We are re-releasing older posts to continue stirring vision and tools as you go. Below is a post from 1/19/2017
Flow of a D-Group Meeting
When journeying together with your discipleship groups there is a rhythm of both formal and informal meetings. Formal meetings are the weekly commitments of an hour to an hour 30 mins of intentional study and accountability. Informal meetings are just the times that you do life with the people in your group. There is a tab on our resource database called "life-on-life" ideas to help you think of ways to do informal meetings.
For the formal D-Group meeting you want to have a "flow" or a structure, some way to keep the time focused on discipleship and not chasing all the rabbit trails we can tend to do. So what should that flow look like? When you meet with your group, you want to do three things. Look back, look in, and look ahead.
Looking back is all about accountability from the previous week. You should spend about 1/3 of the time on this. During this time you want to ask how their week went. Have them share highlights and struggles. This is also the time you want to share your spiritual disciplines from the week. So once you have taught them how to do a S.O.A.P Bible reading journal, they should come to every meeting with something they have read in scripture and be able to share briefly on what God taught them. Once you have taught them how to memorize scripture, they should come every week ready to share their memory verse. Once you have taught them how to do personal evangelism they should come every week and at least be asked how they are being intentional to try and have gospel conversations. All of this is a part of accountability and looking back. If I know I am going to be asked to share and contribute to the group with what God is teaching me, I am more likely to read, pray, memorize, and evangelize. Could you imagine the impact of a small group of people willingly being accountable to each other to know and follow Jesus like that? This is why the first 5-6 meetings are learning how to do these disciplines daily, all of the remaining meetings can now begin with "let's talk about how God is growing you through His Word and mission this past week.
Could you imagine the impact of a small group of people willingly being accountable to each other to know and follow Jesus like that?
Looking in is all about discussing a new truth. You should spend about 1/3 of your time on this. We have provided several resources and documents that can be used to guide your group on these lessons. You can find them here, www.highview.org/discipleship. The lessons cover teachings on being with Jesus through spiritual disciplines, being grounded in Jesus through core theology, being conformed by Jesus through heart change, and being sent by Jesus through becoming a disciple maker. It's helpful to print off the document and pass them out to your group the week before you plan to meet on that lesson. Have everyone read and study on their own. Now when you gather together to meet you can discuss key points and think through how truths apply to life. There may come a time when you have worked through all the lessons provided. In this case you can spend your meeting times discussing your journal entries from Bible reading and following the lead of the Holy Spirit in how to apply things. If all you ever did was open to the current place your group is in your Bible reading plan and you walked through that passage together and taught it, you would be more than efficiently discipling them.
Looking ahead is about a challenge to apply the things you have discussed in the meeting. This can be done in just a couple of minutes. Try to come away from the meeting with every member of the group saying, "I want to try and apply this lesson in this specific way." Now you have a "look back" talking point to begin next weeks meeting.
Pray before meeting. Trust the Holy Spirit and believe the word of God works. Allow the Word of God to set the agenda for your D-group meeting.
Grace & Peace, Scott