Contents
Introduction
Life Church is a cell church which means that, in addition to meeting as a whole congregation on Sundays, we also meet in small life groups during the week. A life group is a group of 3 – 15 believers who come together weekly outside of the church building for evangelism, community, and spiritual growth with the goal of making disciples who make disciples. As its members win people to Christ and turn them into disciples, the life group itself grows until it needs to multiply into more than one group in order to maintain the size of 3 – 15 that preserves intimacy.
At Life Church we do discipleship for busy people! You can read more about this on the following page:
About Our Life Groups – Life Church
Goals For Life Group Members
As we stated above, the overarching goal for our life groups is to make disciples who will themselves make disciples. We can break this down into some practical sub-goals however. By incorporating these goals into our Sunday sermons, much of the work of achieving these goals will be accomplished through the discussions and other components of the life group meetings.
As the life group members achieve these goals, the group will grow and eventually multiply. We want our life group leaders to become skilled at guiding a life group through he entire life cycle from launch to multiplication!
Our member goals are drawn from the following passages in Acts:
Acts 2:41-47, Acts 4:23-35, Acts 5:41-42, Acts 6:1-7; Acts 8:1-4
Putting these passages together we arrive at the following goals:
- Baptism – Acts 2:41-47
- The Apostles’ Teaching (i.e. the stories about Jesus that “went viral” and became Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
Acts 2:41-47 - Fellowship – commitment to spending time with one another like extended family.
Acts 2:41-47 - Breaking of bread – eating meals together and celebrating the Lord’s Supper.
Acts 2:41-47 - Prayer – Individual and corporate prayer. Learning to know God’s voice. – Acts 2:41-47
- Sharing resources and responsibilities – Acts 2:41-47, Acts 4:23-35
- Meeting in small groups and in larger corporate gatherings. – Acts 2:41-47
- Praise and Worship – Acts 2:41-47
- Boldly promoting the good news that Jesus is the Christ and that God raised him from the dead.
Acts 4:23-35, Acts 5:41-42, Acts 8:1-4
These goals are of course intended for life group members (those who have made a commitment to follow Jesus and to the life group). The vast majority of these goals can be achieved through faithful participation in life group and Sunday service activities.
We also want our life group members to flourish and, towards that end, we will explore using the following Barna and Gloo Church Pulse metrics:
- Faith / Spiritual Life
- Relationships
- Vocation
- Finances
- Health (physical & emotional)
We want life group members to achieve these goals in stages:
Goals for right now:
For unsaved visitors:
- Deciding to follow Jesus:
- Life groups will often have unsaved visitors as a result of their evangelistic work.
- Our goal is to love our neighbors as ourselves, pray, and tell everyone the Good News, knowing that even though we plant seeds and water them, it is God who makes them grow. Luke 10:25-37; 1 Thessalonians 5:17; Mark 16:15-16; 1 Corinthians 3:5-9
For everyone else:
- Get baptized.
- Focus on the Message: Begin this level of the Following Jesus curriculum.
- Start reading through the Gospel of Matthew and continue with the other gospels and the rest of the Bible.
- Join one of our Matthew-based discipleship Bible studies OR engage in one-on-one mentoring under the Matthew-based Focus on the Message curriculum.
- Learn to view the Sermon on the Mount as a guide to the Kingdom of God lifestyle.
- Family Up: Learn to “seek first God’s Kingdom and his righteousness” through faithful fellowship.
- Pray – Lay the foundation for a robust, lifelong commitment to effective prayer.
- Establish the habit of daily prayer in your life. Begin setting aside regular time for rest and reflection.
- Find a prayer partner from your life group and set a weekly time to pray together.
- Practice listening to God whenever you pray. Take note of what you believe God is saying to you and discuss it with your prayer partner or life group leader or other life group member.
- Include praying for the members of your life group in your weekly prayer schedule.
- Pray for 1 or 2 people that you want to become followers of Jesus.
- Pray for boldness to build your relationships with unchurched people and to talk about Jesus.
- Worship – Establish the habit of worship both in small and large group settings.
- Don’t let the enemy push you around! Learn to rebuke spirits that accuse you and that attempt to separate you from God and from fellowship.
- Giving – Learn to share resources with those in need. Learn to help support Life Church with your time, talent, and resources.
- Evangelism
- Write out your personal testimony of how you came to follow Jesus and learn to share it in 2 minutes or less.
- Ask God to show you the needs in your community and other spheres of influence. Regularly ask God in prayer what he might want you to do about these needs.
- Reach out to other life group members for help in any area where you’re struggling (e.g. prayer, worship, temptation, finances, etc.).
- Flourishing – You and your life group leader understand where you are in the 5 areas of flourishing: faith, relationships, vocation, finances, health.
Goals for the first year:
For unsaved visitors:
- Deciding to follow Jesus:
- Our goal continues to be to love our neighbors as ourselves, pray, and tell everyone the Good News, knowing that even though we plant seeds and water them, it is God who makes them grow. Luke 10:25-37; 1 Thessalonians 5:17; Mark 16:15-16; 1 Corinthians 3:5-9
For everyone else:
- Attend baptisms of others – especially those whom you have won to the Lord.
- Focus on the Message: Continue in this level of the Following Jesus curriculum.
- Keep reading through the gospels and develop a plan for reading through the entire Bible on a regular basis (e.g. every year or every 2 – 3 years).
- Mentor someone else through our Matthew-based Focus on the Message curriculum.
- Establish the habit of periodic reflection on the Sermon on the Mount.
- Family Up: Continue in this level of the Following Jesus curriculum.
- Be faithful in your attendance. Become someone that your life group leaders and members can depend on.
- Take responsibility for making your spiritual gifts available to your fellow life group members.
- Volunteer to take turns running portions of the life group meeting for a month at a time.
- Help with planning, setup, breakdown and cleanup of meetings.
- Help your life group leader by reaching out to missing members and help draw them back into fellowship.
- Pray – Continue laying the foundation for a robust, lifelong commitment to effective prayer.
- Maintain a daily habit of reflection and prayer. Set aside times for weekly extended reflection (e.g. Sabbath).
- Help teach new believers how to pray.
- Develop a plan for covering all of your networks and spheres of influence in prayer.
- Worship – Become comfortable worshipping in large gatherings, small groups, or alone and with or without musical accompaniment.
- Don’t let the enemy push others around! Walk alongside others who may be experiencing spiritual oppression and teach them how to take authority over spiritual attacks from the enemy.
- Giving – Establish a budget and incorporate both giving and saving into your budget.
- Evangelism & Discipleship
- Learn to recognize the five thresholds and to engage people at any threshold.
- Partner with other believers (especially from your life group) to engage networks of people you can evangelize.
- Partner with other believers to engage needs in the communities to which God directs you.
- Continue reaching out to other life group members for help in any area where you’re struggling (e.g. prayer, worship, etc.).
- Flourishing – You and your life group leader understand where you are in the 5 areas of flourishing: faith, relationships, vocation, finances, health.
Goals by the end of year three:
For unsaved visitors:
- Following Jesus:
- Our goal continues to be to love our neighbors as ourselves, pray, and tell everyone the Good News, knowing that even though we plant seeds and water them, it is God who makes them grow. Luke 10:25-37; 1 Thessalonians 5:17; Mark 16:15-16; 1 Corinthians 3:5-9
For everyone else:
- Help to baptize others.
- Focus on the Message: Continue in this level of the Following Jesus curriculum.
- Have a good Bible reading plan in place and keep reading through the entire Bible.
- Continue mentoring others through our Matthew-based Focus on the Message curriculum.
- Family Up: Continue in this level of the Following Jesus curriculum.
- Experience leading each section of a life group meeting at least 2 – 3 times. Train to become a life group leader.
- Pray – Continue laying the foundation for a robust, lifelong commitment to effective prayer.
- Worship – Help teach new believers how to worship.
- Giving – Establish a good budget that incorporates both giving and saving.
- Work with your life group leaders in bringing deliverance to those who need it.
- Evangelism & Discipleship
- Demonstrate success in partnering with other believers to develop new friendships that lead to evangelism.
- Win others to Christ and disciple them.
- Make a difference in the communities to which God directs you.
- Continue reaching out to other life group members for help in any area where you’re struggling (e.g. prayer, worship, etc.).
- Reach out to other life group members to help them in any area where they are struggling (e.g. prayer, worship, etc.).
- Flourishing – You and your life group leader understand where you are in the 5 areas of flourishing: faith, relationships, vocation, finances, health.
In each life group, the life group leaders should plan together how to share these goals with their members. It’s important that each member have a chance to reflect on the goals and embrace them. Life group leaders should also make sure that someone from the life group is available to provide the mentoring required for some of the goals.
Because the life groups are the primary means through which we will produce disciples, it is critical that we do everything possible to achieve these goals. Towards that end, the Sunday sermons will serve the life groups by providing discussion questions related to our life group goals so that the life group discussions help to move the members towards achieving the life group goals.
Life Group Leader Training
Life Group Leader Training Goals
One of the best ways that you can prepare for life group leadership is by volunteering to help lead a portion of your life group meetings. Once you’ve done this, the rest of the goals below should be pretty straightforward.
Our goals for training new life group leaders are pretty straightforward:
- Stay on target with the Life Group Member Goals.
- Join one of our Matthew-based discipleship Bible studies OR engage in one-on-one mentoring under the Matthew-based Focus on the Message curriculum.
- Get experience running each portion of the standard life group meeting:
- At least 2 months leading the Welcome portion icebreaker.
- At least 2 months leading the Worship portion of the meeting.
- At least 2 months leading the Word portion of the meeting.
- At least 2 months leading the Witness portion of the meeting.
- Have one of your life group leaders actively mentor you through the “Empowered To Lead” cell ministry training book.
Life Group Training Resources
Here are some resources for current or aspiring life group leaders:
- Don’t Over look Anyone – Joel Comiskey Group
- The Perfect Leader Doesn’t Exist – Joel Comiskey Group
- Anyone Can Lead a Small Group (by Dr. Joel Comiskey) – YouTube (00:05:14)
- Empowered to Lead (digital book): Video-based Training for Small Group Facilitators by Joel Comiskey
Revisions
2/13/2022 – created.
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