Small gROUPS ONLINE Vision and Values
This is part of a blog series about our free online training sessions that we’re running everyday. Our content is usually just for students and student workers, but in this time we realise our training is helpful for the whole church. So if you’re a christian why not sign up to a session here.
Your small group has moved online, you’ve navigated the change and feel like you almost have your head around how to do community in this new context. But does your small group have a vision? Why do you meet together? Where are you headed? Without a vision, you will stay in survival mode, and miss the adventure God is inviting you into. With a vision and a focus your small group can become a transformational, life changing space, a group that everyone wants to be part of.
Jesus had a clear vision for his small group of disciples but we’ll unpack that more with you when we see you online.
Now you’ve got a vision, a destination, you need a roadmap to get there. Values help us outwork our vision, we’ve come up with five values we think help outwork Jesus’ vision for our small groups- I’ll give you three here but you’ll have to join us online to get the rest.
Fully Focused, Jesus Centred. It would be very easy for us to chat about Coronavirus for the whole time. Our groups aren’t Corona focused groups, they’re Jesus focused groups. So let’s find creative ways to be pastorally sensitive, while limiting the Covid chat. Maybe you could have an allotted time for Corona updates and then set fun forfeits for people who mention the virus outside of that time
All Play, Everyone Serves. More than ever it is critical for everyone to have a part to play in your small group. It’s so easy to miss an online meeting or feel like you’re not valued, heard or needed. What could you delegate so that everyone knows that if they don’t show, they’ll be missed? Jesus ‘took risks’ on the disciples, so how can we be open handed and release the people in our groups.
Spiritual Adventures- Discipleship. Sometimes our discipleship can feel a little bit more like sin management and not so much like an invitation into a life of adventure with Jesus. It’s important that we’re accountable to each other so we don’t end up picking up really bad habits by not being intentional with our free time. But in our small groups we should also being encouraging people into a life of adventure with Jesus even though we can’t go very far. What would it look like to be more generous than you’ve ever been, more encouraging, or more bold in lockdown?
For more sign up for this online session here or have a read about our other sessions:
Unmissable Online Small Groups
