This Sunday evening at Christ Baptist Church we will begin "official" care groups. We will divide into groups of about 10 people and begin a journey of caring for each other's souls. Each group will meet once a week and reflect on the Sunday morning sermon as well as pray intentionally for spiritual growth in each other's lives. Here are seven purposes we have identified for these care groups:
· to cultivate genuine fellowship with each other
· to get to know each other better
· to better hold each other accountable
· to apply the Sunday morning sermon to our lives
· to utilize our spiritual gifts in serving each other
· to pray intentionally for each other
· to grow in our commitment to and love for Christ
Question: Are you a part of a small group of Christians who meet regularly to hold each other accountable? If so, what is the stucture of the time? How long have you been a part of that group? What is the most beneficial aspect of the group? Any other thoughts about small groups?
6 comments:
That's great to hear you're incorporating care groups into your church. In our church the care group I attend has really been such a source of grace, it's amazing.
Justin,
could you explain the difference between a care group and a sunday school class. also, do you all have sunday school?
Yes, we have Bible Study on Sunday morning.
I guess a Sunday School class could function as a care group. However, most SS classes that I have observed spend the majority of the time teaching.
A care group should focus more on application and accountability. There must be a time in our lives when we gather with like-minded Christians to ask each other the hard questions:
"How are you doing spiritually?" "No, really, how are you doing?" "Are you reading your Bible?" "Are you growing in Christ?" etc.
Thank you for pointing out your observations of the difference between sunday school class and a care group. I have never been at a church that had a care group, only sunday school and i am curious to learn how this would be implented in church without one thinking the care group would take the place of a sunday school class. i do enjoy our sunday school class however, i like you don't see accountability and relationships being built within the realm. any suggestions of how to go about getting it started or suggested materials explaining more on care groups.
btw. . . i will be praying as your church seeks to implement this in your church and pray that it would be beneficial to everyone.
Hey Justin,
At our church we have grow groups. We used to call them small groups- but I think the elders decided that sounded kinda exclusive- and changed the name! But some groups meet at people's homes. Ours meets up at the church. We used to go through a study together, but just this year we have started focusing on applying Sunday morning sermons.
Im not sure how all of the groups opperate exactly. But in ours we separate men from women for a time of accountability and prayer. We try to spend at least 30 min or so on this. (This has really helped cultivate bonds in our groups and encouragement for one another) Plus we find that everyone is more willing to be transparent apart from the opposite sex! Then we meet together and go over a series of application questions- made by our pastor. (He prints them up on sunday morning and we meet sunday night) and make sure no one had any questions about the sermon....and then we pray together. We usually meet at 6:00 and then try to be done by 7:45. Some times we run over- esp if there are alot of questions- or if it was a sermon that touched on some harder topics- like election or something that usually leads to rabbit trails! LOL!
That is really cool that you guys are doing that. It has really helped us develop some awesome relationships- and love for one another. We also try to have a grow group fellowship everyother month. Where we just get together and hang out, have dinner and let the kiddos play. We have missed meeting over the summer. But we start back up Sept 9th!!!! So we are really excited about that!
OH yeah, and we also get a sheet with everyone's email addresses and mail out prayer requests weekly. (THese are more couple requests than personal requests) and then we all commit to pray for each other throughout the week.
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