Dear Small Group Leaders,
Today’s sermon videos on The Joy of Jubilee are available on the church website at www.christchurchsl.org/sermons. The weekly discussion guide is available in the link below (in the www.smallgroupleaders.net site) or in the weekly email attachment. Please send your group members a friendly email reminder of your upcoming meeting this week, and include the sermon videos link and Discussion Guide pdf file too. You may wish to include some items from the Leadership Tips in your email as well- such as the Ash Wednesday services at 7am and 7pm this Wednesday. The Leader Tips are available below in all three formats, video, audio and text.
Sermon Discussion Guide- 2-11-18 Sermon Discussion Guide- The Joy of Jubilee
New Person Survey form – pre-participation survey v1
Leader’s Tips- video format-
2-11-18 Joy of Jubilee Video 480p from Dan Conway on Vimeo.
Leader’s Tips- audio format-
Leader’s Tips- text format
Leader Tip #1- Slight Change in the Guide Format This Week and Next Week
As mentioned last week, I am making some slight changes to the discussion guide format with placing the prayer request sharing at the front end of the meeting during the Getting Started section but keeping the actual prayer time at the end. Beginning next week, I also may be adding references to scriptures not necessarily used in the sermon but help illustrate the main sermon points and expound on them. This will allow the group to go deeper into related scripture-based ideas that they may not have thought about during the sermons. Because the text of these additional passages may not fit in the 2 page guides, starting next week, the group will need at least one member with a Bible to read the additional scriptures out loud. While the passages are read, members may find it helpful to follow along in their own Bibles but it is not required.
You may want to have 2-3 extra Bibles on hand for those who do wish to follow along. Some may also want to use their smart phones for this purpose, either using the internet for a bible site like biblegateway.com or by using a Bible app. The app YouVersion is free and can be very helpful for this. To get it on your phone, just search on “Bible” and download the icon with the brown book icon that says “Holy Bible” on it. It also has a variety of translations and bible reading plans available for people to use as they wish to.
Leader Tip 2- Schedules and Upcoming Events
Ash Wednesday is this week with a brief service at 7am and a full one hour service at 7pm. The message “A Valentine For Lent” will be offered by Pastor Hall in the morning and by Pastor Temple in the evening. This marks the beginning of the season of lent in the Christian calendar and in our community at Christ Church. We pray this will be the beginning of a time of spiritual growth for you and your group members. The following Sunday will be the start of our Lenten sermon series Spring Training: Disciplines for a Strong Spiritual Life when we will remember and practice such disciplines as being in community, fasting, receiving communion, prayer, and reading scripture. The series will conclude with our worship services during holy week on Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter.
Tonight, Sunday Feb 11, Pastor Temple will be leading the Small Group Leader’s Equipping Track session on The Uniqueness of the United Methodist Tradition- From Grace to Grace from 5:30-6:30pm in the Bride’s room. This session is starting 30 minutes later than usual because of another meeting earlier in the afternoon. All are welcome.
Leadership Tip #3- Helpful Reminders
The new sermon series is a great opportunity to invite new people to join your group for just a 6 week time period. Please consider thinking about someone new to invite. You might consider the no commitment just “come and see” approach for an invitation to the first meeting in the new series. Remember to offer the pre-participation survey to any new people who come for the first time. They will have the option to continue in the group after Easter in the Spring mini-mester if they wish to. Also, we will have an end of the winter semester feedback form for folks to fill out just before holy week. If you know of those looking for a new group in the Riverstone, Sugar Creek, Sugar Mill, Sienna, or First Colony areas, please share my phone and email address with them. We are trying to get enough people together in those areas to form new groups (281-980-6888×4776 or dan@christchurchsl.org).
By now hopefully you have received an email invitation from someone at the church to log-in to the new online church membership, attendance and giving program called “Realm.” The best way to tag into your existing account is to click on the invitation link you received via email. If you did not receive an email invite, more information about Realm is available at http://www.christchurchsl.org/realm/. There may be some aspects of Realm that may be helpful for your group staying connected to each other as well. More about this in the leader tips next week! The first step is just getting logged in to the new system.
Thank you again for stepping out and trying new things in our ministry of discipleship together. I am excited for the days ahead in our Spring Training!
Your Partner In Ministry,
Dan Conway
Pastor of Discipleship & Outreach
Christ Church