Homegroup Questionaire

More thoughts, this time from the “personal” section.

Q: What has God laid on your heart in regards to a small group?

Small groups are a slice of the wider church. What the wider church is in the grand scale, so a small group should be in miniature; the small group should express the same DNA as it’s parent church. What the main church values - worship, bible, evangelism, fellowship, etc - the small groups should reflect. Where the small group differs is that it’s a place to be connected with one another, a place to exlpore faith in a community setting.

Everyone is on a faith journey and the small group is a place for fellow travellers. The apostle Paul, when speaking at the Areopagus, noted that there was an alter built “to an unknown god” in Athens at the time. I believe that God is already at work in people, drawing them to himself, and our lives could be thought of as being like the city of Athens in Paul’s day. Some of us have yet to come into a relationship with Jesus - but His Spirit is at work in our lives to draw us to Him. In that place group members can provide positive feedback and clarification of the unknown god. Once we have come to know this God for ourselves, and have made a commitment to follow Jesus, there are still the idols of other “gods” in our lives to deal with. None of us are perfect, nor is our life spotless and pristine. We all have issues and a small group is the place to interact with God’s Word to highlight them, to receive prayer and allow God’s Spirit to free us.

Q: Is there a certain group of people that you want to reach out to, or need that you’d like to fulfill?

I want to see people grow in faith. I would like the group to be open enough that people who would fall on the negative portion of the Engel scale to be welcome to come, to belong, and to process issues of faith. I dont want a group made up of people who’re mature believers who want a social club!

On the flip-side, I want to see people taking steps of faith in leadership. So, a mix of mature and new believers seems to be needed. I want the group to be a place where people feel safe about stepping out and trying new things - leading bible study, praying for others, leading worship, organizing an event, sharing a prophetic word, and so on.

Q: What do you want people in your group to experience?

In a word? The Greek translation of the Old Testament (Septuagint) translates the Hebrew word “Yasha” as the Greek “Sozo.” In English: salvation, healing, wholeness, deliverence, freedom. I want to see people come into an experience of Salvation in Jesus, and to grow in their salvation in the fullest sense of the word.

Thinking about group

Before our meeting on Wednesday, I need to answer the various questions on the homegroup questionaire. The logistical and organizational ones arent too interesting, so here are sopme from the planning section of the questionaire.

Q: What does one most need to receive from the leaders and members of a small group?

Not to sound like Bill Clinton here, but I have to ask the definition of “one” as it will change the answer dramatically. So lets see:

One = The Pastor

The pastor needs to keep a finger on the pulse of group life, so edited feedback will be required. Since we know that a healthy church grows and reproduces all on it’s own, there should be some method of tracking that growth, so statistics on group attendence would also be welcome. Numbers arent everything but a general feel for numeric growth and improvement of the church body’s health can be gained through looking at the statisics.

One = The Group Leaders

Group leaders need to be a team, and team requires solid communication and keeping short accounts with one another (not letting the little irritations build up over time). They need training to do the job well, and to allow them to grow in their weaker areas. They need support, as leadership can and will be demanding. Prayer support is vital as they’re stepping out into the spotlight and should expect a certain amount of spiritual attack

One = Group Members

Members need to feel accepted and welcomed, to be valued and included in the group. Ideally there should be a lack of “us and them” split of members / leaders, in the sense that members of the group are to play an active role in group life. Members of a group need others to practice their active listening skills, to really be heard in an environment that promotes the idea of being transparent and honest. Members as well as leaders need to be challenged to step up in their faith, to see weaker areas and to bring Christ into these facets of life.

Q: What does one need from leaders/group outside of small group?

A homegroup doesnt stop being a cohesive group of people outside of the (weekly) meetings, so there needs to be a connection that goes beyond the meeting time into real life. This means that a group should respect privacy issues outside of group time and not gossip about what they heard about one another. Similarly, struggles aired during group time should be supported outside of the group meeting - Christian homegroups have something to learn from the standard *A group (AA, GA, NA, SCA, etc) here, where members work their way through a phone list when they’re tempted by their drug/addiction of choise. Prayer should be available through the week, along with social time.

Q: What are the main things you’d like to have people gain after being in a small group?

There’s a proverb that says “give a man a fish and you feed him one day, teach the man to fish and you feed him for life.” I want people to gain in the sense of moving up the Engel scale - to move toward and/or deepen a relationship with the God of the Bible. In doing this, I don’t want people to be dependent on others spoon-feeding them truth but be going to the bible directly and allowing the Holy Spirit to impact their lives with the truth. Someone has said “with life comes growth,” and if there’s no growth, I would like to see people gain freedom from the things that are impeding a deepening relationship with Jesus.

Back in 2002 I responded to the Monday Mission question with the following:

What was (is) one of your favorite Children’s books?

What’s the book with “moon face” and the guy with all the saucepans? (comments please!) I thoroughly enjoyed “The Hobbit”. At age 10 I was reading Greek myths, and not long after that, plugging through my big-brother’s (grown up) sci-fi collection. “The dark is rising” series by Susan Cooper spings to mind as another favourite - especially if you want a reasonably well researched look at British Paganism! I dont remember many children’s books.

I dont know if I am living in a time warp. but, someone finally responded to the “comments please” part of that and left me a note saying The Saucepanman and Moon face are in the Magic Faraway Tree books by Enid Blyton. I suppose I should file this under “strange but true”, or “things that make you go hmmm” (anyone remember that song, who sang it and when it was getting airplay? In my mind I can picture being with friends in Nashville, perhaps around summer of 1997, but that could be way off).

Fascinating what you can find out on the Internet - someone gave me a printed copy of the canons of the Council of Orange (529AD) which got me thinking about the whole Calvinism / Arminian debate. Of the few Baptists I know here in the USA all take the Calvinist road yet I know that Baptists in England dont all see things the same way. On the website for Baptist Union of Great Britain I found an absolute gem:

Persecuted for their beliefs throughout the 17th Century, Baptists at one stage developed into two streams of theological thought: The General Baptists believed that when Christ died on the cross he died for everyone in general; the Particular Baptists, however, believed that Christ died for the elect ie a particular group of people. Later these two streams came together to form the present Baptist Union of Great Britain.

So it seems that you can be Baptist without being a Calvinist - that both sides can live together in harmony within the same organization and share the same goals. Believe me, this is great news!

More on the homegroup

Just got an email from the pastor, that went to all the people planning to start a new homegroup in the next month or so, asking us to think through the following questions. They seem pertinent to post here, at least in question form without my (personal) answers, though I might end up posting those if they dont end up pulling too much of my insides out for the morbid fascination of the reading public!

Your Calling

• What has God laid on your heart in regards to a small group?
• Is there a certain group of people that you want to reach out to, or need that you’d like to fulfill?
• What do you want people in your group to experience?

Planning

• What does one most need to receive from the leaders and members of a small group?
• What does one need from leaders/group outside of small group?
• What are the main things you’d like to have people gain after being in a small group?

Personal

• What is a Pastor’s/Shepherd’s Heart? (meaning, what characteristics do you see or expect to see in an individual that pastors others? ie: compassion, boldness, etc.)
• Do you think that one pastoring / shepherding can or should have characteristics that are on opposite ends of a spectrum (like bold in speaking truth vs. merciful and softly loving or being a people person vs. difficulty meeting new people?) and if so, how does that work/look?
• What qualities listed in first question do you naturally flow in?
• What qualities do you have to be intentional about building or letting God train you in
• What area of your lifestyle do you know God wants to change so that you can be a better shepherd to His people?

Logistics

• What day of the week do you want to meet on?
• Where do you plan to host the group?
• Do you want/plan to do musical worship? If so, how is that going to happen?
• Who are the people that will be “in this” with you initially?