Discipleship DNA: Formats and Patterns
Summary: If the format we use makes space for open sharing, prayer, and the Holy Spirit’s guidance, small group participators will leave encouraged, grow healthy, and keep small group bible studies as the core of their spiritual development.
When a small group meets, what should take place? What do we do together? Should we follow a format, or is it better to keep things “organic” by seeing what the small group needs that week? And shouldn’t we keep things interesting by changing things up from time to time?
We often worry we will not meet people’s needs in a small group if we follow a format.
We also exhaust ourselves by thinking of new things to hold people’s interest. But what actually holds people’s interest in a small group is real love with real interaction with a real God. If the format we use makes space for open sharing, prayer, and the Holy Spirit’s guidance, small group participators will leave encouraged, grow healthy, and keep small group bible studies as the core of their spiritual development. (And wouldn’t it be nice to spend our preparation time in prayer rather than writing new bible study content or coming up with new ice breakers, questions or activities that help people connect?)
A small group’s format doesn’t have to be complicated but can be simple. A simple format will become a memorable pattern that is easy to follow and repeat. It’s possible many in your small group may have opportunity to start a new small group. If so, they will be much more confident to do so if they have a pattern to follow, and much more willing to give their time if they don’t feel the pressure to spend preparation coming up with new ideas each week.
In our next DNA Blog, we will discuss one example of a small group pattern. It is called the “Three Thirds” model.
