I’m planning on producing a youth ministry training paper most Wednesday’s throughout the year. These papers will be discussed at our Soulies weekly leaders meeting. Anyone is welcome to interact in the comments. Click here to access archive.
The Aim of Soulies Small Groups
Soulies comes in 3 handy sized packages: Large (Soulies United yr 7-12); Medium (Soulies Junior Crew yr 7-9 + Soulies Senior Crew yr10-12); and Small (Soulies Small Groups). How do we roll at Soulies? Whether we’re small, medium or large, we want to be a community who: Love Jesus; Love Jesus’ People; Love Jesus’ World. Small Groups are an amazing opportunity for young punks to grow in their 3 loves. The medium and large gatherings are great, but so much can be done in smaller intimate groups! Our small groups are: an opportunity to grow in our worship and discipleship of Jesus; a great chance to actively serve and love fellow brothers and sisters; and encourage each other to love Jesus’ world through evangelism and social justice.
Our Small Groups Aren’t “Bible Studies”
…but we do study the Bible! While spending time studying the Bible is at the heart of what we do together, it’s not all that we do. God’s Word is “useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim 3:16-17 NIV) – so we want to let God’s Spirit do His work as we study the Bible. But we also want to make sure that our small group time is not just an academic exercise. So there are 3 others things we want to be doing regularly: SHARING, SUPPLICATING, SOCIALISING.
1) SHARING
If we want the members of our small groups to genuinely love one another, we need to allow time to share what’s going on in life. Galatians 6:2 says we are to “carry each other’s burdens…” Help your group to develop habits of honest sharing and good listening in group time. Let them know that, no matter what’s going on in life, they’re not alone.
What different ways of sharing do you know of? (Jot down other peep’s ideas…)
2) SUPPLICATING
Supplicating is kind of a weird word. I just wanted all of the elements to start with “s”. It simply means ‘to ask’, it’s one of the things we do when we pray. If we share each other’s burdens and are spending quality time in the scriptures, prayer is an obvious response. Have you heard of A.C.T.S. prayer? A = Adoration. C = Confession. T = Thanksgiving. S = Supplication. Make sure you’re not always supplicating, it’s good to have a healthy dose of ACT as well. Another thing you might want to consider for your group time is when you pray. Sometimes we tack prayer on for the final minutes of group time. You might want to kick off some weeks with prayer at the beginning or middle rather than just at the end.
What different strategies for prayer do you know of? (Share the love…)
3) SOCIALISING
It’s okay to have fun. While fun isn’t the primary aim, it’s good to facilitate time to let the good times roll! Boys socialise differently to girls – it might involve (risk managed) rumble or push-up competition. Girls socialise differently to boys – it might involve painting finger nails or braiding hair or other stereotypes. At your weekly group time, there may not be much time to socialise, and so you might aim to do something social with your group once a term outside of official group time.
What are some good ideas for social time in group time? Outside of group time?
4) STUDYING
We’ll spend the next couple of weeks thinking through basic principles of understanding the Bible and then packaging a suitable study… stay tuned.
DISCIPLES MAKING DISCIPLES
You won’t be able to spend equal time on each thing each week, but if you keep these 4 elements in the regular diet of what you do during your group time, you’ll go a long way to having a healthy small group.
Finally, be reminded that your primary role as a youth leader is to be a disciple making disciples. Your small group time is really the key time, and engine room of growing young disciples. Make the most of it!!
Great post Dave. Really helpful.
Small groups are fantastic! I love spending this bit of time with my year 9 boys every week. It’s a really valuable time of growth – for my boys AND me!
cheers pete.
glad you love your year 9 crew!!
– hey just had a quick watch of your vid from mega surge – i saw a bunch of dalby crew i recognised from a youth surge event last year :)
Yeah Megasurge was great! There was about 9 Youth groups there, and Dalby was one of ’em :) I am originally from Dalby (now in Brissy at Mitchelton Pres.), so it was great to catch up with them.
It’s fantastic to get together with other guys at stuff like Youthsurge! And a bunch of our guys from Mitchie loved Launch camp with you last year too :)
Thanks for your regular posts too mate, it’s really encouraging!
oops – i meant to say mitchie, but i think i might have seen dalby written somewhere in the vid and been confused knowing that stu was previously at dalby. anyway!!
stoked at the way God is using gear like youthsurge.
thanks for encouragement too :)
I’ve been thinking a bit a prayer during small groups recently. I’m so used to praying at the end of stuff that if I’m at something with no prayer at the end (such as a non-Christian event), then I feel like the event isn’t over or concluded properly. Same with meetings.
Also good to be able to get some solid prayer time in at the start.
Enjoying these posts Dave!
haha – i’ve had that too! i did drama at uni – we’d sit in a circle, and it didn’t feel right to just break at the end without praying!
likewise, when i worked in local government – we’d have meetings to talk about really serious issues with the teenagers we worked with, the right response should have been prayer!!
glad you’re enjoying the posts.
:)
Hey Dave. Thanks for sharing these posts. Some of them (this one especially) have been helpful not just for Youth Ministry but for all ministry. packaged well. tasty.
no worries man! glad they’re helpful more generally :)