6-3 (2015)
Small Groups
Purpose: The main purpose of small groups is to build community within the church. For the most
part Sunday Mornings are rushed and we have little to no time to actually be able to build
relationships with the people that we attend services with, this is an additional time to be able to
build those relationships on a more casual level. The second reason at building community is these
groups, offer people who may not normally come to a normal Sunday Morning church service the
opportunity to come into a group of believers and get to build a deeper faith before deciding to
attend normal church services.
Method:
1. Each group would have a leader that is selected and trained by the current leader and approved
by the pastor.
2. Each small group would meet at least every other week on the same day and time each week,
i.e. Every Sunday at 5:00 PM, the 1st and 3rd Friday of the month at 7:00 PM. The day and time is
completely up to the group leader when the group is created that would afford the most group
members the opportunity to attend. However, once the day and time is set it would stay the same
unless a change was needed to be made on a permanent basis for reasons later, i.e. we don't
change the time each meeting just because a large number of people decide they have better
things to do that week and move to a different day/week. The reason for not allowing the days and
times to change week to week is so inviting people to small groups becomes easier and more
reliable.
3. Just because you are the group leader does not mean that you must host the meeting every
week; the group can choose to meet at ANY group members home from week to week or meet at
the same home from week to week. The home should be known at least two weeks in advance
under normal circumstances. Once again this enables the invitation of new people.
4. Groups would have the choice of doing their own Bible Study that was approved before hand by
the Pastor, or taking questions that relate to the previous week’s sermon to discuss and delve more
deeply into the material. All material must be pre-approved before being started to ensure that
there is not deviation in theology.
Generalized Order of Service
In Order to make the group more appealing to church members and even prospective church
members we feel the best order of business would have the following elements:
1.
A time to eat and fellowship together, either before, during, or after the questions. Most of
the time this would be a pitch-in type meal unless the host has other ideas.
a. This serves a two-fold purpose; one it allows people that come on a regular basis to not
have to worry about the meal that they would need to cook around the time of the group meeting,
and two, it is often a great way to invite people that wouldn’t normally come to church events by
offering them food to eat.
2.
A time to address the prayer needs of the people that are coming to the group on the regular
basis and allow the group to grow together on a deeper basis. James 5:16 tells us that we should
come together and tell our sins to one another and pray for one another so that we might be
healed. And by doing this at small groups it allows us to take the time to do this in ways that we
cannot do in a large corporate setting on Sunday Mornings.
3. A time of group study through whatever material was selected by the leader and approved by the
pastor.