Sample Agenda from an Exciting Small Group
    This approach for meeting with others creates unlimited possibilities for serving God. It is based on love, Christ-like intimacy and spiritual gifts. Meaningful faith brings about intimate and supportive friendships for individuals and in the groups.
The following example shows how most groups interact during a typical small group meeting:

    Small groups have been meeting  weekly or bi-weekly and going by one of the many agendas we have included on our web pages as books 1, 2, 3 and 4. To make leadership easy to learn, and to make seeking visitors feel welcome we have stayed with the following simple routine:

1. Ice-breaker (about 20 minutes): The people present in the group are all invited to tell a story about their personal life (two minutes).  It was exciting to see people get to know each other from this experience. Some sharing of needs took place also.

2. Relating Life to the Bible (about 10 minutes): The leader has different people read the verses on the agenda: Each person in the circle reads a verse and/or a question until we have finished reading all the references. Then everyone is asked to think about applying these principles and answering the questions. Notes can be made at the bottom of the pages. Key words of interest can be underlined, circled, or noted.
Example verses:
1 Timothy 1:12-16 Where Paul wrote that he was the worst of sinners.
Acts 10:25 Where Peter told Cornelius not to worship him, because he was only a man himself.
Acts 14:13-15 Where Paul told the crowd not to worship Barnabas and himself. "We too are only men, human like you."
James 5:17 Where James referred to Elijah, the great Old Testament prophet, as "a man just like us."
Exodus 4:10-17 Where Moses said, "I can't speak.." But God still told him go and speak to the Egyptians.

3. Group Discussion (about 30 minutes): The whole group discusses the idea that God can select, train and use anyone He wants to. God will use each of us to do what He wants done. We can be just like the people mentioned in the Bible. God made them what they were, and they were all humans just like us! The members of this small group realized that God wants to use each of us to become like Christ and to spread His good news.

4. Individual Prayers (about 20 minutes): The group leader asks all in the circle for prayer needs and each person lists them on the Group Prayer Needs Form on the back page of the agenda. Each person is invited to pray for themselves and at least one other person in the group (usually on the left or the right). Those who are not yet comfortable with praying in the group may remain silent. Each person is asked to pray silently along with those who pray out loud.

5. The Group's Vision (about 10 minutes): Finally, the leader described the vision of what this group of people could achieve with God's help in the future:  For example:
Bring friends, relatives, neighbors, etc. to experience fellowship and to learn about Christ .
Help the church to multiply the present number of groups.
To develop mature and intimate friendships with each other and experience in this group relationship the same kind of love for one another that Jesus and His disciples experienced.
To be a truly loving support group.

Suggested Implementation Sequence for Starting Small Groups in a Church
1. For small groups to succeed, leadership support at the top level of the organization is crucial. Senior pastors and elders must make a commitment to encourage and be part of creative idea development and implementation. The leaders should attend some of the many available seminars and conferences on successfully organizing and implementing the cell group system.
2. Make a decision to implement small groups.
3. Appoint a guidance committee, a small group task force.
4. Train guidance committee members in the small group process. (See the recommended reading at the end of this chapter. We used a 13 week "hands on" course for all trainees.)
5. After group leaders are trained they personally invite six to eight members for each of their groups to be sure that all involved want to be in their specific group.
6. Each group should plan to multiply into two groups when it's attendance is over 12. It's vital not to have too many in a group.
7. From the group's start each leader trains an "intern" to lead the next "daughter" group. This is one of the keys to reaching people and bringing them into God's family.
8. Various types of small groups can be started based on people's needs:
    Basic fellowship groups which bring friends and relatives into the group.
    Support for those with special needs -- marriage enrichment, divorce, parenting, substance abuse, etc.
    Life application Bible study groups for all ages.
    Task force groups with specific short or long term assignments.
    Leadership training groups. It is vital for leaders in training to read the available literature on small groups.
    Leadership team of elders and pastors.

[Modified from pages 39 - 42 in The Leadership Principles of Jesus]

Agendas for Teaching a Class on Introduction to Small Groups:

To: Agnes, Bill, Jack, Keith, and Sue:
We had a wonderful coaching meeting on Monday PM and I asked you all to share ideas on what small groups have done for you: what stories you would tell others to give them a wonderful vision for the future? I shared this list with the Small Group Task Force in a meeting where we prepared for a small group leaders retreat.

1. There has been real growth in people.
2. Apprentices are learning to facilitate.
3. People are learning to pray publicly.
4. They are learning to tell their story and to participate with the group.
5. We are having God's message enhanced and made practical.
6. It's a live thing and it's not dead or boring.
7. We are seeing the scriptures come alive.
8. We are learning how to apply scriptures to real life situations.
9. The Spirit is working through us.
10. We get to know people's needs where we didn't really do this in the large Sunday meeting.
11. We are also learning our own needs.
12. We are also learning about our spiritual gifts and strengths.
13. We are becoming an important part of people's lives.
14. The insights of up to 800 life years of experience are available to us.
15. This enhances our learning.
16. Seeing all this happen in groups is like a miracle.
17. We now realize that small groups are modeled in virtually every book of the Bible.
18. The structure is simple and down to earth just like that Jesus modeled with His 12 disciples.
19. We see that common sense really works, with the Spirit's help.
20. Small groups eliminate "middle men" and lets all get into the act.
21. You get God's products right away! Spiritual fruit comes quicker.
22. We see the modeling that goes on with each other.
23. It's good for people with little or no experience, or with little confidence.
24. We see things differently than we used to. God can open our hearts and minds.
25. People know and feel our love much more than in the traditional ways of doing church.
26. We get a new lease on life when you hear compliments, especially when all your life you've been criticized.
27. We learn what love really is.
28. It's refreshing because churches have been dead. Being in small groups is like being born again.
29. It's exciting to know that the Spirit is alive and living in us.
30. We get spiritual direction that we need.
31. We get to know people intimately who we only had a passing acquaintance with. We were dead.
32. We're changing from the letter of the law to the Spirit of the law.
33. We lost the "living water" for a long time. Now we're getting "wet with living water".
34. We are being educated intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually.
35. Walls are coming down. As in John 14 and 17, we will be with Him in the place that He has prepared.
36. We are getting more of the first century Spirit, and also more of what David, Daniel, Abraham, etc. had.
37. People are hungry and they're getting the "true food", feeding each other with the "food" Jesus supplies.
38. As individuals we receive a sense of identity -- a real place for us in God's family.

What an inspiration to hear Sue, Agnes, Bill, and Keith (Jack was away on a family reunion) rattle off these benefits of and stories about small group experiences over the past several years, especially the past seven months.

Love,
Warren

Click For Jean and Warren's Contents at FortuneCity.com
- The Leadership Principles of Jesus
Click for Discussion of Small Christ-Like Groups
Click For Agendas for Introduction to Small Groups
Click For Contents-1 and Book One
Click For Contents-2 and Book Two
Click For Contents-3 and Book Three
Click For Contents-4 and Book Four
Click For Contents-5 and Book Four
Click for Group Prayer Needs
Click Here for Coaching Small Groups Leaders
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