On Tuesday night, I did something I had never done before at my small group. Rather than my co-leader and me talking to the guys, we brought in 3 guys from our old small group to talk to them.
A huge thing we’ve been trying to get across to our group is the idea of “the more you put into group, the more you’ll get out of group.” We can preach this all day long, but we can only tell the guys stories of past experiences. We thought what better way to get this idea across than to bring in 3 guys who have lived this out.
The cool part about the 3 we brought in was that they were the 3 who probably grew the most over the course of our last small group, but they all made a commitment to go all-in for God and small group at different times. One made that choice in the very beginning, one about halfway through and the other toward the end. Because they all had differing viewpoints, it was cool to see them talk about the decisions they made and how it impacted them in the long run.
The returning guys made a significant impact on our group. I had conversations right after group with some of my guys that were a direct result of what they talked about. Even cooler: it made me one proud small group leader to see our returning guys living out and talking about things we talked about when they were in my group before.
Unless you’ve been under a rock for the past few days, you probably know that History Channel premiered the first of five parts of its new miniseries, The Bible, on Sunday night. The show had an astounding 13.1 million viewers and has created a lot of buzz among both Christians and secular audience members. I watched most of the episode on Sunday night and have been processing a few things since then:
