Here’s a transcript of the talk I gave at Ignition last Saturday (our Growth Group Vision and Training Event – which by the way was really cool!). You may want to summarize or take some of this for your first Growth Group meeting.
I’m excited for this fall. I’m excited for each of you. Here’s four reasons:
1. You’re leading during a significant time in our church and I think we’re going to see some pretty cool things happen in people’s lives this fall…people are going to connect with each other and God, some for the first time.
2. I’m especially excited for those of you taking the step into the leadership for the first time – we have over 25 new people stepping into leading or co-leading a group!
3. I’m excited because we’re going to see outreach happen in this community and beyond in a way we haven’t done before – in the last two trimesters we’ve seen all sorts of outreach going on, from rest home visits, to putting on a game night for kids, to putting on a bbq for the community of lathrop, to blessing families with groceries – people have been reached, the community is being impacted – trust is beginning to be built, which will lead to them lending us an ear. This fall we’ve got tons of opportunity for outreach in our groups with “Taking it to the Streets” on October 11, Thanksgiving Meals, Christmas Scrolls – plus Second Saturdays! For Growth Groups, we ask that your group to do one outreach project together, but you might consider more! I’m excited about that because God’s heart is for us to serve as he serves.
4. More than that though, I am excited because God wants to do a significant work in our hearts this fall.
Today we’re going to learn about leading well. In your hands you’ve got a great deal of info on how to lead a great growth group this fall. You’ve got a curriculum that’s as ready to use as you would like. We’re going to talk some tactical & practical stuff later on today – we’ve got some really useful breakouts for you – but for the next 20 minutes or so, I want to focus on you, not so much as a leader of a group, but as a follower of Jesus – who happens to be leading a group this fall.
I was asked last week “Why do I do what I do? Why are you a small groups pastor, Ed?” I thought for a while. And traced back in mind over the last 13 years or so and what steps led me to be a small groups pastor. And I remember when I was in college. During my first year of college and my first time away from home, I felt alone as a Christian for sure. But I was invite to join a small group of Christian students just like me. They befriended me, discipled me, and helped me continue to grow in my faith. (never underestimate what we’re doing in groups – it can be the difference between someone continuing in the faith or not). The end of the first year, I was asked to lead that group. I was honored, but not really sure I was ready. I did and here’s the answer to the why I do what I do: As I prepared each week for those small group meetings in my little dorm room, God met me in wonderful ways through his Word. He touched my heart. I came away from that experience convinced not only the value of small groups, but that leading a group is a wonderful opportunity to know the presence of God as we lead others. I know that what I experienced those two years leading a group at college is on offer to everyone, to all of us. I want all of us to experience what I experienced – to know God working in you and working through you. I so appreciate you leading and love that you do that…but most of all what I want for you is to know God.
So I’ve got a question for you: Do you believe that God wants to do a significant work in your heart this fall? Do you believe that?
Perhaps you’ve been a Christian a long time or a short time – perhaps it’s been a while since you’ve sensed the Spirit of God speaking to you.
We’re about to enter a challenge that has great spiritual potential. It’s like a battery full charged ready to go, but if it’s not plugged in, it’s only potential sitting on a shelf.
Jesus told the parable about spiritual potential….
Matthew 13:1-9: That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. 2 Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. 3 Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop– a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9 He who has ears, let him hear.”
Matthew 13:18-23: 18 “Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: 19 When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path. 20 The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. 21 But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. 22 The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. 23 But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”
Notice each type of soil received the same seed…each person received the same message.
God’s word is powerful, living and active – it’s perfect! Psalm 19:7 says, “The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul.” Every person who picks up this book, picks up the same potential word of God. But in some, God’s word bears fruit and in others it doesn’t at all.
The difference is receptivity, spiritual receptivity: how open you are to God’s Spirit to do a work in your heart.
It’s kind of like the four bars on my AT&T phone…if I’ve got four bars, I know I’ve got good reception. Sometimes though inside this steel building, I only get one bar – and I get poor conversations with people. Things are getting in the way of the reception.
The same applies in our spiritual life. There’s several things that could get in the way of God’s work in your heart this fall. Things that means you can get one bar instead of four in your spiritual receptivity. Let me just share three:
1. Forgetting what’s truly valuable
Of the four types of soil, the third type is most like our culture.
Verse 22: “The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.”
How sad is that! So much potential, but we get poor reception because we’re obsessed with stuff. We could know God and the wonder of his presence, but we exchange it for money, acitivities, tv. You know I find it’s not necessarily money specifically that gets me, but the deceitfulness of getting stuff done and the satisfaction of it, that I always want to be getting stuff done. Kind of like Martha busy with serving – when Mary choose to sit at Jesus’ feet.
It’s a common problem – King David struggled with it and wrote about it in Psalm 119:36-37: “36 Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain. 37 Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to your word.”
Life is going to be busy and finding time to read 5 chapters a day (or listen to them) is going to be a challenge. But you know what – nothing compares to the greatness of knowing God – so within that busyness let’s create pockets of time where we stop, we read, we pray, we listen. Let’s create space for our souls.
2. Reading without the commitment to change
There’s reading to read and there’s reading to live for God. They look the same if you were to observe both, but one bears great fruit the other doesn’t. It’s kind of like listening to your spouse. One of the things I’m working on in my marriage is listening. I listen to Kiah, and often I can repeat back what I’ve heard, but it’s like it doesn’t register in my action part of my brain. I can listen and repeat, but don’t act sometimes. It can be the same with reading our Bible – we can read and repeat, but not act.
What kind of reading are you going to do? Are you reading ready to act? Or will you read just to know the Bible better. As James says don’t just read the word and deceive yourselves, do what it says.
One example of this that I think is a danger in small groups is majoring on the minor doctrines and minoring on the major doctrines. For example: A minor would be the rapture – what it is and when it’s going to happen. A doctrine worth looking at, but a minor one. A major would be: Jesus is coming back – and it could be anytime.
Here’s the problem when we major on the minors (or minor on the majors) in our discussion, we’re missing out on the opportunity for life-change. The major doctrines are where the most significant life change potential is, not the minors. Focusing on Jesus’ return is way more life-changing that the rapture.
The NT Challenge is a big picture look at the NT. The idea is not to get into a verse by verse study. It’s about getting a big picture view that enables you to go deeper later with a context. It’s about focusing on the big stuff. That’s why we’re doing themes on Sunday is to paint some big picture stuff – so we focus on the majors, minor on the minors – because that’s where big life change happens.
3. Reading to know about God rather than know Him
Thirdly, often we can fall into the trap of reading to know about God, rather than actually know Him.
I read a book recently that convicted me deeply. It’s called “The pursuit of God” by A.W. Tozer. The book is about the fact that there are few who are pursuing God, who really hunger for Him, to know Him. At one point he talks about the difference between the prophets of the Old Testament and the Pharisees and Scribes in the New Testament. He said simply this: the scribes read about God and talked about God, but the prophets knew God. The Pharisees knew all about God, but the prophets knew God’s voice.
That convicted my heart, because there’s a part of my heart that is Pharisee-like. I want to know God – I want to be prophet-like! I want to be a prophet, not because I want to lead, but because I want to know God. Paul expresses what I feel completely in Philippians 3:8 8 I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ.”
We’re all leaders here. It is a privilege to lead. But that is nothing compared to knowing God and being in relationship with Him. God is seeking a relationship with you. He wants to do significant work in you this fall, is your heart receptive to that? Are you committed to it? Are you going to make space for Him? I hope so, because everything is rubbish compared to Christ!
