Tag: sunday school

Book Review: Leading Small Groups by Chris Surratt

I recently picked up a copy of Chris Surratt’s Leading Small Groups. The author currently serves as discipleship and small groups specialist at LifeWay. As a small group leader and a leader of small groups this newly released book looked like it was worth a look. For the person who is a leader of small groups, the content of this book contains most everything you should already know (I.e., it’s not rocket science). Where this book excels is in its value to the small group leader, especially one who may be about to lead a group for the first time.

Breaking down the chapters, Surratt organizes his book around four sections: gathering a small group, launching a small group, leading a small group, and multiplying a small group. He covers all the questions you need to answer in getting a small group started, keeping it balanced and on mission, and then how to multiply it (or when to know when it’s done). The chapters are filled with personal stories and examples which help reinforce and illustration what he has learned along the way (the good, the bad, and the ugly). Surratt also gives clear application points and provides relevant discussion questions at the end of each chapter.

This book is an excellent read for for anyone who leads a small group or to use as a small group training guide or resource. My plan is to provide a copy for all of our Life Group leaders at Restoration Church ahead of this upcoming fall semester and using it as a coaching guide. It’s available in both print and kindle formats.

Leading a Life Group Tip: Building Community

In his work on small group ministry, Jeffrey Arnold points out two essential elements to building community: commitment and communication.

There are two essential elements to community building. The first is that people make a commitment to be in relationship together, almost like a husband and wife do when they are married (“for better or worse”). Knowing that a commitment of love has been made enables the various people in a group to experience the freedom of testing, growing, disagreeing and challenging within a safe framework.

The other element in a healthy community is communication. By this is meant a two-way interactive sharing of ideas so that mutual growth occurs. Talking does not necessarily produce growth–only communication does. And healthy communication brings together man (“comm” means “with, together”) into one (“uni” means “one”) by breaking down the barriers between people.

Jeffrey Arnold, The Big Book on Small Groups

How is your life group doing? Have you talked about commitment? More than just signing your name on a sheet or simply showing up if you are leading a life group you are making a commitment. You should spell out to your group what you as a leader are committing. You might commit to be prepared, to lead, to facilitate or teach, to pray for each member of your group, to hold into confidence what may be shared. It is always helpful to share these up front, so that participants may know what to expect (and not expect!). You should also be up-front about the commitments participants will make-to attend, to participate, and to hold in confidence what may be shared, to For some good examples of life group covenants see this resource.

How is communication going in your group? As a life group leader are you clear in your communication? Are you checking in on the members of your group between scheduled meeting times? Are you clearly communicating schedules or any schedule changes? During your group time are you doing all of the talking? Likewise, is there anyone who is monopolizing or hijacking discussion? Is the discussing veering toward negativity or criticism? While there is a place for healthy discussion, life groups are not the place to pick apart the pastor’s sermon or the worship leader’s set list!

Let’s work on building community by setting forth a clear commitment and fostering healthy communication within our life groups this semester and see where God takes us!

The Gospel Project: Week 1 – “The God Who Speaks”

I have been watching with anticipation the development of the Gospel Project Sunday School curriculum being developed by the folks over at LifeWay. While I had a personal interest in the material, upon coming to Hermitage I did not want to interject myself in changing much in way of the Sunday School during my first year. I wanted to let my associate pastor have leadership in that area. You could not imagine my excitement this summer when Mark returned from spending a week at Ridgecrest and asked permission to transition our church to the Gospel Project. We took our time, meaning that we did not start in September, but waited until the second quarter to begin. This week we started the Gospel Project as a church.

As a teacher myself, I wanted to share some of my thoughts after the first week. Our lesson was entitled, “The God Who Speaks.” It included two devotional readings that we were to do before group time. These two devotions worked well toward “priming the pump” and getting us ready for the heart of the lesson.

The lesson revolved around three major points:

  1. The God Who Speaks Has Authority (Gen. 1:1-3)
  2. The God Who Speaks Is Merciful to Reveal Himself to Us (Ex. 3:2-6)
  3. The God Who Speaks Gives Us Tasks (Gen. 1:27-30)

My guys really zeroed in on a couple of different points. First, they recognized the implication that if God has spoken to us and revealed Himself to us, then His Word is authoritative to our lives and we are going to have to reorganize our lives around Him. The second point that stood out was on p. 14 –

“Notice the progression again: God created (authority). Then He blessed (mercy). Finally, He gave tasks. . . Too many times, we get the order backwards. We begin with the tasks of the Christian life and seek to receive God’s blessing as a result of our obedience. . . When we begin with the task rather than the blessing, we cut ourselves off from the very power that is necessary to fulfill the tasks God has given us.”

When we went over this point, as a teacher I could see the light bulbs starting to go off all around the room.

I asked Amy how her class went. She talked about this same concept tied right into the 7 week ladies Bible study she just finished called “Duty or Delight.” The introduction of general revelation related back to a discussion her class had several months ago on Romans 1.

When we came home from church and were sitting around the dinner table I asked my girls what they learned in Sunday School. This week I already knew the answer to the question. Eden, our kindergartener is usually right back with the answer and can give the main idea. Joey and Jamie Hendrix do an amazing job with that age group. Caroline is in a preschool class and while she always has fun, she has never really answered the question. Until this week. She actually beat Eden to the punch, “We learned about Adam and Eve, that God created the world, and that He loves Me!” Over the next three years the children are going to take an adventure through the entire Bible.

I’m looking forward to how our family can grow together through Sunday School now in a way that we never have before. Watch out this could be the beginning of something big.

Have you started studying for next week?