Reaching Out Together Print

WELCOME ICEBREAKER

Prior to the home group evening you should:

  1. Phone or email your existing members.
  2. If you had names past on to you by the church office please call and invite them.
  3. Watch the Host Tips on the DVD/video and preview the lesson.
    1. The session you need to watch is called Reaching Out Together and it is just over 20 minutes long. Have it ready to go.
    2. Make sure you show the group the lesson not the Host Tips.
  4. Review the discussion questions and lesson.
  5. Pray for everyone who will be attending by name. This is SO IMPORTANT!

Welcome:

Welcome new guests and regular attendees. Give the group an overview of the evening.

  • A few minutes praising God for His goodness
  • Watching a 20 minute video by Rick Warren on the importance of community
  • Discuss the how his talk applies to our group
  • Spend some time praying for any needs in the group
  • Hang out and visit for awhile but you are feel free to go (having people stay and visit after the pray time is optional – don’t go to late, the number one reason people don’t come back is the meeting going to long)

WORSHIP

It is important we come and give God honor before we start the meeting. It is an intentional act of taking ourselves of the throne and putting God first. If group can sing that is great. Other options are having a few people share a praise report or read a Psalm.

WORD

Tell your group prior to watching the DVD/video:

  1. We are going to watch some teachings by Rick Warren, the well-known author of The Purpose Driven Life, as he taught 40 Days Of Community from his church in Saddleback California. Our church is not doing the full 40 Days of Community but using some of the messages to help us build community in our home groups.
  2. He will mention that we need to do a group project. We will talk about this after our discussion.
  3. We don’t have study guides so I encourage you to take notes as Pastor Rick talks and write down the six key points.

Discussion questions:

(Note if your group is larger than 8 divide into groups of 4 or 5 to do the discussion questions. Have one person share the results with the rest of the group. Take only 20 minutes for this part.)

  1. What were the six things Pastor Rick said we should do to be used by God?
  2. Rick says that sharing the good news about Jesus takes more than words. What kind of actions did you see in others that caused you to be interested in becoming a Christian? What kind of actions turned you off?
  3. We must care about the physical needs in the community. What are the physical needs in our community?
  4. How we can reach out to our community? What talents do we have in our “inventory”? Some ideas might be:
    1. Help at a food bank.
    2. Volunteer to serve food at UGM.
    3. Help tutor ESL students.
    4. Clean up around the dumpster in the back alley.
    5. Baby sit for a single parent.

WORK

Pray for each other’s prayer requests. Pray especially for the people you are inviting to come to your small group or church with you. Have someone record the prayer requests and include them with your praise reports when you send in the home group report.

If someone was missing from your group ask for a volunteer from the group to call or email them to let them know they were missed. It is very important for people to know they are cared for.