the appropriate attention but not let them dominate group life. Possible Goals for Meetings Manage Time (Start / End & Pray / Share) Delegate responsibility Get members…
Brenda introduced a model for mentoring called the grow model. It is an acrostic that can help direct in a mentoring relationship or direct a leader as they are seeking to grow in a certain area. G.R.O.W. What is your FOCUS? Goal: Where do you want to go? What do you want to achieve? Why is it important? Reality (Current Reality): Where are you now? Obstacles/Options: What prevents moving towards goal? How can you move through or past the obstacle?…
Terry shares about the purpose and vision of group life and reminds leaders to pursue faithfulness to their calling to lead their groups.
Terry shared several thoughts about leading people through the transitions ahead.