Life Group Opportunity for Couples

Posted

February 8, 2012

Written By

Ronnie Collins

God has put something on my heart and I want to let you in on it. I am at Minister’s Convocation at Lake Junaluska and I had the opportunity to sit in on a conversation about Life Groups. I know that one of the best things we can do as a church body is to form small groups of people who grow together in their knowledge of God and each other. We need each other, we need to be able to lean on each other in hard times and we need to be able to celebrate together as well.

Out of the Box Worship Center has been extremely successful. We have grown to an average attendance of 200 each week in under a year, this is almost unheard of in a small town such as ours. This just means that God is in control of this church and what is happening. Where we haven’t been as successful as I believe we need to be is in connecting our body on more occasions than just Sunday morning and I want to change this. It was mentioned today that unless the pastor gets things rolling, Life Groups will not get off the ground. Now, I don’t know that this is exactly true. I appreciate the folks who to this time have led groups and they have been great, thank you.

But I did feel the nudging of the Spirit today to try something. Here is what God has placed on my heart and in my spirit.

The only way I can lead or be involved with a group is if Misty and I both can work on this together. We are just going in different directions too often. I have numerous meetings each month that I have to be involved in and another night away from home is just not acceptable for us right now. I have spoken with Misty and we are excited to offer what we will call a “Leader’s Life Group.”

This “Leader’s Life Group” is going to be specifically for couples (just trust me, I’m not wanting to leave out singles but this is what God has led me to offer) we will work with up to 10 couples and this will be a large group. We will meet each Thursday night at 6:30pm to 8pm at the Out of the Box Youth Center starting March 15th and ending on Thursday evening May 31st. We will read together and discuss the book “Not A Fan” by author Kyle Idleman. We will each bring finger foods for a lite supper together, we will share together and get to know each other better, and we will study this book and the Bible together. A couple of times during this we will plan an evening to get out of the box and have dinner together in a local restaurant.

Now, if you have children don’t count yourself out.

Here is what has to happen for this Life Group to Materialize.

#1. We have to have 10 Couples Let me know they are ready to Sign Up by February 22nd.

#2. Each Person has to purchase the book “Not A Fan.” It is available for less than $10

#3. Each Person has to agree that they will miss no more than 2 nights unless there is an emergency or sickness.

#4. Each person has to agree to pray about becoming a Life Group Leader soon after our session ends. (Have to pray about it.)

#5. We have to find 4 Volunteers who will agree to volunteer to do Quality Child Care at the Worship Center on a rotational basis for our 12 week Life Group. (So we need 4 who feel called to this ministry of Child Care) These people will have to be Safe Sanctuary Trained and we have a training coming up February 18th at the 1st Hillsville Site. It is a Saturday training.

Misty and I are excited about the opportunity of getting to know 10 of our couples better. Pray about what you should do in response to this and if the above 5 items do not materialize, we will take this as confirmation that we are not supposed to follow through. However, we feel this is so important that we are anxious for God to bring it to pass.

Pastor Ronnie

Information for you:

Review

“Kyle Idleman knows where we live and where we could live with God’s help. His words are, at once, profound and practical. He is committed to helping us move in the right direction. If you need a helping hand in your journey, he’ll point you to the right Person.” –Max Lucado – Pastor, Oak Hills Church and Author of Fearless”Jesus never asked us to sit on the sidelines and cheer for his cause. In Idleman’s book, Not a Fan, Kyle will challenge you to grow from a fair weather fan to a full-time follower of Christ.” –Craig Groeschel – Senior Pastor of LifeChurch.tv and Author of The Christian Atheist”Not a Fan is truly a cutting edge study that will challenge even the most obedient Christians to re-look at their relationship with Christ. I highly recommend to individuals and churches everywhere.” –Mike Huckabee – Former Governor of Arkansas and Author of Do the Right Thing”Kyle Idleman’s Not a Fan is a crucial message for our time. It’s a powerful call to commitment and to following Jesus with all our hearts that has challenged me in the best of ways!” –Jud Wilhite – Sr. Pastor Central Christian Church, Las Vegas and Author of Throw it Down”This book disrupts the status quo and challenges readers to follow Christ with greater devotion.” –Mark Batterson – Lead Pastor, National Community Church and Author of Soul Print”Not A Fan is a book that every Christian should read and regularly re-read. I started to read the manuscript and could not stop until I finished. This is a NOW message for the Church and my hope is that every believer who reads this will become an authentic follower of Christ.” –Christine Caine – Founder, The A21 Campaign and Author of Run to Win

Product Description

Pastor Kyle Idleman doesn’t just want to be a fan of Jesus, he wants to full heartedly commit to him and be a follower of Jesus. But how can you make the leap from fan to follower? In Not a Fan Idleman uses biblical examples to show how the people who met Jesus also had to decide if they were fans or followers, and what it meant for them to then become followers. Being a follower doesn’t mean that you go to church every week, that you slap a Jesus fish on the back of your car, and that you give to charity. That’s what a fan does. What a follower of Jesus does, Idleman observes, is die to themselves each and every moment of the day because ‘you can’t say yes to following Jesus unless you say no to living for yourself.’ In this three part book Idleman helps you to discover whether you are a fan or a follower, how to recognize the invitation Jesus has given, and what following Jesus looks like in your daily life. With humor and real life examples to draw you closer to Jesus, Kyle Idleman compels each and every one of us to Not Be A Fan

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