Life Groups are not just meetings or Bible studies. Meetings focus on an agenda and Bible studies can be done alone. Life Groups are meant to be places for people to grow closer to God via authentic fellowship with one another. It is the fellowship which lays the foundation for everything else that our Life Groups try to do. This excerpt from a post on smallgroups.com speaks to this topic quite well:
Fellowship is the glue that keeps us in relationship with one another. Ephesians 2:19, [a] key verse about fellowship, talks about how we are members of God’s family. It says, “You are no longer foreigners or outsiders, but citizens together with God’s people and members of God’s family.” Godly fellowship enables us to experience true family.
Genuine fellowship helps us move from just sharing coffee and cookies to being a safe community where we can be transparent with one another. Here are some simple but effective steps a small group in your church can take to build this kind of fellowship and encourage genuine community:
- Offer new people a history of the group. Have everyone-including the first-timers-share a little bit about their family and a few of the activities they enjoy doing in their free time.
- Provide ice-breakers. Sometimes the silliest questions or activities are best. These help people get to know one another in a safe way.
- Celebrate milestones. Help foster community by celebrating birthdays, anniversaries, long-awaited adoptions, and other special events in people’s lives.
- Celebrate victories. In addition to job promotions and other achievements, make sure you celebrate spiritual victories and answers to prayer.
- Plan an overnighter. Arrange for an “adults only” weekend or a family getaway. The time spent together on an overnighter is equivalent to three months of nightly group meetings.
- Host a “Fun Night.” Instead of the usual study time, surprise the group with a night full of games and fun. Such a change of pace is both healthy and refreshing for the group.
- Institute a hot seat. Sit a person in the center of the circle and have everyone shower him or her with heartfelt affirmation. Statements can begin with, “You’re important to our group because … ” Everyone needs this kind of affirmation from time to time.
- Tell stories. Plan a brief activity that encourages face-to-face interaction between members. This could be as simple as letting people share a story from the heart, such as when they got saved or engaged or married. It could also be a time of sharing a personal story that is relevant to the study. When people share about their personal stories, community deepens.
- Pick up the phone. Follow-up calls strengthen community. When people are absent from the group, call to check on them. If a prayer need has been brought up, follow up to let them know you’re still praying. Those phone calls can go a long way toward affirming community. Be sure, too, to call or send a card to people who attended your group for the first time.
- Print a directory. A group roster is a simple but important tool for building fellowship and fostering community. Make it easy for people to connect outside of group time by sharing e-mail addresses and phone numbers.
- Keep a scrapbook. It’s very cool to be able to turn the pages of the book and retrace the journey the group has traveled on together. Of course, the person encouraging small-group fellowship can find help with this assignment. And maybe even be able to delegate it entirely to another member of the group.
How intentional is your group in allowing fellowship to create “a safe community where we can be transparent with one another”?
FYI, you can see the full post by clicking here.
