Organizing your Sharing Group
A sequence for your first few meetings:
Prayer. Have a short opening prayer, so it is clear that the meeting has begun. Include a request for the Holy Spirit to prompt people to say things that will build up the others.
Deepening acquaintance. Start with ice-breaking questions (see list of ice breakers)
Bible-based study.
Lead the material in a way that promotes discussion (see
Finding Bible Studies)
(next page provides guidance for leading
discussions)
Apply.
As part of the study, ask people how they would apply the concepts in daily
life.
Share. Continue on to ask about personal needs and about others who need
prayer. The leader goes first in the personal sharing time, to set a model
Prayer. Include group prayer at the comfort-level of your group (see suggestions at bottom)
Decisions. Each time, talk about a few of the choices listed in the next section, below.
End. Set the precedent of ending at the promised time
Adapt. After the first few meetings, you may decide to change the order to a way fitting to your group.
Helping the group to shape itself.
The choices below would be discussed and resolved by the
group during first few meetings
1. Food/no food
2. Singing/no singing
3. Do service projects/only have meetings
4. Concentrate on your church’s members/purposely include people from other churches
5. Talk about goals and hopes for the group
6. Agree how to select your next topic
7. Agree whether to plan to divide the group if it gets to be above a certain number
8. Agree what to do when the
year is over, such as:
a.
Encourage formation of new
groups; or
b.
Keep the same people together for another year
Committing to the
Decisions
We encourage groups to write a "covenant."
What is a covenant? We mean a document CREATED BY the group and then SIGNED individually by the group members. (link to sample) By signing, the members commit to the group and to one another for the purpose and time period agreed upon.
What is in a covenant? The covenant would include the decisions made about the topics listed above under “helping the group to shape itself.”.
Each individual would have
a chance to individually accept the covenant, thus agreeing to:
Attend regularly for the duration agreed upon.
Accept the group goals and commit to bring them about.
Converse in a way that builds up the others.
Keep personal sharing confidential.
Assuming your group will welcome visitors, you need to decide at what point to invite a frequent visitor to consider joining the covenant.
What is the value of a covenant? The covenant provides security to group members, because they know they can take the time to attend knowing that others will be there, and that each member is committed to the success of the group.
Next page provides ongoing guidance for your group.
More about group prayer:
Introducing group
prayer:
If the group is not
accustomed to spontaneous oral prayer, you could:
1. Give everyone a chance to
write a prayer and then read it
2. Give people a chance to bring up something they are thankful for, and
then give them time
to
formulate their thoughts and say the same thing in a prayer.
Prayer Options. Here are various ways to have a time of prayer:
1. Leader prays, after taking prayer requests
2. After sharing requests, a different person volunteers to pray for each request.
3. Pray in the order you are seated. In this kind of prayer, a person who wishes to remain silent would give a pre-arranged signal such as touching the arm of the next person. This is sometimes called a circle prayer. It is also common to join hands during a circle prayer, and in that case the signal is to press the hand of the next person in the circle.
4. People pray in random order (sometimes called a “popcorn prayer”). Rather than saying a long prayer, say one topic in just a few sentences, then pause. Someone else may then have a chance to pick up on the same topic. You can say another topic later in the prayer.
5. Pray with one other person. This is a good opportunity to use one of the Apostle Paul’s prayers, inserting the person’s name where Paul wrote “you.” These prayers are Ephesians 1, Ephesians 3, and Colossians 1.
6. Pray in groups of 3 or 4. Each person then has a greater opportunity to say something.
7. The leader can prepare a printed responsive prayer.
8. Everyone can say the same prayer together – the Lord’s prayer, or a printed prayer.