ESSENTIALS FOR FACILITATING A GROUP

When the Spirit Comes: A Study Through Acts

 

Group criteria for the Acts study

  • Groups involve at least two people committed to meet weekly

  • Meetings occur every week for eight weeks

  • Meetings may be in-person or virtual, although in-person is preferred whenever possible

  • Meetings include study, sharing, checking on each other, and prayer

  • Participants should commit to doing the weekly readings and checking out the weekly postings

  • Each week, please place an empty chair among the group as a physical reminder of people who are missing or who have not yet come to faith in Jesus

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Suggested pattern for meetings (feel free to vary the pattern based on what’s best for your group)

  • Open with prayer thanking God for His Word and for everyone in the group

  • Ask if anyone has a God story to share (something neat the Lord’s done for them or through them recently)

  • Ask how everyone is doing and if they have anything new to share

  • Take a few minutes to pray for each other

  • Refer to the reading for the week (3-4 chapters of the book of Acts) and ask if anything really jumped out at anyone from the reading

    • Take time to discuss anything that’s shared

  • Ask if anyone found anything in the reading particularly confusing or even troubling

    • Take time to discuss anything that’s shared

  • Refer to the online postings for week and ask if anyone found anything in them particularly helpful, interesting, confusing, or troubling

    • Take time to discuss anything shared about the postings

  • Choose a few of the study questions provided for the week and discuss them

  • Close by praying (1) for the grace to apply the things you are learning, and (2) over the empty chair, asking God to send those who need to be there and to lead each group member to people they can love and reach out to

 

Group leader skills/reminders

Facilitate – Don’t teach and don’t dominate the conversations; these are discussion groups (the teaching occurs in the weekly postings).

Manage – Don’t let one or two people dominate the discussions.

Involve – Try to get every person in the group to share something each time you meet.

 

Group leaders should guard against

  • Promoting postmodern relativism – Remind the group that we believe in absolutes.  Contrary to popular thinking, not all opinions are equally valid – error is error, and heresy is heresy.

  • Engaging in speculative theology – Be comfortable saying, “I don’t know” or “Let me look into that.”

    • Please submit controversies and tough questions to the pastors and elders

    • We will host a Let’s Talk About It event at church Sunday night, February 19, which is a great time to bring up your questions and input

  • Engaging in unhealthy disputes and controversies – Don’t let the group slip into unduly criticizing or slandering other Christians or other ministries.