GG Leaders Notes

The principle upon which we run our Growth Groups at St Mark’s is found in 1 Corinthians 12:7:

“A manifestation of the Spirit is given to each person for the common good”

We are of the conviction that the Sunday service (vital as it is), as well as the old format of Growth Groups, do not provide every Christians the opportunity to manifest the Spirit into the lives of others. But rather, according to scripture, this happens in the context of hospitality (1 Peter 4:9-10) and regular, loving Christian community. Therefore, the objective of our Growth Groups is to allow our members more opportunity to do that, and the Growth Group leader’s role, rather than teaching the Word, is to provide the environment and for members to minister it to each other.

Guidelines for leaders:

In providing the best environment for “Every-Member Ministry”, Growth Group leaders should consider leading their group upon the same principles as a father teaches a child to ride a bike: namely, stepping back and letting them learn to ride by themselves, BUT also being close enough to catch them when they wobble and redirect them when they veer off course:

‘Stepping back’ means empowering your members for ministry, and includes such things as:

  • Arranging your seating so that members are facing each other, without a focus on the leader
  • Allowing awkward silences to play out, to give people an opportunity to form their thoughts to contribute, without the leader jumping in and cutting that process short
  • Allowing the group to correct errors and answer questions rather than the leader, even if you know the answer and could answer more efficiently. It’s more important to allow the group to correct each other and eventually arrive at the right interpretation of the text themselves.

‘Being close enough to catch and redirect’ includes such things as:

  • Bringing the group back to the text when conversation drifts (‘We can chat about that afterwards, but what is the Lord saying to you from this text?’)
  • Moving people from general/abstract to specific/personal applications. People find it much easier (and therefore will default) to talk about what the text means theoretically, or how it applies to others, rather than what it means in my life. Avoid theological discussions/controversies, and bring people back to: ‘okay but what is God saying to you through this text?’. You’ll find that a consistent adherence to this approach will avoid most theological controversies before they start.
  • Giving the more quiet members a chance to speak and not allowing the talkers to monopolise (‘let’s hear from someone else’… ‘Bob, what do you think’… etc.)
  • Modelling confession and being ministered to (‘what Sally mentioned there really helps me in this way’… ‘I admit I need to confess this sin I’m struggling with’… etc.)
  • Saving what you have to share from the passage for the end, or when you need to fill dead space (not to be confused with awkward silences – they’re similar but not the same!). For the sections of scripture we study, GG leaders will be provided with appropriate resources to help you know the structure and main ideas (as well as any tricky verses/passages) you’ll come across. But this is not for you to explicitly teach so much as to keep in mind as you guide conversation in your group, and to guard against the unlikely event that your whole group is going off on a wrong interpretation of a particular passage.
  • Resolving conflicts of personality or theology. These should be dealt with on a case by case basis in consultation with the pastors.

Connection with Daily Devotions

For our people to get the most out of Growth Groups, we must encourage and help them to do their Daily Devotions well. It is essential for good discussion in GG that each member has beforehand spent some time in the passage, in quiet time before God, meditating on what it says, and writing down what they find in a notebook for this purpose. This habit is probably the single most important factor that moves the session away from being a theoretical bible study and towards a way Christians can minister God’s Word to each other from the heart, where they come to GG having something they want to share! But it is also the single most difficult habit to get people into in the cluttered lives of today. Therefore they need our help.

One key discipline long recognised by great bible teachers of history (but often lost in modern Christianity) has been the importance of reading the bible slowly so as to take good time to meditate on individual phrases and ideas. This is why we limit our daily readings to only a few verses at a time. Many people have not yet experienced the great joy of hearing God speak through verses or ideas or connections they previously would’ve skipped over, but are now forced to think about because that’s the only reading for the day.

Be sure to help your members get into the habit of reading daily and realising the treasures that can be unearthed through the habit of slow reading, not just cramming before GG!

Suggested format:

The suggested format of a session is as follows:

1st half of the session:

  1. READ: Read the whole passage slowly. This should be the passage covered in the previous 7 days of daily devotions (unless otherwise instructed).
  2. PAUSE! and give each member a few silent minutes to read through their DD notes from the week past. This is a vital step to give people the chance to recapture the ideas that God put in their mind and prepare for discussion.
  3. SHARE: Go around and encourage each member to share what God spoke to them from their devotional readings this past week.

(NOTE: in the sharing phase, when a member merely shares an observation from the text, i.e. stating what the text says… don’t let them leave it there but draw out what touches them personally by asking ‘Why did that point particularly stand out for you?’ ‘What do you think God is saying to you through that?’ etc.)

  • CONCLUDE: by asking each member to share, after a minute of thinking, one thing they’re planning to apply to their life from this passage. This will help to solidify and land the discussion and set the group up well for prayer.

2nd half of the session:
(tell your group beforehand that there will be two separate times of prayer, each with a different focus…)

  • PRAY: in response to the passage. Specifically think of things based on your discussion to a) give THANKS for, b) CONFESS, and c) ASK God for
  • SHARE: Go around and encourage your members to share their struggles in the fight of faith (1 Tim 6:12, Eph 6:12 – every Christian’s in a fight and therefore needs prayer for something!)
  • PRAY: for one another and each other’s requests above