What Are Growth Groups?

Growth groups, small groups, flocks... are designed to help people grow in relationships and grow in Christ. In this week's episode, Braydon & Joe unpack how we live the Christian life together. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Welcome to this week's episode of Fields Notes, where we take a deeper dive into sermon text, discuss matters of life and faith, and enjoy conversations around the table with fellow friends from the Fields. Fields Notes listeners, welcome back to a new episode of Fields Notes. Uh, we got such great feedback from our last episode. Definitely. That we, with the absence of Pastor Jeff, that we decided to do another one without Jeff for this podcast as well. That's not exactly true. But uh, we have Braden and I again for another podcast. You're looking at the description, perhaps. We're talking about growth groups today. Growth groups is uh growth groups are part of our church of what something that we do. Um, let's talk about them. Braden, what are growth groups? And I think people would probably know growth groups are, you know, our church's small groups, if you will. But there's like a thousand names that I've heard about for small groups. Uh I just wrote down a couple: small groups, flocks, missional communities, fellowship groups, home groups, life groups. I'm sure there's like a thousand more. Why growth groups, Braden? What are growth groups and why do we call them growth groups?

SPEAKER_00 1:22

Yeah, growth groups in some ways are not that different from all of those other groups that you just mentioned in some way. There's not a total we want to be completely other than any other group that's ever existed. I find it hilarious how many different names there are for people small groups. Keep working and finding new ways to say it. But anyways, growth groups, uh, I think in some ways what we're trying to do in our growth groups is um we want to uh help people to kind of pursue relational depth and also spiritual growth, like those two things in kind of community, especially. So helping people grow in relationships and grow in Christ um together through our groups in some ways. So in some ways, the reason we would probably maybe just stick growth on the front of groups is because in some ways we do want to orient these towards not just we're some Christian friends hanging out and we enjoy each other or you know, we have some things in common, but we're really trying to grow together. We want to think about how it is that we can live the Christian life, how can we walk in Christ? Especially we're gonna be thinking about growth in and I think groups orients itself towards um application. Like, how do I live these things out? We're probably not doing an in-depth Bible study typically, because that's not always the easiest situation to do that. But we're really trying to think how do we live the Christian life together and how do we do this together? What are how can we learn from one another in that? So that that's in some ways why we're thinking about uh growth groups. Sounds great. I like it.

SPEAKER_01 2:55

I'm I'm on board. Um, let's talk a little bit about um how how do we think about how growth groups then kind of relate to the life of our church as a whole? So here can maybe be some questions too. Like if I'm a member of the Fields Church, must I be in a growth group? Should I be in a growth group? I can be in a growth group if I want to. So how do we think about that? And then maybe even with that, like how do I think about relationships in my church that in relation to my growth group, if that makes sense? Of like, yeah, just maybe priority-wise, or what does that even mean? Yeah, thoughts on those there.

SPEAKER_00 3:29

We certainly would want for all of our members, especially to be in a growth group, but it's by no means a requirement. Like we would, you know, we would love that. We think that's gonna be helpful for you. I mean, that's why we have them. We do think that's gonna be helpful for people to uh have growth groups in in some ways as an avenue into deeper relationships and community in our church. So it is not the avenue or uh it it the primary thing we're doing to do that, but in some ways it's going to help you in that. So if you if you want to grow in with with other believers and know them and and have relationships with them, we would think, hey, growth groups is a good way for you to go that direction. So in some ways it's an avenue towards that end of of kind of growing in in community with our church. Um but but then uh kind of you asked a little bit of like what what's kind of the the goal with the what's the purpose or yeah, how does it relate?

SPEAKER_01 4:24

How does a group how does our my growth group relate to my life as the church as a whole, if that makes sense?

SPEAKER_00 4:29

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So in some ways, this is yeah, it's a supplement, right? We're we're trying to, you know, give you an opportunity to know people more deeply in the life of the church than you might just be able to on a Sunday morning with the time that there is there to do that with everybody. So an opportunity and a place for you to kind of have people who maybe know you or praying for you more frequently. Uh some of these things we hope that the whole church is doing. And yeah, but there might be some specific people you might be sharing some requests with, going deeper in your life with, and that's okay, and that's great, and we're thankful for that. And so groups provide a way for us to do that. That's great.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

And I do think like um we we've been at Kyle and I've been at growth groups in previous churches we've had, uh we've been at and those sorts of things. Something that I think is unique to our church that I hadn't thought, no, I don't think unique to our church, but I think something our church is trying to do with growth groups. We were at a church, which we had a positive experience there, but we were in a, we called them missional communities there, but we had our small group, we were there, but those were the people, those are the only people we hung out with in the whole church. So we'd go to our small group, we hang out with them on a Sunday morning. We'd go to church, sit with our small group, talk to them, go to lunch with our small group, talk to them. And so uh we we had these really deep relationships with just our small group. But within the church, I knew like two other people kind of in that that reality. That is something that we're kinda uh we we really think that we should have relationships across our whole church in that. And we think that growth groups are then a way to fuel that, not uh the end in itself relationally.

SPEAKER_00 5:59

Um and one of the ways I do think that we try to practice that out is that most of our groups really do. We try to meet every Sunday or every other Sunday, and and all groups are kind of meeting on the board on Sunday. A lot of churches meet uh every week for their small groups, every week, and and then also all over the week, which does make it practically hard for you to be able to even have time with maybe other people who are not a part of your small group or your growth group or that sort of thing. And so I think this the every other week and then kind of all trying to do them around you know on the same time does help us. Except for our group, but that's okay. Does help us to be able to fellowship with other believers in our church family many other times throughout the week. Um, and so I think that that is a practical way in which we're trying to bear out that yes, this is an avenue of community in our church, and yet we want you to have many avenues for community in our church, and we're uh we we try to do that, uh have regular other opportunities for us to fellowship with our church as a whole or different groups of people in our church. Like we really want you to be doing that. And so growth groups are just one of those ways.

SPEAKER_01 7:04

Yep. So that sounds great. I maybe just like uh a staple on that. Like we we we do want to have real friendships within our growth groups, but those who we don't want those to be our only friendships, our only relationships in our church in that. So um super helpful. Uh maybe just a little bit of uh thoughts on how our church thinks about um how do we uh assign, or I don't even know what the right word is. Assign, uh put people into groups. What what is it that um maybe our main things we're thinking about that form these groups here, if that makes sense?

SPEAKER_00 7:32

Yeah, I think in some ways, probably the main thing that we would be thinking about, or that I would be um that at least as I've been helping people get into groups for a little while now, is that I'm thinking about location. Location, location, location. That's right, location. Uh, number one, where do you live? Do you live close to one of our leaders' houses? And that might be a good one for you to go to. Uh and then two, some sometimes and often it's like, is there room in that group? I mean, we have a lot of groups that are uh larger. We are really I'm really excited that we are even having a uh newer group multiply uh here soon. What the pain is super excited for them to the pain house, hosting a group, uh become group members or group leaders, and so so thankful for them and uh for the rights for raising them up. Um, but uh yeah, a lot of times it's like, well, uh, this group might have room. They might be a little closer to you, but here's another group that does have some room. So, in some ways, location, space, some of those things are what we'd most consider.

SPEAKER_01 8:26

Very cool. And so, like, we uh the the the hope would be, which I know it gets a little then, you know, because of location gets a little the hope would be that we have not just very similar aged people in the group in very similar seasons of life. Now, for our Sheridan group, we just do everything wrong in our Sheridan group. We meet on Fridays, we're all we all live, we're all within 10 years apart, but it's because everyone in our neighborhood and the hills who come down, we're all in a uh age-wise similar, but we all live you know close to each other too.

SPEAKER_00 8:55

So you know we would hope obviously for intergenerational relationships, we do think that would be awesome. That's that's great. I would love if all of our groups were like that, and yet at the same time, I'm not gonna like reassign groups so that that absolutely happens no matter what, and then people have to drive 30 minutes to go to group. I don't know that that's best either. Yep, absolutely, yeah. Well, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:17

Um, can I share something funny? Is that loud? No, go for it. Jeff's not here. We can talk about we can we can share funny things. The this is just a funny thing about our group. Our our group is so young that so if people know Ian Lye in our church, Ian Ly is not that old. I think Ian's, I don't know, I'm not gonna say her aging. Ian's not that old, but on Ian's birthday every year, like whoever prays for Ian, like I think the first time John Smith prayed for Ian and is like, Lord, thank you for the many, many years that you've given Ian. It was it was hilarious, it was so funny because Ian's not that old, but you know, for for us, he's he's a little older than us, but that's awesome. Uh anyway, so I think we have a good good thought about um growth groups in there. Maybe just can I can I ask some general practical things for growth groups, Brayton? Absolutely. Uh I know it's probably not all the same. So maybe people are even because I don't even uh we we moved, we've been in two growth groups, I suppose, but I don't know kind of what happens at everyone's growth groups. So do you have a general vision for like what should happen in our time when we meet in growth groups? What things should we should we have food? Should we what do we should we sing? Uh what do we pray for one uh like I because I think I have a general idea, but I don't know. And so you have any thoughts that you might think of things that we should do, must do, ought to do, like to do?

SPEAKER_00 10:28

Yeah, in some ways I'm I'm I would think that we're trying to do three kind of different things, is what I've kind of helped our leaders think about. And there's probably some drop downs in these categories, but we're really doing trying to do, we're trying to fellowship. We want to, you know, like we can't, we're not just getting together to just study the Bible. Like, that's not what growth groups are like for alone, right? And so uh we we want to have real meaningful fellowship. There should be laughter, there should be fun, there should be some aspect of kind of hospitality in that. So uh some of that we we and then we want some study sometime of ways we are trying to grow. I mean, these are growth groups we're trying to grow in particular ways. So we want to open our Bibles or we want to read a Christian book that's gonna point us to the scriptures and help us grow and think about how to apply uh the scripture to life. And then and then we want to pray for one another. We really want to care deeply for one another. And so we want to uh pray and kind of uh make sure that we are having people that that will maybe follow up with us, that will uh be take an interest in our lives, that will pray for us and with us, and that we might be able to share maybe some things that we uh maybe wouldn't want to share with everyone in the church, but we'll share with some people. Um, and so in some ways, that those are kind of the three things. We're trying to pray together in in caring for one another. We want to fellowship and then we want to to study the word together.

SPEAKER_01 11:43

Gotcha. And how we actually do that, there's some flexibility in those.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

Yeah, the way you're gonna do that, the times you're gonna do that, I think that's that's really flexible. In some ways, even we I talked to our growth group leaders this past um a couple weeks ago when we had kind of a training for our growth group leaders, we were talking just talking about prayer specifically. And and I just was in some ways giving them lots of ways to think about how to pray and how to bring out uh even bring out prayer requests in groups. And so I think there's a lot of ways to do it, and there's not just one way uh that you need to do it, or honestly, even one way that you should do it every single time. In some ways, at least for our group, like we mix up the way that we're gonna do some of these different things different times. And I think that's great. I think that's that's helpful. I think it sometimes helps us get out of the routine of, oh, okay, here comes this, and then here comes this. So, you know, there's helpfulness in in variation, I think.

SPEAKER_01 12:32

Very cool. Maybe briefly, Braden, could you maybe even I think this is uh I don't know how to even category to put this in. Maybe in broad Christian wisdom of things. I don't know. Maybe it help us a little bit to think about what kind of prayer requests should I because I I'm guessing a lot of our groups, we spend some time probably going around uh sharing prayer requests for our lives. Well, what things should what do you think should we share in our group that maybe I don't know what the right word is, appropriate vulnerability of that? Because there's a balance of it. Our groups are uh relative. I'm guessing most groups are in the range of 12 to 20 people or so. There's uh bigger size groups. I would guess maybe it's I'll let you share some too, but I guess maybe it's like um, yeah, uh maybe the deepest um levels of our heart, maybe we don't share exactly. I'm not exactly sure, but we don't want to just share very surface level. Oh yeah, things are good for us. How but I don't know, I might be wrong in that. How might should we think about well, what things should I should I bring my growth group in to pray about in um yeah, and kind of how my soul is doing, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 13:30

Yeah, I almost wouldn't want to say that there's probably anything off the table that that we would, you know, if there's anything that you would want other to invite other people to be praying for you about in your life, I think your growth group could and should be some of those people that that would pray with you about something particular. Now, I know that's gonna be harder for some people, and so I don't know that always means you're just here every single deep thing with every person in your group in every way. But I I would think, hey man, if there's something going on and it is something you want to keep a little more private, you know, maybe seek out your leaders or something, talk to them, ask them for prayer in a specific way. But I think maybe during group, you know, in some ways one thing that I would just want people to be thinking about as they think about even prayer requests is is is even how to, which was a little bit how we talked about with our leaders, is just how to make our prayers like biblical, like like in a way that they're like in line with the scripture and the way that the scriptures in like teach us to pray about something. So, you know, you you might think about, well, you know, hey, we're really, you know, share a prayer request, like we're really stressed about this upcoming decision. You know, a different way to maybe frame that same exact request would would be like, Hey, we're really asking for God's wisdom in this particular area of our life, or or something along those lines. But we're asking for God to do something that he promises to do in his word. And we're gonna pray along that rather than just hey, help them not be stressed or help this particular thing in life to go well. Uh, we're trying to pray in some ways, according to God's will, according to scripture, uh, about the particular things in people's lives. And so even personally trying to think about your own prayer requests that way, but even just then thinking about how to pray for other people that way. Uh, and that's in some ways what what we, you know, uh like in our group, we're trying to, I'm trying to help people frame that themselves in some way by the way I'm gonna ask them to pray. In some ways, that's often what I'll do. I say, hey, you know, what's a what's an aspect of your life that we can be praying for in wisdom? Or what, you know, what's a what's a way we can specifically be praying for maybe your marriage or, you know, relationships in your life, or what's a way that we could be um, you know, what's what's one area that you want God to help you to grow in in your spiritual life? You know, just things like that. We're trying to help them think uh about particular ways that they might need to be praying and think about how the Bible might want them, want us to be praying. So those are some thoughts um kind of just off the top of my head a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_01 15:48

But super helpful. Super helpful. I think I think that'd be helpful for us as if we think about for groups what what to share in them. So that's helpful. Here's another question for you, Braden. I'm thinking about just people in our church. Uh, what would you say to someone or what what might they do if they're in a growth group and they uh have a growing desire for um themselves to lead a growth group? How how might they what's the what's supposed to be the avenue someone should just say, hey, I think I think I'm gonna start a growth group, guys? Come on, like uh what would be the avenue someone might take if they're in their growth group and they maybe even see a need for that as our church grows. We uh we kind of do need some more growth groups too. What how might someone think about that? What might they do if they do want to lead a growth group themselves in our church?

SPEAKER_00 16:31

Yeah, I think first um I would I would invite them to talk to their growth group leader and just say, Hey, I you know, I think I'd be interested in doing this, and then probably reach out to me and and probably get the conversation started in those two ways with the growth group leader that they have, talking with them and that way, because I would probably that would be my first question. I would go talk to that group growth group leader and say, Hey, do you see them leading? Do you think, you know, how do you think about this? Um, because certainly we would I I think what's best is not just to in some ways what's best is also just the personal confession of is it's not best to do what we did, what Abby and I did when we kind of just got here. We uh in some ways we were like, well, we got to start a growth group, I guess. Uh, because I'm kind of supposed to be over those. And so I guess I'm gonna start it and I'll just invite a bunch of people and we'll start from in some ways the ground up. That's that's not the best way to do it. I bet it's going great though. It's not I've heard great things about the paid growth group. That's very kind. Uh it's not it's not best to just like start going for it. In some ways, it what's even better is if some of those relationships, in some ways, what's what's happening with the rights and pains right now, if you already have some relationships that are gonna go with you, um, that you're gonna in some ways make room in now two groups for for you for more people, is is kind of a great thing. Um, and so um I think to kind of multiply groups, and then I think what that does is it's gonna help you kind of have a a group of people who are gonna be maybe trying to be more committed and be like, okay, we gotta now we're gonna try to grab and invite some more people to to our group and that sort of thing. We're gonna kind of be looking out for that. Um, and we have space for that. And and there's also people who are, because when our when our groups probably multiply, they're gonna be a little bit smaller. So that you know, they're they're they're gonna be more committed to being like, we we gotta be there for these leaders, we gotta help these leaders. So that's a little bit harder if you just start grabbing maybe two couples that you see at church and you don't know how committed they are. They don't maybe have a vision or understanding of why we would be doing this. So in some ways, I think that that's probably the best way uh to kind of to kind of go is to talk with your leader, think about talk, talk through even ways that you can move towards that, um, and then and then think about uh how that might go in the future. Talk with me about that. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:34

Yeah. So listeners, be be sparked by that. Be thinking, man, maybe we could lead a growth group, perhaps. We have, yeah, be be thinking about that. Uh Braden, kind of in our closing time here, maybe some general thoughts you'd have for us to close in, um, thinking about growth groups. Maybe just a general vision you'd have for us, maybe not even just today, but in the years to come for our growth groups in our church. Um, or anything else you want to talk about too?

SPEAKER_00 18:58

Yeah, there's probably a number of thoughts, but you know, in some ways, uh, can't say everything. But I I think a couple of things.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

Oh, you can. Well, you know. Jeff does when he's here.

SPEAKER_00 19:08

Hi, kid. I love you, Jeff. Don't fire me, please. Um, I do think like I honestly would want our growth group leaders to know. I'm so thankful for them. They are doing a great job of just helping our groups care for one another, pray for one another, um, growing together, having a real fellowship and hospitality with one another. I'm so thankful for each one of our growth group leaders, they are doing a great job. And in some ways, it's all it's a lot to have people over that that many times and to do that. They just do a great job of that. Um, but yeah, I I in some ways would want like people who are part of growth groups to begin thinking, how can I, even if I'm not a leader, even if I'm not gonna do what we were just talking about, I don't want to maybe necessarily how can I contribute to making this a great growth group? How can I can how can I do that? So actually there's a couple of things that I say at the beginning of my uh growth group most times. Uh my my group might be maybe tired about that, uh, about hearing it. But I and somebody's trying to just I'm excited to hear them. I and somebody's just trying to encourage them about what we're here to do together a little bit. And so those things that I kind of just say, I just say, hey, what we want to do together is we want to put others first, which means we want to pursue the good of other people above ourselves, right? So we want to listen to them well, we want to think about them. We want to, you know, all of those things. We want to be engaged here. Um, and then we want to focus on Christ. Obviously, we want our to be engaged as we're studying the Bible, as we're thinking about these things, we want to ask good questions. Um, we want loving Jesus and our relationship with Him to be central. Uh, then we want to also come as we are. We want to just drop the walls down, not try to be somebody else. Like we just want to be like, if you've got a question or you don't understand a word, like just throw it out there. Like, just don't feel afraid of like trying to pretend like you know all this stuff. Like, feel free to and I'm so thankful that we I see people doing that, and they're just asking questions that are very genuine and like, man, I don't know about this. What do you think about this? Like, I I love that. I think that so uh helps our group. So in some ways, I saying that we come as we are. I'm just like open your life to others. Like we have to, like you have to let us know you. And so just inviting people to to kind of do that and to also uh let other people give them encouragement and and receive encouragement and and kind of um exhortation together. And then kind of also I just my kind of the last thing is we meaningfully participate. That's what we want to do together. Like we need you to contribute to this group by sharing, by talking, by not just sitting back and this is your time off for the week, but but we need you. Hey, hey, meaningfully participate with us. It doesn't there's not one person who knows all the answers. Uh, we want to all do this together, all grow together in our time that we have. So those are a couple things that I would want just group members to be thinking about. Like, I just want to come, I want to be myself, I want to talk with others about Jesus, and I wanna I want to pursue them uh above myself. And then I want to I want to contribute something to this group. And that can look a bunch of different ways, but I think those are would be some great ways. To be thinking as you enter growth group.

SPEAKER_01 22:03

Great reminders for us, Braden. Thanks for your time. Thanks for kind of even just setting the vision for us as we think about what growth groups are, what and what maybe what they aren't, and then how um yeah, how they could be a help to us in our Christian life, uh, especially as we live our Christian life within the context of our local church. So thankful for you, Braden. Uh thankful for our groups. Uh, we're signing off. See ya. Thanks, Joe.