Posts tagged ‘small group’

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23 February, 2012

Thursday Giveaway: Made to Crave Ministry Kit

by cubfann

Yesterday we talked about Made to Crave and how Lent is not just giving up something, but making space for something that draws us closer to God.  Lysa has a follow-up study to Made to Crave called Made to Crave Action Plan, and says this in the introduction of the Participant’s Guide:

“I love that the Bible says the truth shall set you free (John 8.32). That’s a spiritual truth, but it can also be a physical truth.  The goal of the Made to Crave Action Plan is not to squeeze you into a rigid food plan or beat you up about what you are not doing right.  Our goal is to encourage and equip you with truth – spiritual and physical – so you can learn to make better choices…my dear friend, are you ready to take your first step on this amazing journey?  I promise God will meet you there – and I will be cheering you on every step of the way.”

As I mentioned yesterday, we will be giving away the Made to Crave Ministry Kit.  However, we will not be just giving away 1, but 5 of them.  The Made to Crave Ministry Kit includes Made to Crave, Made to Crave 6 week DVD and Participant’s Guide, Made to Crave Action Plan 6 week DVD and Participant’s Guide, and Made to Crave Devotional, plus all the tools you need to run a 12 week Made to Crave study in your women’s Bible study.

To enter to win 1 of the 5 Made to Crave Ministry Kits, answer this question below in the comments: What do you want to make more time for in the next 6 weeks to draw you closer to God (prayer, Scripture reading, serving the poor, etc)?

We will randomly choose a winner on Friday afternoon, so be sure to come back and see if you have won.  In the meantime, you can watch the first full session of the Made to Crave Action Plan on YouTube here:

Posted in Curriculum, Giveaways | 415 Comments »

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15 February, 2012

Small Group Bible Study Sessions on Marriage

by cubfann

We have some great small group Bible studies on the topic of love and marriage from some of the best communicators – Gary Thomas, Andy Stanley, Les and Leslie Parrot, and John and Stasi Eldredge.  We’ve put many of our small group Bible study sessions up on YouTube.  Now, we’ve separated out the ones on love and marriage on their own playlist – group bible studies on marriage.  Watch the first session of Saving Your Marriage Before it Starts, Staying in Love, Sacred Marriage, Your Time-Starved Marriage, and more.

My wife and I have gone through each of these together at some point in our 9 years together and really appreciated each one.  Most recently, we went through Sacred Marriage together.  In this small group Bible study, Gary Thomas helps you discover a deeper intimacy with God through your marriage.  He asks the question, “What if God designed marriage to make us holy more than to make us happy?”  Here is session 1:

How do you react to the idea that God may have designed marriage to make us holy even more than to make us happy?

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15 February, 2012

The Winner of the Valentine’s Giveaway is…

by cubfann

Thanks to all who posted comments!  These are all very important things to remember.  These are things that are key whether you have been married 5 minutes or 50 years.  I plan on putting this list inside my Bible and every day pray that I am able to live these to my wife and model them to my two boys.

Most all the comments fell into 10 things to remember so you stay in love (in order of number of comments):

  1. Sacrificial love
  2. Put Jesus first
  3. Maintain a friendship
  4. Communicate
  5. Develop a forgiving spirit
  6. Make a lasting commitment
  7. Regard one another with mutual respect
  8. Be open and honest with one another
  9. Maintain a sense of individuality
  10. Get naked
The random winner is Allen Jerkins!
Grace. I wish I had something more lengthy to say, but that is it- the ability to remember how much Christ has forgiven you, then to extend that over and over to your spouse.

 

Thank you all for reading.  Here is the first full session of Staying in Love by Andy Stanley:

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13 February, 2012

Valentine’s Giveaway: Staying in Love and $100 AMEX Gift Card

by cubfann

Last night, my wife and I went out to a valentine’s dinner with our small group to a local place called Mangiamo.  We were serenaded by an accordionist named Mike to some Italian and French tunes, had wonderful food, and great conversation.  Kate and I have been married 10 years this coming June and have weathered our fair share of storms, but through it all we have stayed friends and stayed in love.

In honor of the holiday who’s mascot is the chubby cherub, we are going to do a giveaway for curriculum pack (1 DVD and 2 Participant’s Guides) of Staying in Love by Andy Stanley, and a $100 American Express gift card.  This way you and your spouse can come together and learn from pastor Andy Stanley how to stay in love once you fall in love, and go out together for a lovely date night (babysitting not provided, sorry).

My wife and I went through the Staying in Love curriculum about 18 months ago and found it quite helpful.  Here is a short clip from session two about treating one another with respect and as the most valuable person in the world followed by a quote from the participant’s guide:

While falling in love only requires a pulse, staying in love requires a plan.  Do you have one?  Most of us don’t, so we can be grateful the Bible offers a set of helpful guidelines for exactly such a plan.  It’s the kind of strategy that requires something from us every day, something that touches on all our decisions and attitudes and actions.  It may also require some radical new ways of thinking about yourself and about your spouse.

Okay, to win the Staying in Love curriculum pack with $100 American Express gift card, just answer this question in the comments below.  On Tuesday we will pick a random comment as the winner.

Think about the marriages of people you know best.  What elements contributed to lasting, long-term marriages?

UPDATE: winner will be chosen at 8 AM EST February 15.  Come back to see if you won!

Posted in Curriculum, Giveaways | 183 Comments »

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10 February, 2012

Offensive Prayer

by cubfann

Wednesday, Mark Batterson wrote about storming the gates of Hell through bold, audacious prayers.  He spoke of 30+ Circle Maker groups at his church and working through it as a sermon series.  Your church can do the same thing.  The Circle Maker is designed as a churchwide campaign.  It’s time to be on offense against the gates of Hell, and our greatest weapon is prayer.

Begin a church experience where your whole congregation learns together how to claim God-given promises, pursue God-sized dreams, and seize God-ordained opportunities and through it all bring glory to God.  The Circle Maker is a four-week church-wide experience and small-group video study, in which you and your congregation gain a deeper understanding of prayer and, in turn, make a more consistent practice of prayer.

The Circle Maker gives viewers new vocabulary and methodology to pray with a holy confidence.  It will help participants dream big, pray hard and think long.  According to Mark Batterson, “Drawing prayer circles around our dreams isn’t just a mechanism whereby we accomplish great things for God. It’s a mechanism whereby God accomplishes great things in us.”

You can launch a churchwide campaign at any time.  This four-week preaching and small group study is especially effective for those times of the year when you would like to reach out to your community through a special series.

Visit thecirclemaker.com  for preaching resources, free downloads, and samples.  Watch the full first session of The Circle Maker on YouTube here.

Would knowing that your prayers will be answered change the way you pray? The Circle Maker shares powerful insights from the true legend of Honi the Circle Maker, a believer who prayed miracles would happen to the people of God—and then they fell from the heavens like rain. Bring your God-given dreams into being through bold, tenacious prayers that honor God and make the impossible come true.

Visit www.Zondervan.com/ChurchSource or call 800.727.3480 for case quantity discounts of 40-50% off.

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8 February, 2012

Storming the Gates of Hell

by cubfann

This is a guest post from Mark Batterson, pastor of National Community Church, and author of The Circle Maker.

One of my prayers for The Circle Maker is that people would NOT read it by themselves!  It’s best read in community as prayer partners, small groups or book clubs.  The ultimate goal is for readers to form prayer circles and one of the best ways to do that is to leverage the DVD and participant’s guide for small groups. Both are included in The Curriculum Kit.

Check out session 1 of the curriculum here.

We’ll launch 30+ Circle Maker groups this week at National Community Church.  And that comes on the heels of The Circle Maker sermon series and 21-Day Prayer Challenge.  We’re going all out and all in.

Jesus talked about the power of spiritual synergy when he said: “If two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven.” Obviously, it needs to meet the two-fold litmus test for any and every prayer. It has to be in the will of God and for the glory of God. But if it meets that two-fold test, then all it takes is two!  When two people agree in prayer, they have formed a prayer circle.

What would happen if two or twenty or two hundred people formed prayer circles?  I’ll tell you what would happen: we’d storm the gates of hell and they would not prevail against us!  I’m amazed at the miracles God has done at National Community Church in the last few years.  His blessings have blown us away!  But I feel like God has done that despite our lack of corporate prayer.  I can’t help but wonder what would happen if we genuinely, humbly, fervently started praying like it depends on God?  I intend to find out.

It’s the beginning of a prayer movement at NCC.  The Circle Maker has given people acommon vocabulary and a common challenge to take their prayer lives to the next level. It’s a new day. It’s a new normal.

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6 February, 2012

Spaghetti Sauce and Small Group Bible Studies

by cubfann

In his book, Blink, Malcolm Gladwell talks about choice and spaghetti sauce.  He says that having too many options almost paralyzes people and inhibits their choosing, rather than making it easier.  I don’t know how many types and brands of spaghetti sauce there are, but I do know that there are hundreds, if not thousands of different small group Bible study materials available.

How often do you get together with you small group and wonder what to study next?  I know that in my small groups we have spent entire group meetings wading through different options.

One voice that I have really come to appreciate over the last couple years is Mark Howell.  Mark founded  SmallGroupResources.net, and is the Community Life Pastor at Parkview Christian Church in Orland Park, Illinois.  Mark recently shared an older post of his on Facebook about how he recommends choosing curriculum.  He lists five helpful things to keep in mind when choosing:

  1. Keep in mind the skill level of your leader
  2. Keep in mind the maturity of the members
  3. Look for a topic that will pique interest of the members
  4. Look for a six-week study
  5. Choose a DVD-driven study

Read the whole article here.

How about you?  How do you choose what your small group will study together?

Be sure to visit the Small Group Bible Studies playlist on YouTube that has full sessions of our video-based small group studies.

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1 February, 2012

Baseball, Tinker Bell, and Absolute Truth

by cubfann

My four year-old son has a TAG reader.  This is a pen that helps him learn how to read through interactive games, stories, and spelling.  Whenever you press the pen on the page, it tells you a word, reads the story, or such.  One book that TAG promotes is a Tinker Bell story.  The promotional copy says, “Tinker Bell learns that if she is true to herself, she can accomplish her dreams.”

What is ethics?  Is it following your own integrity?  Making decisions based on your personal values?  Or is there a fixed moral standard?

We who believe Scripture know that there is such a thing as objective moral truth.  However, many times we live like we are moral relativists.  We are very black and white in terms of our personal ethic, but when someone else fails (especially those in high positions), we love to call them out on it.

As a Cubs fan I loved that Mark McGuire was found out to have taken HGH, but explained away Sammy Sosa’s gargantuan growth.  We love seeing home runs and players breaking records, but when they are found out as cheaters, we shred them apart (even though it was plain to see that they were growing into giants).

Doing the Right Thing is a six session small group Bible study that explores ethics.  Ethics for business, for institutions, for churches, for lenders, for governments, and most importantly, for individuals.  This study features Chuck Colson, Robbie George, Glenn Sunshine, Brit Hume, Ben Stein, and many others talking about the ethical mess our society is in, and how we can work to change that.  Dr. George says, “It has to begin in homes, churches, and schools.  At every level, we have to be working together to build a consensus around a sound and coherent ethic.”  Watch the entire first session from this study below.

What is your personal reaction to the idea that there is an absolute standard of right and wrong that, as Donovan Campbell says in the video, is true “outside of any context and which is translatable across cultures, times; it’s applicable everywhere”?

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26 January, 2012

What is a Small Group?

by cubfann

There are as many theories on how to do small groups as there are churches.  Some are connection groups, providing ways for people within a church to get to know others; some are discipleship groups, for serious Bible study; some are seeker groups, trying to connect people just exploring the faith.  There are many other models as well.  I came across a video that one church posted promoting small groups to their congregation.

What are your thoughts on this video?  What kind of small group are you involved in?

(HT: Mark Howell)

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24 January, 2012

Keep the Bible in Your Bible Study

by cubfann

I read a great article on reformation21 (HT:Challies) about Effective Group Bible Study.  My main focus at Zondervan is to tell the world about our fabulous small group curriculum, so naturally I was interested in how to help people have an effective small group.  Pastor William Boekestein, who wrote the article, has some great points about effective group study, but one that really rose to the surface for me was to keep the Bible first.  Now this sounds like a given, but  too often in our groups, we rely on the study material and use the Bible as extra credit work.

Scripture studies are almost always aided by a well-written guide. Some of the best guides are commentaries, especially those that began as a sermon series. Homiletical commentaries combine the best of careful exegesis and pastoral application.(1)

One of the dangers, though, of using a study guide is that the Bible can become eclipsed by a lesser book. It is easy to subconsciously begin to treat the Bible as the “raw materials” and the study guide as the “finished product,” favoring the latter.
To avoid misusing supplemental materials, make them the last part of your preparation for the group study. First, work through the scripture passage in focus. Ask questions about the text. Note observations and applications. Use the study questions to stimulate thought before turning to the “answers” in the commentary. In this way the commentary becomes a sounding board for your ideas and conclusions rather than a source book. The Bereans took such an approach. They “…received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true” (Acts 17:11).
A related principle is that group discussions should be guided by Scripture not by personal opinion. This does not mean that a question or comment is inappropriate just because it is an opinion. It does mean that conclusions that are reached and counsel that is given should be biblically based.

Much of the curriculum we produce has been used as sermon material that was preached in the pastors church:

What I appreciate about our video curriculum is that each teacher grounds what s/he has to say in the Bible.  Our participant’s guides have Scripture discussion, and point people to the Bible.  But in our groups, we cannot view that as bonus or “if we have time”.  No matter how good a communicator the teacher is, or how well written the participant’s guide is, they are all just commentary on the Bible.  The Bible must remain the central focus in all our small groups and Bible studies.
In addition to what Pastor Boekestein mentions in his article, here are some other thoughts:
  • make sure everyone in your group brings a Bible to small group
  • read all the recommended passages in the participant’s guides
  • consider standing as you read Scripture as a reminder of the weight of it’s words
  • before you share an opinion, know how you would back it up with Scripture

*Above I have linked the full first sessions for those curriculum.  To see more full first sessions on YouTube, go to the curriculum playlist here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL592D0CEC3F56A982

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