At the Group Life Conference this year Andy Stanley shared five reasons that he will be in a small group for life.  Here they are:

1. It’s the easiest place to invite un-churched people to, especially if they are not ready for the whole Sunday morning experience.

2. It’s often one of the only contexts for pastors or church staff to engage in ministry with their spouse.

3. It’s the only environment where you get to engage others on their spiritual journey, where they are at.  You are often forced to connect with people that you would not normally connect with. We often are exposed to the grace of God in a new way when this happens.

4. Kids see a commitment to Christ and community in the church.

5. Life change happens in the context of structured relationships – something happens when we sit in circles and don’t sit in rows.

His last line of the talk, “Thank you for leading a group, it is difficult, but it is worth it.”

In our small groups or classes, it is always a challenge to keep the bible fresh as a leader or teacher.  At the Group Life Conference Bill Donahue shared a few different methods to help us do a better job at keeping the Bible fresh:

Guidelines to engage the text:

1. Study the bible for yourself, not by yourself – Acts 2:42 Devote yourself to the teaching
2. Never engage the text without encountering the author – you don’t need a backstage pass to encounter God in your study
3. Read the Bible for transformation, not just information – don’t just seek to know about something, seek to know something. Then we can use knowledge to provoke compassion instead of wielding power.

We Commit Biblical Malpractice…

• When we skim over the familiar
• When we trivialize something in the scripture
• When we take it out of context
• When the Bible is used for personal gain or agenda
• When it is more important to be right instead of righteous
• When we misuse the Bible it is Textual Abuse

Some Approaches to keep the Bible Fresh:

• Read and Reflect
  • Prepare your heart – some do this with silence, music, try to listen to God
  • Try using a spiritual reading or poetry
• Listen to the text
  • Ephesians 2:4-5 ⁴But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
  • Pause, reflect, read in different speeds, stressing different words. Slow, fast, soft, loud.
  • Ask what people hear
  • Ask people in the group to reflect and journal privately in the group meeting
• Engage and Examine
  • Acts 17:11 Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.
  • Ask Questions like, “What does it say?” or “What does that mean?” or “What do you think is happening?”
  • Help your group bring some intellectual rigor to the meeting without being too academic.
• Observe and Obey
  • Is there a great truth coming from this text?
  • Ask and answer the question, “So what?”
  • Can you force this as a discipline in your group by trying ask, “How did you live this out last week?”
  • Once you’ve observed the truth you’ve got to ask, “How do we live?”
  • This approach moves us into the world

 Mix up your group to try all of these approaches so you keep your group fresh.

That actually excites me because I’m constantly looking for ways to merge technology and ministry.  I honestly believe the more relevant we can make the gospel message, the more people will listen to what we have to say. However, to get them to listen the church must communicate in modern language with the current tools of our culture. 

Here are the posts that recieved the most pageviews last month:

1 – Five Reasons Pastors Should Use Twitter

2 – Guilty Prayers (Interview with Lindsay Spengler)

3 – Ten Reasons Your Church Should Be On Facebook

4 – How To Remember Everything (Evernote)

5 – Five Tips For A Great Church Website

Click here to read more about google wave.

I love what Dave had to say about not underestimating the power of simple. He has a simple 5 step process for developing leaders by investing in people 1 at a time:

1 – I do you watch
2 – I do you help
3 – You do I help
4 – You do I watch
5 – You do and someone else watches

I love the simplicity in it and when I think about the leaders I’ve developed that is pretty much when things have worked out best. I think something important to remember about this method is that the simplicity can sometimes be interpreted as speed. We’ve got to remember that while we can use a process to simplify things we cant assume that everyone will move through the process at the same pace. Some will take months, while others take years. Soon “The Nines” will be available for download. When it is I will post the link.

1 – Ten Reasons Your Church Should Be On Facebook

2 – Merging Social Media And Ministry

3 – Five Tips For A Great Church Website

4 – Why Would God Allow Me To Experience So Much Crap In My Life (Video)

5 – Chasing Twitter Followers

Here is how they say this tool is useful for churches:

• Help members build community and connect after services
• Share info about small groups and other church ministries
• Live Q&A with the pastor
• Allow attendees to participate in announcements

Maybe you will have to give Paratweet a test drive at your church.  If you would like to follow me on twitter or join the fun click here.