You may know the process to become a member of LifePoint Church.  I know that you are probably investing in others in order to invite them to church, but even more, invite into a relationship with Christ.   Your Small Group probably has people that are not Christ-followers and/or members of LifePoint Church.  We are writing this to assist you in helping a friend, family member, SG member (investee) to cross the line of faith, be baptized and become a member of LifePoint Church.

Invest to Invite (I2I)

Each week you can hear someone talk about I2I and updating others on the progress.  I2I may not make sense to you.  This is where we practice Luke 5: the Matthew Party; and Matthew 28:19-20:  making disciples.   I2I is basically developing relationships with others who may not be Christ-followers in order to help them make the most important decision of their lives.  As you build these relationships (invest) you love them whether they ever cross the line of faith or not, but you also let God work through you to show His love for them.  Spend time discovering their story.  Listen to them.  Look for God at work in their story.   God will help you discern next steps in your relationship and investing.   It will become clear on if/when to invite them to church, to an event or even discuss deeper matters of sharing how you became a Christ-follower.

Sharing Your Story:  Be Real, Be Honest and Share What Happened When You Became a Christ-Follower

The book of Romans in your Bible has a very simple plan to guide someone to cross the line of faith.  Read Romans 3:23; 6:23; 5:8; 10:9-10; 12:1-2.  Tell your story.   Ask them if they would like to become a Christ-follower.  Ask them if they would like to meet a pastor/staff person at church.  If they have questions you cannot answer, feel free to email a staff person or bring them to the Pastor’s Connection after any worship service.

Sharing Their Story

If your investee invites Jesus Christ into their life, steps across the line of faith, becomes a Christ follower, gets saved (trying to cover all the phrases we use), invite them to a worship service!  Offer to pick them up, sit with them, and walk with them to the Pastor’s Connection.  If you have been in church much of your life you remember the invitation time at the end of the service.  This is where many of us “walked the isle” and told the preacher we wanted to get saved.  Today, the Pastor’s Connection serves as the place to share that decision.  So many people are new to church and new to the BIG auditorium; we have tried to overcome these obstacles for people.  As you probably experienced in your life, the actual decision (prayer of salvation) did not happen as you walked the isle or talked with pastor at the altar.  You probably prayed the prayer at the end of the service or at home or with a friend sometime before that.  The “isle walking” was just a way to share your story.  At LifePoint Church, we offer the Pastor’s Connection as that place.

Baptism  After

A Person Becomes A Christ-Follower, The Very Next Step Is To Be Baptized.  To help your investee make this step, please walk with them to the Pastor’s Connection.  There they will have the opportunity to talk with an Encourager about baptism and receive information.  They will receive a packet of information about baptism and the baptism video.  We provide an outline for the video that has four sentences they complete for the video.   They will also have the opportunity to schedule their baptism date and in which service they want to be baptized.    Their family or SG can accompany them to the baptistery. http://www.lifepointchurch.org/baptism

Church Membership

For anyone to become a member of LifePoint Church, they must attend Discover LifePoint.  This one hour class is offered in Café 1 at 10:45am on the first and second Sundays of every month.  Kyle Goen and Eddie Mosley lead this class that helps answer questions and shares the mission and vision of LifePoint Church.  In Discover LifePoint  a person will have the opportunity to become a Christ-follower, join LifePoint Church and ask any question.  They will also have time to talk with an Encourager in more detail concerning their questions and/ or decision.    Anyone can take Discover LifePoint at any time; you do not have to be a Christ-follower, a church member or even considering joining, yet.  It is a place to “kick-the-tires” and help people find where God is leading them.

Friends,

In Acts 2:42-47, Luke describes what biblical community looked like in the 1st Century church. People were discipled, served others, and did life together. They likely knew everyone’s story.  Given the level of engagement and community, it is likely the people were part of most stories.  Relational listening was natural and normal.  It was a place where needs were discovered, growth revealed, and the Spirit of God palpated in lives. Is that true for you today in the community you are connected?

If not, begin listening to stories God sends your way.  The story of a person could be the pathway He chooses to communicate with you.  Listen for God working.  Pay attention to clues that reveal God’s hand and presence.  Check your heart.  Be open to promptings the Holy Spirit may place on your heart and mind.  Sound mysterious? At times it is and we can be confident it was for those in the 1st century church.  God has been and always will be in control. Do not miss an incredible encounter with Him through lives of people on your journey. Prepare to be “filled with awe”.  Listen well!

-Be present when listening:  focus on them

-Listen with a purpose:  what do they need from me?

-Facts become tracts to truths:  watch for the deeper journey

-The ”story” is a home to a marker in their life

LaVerne

1.  build a leadership team/share the load, you can’t do it alone and are not expected to!

2.  conduct life-changing group meetings, go in the direction of the study but watch for where God wants to lead you time.

3. shepherd the members of your group, love on them like you would want to be loved on

4. complete group covenant, helps everyone have the same direction for the group and cuts down on confusion.

5. develop an apprentice, we all need to share what we know with someone else.  At least we need to  leave someone behind to take our place.

Do you think these be on your “to strive for” list?

Then there are the other months that Small Group leaders must look for studies.  We have put together a Small Group Curriculum Guide that has suggested resources related to the church’s FIVE EXPECTATIONS.  Most Groups spend time in The Crosswalk Bookstore at FBC reviewing the options.  Some will take the Curriculum Guide brochure to the next group meeting and discuss what subject/study would fit the group.  We encourage the leaders to review the five expectations and pray for discernment as to which  expectation the group is lacking.

This Guide is not complete or perfect, but it has given some on-going direction to the tough job of choosing a study for your group.

Check out the Curriculum Guide here or at The Crosswalk Bookstore on the campus of FBC Smyrna.

My job at FBC Smyrna is to help connect people from the worship services and community to Small Groups throughout our area.  God is sending many people to FBC and the Small Group leaders are reaching out to neighbors and friends and adding even more to the Small Group ministry.

1. Share the Load:  Steve Gladden of Saddleback Church has a CD set on this vary issue called “Don’t Lead Alone.”  By letting people serve in their passion you are giving them responsibility in an area the love to serve.  With that responsibility comes ownership where they will want to make the meeting a success.   Some of the areas to share include:  child-care, food, location, socials/parties, study choices, apprenticing/leading.

2. Pray for the group by name, daily:  I would have listed this one first, but you may not have read the second one. ha ha  There are a lot of reasons why people may not attend a group meeting or constantly be late for the meetings.  It is leader-nature to evaluate and blame yourself for these.  However, you never know what baggage, what issues, what fears someone has.  Be patient and let God open the door for discussion and help you discern the next step in your relationship.

I hope this helps you in your Small Group Leadership.

We have put together a 3 minute video to help you understand how to implement the Crawl-Walk-Run

I learned this apprenticing thing long long ago from a man named Peddidle Kelly.  Peddidle was my first manager when I was in retail.  He taught me things like:  lack of communication causes wars and always try to work yourself out of a job because one day you will want to move on and someone here needs to know what you know.   Little did I know that 30 years later my ministry position would live or die on his words, apprentice and communicate!!!!

Who are you apprenticing?  why not try these three simple steps over the next two or three months?

-personal:  you talk often, have coffee often, and spend time sharing joys and hurts almost on a daily basis.  Those we are investing in for Christ, walking daily with them in an on-going relationship.  You will share often the stories and situations of life.

-priority: may be a new group leader, young in their experience of leadership.  These are the ones who stay on the top of your list to pray for, contact often, refer to resources and other SG Leaders who can mentor and guide.  Those God has put into your life who have urgent issues, addictions, or crisis in life.  God desires to use you in ministry in these relationships.

-phone:  they have it going on, they lead and communicate with you and others without much need for encouragement.  Their leadership can be discovered, guided and prayed for by an occasional phone call.  Those in your life that are growing, are connected, have direction for their walk with Christ.  All of us need the opportunity to have someone call and ask “how’s it going?”  “Tell me what God is doing in your life.”

-persistent:  the leaders who are aloof, adapt to things later or very hesitantly.  These relationships must be constantly managed so that the leader begins to understand the vision, the purpose and the necessity to communicate and share.  The people God has put in front of you who are not sure they want to hear from God, who are new Christ-followers, who are ‘on the edge.’  Share the love of Christ often with these people.  Be there for them by being persistent in your calls, cards, prayers and visits.

Who do you have in each category?  What are some of your fears that you need to pray through?  Who can you/should you call today?

After 21 years in ministry, education ministry focused, I can tell you that I have only tried to split two classes.  Both were obedient attempts in the nature of what I had been taught.  Both caused me much heartburn, lost friendships, sleepless nights and brought no additional classes.  Do I need to tell you that I don’t encourage “splitting” classes/groups anymore?

What we now practice is “Apprenticing.”  Each new Small Group Leader is asked and assisted with the enlistment of an apprentice from the very start of their group.  We ask Small Groups to try and send out an apprentice in 6, 12 or 18 months after the start of their group.

This spring we saw this happen when a fairly new Small Group Leader challenged his group to reach out to their friends and neighbors to start a new, temporary Small Group for 6 weeks.  This was in conjunction with a church-wide study on John 3:16.  Three of the five couples took the challenge and invited people to their house for this six weeks.  What is amazing is that four months later all four groups are still meeting and growing.  They have begun to practice the Discipleship, Community and Service objectives of Small Groups.

We plan to start many groups in 2008 in order to see more people be involved in relationships that are uplifting and inspiring.  Apprenticing and challenging people to see how God wants to use them to build relationship with neighbors and friends is a positive term and experience that enables this to happen.  It has become the foundation we build on to see more and more people develop close, real, transparent friendships where everyone can share their joys and struggles and be encouraged.

Who is your apprentice?

I realize that many people in our community know much more about this issue than I.  Every week I am confronted with another family who is suffering from marriage problems and thoughts of divorce.  I have asked Rodney Wilson, our Marriage and Family Minister to offer some thoughts on this blog as well.  I also used information from the  Emergency Response Handbook by Group Publishing.  This book is available from GroupLife office.

So how does a Small Group (SG) deal with divorce?  You cannot have a Small Group without problems, mainly because small groups consist of people. And people are human and will mess up.  It is the same with marriages. The perfect ones don’t exist this side of heaven. Yet, the SG will be involved.  There is a fine line between caring for the couple and letting them dominate your meeting every week.

· Early signs of trouble:  When verbal shots are taken in Group that might seem offensive to a spouse, make a mental note to speak with one of them after the meeting.  Don’t brush it off!  They may be screaming out for help.  As a SG member or leader you have the responsibility, authority and Holy Spirit guiding you to confront potential problems and walk with fellow strugglers.  Talk to the Lord about this situation. James 1 strongly encourages us to ask for His wisdom when needed. Walking through this difficult situation as a small group leader can develop you into more of what God wants you to be for Him. Sometimes growth is challenging, yet it can make the body of Christ and its leadership stronger.

· When one spouse tries to get you or the group to take sides, don’t.  Instead, the males can take the struggling husband out for coffee and listen to him, let him vent, pray with him, etc. The ladies can do the same for the needful wife.

· Make it clear that you care as a group, but don’t turn the small group meeting into a group therapy session. You are probably not equipped for that. Nor is it what the others signed up for. You will likely end up spinning your wheels and getting nowhere.  Let each of them know that sharing their marital details with everyone in your small group is unproductive for all, including them. Tell them, during prayer time, you need only share “headlines”. Offer the help with finding a marriage counselor if needed, but again, steer away from the couples’ issues being extensively addressed in your small group times.

· Usually one spouse will begin to drop out of SG.  Be sure to contact them and walk with them through this issue.  Don’t make them feel like they have to attend group.  If they decide to leave the group, help them find another place for support and spiritual growth.  Isolation is Satan’s playground.

· The stress of divorce hits unexpectedly and a spouse needs someone to call.  Have your group provide a list of names and numbers of group members whom the person can call when in need of emotional support, child care, fellowship or prayer.

· If needed, do not hesitate to contact your Small Group Coach or Coordinator, a staff member or GroupLife office for assistance and support.  None of us are perfect in handling these type of issues, but don’t go it alone.