SPEAKER_00 0:03

Great. So we're going to make a start. If that's okay. So we'll see here. This is the first of our um kind of new look uh in service training for small group leaders uh and also for the East Bristol Church plant. Um uh we've got a few things that um we're doing as part of the small group leaders training that um uh the East Bristol Church plant guys might be joining with as well. So whether you're here as a small group leader, uh midweek leader uh or East Bristol, uh we'll love to see you. Um we're gonna be quite interactive, so there'll be a few things. So Dave and myself and Jane and Brad are gonna be giving some input, uh, but there will be a chance to do some some discussion as well. So hopefully there's enough people around the different tables to have some folk uh to talk to, and hopefully you've kind of had a chance to say hello already. Um uh so um yeah, training um is something that I think uh it's the it's the um first of the uh academy sessions we're doing, and uh we believe that everybody who we want asked to volunteer in the church actually deserves to be trained and equipped. So uh we have got um uh a whole series of sessions that that hopefully you uh got on the handout. So um uh yeah, apart from kind of Christmas, Easter, and the summertime, uh we've got different things going on. So if you haven't got those, uh I will email you if you booked in to make you know some of those details. Um, but uh tonight we're gonna be thinking about uh discipleship, the Bible and mentoring, um, uh, and how that is uh again a vital part of what Jesus calls us to with our small groups. Um but before we do that, I'm gonna say a prayer for us, um, and then Dave's gonna just give uh again just a reminder of what midweek church uh looks like and why we as as um as well as a church family uh committed to midweek church life. So uh I'll let me just pray. Look, well, thank you so much uh for the chance this evening to be here together. As we uh talk together, as we listen, I pray that you've been here with us. Thank you so much that uh you give us skills and gifts uh to be able to use to serve you and to serve your church and serve your kingdom. And I pray we do that really effectively in Jesus' name. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

Thank you two for pulling us out together in the kind of this whole training arm that we've beginning. Great to have you here tonight. You are so important, to be honest. Um, for uh any church that really wants to grow and disciple and all the other sort of stuff that churches do, churches really need small groups, unless the church is so small it is a small group, you really need small groups. And when we did had our strategic review um in whenever it was, two years ago, um one of the big challenges that was given to us was you really need to multiply your small groups. And actually, for many people, um the commitment of taking on leading a small group can be something that's a bit daunting. It's not that it's not enjoyable, it's not that you don't like hanging out with your friends or only your home to people, but it's the relentless of it, it's the fact that maybe it's kind of like every week or every other week as a responsibility that can be quite hard, and somehow, as well, some of the implications of being involved in pastoral care of people means that boundaries aren't easy to set, are they? You know, so we're so grateful when people get that vision for the life of the church, the life of um of ministry that starts with regular people volunteering to be small group leaders. And when I said that small groups were kind of vital to the well-being of the church, there are um a whole bunch of things that we hope small groups will do, and maybe not every small group will do all of them. And you might even want to triage a little bit how important in the order of what a small group can do are these things, but I'm just gonna just go through them very briefly and say this is this is what we really hope generically around the Woodland Sherge family small groups will be will be providing. And the first thing is connection, um, helping people find community and build friendships. John Winburgh says, you know, people join churches for many reasons, they stay because they make friends, and honestly, um, you know, another quote, Brandon Brown, human beings have an irreducible need to be noticed and loved. I think that's true, but it's really hard to feel noticed and loved when a church gets beyond 50 or 60 people. You know, it's it's there's those kind of normal kind of threshold numbers of where you can feel you're part of a family, part of a clan, part of a gathering, you know people's names. When it goes beyond, then everything has to be more intentional. And the larger the church, the more intentional it has to be, and particularly it has to be built around small group life. So um, thank you for helping people stay in church because they are welcomed, noticed, loved, make friends and build community. It's absolutely key to us retaining people. And by the way, typically over the last couple of years, 500 people or so will have given us their contact details to say I'm interested in finding out more of woodies, but where people actually get move beyond that stage and and actually get invested in the church and stays when they're part of a small group, I think. It's quite tough if you're not. So the second um thing that we've often said about small groups is that they're the first line of pastoral care, and it's it's linked with that first connection. The first line of pastoral care, a place where people are noticed and loved. So that means that if you're leaving a small group for people like myself, who kind of has a bit of a coin to be pastor, actually, you're probably doing the pastoral work, you know. I've got the kind of easy job these days, it kind of um working with colleagues and staff, but um often it's it's people like you meeting people where they're at, first line of pastoral care. So uh there needs to be second lines of pastoral care, there needs to be support for people doing that. But we'll we'll we'll talk more about that over the sessions, I'm sure. But my own feeling is that most pastoral care needs are met by friendship. You know, if you've got friends, you don't need the kind of formal interventions, and so being a catalytic catalytic group where friendships can be formed is really important. That's why in small group life social stuff is as important as spiritual stuff, isn't it? Because it's it's the the the whoop and wharf of friendship making. Third thing that um small groups can do is allow participation. One of my axioms is large church for inspiration, but small church for participation. And I think a small group is a church in your home, and it's a place where people can participate. And we know that we really learn and grow when we actually get to do stuff. You know, you can hear loads of sermons about praying, but it's not until you start praying out loud or praying for people that you really start to learn. And um, in in large church, not everybody can participate in some of the spiritual disciplines that that make church happen, but in a small group we hope that everybody will, and they're places that are participatory that people can chip in. That's why it's ideal, really, if you know everything that you do is participative, it's not like someone giving another sermon, but we're really reflecting, talking, discussing together. It's not like someone's leading a time of worship, which we're all we're all making worship happen, all those kind of ingredients. Um, it's a place for development, and I suppose that leadership pipeline that churches need, growing churches really need that, begins in small groups. And one thing that we've noticed over the years is that people are really good at leading small groups of pastorates, have probably got all the skills that are needed to lead larger things and lead churches, and so um I I think one of one of the kind kind of key things for us in our honestly, we want to be a church-panted church. We'd love to see congregations all over the city, and it'll be people who um wise and are stimulated and energized and fruitful in leading mid-sized groups, probably that are going to be those future church founders and pastors, perhaps. So, but it really is a place where there are lots of gifts that can be developed, not just church leadership ones, but those are quite key as well. Um discipleship. We're on discipleship series at Widows at the moment, and um when Jesus called a group of people to be his disciples, he put them in a small group, certainly the twelve. And Jesus' model is our model. You know, we want to learn how to disciple people like Jesus did. So we think that discipleship again is is up close and personal, it really is. It's it's where you know you have those interactions for good and bad, you know, the disciples quarreled quite a lot, you know, and it's when you're interacting with human people, oh you're you're you you're a bit patient, aren't you? You know, I wouldn't notice that looking at a congregation on a Sunday evening. Well, now and then I would, but you but you would notice that in a room full of people, wouldn't you? Honestly, though, uh, even in a small group, discipleship, a small group might be too big for some of the really nitty-gritty things. And so, but it can be a context where the one-on-ones, the mentoring, and all that kind of stuff can happen. But it's a it's a place where you see the good and where you notice the less good, and where you can encourage all of those kind of discipleship elements through mentoring support, challenge, exposure to scripture, doing stuff together, being on an adventure, how we welcome new people, how we give away what we've got, all those things are the stuff of discipleship. I think. I think um for us as a church, we hope that small groups will also be a place to go deeper with what we're trying to share and disseminate at any one point. Now, I spend a certain amount of time um thinking about sermon series and writing study notes for small groups, which may be rubbish, they may be terrible. But the point of them is um can well when we when we when we preach on a Sunday, we're not just thinking about what would be a good idea, we we we we put some prayer and some thought and some discussion time into where's the church at the moment, what do we need to to kind of be pressing into? And um, and so we hope that what we deliver on Sunday by Sunday can be reinforced and and it can be challenged, questions can be asked, Bible passages can be read, it can be application can happen through small group life. Now, not every small group by any means follows our preaching series on a Sunday, but if we did, maybe we'd get hold of some stuff. So, right now, the Disciple Trips series, it's because we feel maybe at times we're a crowd, but we're not necessarily disciples. And Jesus was good at attracting crowds, you know, 5,000 people showed up to hear his teaching and to get fed and to get their needs met, but within that 5,000 of the small group of disciples who were really trying to put into practice, and we we hope that we can not just be a large group with a few disciples in it, but we can be a disciple-making outfit. Um multiplication of mission. It's a bit of a challenge, isn't it? One of the one of the kind of um familiar diagrams um or life shapes around church that um someone has talked about in church circles is the triangle. What is church? It's a triangle with three points that represent three elements of what makes church a relationship with God, a relationship with one another, and a relationship with the world. Up in and out is another way of describing it. And if a small group is a church in a home, well, there's an upward dimension because we're fellowshipping with God, we're in an inward dimension, we're relating to one another. Is there an outward dimension? Have small groups got a missional dynamic. Well, actually, as we go through this training, there will be an opportunity for you to consider can our small group be missional? Sometimes small groups just feel well, we we just have we can't do it. Actually, our mission, we're so busy, you know. This is a place where we come for refreshment, but our lives are so busy and chaotic. We need this place just to be resourceful. It's not that we're not missional, but we're not gonna be doing it as a small group. But sometimes a small group can be uniquely designed to be the best missional context for your friends, for the people that you notice, the people you pray for, where you can actually construct your program that can have a missional interface. And so we would just like to explore that idea along the way, thinking are small groups to place on a mission too. A mission, of course, is a broad umbrella, it can be as kind of simple at one level as let's do the noise together, to let's uh have a let's all be praying for our friends and think how can we do some guest events that can really interface with them. But um, yeah, what's your circle of influence and and what does mission look like for you? And and maybe the the final value that that I've got on my little list of things that can be a great thing for small groups is learning to grow in the supernatural gifts of the spirit that the Bible talks about, particularly in 1 Corinthians, uh that that book of the Bible. And um as a as a charismatic church, as a church that believes in the mission of the Holy Spirit, we believe that it's almost your birthright as a Christian to go to learn about things that are supernatural, like the prophetic, like um faith and healing and miracles and all that kind of stuff. But it seems like the New Testament, the place where those things are developed is in small group, because the church, the early church, was a small group affair, it was a household church, and when you look at 1 Corinthians, you you look at the the the way it worshipped, and it's clearly talking about a place where everybody can chip in. You know, Paul says when you come together, each one of you has a hymn, a revelation, you know, a scripture. You you've all got something to share, and to share it out loud. And one of the things that I've noticed in small groups over the years is that is that when a small group tries to do that and learn and listen together, they can find, oh gosh, I was just about to share that, and someone else said it. I must be hearing from God. You know, it's kind of like it kind of that that sense of we're together able to listen to God can really work well in a small group. I've seen healings happen in a small group, it's been quite remarkable, you know, and and and everybody's faith kind of shoots up. Now that can happen in all kinds of ways. We we had a last term there was an alpha small group, and someone in the small group had prayer. Um, not a Christian actually, and in the course of that evening in her small group, they were healed. It was a word of knowledge. I'll tell her the story one, it's a great story. This is a lady's coming to Alpha, she works in a veteran practice brought along by her colleague who's a vet, and um Deb Marsh's son, Deb, who was leading Alpha course, she said to her son, I have some words of knowledge, Toby, ask God for one. Toby is just a teenager, really. Um went on a run and said, Well, mum, I think um right index figure. And she said, Oh, very good, son, yeah, but made nothing out of it. Anyway, she shared this word at the uh and um the the the the the veterinary lady had a deformed finger because she'd been savvy by a cat and for 18 months she'd not been able to straighten her finger and it was in ongoing chronic pain. They prayed for that and he and her and the finger straightened up and the pain left her. And it kind of went, Oh, the small group, they were just there is a god. But it happened in a small group context.