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Creating Synergy between Whole-Church Teaching and Small Group Focus
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Connecting Small Groups to the Sermon
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Like most pastors, I learned early on that if my preaching was to be powerful, it had to be memorable. I tried lots of tactics over the years, but nothing increased the memorability and life-changing impact of my messages as much as the simple act of connecting our small group studies with the weekend message. The benefits were so powerful that, over twenty-five years later, we have still not gone back to an elective-based model. Along with making my messages more memorable, it has produced a host of other church-wide benefits. Here are just a few of the most significant ones.
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Lift Off! - The Power of Alignment
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We recognize the power of alignment whenever a group of people is willing to divest themselves of self-determined outcomes and invest their talents, will, and energy in a common direction to accomplish a common goal. If your goal is to make disciples that multiply ministry through relationships, then you will want to harness the power of alignment in your church. This does not necessarily mean that everyone attending your church on Sundays will be forever locked into a sermon-based small group series similar to the 40 Days of Purpose by Rick Warren. What we have done to bring the power of alignment to our church family is to extract some of the principles and lessons learned from similar sermon-based small group series and combine them with an annual ministry rhythm that is informed by a common church culture.
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Pulling Off a Successful All-Church Small Group Emphasis
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Too many church dwellers figure that an hour a week in a worship service will eventually turn them into a spiritual dynamo, or at least a strong believer. They are often disappointed when they realize the truth that our spiritual life needs to be holistic. Connecting the weekend message to a spiritual community and to our personal devotions has exponential power much like a great workout routine matched with a healthy diet. An all-church (or campaign) emphasis is like that. It combines the intensity of the weekend message with the small group. There are three significant advantages to an all-church emphasis.
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Practical Steps to Create Synergy between Whole-Church Teaching and Small Group Focus
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Information overload - that is the world we are living in! It is happening in the church as well. Our children have their curriculum; our teens are doing something else; the message is on one topic; our personal devotions often on yet another; and then our small group is doing an entirely different topic or book of the Bible! There is too much information and no time or opportunity to meditate on it, to discuss with others, or to apply all the topics at hand. These are some of the reasons why, at our church, we decided that we would offer a small group discussion guide based on the weekend message each week. We could see the benefits very quickly.
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Sermon-Based Small Groups or Small Group-Based Sermons?
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Many churches are developing small group curriculum or agendas based around the weekly worship service teaching. The teaching pastor or other staff take the teaching and develop questions, video, or other tools that can be used in small groups that week. That type of system can be very effective at bringing a sense of unity to the church as a whole, and can also help small groups develop consistent healthy practices. From my own experience, and from feedback from many churches who have done sermon-based small groups, the strategy is very effective, particularly early on, but can lose its effectiveness over time.
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