Core Values from 242 Community Small Groups on Vimeo.
Group life at 2|42 is such a vital piece to our health and community. In order to gauge our success we must stay focused on our 3 Core Values and always growing in Next Steps, the 3C’s and Reproducing.
Where are you winning in regards to the Core Values in your group?
Which Core Value do you need to grow most in as a group leader?
How can we help better support you and develop you as a group leader?
By Kevin Davis
Give me a C – “C”, give me a O – “O”, give me a R – “R”, give me a E – “E”! Whats that spell? “CORE”. Which doesn’t have much impact unless you attache VALUES to it! And how does it apply when talking about Restore – Celebrate the Journey?!! Well, sit back, kick your legs up and listen. You may even want to grab some popcorn, cause its gonna get salty up in here.
Our first session was awesome – saw a bit of each aspect of 242′s core values. One young man made the ultimate next step in baptism! It was a great day, and really felt the Holy Spirit doing cartwheels through the church offices.
2 leaders emerged as well..and one is actually co-leading this term. She rocks, loves Jesus, and has major sobriety under her belt.
We’ve been touching on the 3 C’s each week, and really trying to as a group become better 3 C Christ followers. Each member is attending Church regularly, active in other groups and as far as contributing… recently a few members of the CTJ crew helped with the Community Connect event at Cornerstone. Great to see so many people coming together to help the less fortunate.
Areas we need to improve are connecting outside of group, as a group. A few of us have had one on ones with each other, and its been awesome! Our next step together is either a social even to chilax and have fun, or help some folks out in need. Stay tuned… ok? How does one stay tuned by the way? (hmmm)
On the horizon for this 2nd session – hoping to land another leader (we have one in mind) and dunk another Christian – make it official!
We have yet to talk the tithing talk as a group and where we stand. We may call in the big dogs for that!! LOL. Just kidding. We’re gonna soon…
Our group is uber-small at this point, which we’re okay with (but of course, would prefer more discussion with more people – whatever). One thing we’ve discovered is that some people need “encouragement” as they deal with their “stuff” to take next steps.
In our experience, this “encouragement” isn’t just one comment or one week’s lesson – it tends to be layered (educators call it “scaffolding”). IOW, the lesson might be about “x” and we talk about “x” in our group. But here’s the really cool part – God wants us and our group members to take next steps as much as we encourage it and have it as a goal. So He’s actively involved in our lives and tends to scaffold experiences and lessons to where it becomes concrete and has a real-life application. And by the time we or one of our participants “gets it,” the lesson has been reinforced many times and taught and learned at many different levels. I think that’s entirely too cool.
Our group will continue to grow – if not numerically, then spiritually. We want to stay in touch with our core values of valuing each person and encouraging them to listen and obey God’s voice, no matter what that looks like.
We’ve seen growth in individuals and God’s faithfulness as we go forward, which is why we’re here, right?
Alex – word. Restore groups are turning into an Apprentice-making-machine. I think there is something about the recovery community that understands helping others as you’re being helped – being a Sponsor stuff. It’s cool to see people raw and taking next steps in their recovery and so willing to step up and lead others too.
You guys will figure out the “deeper connection” thing.
Sue – exactly why you’re here
It is tough in small group life to not identify our success with the number of people attending our group. I know you know that 1 is enough and where 2 or more are gathered, etc, etc, etc.
But, like in everything, we should be looking at ways to tweak what we’re doing to better it. I think the next best step for your leadership is to pray for the people God’s going to bring to you in the Spring term. I’m committed to being praying with you too.
One of the ways the “coolest” network will begin living out the core values is by exploring what it really means to “value the fringe, more than the core”. We can recognize this value in our churches DNA (Yea Kevin I said DNA), The way we celebrate, connect, and contribute can all be influenced by how much we value the fringe in our city, township, county, state…you get the idea. So as group leaders in the “coolest” network gather in the coming weeks we will be exploring how our groups can “value the fringe, more than the core”. After all it’s just what Jesus would do and it’s missional (there Kevin are you happy).
Bob – you’re network is definitely on the edge of really being “organic” in it’s “missional” approach to being “incarnational” as a part of it’s “DNA” and it’s use of all the cool words in the church world
Seriously though, there will be lots for us to learn in this department and it will be cool as your network tries new things.
Bob and Kevin, I am disappointed that, while thoroughly discussing the organic missional DNA of our small groups, you never mentioned the NARRATIVE! It’s all about the narrative and the meta-narrative.
After Turbo, Dave and I were discussing our lifegroup (I should have said cell group b/c Kevin can’t punch me in the face in the virtual world)…and our next steps as a lifegroup.
We talked about how we need to grow in serving together (wait, would that be missional?) I think the group really has a good heart for the fringe and the empty chair and people taking next steps. We also felt like we need to commit to specifically pray for our lifegroup, for each member and for the next steps they need to take. I think maybe we need to discuss next steps a little more specifically sometimes in our group discussions – it’s hard to balance being accessible with being challenging and sometimes we err on the side of being welcoming/accessible. For sure we need to be diligent in prayer and open to the Holy Spirit’s guidance for how to have conversations. (Do I get brownie points for referencing the current sermon series?)
So then after we finished that whole train of thought, it was cool to talk about all the next steps that have been taken by group members in just the last year. No, our group isn’t perfect, but God still has used it awesome-ly! And that’s just encouraging.
P.S. Sue – love the scaffolding idea.
Carrie – totally! The whole discussion on “where do we need to grow” can never overshadow all that we’re doing right. We have awesome groups and time and time again we see amazing things happening in them. I love the front row phrase from Turbo, that we are on the front row to what God is doing and seeing lives change. So intoxicating!
I did forget narrative, my bad. We do need thing about the narrative more. I think I also forgot to mention journey, synergy, community and culture creation.