CORE CONVICTIONS WITH RESOURCES

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INTRO TO CORE CONVICTIONS

JESUS said the greatest commandment was LOVE THE LORD. From that command we see three core convictions, or ways to express our LOVE TO GOD. These convictions are Kingdom relationships (brotherhood/sisterhood), a Personal relationship with God, and Responsibility for His Kingdom. All three together we call KPR. To have a conviction (KPR) is to express that conviction (attributes) from my identity as a child of God (motivation).

ULTIMATE CONCERN: LOVE → CORE CONVICTIONS: KPR → ATTRIBUTES: BELOW ↓

You’ll find on this page concepts about our Core Convictions, their corresponding attributes, and resources for your small group regarding each attribute. Have a scroll through to find what you could emphasize in this season for your small group members to grow in their pursuit of God.

SHOULD I FOCUS ON K, P OR R?

We always need to be expressing and imparting our core convictions whenever God gives us the opportunity to minister to our friends. It is often helpful to assess if your small group as a whole (SG), or the individual members in your small group, need to grow most in "Kingdom Relationships'' (K), their "Personal relationship with God" (P) or "Responsibility" for God's Kingdom (R) in each season. Every Core Conviction has what we call "attributes," which are ways of expressing that Core Conviction. Once you have identified the Core Conviction you want to impart, think through the attributes of that Core Conviction you can begin to disciple into your SG. The questions below (as well as the survey next to this section) can help you find out where to focus within our Core Convictions of KPR. From there each Core Conviction has its own section lower on this page which will assist you in thinking through particular attributes to focus on and give you as a SG leader resources for leading your relationships into a deeper pursuit of God and each other.

  1. Has the Lord already burdened you as the leader with a specific direction for your small group members? If "yes," then focus on that area. If you only have a general direction, or no direction, then keep reading the following questions.
  1. The next area to think about is what you have been observing in your SG community. Is there an area you can tell God is already growing your Small Group members in? It may not even be something your SG members are cognizant of, but you can see, with the Holy Spirit's help, a specific area. If so, then focus there and create ways to grow that hunger; but if not, then keep moving down through these questions.

  1. What time of the semester is it? As a ministry-wide rhythm, we will be emphasizing different areas of KPR that correspond to specific times in the semester (or season). If possible, emphasize KPR and 1-2 attributes within KPR during those corresponding seasons. For example, if we are towards the latter part of the fall we will be emphasizing Responsibility (R) as a ministry with Missions Week and starting the conversations about LTC. It can be very helpful then to emphasize the vision of taking on responsibility with your SG and utilize the questions & momentum that the larger ministry is creating in their lives.

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  2. Are they clearly weaker in having a particular experience of a conviction (E.g. they don't have a lot of history with prayer) or an expression of that conviction (E.g. they have experienced prayer but aren't regularly praying now)? In the sections below there are surveys for each category of KPR to help you assess which attributes within K, P or R to emphasize based on their lack of experience or expression.

  3. Is the Lord growing you in an area that they can glean from? This is something that should always be part of your discipleship. People will learn most from what the Lord is doing in your life, so your personal relationship with Jesus is what you want to invite them into. However, you need to be careful to not neglect where they are in their spiritual journey for the sake of emphasizing where you are in yours.

  4. Do they have an area they are wanting to grow in? This sometimes is assumed to be the first place to go as a discipler, but it is at the bottom of this list because it typically should be seen as less critical than other principles. That's not because you shouldn't let your SG members have a say in what you emphasize, but what a SG member wants to grow in may not always be what they need. Typically, if a SG member or the group is taking the initiative to share with you where they're interested in growing, and it aligns with other principles above, then it's probably a good area to emphasize. However, you have to be careful that where you go in your discipleship isn't based on interest alone, but on a focus to grow their love for God and others.

AREA 1: KINGDOM RELATIONSHIPS (BROTHER/SISTERHOOD)

SPEAK IDENTITY (HONOR)

Kingdom Relationships are marked by regularly speaking a Biblical perspective over each other.

Maxims and Quotes

  • People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care
  • Don’t surrender honesty in the pursuit of honor
  • Place a crown above their head and watch them grow into it

Questions to help you access if you need to prioritize this attribute in their discipleship:

  • Do they initiate verbal honor to people in their lives?
  • Are they quick to complain about things/people in their life?
  • Do their honor highlight the things of God in other people or only superficial attributes?

Why Speaking Honor Over Each Other Is Important

Their is a story from Charles Finny's ministry where a woman comes up to Finny and says that she doesn't know what to do. She has a daughter living with her who is lost and living totally out of control. Finny asks the woman to tell him what she thought her daughter would be like if she was a follower of Christ, to which the woman says "Oh I couldn't even imagine that". Finny then responds "Well that your first problem" and tells the woman to go home and start treating and speaking to her daughter like the woman of God that she was made to be. Later through the changed way her mother began to treat her, the daughter gave her life to the Lord and started living like the woman of God that her mother said she was.

As much as we may like to think that we are our own person independant from the family, culture, and community we do life with, the reality is that much of how we have come to see ourselves is through the eyes of other people. The most powerful way that we see ourselves in others eyes is by the words they have spoken to and over us. When Gideon met the Angel of the Lord in Judges 6 he was told, "Stand up mighty warrior of God". This was in spite of the fact that in that moment he was threshing wheat in hiding and fear of Israel's enemies. Where the world would say, "You are what you do," the Bible says, "You are what He made you, and you can learn to act out that identity."

When someone comes into a SG community demonstrating honor we are teaching that person how to take on the identity that is already theirs in God. In a world that feels like it is always striving for value through validation, when the common question in their heads is, "Am I safe or significant in this group?" When we are constantly struggling with being significant or to overcome what people have negatively said about us, to walk into a community that is full of honor, speaking value and validation from who they are in God instead of what they have done, is one of the most attractive and transformative attributes a community can possess.

What Do We Mean By Honor?

Honor means to have high respect, or great esteem for someone or something. In our context, we are generally talking about speaking a Kingdom identity over them, sometimes by celebrating what we love and respect about their character. We are looking to emphasize the God-given identity they have. In contrast to the conviction creation principle "THE ACTIONS WE CELEBRATE", honor is emphasizing who they are while celebrating is about what they do. Sometimes that means affirming that identity by spotlighting how they are behaving in line with it, but we are ultimately helping them see themselves through God's eyes. For example, I know a highly impactful minister who often tells guys around him that they are, "Such a man of God" even before he knows a lot about them.

What we do has a real impact in how we see ourselves so while we may theologically know we are a son or daughter of God, it is by behaving like one that we learn to claim that identity over ourselves. Our community's celebration of those developing habits and affirmation of our Kingdom identity helps us see ourselves as God sees us which creates a virtuous cycle. One where my behaviors are reinforcing my identity, my identity deepens my convictions and my convictions are driving my behaviors, all of which are being spurred on by the honor and celebration of the community.

Common Feeding-behaviors (page 1), attributes (page 2) & principles (page 3) for the SG leader to prioritize while emphasizing this attribute:

Small Group/1-on-1 Meeting Resources

Some Scriptures related to the topic:

  • Romans 12:10 (NIV) Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.
  • I Peter 2:17 (ASV) Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.
  • Deuteronomy 5:16 (NIV) "Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you."

Creative SG/1-on-1 meeting ideas:

  • Have someone honor someone else publicly in front of your SG gathering each week, and the person being honored receives some kind of totem that they keep for a week and then pass to whomever they honor in the next SG meeting.
  • Have a night where each person gets honored in turn by every other member of the SG.
  • Help a SG member speak honor about another person in the SG behind that person's back. Later share with the person who was honored unknowingly what was said and who said it.
  • Do a SG weekly meeting around a campfire where, after talking about who we are as the family of God, you have them write on a piece of paper anything that they believe about themselves that is not what God has said about them. Then have them burn it in the fire as an act of surrendering their identity to God.

Some questions to pose:

  • How does finding our identity in Christ help us honor others?
  • What does honor do in our hearts?
  • What was a word (good or bad) that was spoken over you that affected how you saw yourself afterwards?

Practical challenges you could give:

  • Spend a week where every conversation you have includes you saying something honoring the other person.

Resources and Reading

  1. Company of the Committed by Elton Trueblood
  2. Six-week small group Bible study on Christian identity by Campus Ministry Today.
  3. Making Sense Of God by Timothy Keller

MODEL LIVING LIFE TOGETHER

DOES THEIR LIFE REFLECT A RHYTHM OF LIFE EXPRESSED TOGETHER WITH YOU AND OTHER MEMBERS OF YOUR SG & XA COMMUNITY?

Maxims and Quotes

  • People usually forget what you say, but they will always remember how you treat them
  • Those who have nothing can share nothing; those who are going nowhere can have no fellow-travellers - CS Lewis
  • The Kingdom of God is established in relationship
  • Express a relaxed love relationship with those you do life with
  • They have to belong before they will believe
  • Love by nature binds itself
  • The 4 C's of Community - Winkie Pratney:
    • Common understanding
    • Common unselfishness
    • Constant forgiveness
    • Commitment

Questions to help you access if you need to prioritize this attribute in their discipleship:

  • Do SG members have strong boundaries between relationships in your small group and other aspects of their life?
  • Do they have relationships with people in your small group (yourself included) that they feel they can be spontaneous with when the occasion arises?
  • Do they spend time with the community outside of structured ministry activities?

Why Is Living Life Together A Key Attribute Of A SG Community?

If God is a trinity then it means that God is intrinsically relational. Relationships are not an add-on to the meaning of life but are at the very center of meaning and morality. What are attributes of such a Trinitarian relationship?

We get a sense of how the Trinity abides with each other when Jesus was on the cross. In one of the most haunting passages of Scripture Jesus proclaims on the cross in Matthew 27, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”. The worst thing to Jesus was not the cross itself but the more profound loss of abiding that happened in that moment. Now we can pull any number of concepts from this passage, but the one relevant to our topic here is that the relationship Jesus had with the Father was one of abiding communion with each other.

While we cannot have an unbroken communion with anyone other than God Himself, we can see the principle played out practically in how Jesus discipled those who would lead the church such as how he spent more time with them and less with the crowds as time went on. We also see how the church expressed this sharing of life and possessions in Acts 2. In case you think that this relationship concept was based on the middle east communal culture that Christianity sprang from, the early church would go so much further in modeling life together than the communal culture around them, so much that it would take notice of how different this "religion" was than other beliefs and cultures of the time. Many of Paul's writings were dealing with how to model Life Together across the social/economic barriers that the gospel was tearing down.

What Is Modeling Living Life Together?

Doing Life Together is when someone has a rhythm of experiencing an aspect of your life (e.g. dinner at your house every Tuesday night), or a regular time where they experience different aspects of your life (e.g. coming over Friday nights and participating in whatever you and your cohort are doing). Life Together can also be when you interact in their life in the same way or where you create something that isn't a regular part of either of your lives but becomes an expression of your shared lives (e.g. You both take up rafting to do together as a hobby in your life). Life in this context is seen as anything outside of structured Small Group or ministry-wide events. While the ministry's rhythms are certainly part of your life, they don't intuitively communicate abiding with you so much as challenging & encouraging their abiding with Jesus.

Common Feeding-behaviors (page 1), attributes (page 2) & principles (page 3) for the SG leader to prioritize while emphasizing this attribute:

Small Group/One-on-One Meeting Resources

Some Scriptures related to the topic:

  • Acts 2:42-47 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

  • Mark 3:13-14 Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. 14 He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach.

  • John 17:20-23 "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me."

Creative SG/1-on-1 meeting ideas:

  • Let different SG members plan something based on what they are interested in for your weekend hangout
  • Whenever there's a practical way to serve a member of the SG take advantage of helping the other SG members meet that need (e.g. buying a bike for someone who needs transportation or going to the hospital together anytime anyone has a medical issue).

Some questions to pose:

  • What does doing Life Together look like to you?
  • Why is this important to faith and discipleship?

Practical challenges you could give:

  • Don’t eat or go to the gym alone this week, but spend time with others while doing so

Resources and Reading

  1. Friendship by Hugh Black
  2. Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
  3. UVA XA Small Group Meeting Lessons on Community

CONVEY LOVE FOR EACH OTHER

DO THEY MODEL AFFECTION FOR EACH OTHER, LAUGHTER WITH EACH OTHER, AND SERVICE/SACRIFICE TO EACH OTHER?

Maxims and Quotes

  • The 4 C's of community: commitment (also common understanding, common unselfishness and constant forgiveness)
  • 'Love & Laughter soften hard hearts
  • Have a relaxed love-relationship with God and your brother or sister
  • We have more fun on accident than most people have on purpose

Questions to help you access if you need to prioritize this attribute in their discipleship:

  • Are they quick to complain about things & people in their life?
  • Are their relationships in your small group, and their broader life, marked by a relaxed love for one another?
  • Do they help others in your small group feel included and a part?
  • Do they ever model spiritual or emotional empathy or support for others in your small group?

Why Is It Important For Your SG To Express Love To One Another?

Sometimes we can be so focused on growing in our love and devotion to God that we forget the primary way He said to love Him. In Matthew 22 Jesus would say that to love your neighbor is so closely connected to how you love God that Jesus couldn't give the greatest commandment without giving this qualifier. I John 4:20 John goes so far as to say "If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen." If we are ever going to learn how to have a life transforming relationship with Jesus we have to learn to love whom He loves.

What we are focused on here in this attribute is the importance of acting on love. What good is loving someone if we don't express it? Too often, we give lip service to the command to love others because we don't hate them. It's not until we learn to start acting out expressions of love to one another that what we experience in our relationships is something more than tolerance, or, worse, indifference.

What Do We Define As Expressions Of Love?

We are not trying to give a comprehensive summary of what expressing love to each other entails. We are each unique, and how we give and receive love can be unique to who I am and who we are together. However, there are three expressions that we most commonly are seeking to foster within our group on a regular basis.

The first is expressing affection. Expressing affection to one another is one of the primary expressions of love. Affection can include a range of behaviors including common physical expressions such as hugging, a pat on the back, or a squeeze of the shoulder. It can also be casually wrestling or swockling For a deeper look at affection see "Express Belonging & Affection" in the "Feeding Your Friendships" section of the "Fundamental Behaviors" page.

The second sounds the least spiritual but is central to having a life-giving love with one another. That is expressing laughter with each other. To laugh is to let down your guard, to enjoy each others company, and to breathe life into each other.

Lastly, is the expression of service in a sacrificial way. The woman who gave two small copper coins to the work of building and operating the temple gave more, Jesus said, than those who gave out of their abundance. Love is expressed by the sacrifice we give in service to one another. The example of the cross is the ultimate expression of love and of this principle in action.

Common Feeding-behaviors (page 1), attributes (page 2) & principles (page 3) for the SG leader to prioritize while emphasizing this attribute:

Small Group/One-on-One Meeting Resources

Some Scriptures related to the topic:

  • Matthew 22:36-40 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

  • Proverbs 17:22 A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

  • Job 8:21 "He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy."

Creative SG/1-on-1 meeting ideas:

  • Whenever there is a practical way to serve a member of the SG, take advantage of helping the other SG members meet that need (examples include buying a bike for someone who needs transportation or going to the hospital together anytime anyone has a medical issue).
  • Do periodic 1-on-1s where you take a SG member and go clean another SG member's apartment.

Some questions to pose:

  • What are ways that people serve you that expresses love to you in the way that you receive love?
  • What are things in our life or perceptions of our mind that keep us from having a relaxed love relationship with God and our brothers/sisters?
  • Do you think laughter is spiritual?

Some practical challenges you could give:

  • Spend your devotional time this week wholly focused on expressing love to God instead of things you need
  • Give something up this week that hurts to give away

Resources and Reading

  1. Sam Huston Chi Alpha Resources on Love
  2. Eli Gautreaux on Love Pursues
  3. The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis
  4. The Five Love Languages

SHARE THEIR LOVE OF GOD

DO THEY REGULARLY EXPRESS THEIR THOUGHT LIFE AND THEIR AFFECTION FOR JESUS BOTH IN AND OUT OF STRUCTURED MOMENTS?

Maxims and Quotes

  • "What you got?"
  • The 4 C's of community: common understanding (also common unselfishness, constant forgiveness and commitment)
  • Major on the majors. Minor on the minors
  • What you celebrate, they will emulate
  • Start with conscious incompetence and move to unconscious competence

Questions to help you access if you need to prioritize this attribute in their discipleship:

  • Do they share their "mind in love with God" with friends without being prompted?
  • Do they ask each other "what you got"?

Why It Is Important For Your SG To Share About Their Love Of God With Each Other

While no one would necessarily say it this way, it can be common to relegate God and His relationship with us to the weekly meeting, Outpost Live, or some other structured event. Doing life together, having a relaxed love relationship and attributes like "love and laughter" are where our relationship with our SG has its expression, and we tend to keep the lines firmly divided between these two compartmentalized aspects of our lives.

It is important for a community, who are learning to lean on each other as they pursue Jesus, to break down the barriers between talking about God and their lives. The more they talk about Him, the more He will dominate their thoughts, and the more He dominates their thoughts, the more they will talk about Him. For this virtuous cycle to grow, though, they need to start with intentionality until expressing the affection of their hearts becomes a habit of their lives.

What Do We Mean By Sharing Their Love Of God?

We are not talking about speaking up during things like a SG's weekly meeting, a structured 1-on-1 or other agenda driven meetings, though, of course, participation is something to be encouraged during those times. What we are asking is do the members of your SG talk about Him when there is no agenda on the table? Do they share what they have been reading, thinking about, or even wrestling through in their faith when they are together in regular relational time?

Common Feeding-behaviors (page 1), attributes (page 2) & principles (page 3) for the SG leader to prioritize while emphasizing this attribute:

Small Group/One-on-One Meeting Resources

Some Scriptures related to the topic:

  • Matthew 5: 14-16 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

  • Psalm 1:1-2 Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, 2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.

  • Matthew 22:37-38 Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest commandment."

Creative SG/1-on-1 meeting ideas:

  • Do an outreach activity with your SG members and strike up conversations with random people on the campus about the Lord.

Some questions to pose:

  • Do you ever talk about the Lord unprompted?
  • Why is talking about your faith and thought life important to do?
  • Why is it challenging to sometimes talk about our faith, and how can we build this habit in our lives?

Practical challenges you could give:

  • Bring up what you’ve been reading anytime you have a conversation with a Christian brother/sister this week

Resources and Reading

  1. Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

EXPRESS VULNERABILITY & SACRIFICE

DO THEY REGULARLY EXPRESS VULNERABILITY TO AND MODEL BEARING THE BURDENS OF THE OTHER SG MEMBERS?

Maxims and Quotes

  • The 4 C's of community: common unselfishness (also common understanding, constant forgiveness and commitment)
  • People connect to you not from you sharing your successes but your sufferings
  • The first step away from God is when a Christian says to his brother, "I have no need of you"
  • People usually forget what you say, but they will always remember how you treat them
  • The greatest humility is surrendered strength, not rejected responsibility

Questions to help you access if you need to prioritize this attribute in their discipleship:

  • Are their relationships in your small group or life marked by a relaxed love for one another?
  • Do they ever model spiritual or emotional empathy or support for others in your small group?
  • Do they spin life to always put themselves in a positive life or are they raw?
  • Are they vulnerable with their leaders and community with struggles or shortcomings?
  • Are they quick to see needs and ways they can serve?

Why Is It Important For Your SG To Serve & Be Served By The Other Members Of The SG?

Paul told the church in Galatia to "Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ." What was this law that Paul was referencing? Paul was almost certainly referring to Jesus' command in Matthew 22:36 to love God and love your neighbor as yourself. It is insightful to realize that Paul saw the fulfillment of that commandment in bearing the burdens of each other. Whose burdens are you bearing right now? Do you say that you love but don't serve your small group community? Paul here is suggesting that these are inseparable concepts. To do one is to do the other. Let's strive to create a SG that is serving one another and so fulfilling the law of Christ.

What Do We Mean By Serving And Being Served By The SG Community?

If we are to rely on each other as we learn to serve and be served there are two essential attributes that need to be expressed on a regular basis:

  • Vulnerability: My grandfather fought in the European theater during WWII. During one skirmish shortly after the Battle of the Bulge, where the German forces attempted one last large-scale offensive, his unit was tasked with taking out a "pill box" (a concrete encampment with narrow slits for gunners). In the middle of the battle, with the entrenched German soldiers, my grandfather's commander was shot after attempting to run close enough to the pill box to throw a grenade into it. My grandfather jumped out of his fox hole and ran to grab his wounded commander. In the process he also was shot, but not before dragging his commander far enough to safely that his foxhole partner was able to jump out and drag both of them back. My grandfather would receive the purple heart and a bronze star for his sacrifice that day.
    Oxford Languages defines vulnerability as, "The quality or state of being exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally." This sounds like a bad thing, and let's be honest, that's why vulnerability is tough for us to express, but vulnerability is incredibly powerful for the very same reason that it's so difficult. Unless I trust you with the struggles and wounds in my life, you won't be able to pull me back to safety. We all like acting like the hero who doesn't need anyone else, but we have to trust others to carry us when we fall if we are going to survive the day, let alone find victory over the battles we face.
    A number of ministries who are focused on discipleship have spotlighted how they have found that confession, and the vulnerability associated with that spiritual discipline, is one of the most powerful spiritual disciplines, often to the surprise of the ministries themselves. Church history has tried separating confession from relationship, but true Kingdom Relationships give space to express the power of confession for overcoming sin in the safety that confession requires. Honor, belonging ques, and modeling vulnerability are important concepts to foster vulnerability in your SG relationships.
  • Sacrificial love: Like the analogy of my grandfather and then his foxhole buddy running into danger in order to bring back their wounded friends, vulnerability will actually not help Kingdom relationships unless their is a willingness in the group to serve one another in a sacrificial way. Jesus said in John 13: 34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." Love, and even sacrificial love, were certainly concepts that were understood, so how could Jesus say this was a new command? When Jesus stepped onto the cross He was modeling a love far grander than the world had previously understood because it was a profoundly sacrificial love that didn't demand anything in return. It certainly had the hope of our redemption, but that was not a guarantee anymore than it is today for each person who wrestles with what they will do with His sacrifice in their own lives. Jesus' love was one sided in its expression without expectation. In the same way, vulnerability will only find power as we serve each other in turn.

Common Feeding-behaviors (page 1), attributes (page 2) & principles (page 3) for the SG leader to prioritize while emphasizing this attribute:

Small Group/One-on-One Meeting Resources

Some Scriptures related to the topic:

  • Romans 12:10 (NIV) Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.

  • Romans 12:9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.

  • Phillippians 2:3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves.

Creative SG/1-on-1 meeting ideas:

  • Have each SG member write on a poster board a timeline of their life. Then have them put different colored post it notes on the timeline for the 5 best and 5 worst moments/seasons of their life. Then have them share about their life and answer in what ways those experiences shaped who they are and what they are fighting for in their life.

Some questions to pose:

  • Why is being vulnerable powerful in growing faith?
  • In what ways is it challenging for you to be authentic?
  • What is an area we can serve and/or pray for you in?
  • What would the SG bearing your burdens look like in your life?
  • Why is confession a spiritual discipline in our faith?

Some practical challenges you could give:

  • Share something that's risky to your reputation
  • Create a rhythm of confession within your small group

Resources and Reading

  1. Building a Discipling Culture by Mike Breen
  2. Brene Brown: The Power of Vulnerability Ted Talk
  3. The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis
  4. Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
  5. No Silver Bullets by Daniel Im
  6. The Freedom of Self Forgetfulness: The Path to True Christian Joy by Timothy Keller

REFLECT CONSTANT FORGIVENESS

ARE THEY QUICK TO ASK FOR FORGIVENESS & IN EITHER CASE TO FORGIVE ONE ANOTHER?

Maxims and Quotes

  • The 4 C's of community: constant forgiveness, common understanding, common unselfishness and commitment
  • Always think the best of each other
  • The only right a Christian has is the right to give up his rights
  • Hurt cycle: Hurt > Bitterness > Rebellion > Deception
  • People connect to you not from you sharing your successes but your sufferings

Questions to help you access if you need to prioritize this attribute in their discipleship:

  • Do they spin life to always put them in a positive life or are they raw?
  • Do they model a sense of vulnerability in their life?
  • Do they ask for forgiveness even when the other person may not have taken offense or do they default assuming that people will see what they do & say in the most positive light?

Why Is It Important For Your SG To Express Constant Forgiveness To Each Other?

Below is a description by Texas A&M XA: One of the surest signs that we have received the love and forgiveness that God has shown us through the cross of Christ is that we are loving and forgiving as well. “To whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.” We become what we behold. We will let each other down, and we must practice the art of turning our hearts and minds over to Jesus, not dwelling on those that hurt us. Winkie Pratney says, “Unforgiveness is the headache of heaven.”

What Is Forgiveness?

Have you ever noticed how hard forgiveness is? As much as our culture suggests that everyone should just forgive one another and move on, our culture has not shown an aptitude for forgiveness. One reason that forgiveness is easier said than done is because the nature of forgiveness is not well understood in our world. We so often find ourselves like someone who knows where they would like to go but who doesn't have a map. They can exert a lot of energy trying to figure out where to do but will just as easily get lost and hurt in the attempt without someone to help show them the way.

Typically we see forgiveness as letting go of an offense against someone else in contrast to holding onto it. Counter intuitive to that definition, forgiveness is actually better understood as taking hold of the offense instead of letting it go. The popular line in books and movies when someone is seeking vengeance is to say "They're going to pay", and that is an apt description of what's happening in unforgiveness. You're demanding the other person pay for their wrongs against you in some way. Sometimes that's expressed through the break in the relationship, the way you talk about them, the restitution you demand in some way.
You might say that still doesn't sound quite right. Aren't you letting go of something in forgiveness? The answer is yes your intuition is correct. If you said forgiveness is about letting go of your right to enact "payment" than you'd be right. However, to refer to our analogy of holding onto or letting go of the offense, the person who is not forgiving is the one trying to let go of the offense itself. They are trying to relieve themselves of the burden of the offense by giving it to the other person. If someone hits your car you can demand they pay for damages in which case you are trying to relieve yourself of their offense by making them pay. In contrast, forgiving is saying that you have a broken car. Far from letting go, forgiveness is about owning the cost of the others wrong. Forgiveness is to say "I'll pay" . I'll live with this wound, this hurt, this injustice and let go of demanding you carry the burden of making it right. That's why forgiveness is so hard at times. We are "paying" for another's mistake. It is also why there is such power in Christianity to forgive.

When I recognize that God paid my debt for all the wrongs I've done in life, than forgiving another is less challenging because at the cross I begin to recognize that God has paid a far greater debt for my sake. When our faith begins to own that burden Christ paid for me, generosity becomes the posture of my heart towards others lesser offenses no matter how meaningful they very well may have been. Christianity doesn't leave it there but takes forgiveness even a step further. I am also consistently reminded in the Gospel that I possess nothing, not even my own life as He paid for it on the cross, and so offenses are the Lord's to deal with as He is the Lord of my life. Because of that I can give them to Him to deal with instead of carrying them myself.

Common Feeding-behaviors (page 1), attributes (page 2) & principles (page 3) for the SG leader to prioritize while emphasizing this attribute:

Small Group/One-on-One Meeting Resources

Some Scriptures related to the topic:

  • Matthew 5: 23-25 “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift. 25 “Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison.
  • Matthew 6: 14-15 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
  • Matthew 18:21-35 Parable of the Unforgiving Debtor

Creative SG/1-on-1 meeting ideas:

  • Do a SG weekly meeting around a campfire where, after talking about repentance and forgiveness, you have them write on a piece of paper anything that they are holding against someone else and then burn it in the fire as an act of surrendering it to God. You can also do this SG meeting for identity and have them write out anything they believe about themselves that is not what God has said about them.

Some questions to pose:

  • What do you believe about forgiveness?
  • Why is forgiveness seen as so important in the Bible that God can't forgive us if we don't forgive others?
  • Share a time when you have had to express forgiveness to someone else.

Some practical challenges you could give:

  • Spend time in your devotional life this week meditating on God's forgiveness of you.
  • Take some time to pray for God to reveal who you have wronged in your life. Go and ask forgiveness from those individuals & if possible make it right.

Resources and Reading

  1. Sam Houston Chi Alpha SG Resources on Forgiveness
  2. Winkie Pratney; Hurt & Bitterness
  3. UVA Chi Alpha SG Resources on Forgiveness
  4. Exclusion and Embrace by Miroslav Volf

HAVE COMMITMENT FOR EACH OTHER

DO THEY EXPRESS A COMMITMENT TO THE OTHER MEMBERS OF YOUR SG AND THE LARGER COMMUNITY?

Maxims and Quotes

  • The 4 C's of community: commitment (also common understanding, common unselfishness and constant forgiveness)
  • Love by nature binds itself
  • Healthy relationships have commitment that is proportional to the depth of the friendship (intimacy)
  • The first step away from God is when a Christian says to his brother “I have no need of you.”

Questions to help you access if you need to prioritize this attribute in their discipleship:

  • Do they spend time with each other even if you don't structure anything?
  • Do they make plans to be together during school breaks?
  • Have they ever served & sacrificed for the friendships in your SG?
  • Do they model vulnerability with each other or are they real?

Why Is It Important For Your SG To Express Commitment To One Another?

Below is a description by Texas A&M XA: A marriage only works if there is commitment. In fellowship, we are committed to each others' highest good. Love is unselfishly choosing the highest good for God and His Kingdom, which includes others as well. We must tune our lives to His Life, and be committed to Him if we will truly be committed to one another. Commitment says, “Over my dead body are you going to live a stupid spiritual life.” Commitment fights for real love and relationships. Like a surgeon that cuts out deathly cancer, commitment is willing to say the things that will save a life, even though it is painful in the moment. Commitment shows up at the darkest hour and provides comfort and encouragement. The world longs to see a people that are not only committed to a cause, but to each other, in love.

Common Feeding-behaviors (page 1), attributes (page 2) & principles (page 3) for the SG leader to prioritize while emphasizing this attribute:

Small Group/One-on-One Meeting Resources

Some Scriptures related to the topic:

  • Matthew 16:24, 25 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.

  • Proverbs 16:3 Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.

  • I John 3:16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

  • Acts 2:42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

  • John 17:20, 21 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

Creative SG/1-on-1 meeting ideas:

  • Whenever there is a practical way to serve a member of the SG, take advantage of helping the other SG members meet that need (examples include buying a bike for someone who needs transportation or going to the hospital together anytime anyone has a medical issue).
  • Do periodic 1-on-1s where you take a SG member and go clean another SG member's apartment.

Some questions to pose:

  • Who do you actively serve in your life?
  • Why is service and commitment intertwined
  • Why is commitment important in Kingdom Relationships and how do we model it?
  • Why do you think that research suggests that your generation struggles with commitment more than former generations? How might you have experienced & battled that in your own life?

Some practical challenges you could give:

  • Make plans for over break with other people in your small group (modeling future language and commitment)
  • Give something away that will bless a friend this week

Resources and Reading

Building High Commitment in a Low-Commitment World by Bill Hull

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Survey: Kingdom relationships

What attributes of Kingdom Relationships should I focus on?

AREA 2: A PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD

BELIEF IN GOD

DO THEY BELIEVE THAT THE GOD OF THE BIBLE IS THE CREATOR FORCE IN THE UNIVERSE?

Maxims and Quotes

  • Thought > action > habit > character > destiny
  • You will be tomorrow where your thoughts about God have taken you today
  • You emulate what you elevate, you elevate what you entertain
  • Read your Bible, your Bible will read you.
  • God’s laws are descriptions of reality from an infinite perspective

Why Is Addressing Intellectual Objections To God Important?

It has been said that for someone to believe in God they need multiple kinds of encounters to change them from a worldview without the God of the Bible to one with Christ & His work on the cross at the center. The three encounters are:

  • A Love Encounter: They need to experience the love of Christ through a life transforming relationship.
  • A Truth Encounter: They need to have encounters, typically through the love encounter, that cause them to understand the Gospel.
  • A Power Encounter: They need to experience God in their own lives. This most often comes from someone saying "God who are you" through interacting with the Gospel from a friend.

While we could spend a great deal of time on any one of these ideas, and address them through the small group leader resource pages, this attribute of belief is focused on resources to help people with the second of the three. Not just a truth encounter but namely how do we help someone encounter the truth of God's existence.

A truth encounter could and should be far more than something that challenges them to believe, but something that calls them to bow to Jesus. That said, the proclamation of the Gospel often falls on deaf ears until we can challenge the idea that there is no God or that the God of the Bible is not correct. To that end you will find the below section filled with apologetic type resources to many of the most common intellectual barriers students have on our campus. As you teach people to not only care about God but to more simply to believe in the God they should care about you are tilling the ground so the grace of the Gospel can find fertile soil.
This section is not meant to be exhaustive but as a resource to give you a launching point into these topics. As any of these topics would be too exhausted for this page we are focusing on offering resources and brief summaries to help you access where to start.

How to Use the Below Resources

  • The goal in discussing competing ideas to Christianity isn't to win the argument. If you strive for that you'll never succeed because people will almost never surrender in a win/lose discussion, and you will often lose in what really matters in the attempt. Instead of winning the argument you are trying to show that Christianity is reasonable with good arguments. That will often open people up to asking "God who are you really?" From there the Gospel can find fertile soil to draw someone through ongoing love and power encounters.
  • Study yourself so that you are prepared to give an answer to the hope that lives within you
  • Refer SG members to this site or its resources for their own study
  • Go through a book, article, sermon, etc. together as a 1-on-1 strategy or weekly meeting conversation

When to Use the Below Resources

  • When someone has recently accepted the Lord it is common for their mind to be an early battlefield for their ongoing surrender. As the truth of the Gospel is challenged by the larger world, and especially on the university campus, it is important for them to have an intellectual belief not just an intellectual love for God.
  • When someone came to faith largely through a Power or Love encounters, than spending a season strengthening not only their theology but the reasonableness of faith is critical.

  • When someone is not yet a believer but is participating in a small group and/or the larger community it can be helpful for them to be challenged with the reasonableness of faith.

    Comprehensive Apologetic Resources ↓
  • Book: The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism This book is by Timothy Keller and looks at a number of the most common objections to Christianity in our world today. Keller merges leading arguments with an apt for writing in a way that the layman can understand.
  • Book: More Than a Carpenter This book written by Josh McDowell merges some great apologetic while staying a short & simple book to read. Great place to start if the defence of Christianity is new to you.
  • Book: Evidence That Demands a Verdict: Life-Changing Truth for a Skeptical World This is the more exhaustive book by Josh McDowell looking more in depth at a number of topics.
  • Website: Reasonable Faith William Lane Craig has been rated by secular studies as one of the 50 most influential Philosophers alive today and answers any number of topics you can reference from his website.
  • Book: On Guard: Defending Your Faith with Reason and Precision This book by William Lane Craig is a look at his most popular apologetical arguments today. These commonly go beyond answering the skeptics arguments to giving arguments against the atheist worldview. This is an awesome book but not a beginner's look at the subject.
How Could a Good God Allow Suffering ↓

One of the most common objections to the idea of God in our world is also on the surface one of the most reasonable objections. We have all experienced unjust suffering, or watched the unjust suffering of others in our life and larger world. How can God be real in such a reality or if He does exist than He must not be good. Below includes some resources that highlight how, contrary to common belief, the evil in our world is a major argument for the reality of God. “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

Small Group/One-on-One Meeting Resources

Some questions to pose:

  • Have you experienced unjust suffering in your life?
  • Did you see God as your refuge in or the reason for your suffering?
  • How do you see God as good in a bad world?
  • Do you think Love could exist in a world without suffering? The idea here being that love demands a choice for freedom and not enslavement to exist so God can't have a world where we give and receive Love without allowing it to also be deeply damaged.

Practical challenges you could give:

  • Read through one of the below books this semester and discuss it when your together
  • When suffering comes up, pray daily for God to sustain you and that God would use the evil you are experiencing for good.

Resources and Reading

Jesus Amongst Other Gods ↓

ISLAM

The second largest faith worldview in the world is Islam. Where our own culture is generally open to and even encouraging of discussion, debate and truth seeking, countries shaped by sharia law have generally suppressed other worldviews, especially other faiths. Because of that many muslims have little to no encounters with the Gospel even if they are curious about Jesus. On universities in the west where cultures influenced by differing religious worldviews are thrust into an environment encouraging debate and dialog there is an awesome opportunity to minister to friends from countries that may be closed to the Gospel.

Small Group/One-on-One Meeting Resources

Some questions to pose:

  • What do you know about Christianity?
  • What has been your experience with Christians?
  • What are your thoughts about Islam?

Practical challenges you could give:

  • Read through John together and discuss who He claimed to be and what John claimed about Jesus
  • Read through Matthew together and discuss how Jesus fulfilled the OT prophecies and what they said about Him. Muslims claim the Prophets of the Jews were from God but typically have never read any of them.
  • Challenge them to begin praying "God who are you?" & for God to make the truth of Himself clear.
  • If you have a friendship that can handle it start discussing the apologetical debate between Christianity and Islam such as in the books written by Nabeel Qureshi referenced below

Resources and Reading

Faith and Science ↓

Comprehensive science

One of the most common intellectual objections to Christianity doesn't come from other faiths but from people who reject God altogether. Typically people who object to the idea of God existing at all try to pit science as being opposed to the idea of God. They need this to be true in part because if science doesn't compete with Christianity then the intellectual foundation of their argument passes away and they are left with either accepting Jesus or dealing with what sometimes are the deeper, less objective objections to Jesus.

Small Group/One-on-One Meeting Resources

Some questions to pose:

Practical challenges you could give:

  • Challenge them to come humbly to the conversation about God. Jesus refused to give the religious leaders a sign but was seemingly happy to show Thomas in his doubt. A critical mind vs a critical spirit is an important distinction. Practically encourage them to pray regularly and simply state Jesus IF you're real I'll surrender but I need to know.
  • Read through one of the readings below as 1on1 discussion material.

Practical advice for you:

  • Don't get distracted from seeking to give someone power and love encounters by debating the truth. While the truth of the gospel and the reasonableness of belief needs to be fought for, people typically won't be won over to Jesus by that alone. Apologetics are important but will only get you so far.

Resources and Reading

Biology

Small Group/One-on-One Meeting Resources

Some questions to pose:

Practical challenges you could give:

  • Challenge them to come humbly to the conversation about God. Jesus refused to give the religious leaders a sign but was seemingly happy to show Thomas in his doubt. A critical mind vs a critical spirit is an important distinction. Practically encourage them to pray regularly and simply state Jesus IF you're real I'll surrender but I need to know.
  • Read through one of the readings below as 1on1 discussion material.

Practical advice for you:

  • Don't get distracted from seeking to give someone power and love encounters by debating the truth. While the truth of the gospel and the reasonableness of belief needs to be fought for, people typically won't be won over to Jesus by that alone. Apologetics are important but will only get you so far.

Resources and Reading

Heaven and Hell ↓
The Bible as the Word of God ↓

One Way to God ↓

UNDERSTANDS SIN & PURSUES HOLINESS

DO THEY HAVE A CONVICTION FOR HOLINESS AND UNDERSTAND THE BARRIER SIN HOLDS IN THAT PURSUIT?

Maxims and Quotes

  • Sin is overcome by the expulsive power of a greater affection
  • God’s right on our lives is founded in his value
  • The Kingdom of God is built on relationship
  • You’re as close to God as you want to be

Questions to help you access if you need to prioritize this attribute in their discipleship:

  • Is it easy or enjoyable for them to share about their salvation?*
  • Does their prayer time bleed into the rest of their day or is it only during intentional times?
  • Do they experience God’s presence in their life at times not related to corporate gatherings?
  • Do they express conviction if they fall short?
  • Are they vulnerable with their leaders and community with struggles or shortcomings?

Why Does Understanding Sin And Pursuing Holiness Matter?

Sometimes skeptics suggest that morality is subjective (based on personal preferences rather than objective facts) even in Christianity. The argument goes that if morality is something God chose then He could have chosen hate as the highest good instead of love for example. If on the other hand love is the highest good objectively (based on external facts rather than internal preferences) then it must be something that transcends God and He becomes nothing more than a cosmic policeman in which case we should really be worshiping love itself. Christian philosophy has countered that it is neither option A nor B but rather a 3rd option. If morality, and for that matter reality itself, is built upon the archetype of God's intrinsic nature then love is the highest expression of morality because it objectively expresses His internal attributes. God is love and so as we learn to express His nature we are learning to draw closer to the nature of morality, reality & our own humanity as His children.

So what is it about God that makes love, for example, good? In brief it is because He is a trinity. If you did not have a God who is triune then God would not have a relational nature and as a result love, which is fundamentally a relational concept, could not exist. Through understanding God is relational and is inviting us into a relationship with Himself that we begin to understand the gravity of our sin. Namely that we all have said God we don't want you. We also find the purpose of our faith in developing an ever present and maturing relationship with our relational God. This is why the student who says I'm a good person so I don't need "religion", even if they could argue they are "good" would not be sinless. Morality without the purpose of pursuing our relationship with God is a little like defining kayaking as not hitting rocks (analogy from below section). It misses the whole point. It would be a little like trying to not cheat on someone without trying to have a relationship with that same person. Not cheating makes perfect sense if you are in relationship with them but if you don't have a relationship with them then the very idea of not cheating on them becomes nonsensical.

What Does It Mean To Understand Sin & Pursue Holiness?

I have a friend (Eli Stewart) who once used the apt analogy of white water kayaking in Colorado as a metaphor to pursuing Holiness. If you go through rapids with the goal of not hitting the rocks than you might miss a few but you will eventually find what you focus on is what you'll hit even if its focusing on not hitting it. If you go through white water focusing on where you want to go instead of where you want to avoid than you'll miss the rocks even as your focus is somewhere else.

Holiness is a fascinating and multifaceted concept in the Bible. That is in part because Holiness is about being deeply connected to God and reflecting His character through our lives into the world. Things like absence of sin, consecration to God or even supernatural power that are at times associated with the cultural ideas of Holiness can at times be true aspects of someone's life who is pursuing Holiness but they are not themselves Holiness. They can and even should be attributes that our lives exhibit as we pursue Holiness but they are not quite the thing themselves. To kayak white water isn't by definition not hitting rocks. If that were the case then I'm kayaking now as I sit at my dining room table typing out this explanation. Rather that is a condition of successfully traversing white water even though the definition of kayaking is deeper than the absence of something. To be Holy is to draw into your relationship with Christ in an all consuming way so that it becomes the ultimate concern of every expression of life, and Holiness is to reflect that relationship into the world. Sin, to use our analogy, is anything that gets in the way of our Holiness.

Common Feeding-behaviors (page 1), attributes (page 2) & principles (page 3) for the SG leader to prioritize while emphasizing this attribute:

Small Group/One-on-One Meeting Resources

Some Scriptures related to the topic:

  • I Thessalonians 4:7 For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.

  • I Peter 1:13-16 Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. 14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

  • Leviticus 19:2 (NIV) “Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: ‘Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.'"

Creative SG/1-on-1 meeting ideas:

  • Have your students jump into a large dumpster and talk about the stench of sin.

Some questions to pose:

  • What does it mean to be holy?
  • What does it look like to choose holiness in your life personally?
  • Where is it a battle to choose holiness?
  • How are you wanting to prioritize your relationship with God in your life this semester and how can the other SG members help?

Some practical challenges you could give:

  • Make a plan as a group or within a 1-on-1 to have a week where you challenge yourselves in prayer and fasting. Examples could include going to danforth chapel every morning together before classes start, choosing a couple days to fast as a group, etc.
  • Choose as a group or within a 1-on-1 how you can choose to express consecration to the Lord this week
  • Choose one thing to give up that hurts

Resources and Reading

  1. Helps to Holiness by Samuel Brengle
  2. In the Arena of Faith by Erich Sauer
  3. The God They Never Knew: The Tragedy of Religion Without Religion (Chapter 3) by George Otis Jr.
  4. Does Man Inherit a Sinful Nature? by Jesse Morrell
  5. Lectures on Revivals of Religion by Charles Finney

MARKED BY SALVATION

HAVE THEY EXPERIENCED, AND DO THEY UNDERSTAND & APPRECIATE THEIR SALVATION?

Maxims and Quotes

  • He’s either Lord of all or not at all
  • The only right a Christian has is the right to give up his rights
  • Repentance is a condition of salvation not the grounds of your salvation
  • Sin is overcome by the expulsive power of a greater affection
  • God’s right on our lives is founded in His value
  • "Satan was a church kid" - Winkey Pratney

Questions to help you access if you need to prioritize this attribute in their discipleship:

  • Is it easy or enjoyable for them to share about their salvation?
  • Do they model humility and gratitude for what God has done in their life or are they unmoved by God's work in their life?

Why Is Understanding & Appreciating Our Salvation Important?

Have you ever found something that the more you look at it the more amazing you realize it is? For me the more I learn about physics, and the way the universe is built, the more I'm in awe of its design. I remember backpacking in the Rocky Mountains on new moon nights. I'd wake up in the middle of the night so I could look out at the milky way. As awesome as that is to do, it is only one way of appreciating the immensity of the universe. The Hubble telescope was revolutionary because we were able to look closer than ever before at the heavens and the wonder of the universe, far from diminishing in grandeur, became only more mind blowing. Too often people, even in the church, move on after the novelty of the cross has waned in their mind and they miss out on better understanding the depth of His love expressed on the cross. Whether someone in our SG is learning about God's offer of salvation, or we are ministering to students who need to grow in appreciation of the salvation they take for granted, pursuing and prioritizing our relationship with Jesus grows if we grow in the wonder of the cross.

What is Salvation?

With campus ministry comes walking with people in a time where many find a partner for their lives. As a result we help with and participate in a lot of weddings as part of our ministry life. As much fun as a wedding is, it is not the reason anyone gets married. It's an important step for a marriage relationship but it is only there to spotlight the start of something more profound and long lasting than the ceremony and celebrations themselves.

Salvation has too often been seen as the completion of something instead of seeing it as the start of something else. It would be like the bride and groom saying well that was fun, and moving on with their separate lives. Jesus would often use marriage language when talking about the relationship between Himself and the church, and specifically wedding language when talking about coming back to earth someday for His bride.

Salvation is a concept so simple that it's like looking at the night sky; you can be in awe of it even as you may not understand the complexity of it. You can also spend your life pursuing deeper insights into its mysteries and be consumed by its beauty and complexity. In brief salvation is accepting Jesus' work on the cross to bring you into the family of God, and to give you access to a transformative relationship with your creator. See "Reflect constant forgiveness" above to add thoughts on forgiveness to the discussion.

Common Feeding-behaviors (page 1), attributes (page 2) & principles (page 3) for the SG leader to prioritize while emphasizing this attribute:

Small Group/One-on-One Meeting Resources

Some Scriptures related to the topic:

  • Ephesians 2:8-9 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.

  • Romans 10:9 (ESV) Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Creative SG/1-on-1 meeting ideas:

  • Go to the pound and walk some dogs. Talk about how our destiny is death unless we accept salvation and accept someone's offer to pay for us to be part of their family.

Some questions to pose:

  • What do you think your life would look like without experiencing salvation through Christ?
  • How often do you meditate on what He has done for us?
  • How do you think the cross worked?

Some practical challenges you could give:

  • Spend a week praying praise to God each day for salvation
  • Talk to a friend who is maybe a younger Christian about why their salvation is a big deal with the goal of reminding yourself of your "first love" with Jesus

Resources and Reading

  1. A Breakdown of Atonement Theories by William Lane Craig
  2. So Great Salvation by Charles Finney
  3. The Suffering of God by Terence E. Fretheim
  4. Surprised by Hope by N.T. Wright

DIRECTED BY LORDSHIP

DOES THEIR LIFE MODEL ACTIVE SURRENDER TO THE LORDSHIP OF CHRIST?

Maxims and Quotes

  • Why do you do the things you do and who do you do them for?
  • Jesus is the integration point of all life
  • He’s either Lord of all or not at all
  • We don’t ask Christ to become Lord, we acknowledge that He already is
  • God’s right on our lives is founded in his value
  • The only right a Christian has is the right to give up his rights

Questions to help you access if you need to prioritize this attribute in their discipleship:

  • Are there things in their life that they have given up because the Lord has told them to or they have sensed the Lord would want them to?
  • Do they seek out what the Lord would have them do before making decisions?
  • When confronted with seeing a situation through either strictly natural eyes or kingdom eyes (examples such as healing, goodness of God in an evil world, eternal outlook to life), do they see and believe the kingdom perspective as true?

What is Lordship and Why Do We Need Him To Lead?

People often think that Christianity teaches that to become a follower of Jesus means that we make Jesus Lord of our lives. Amazingly that concept is nowhere in Scripture. What the Bible does teach is that no matter if you choose to live your life as His follower or not He is the rightful ruler of this world and your life. Now before you say I'm talking semantics I would argue there is a profound difference in how we see our lives and our relationship to God depending on how we understand God's intrinsic authority over our lives. If I "vote" Him into my life then I am saying He is an option and I shouldn't be judged for my choice just because it's not your choice. In a world that says "if it works for you then that's great but "religion" isn't my thing", the idea that we choose if we want Jesus as King or not in our individual lives makes sense. Namely that I have the authority to accept Him or not but it's my right to choose and judge if He's worth remaining with as things go along.

The Christian perspective does say God gave you the right to choose, not whether He can be Lord or not of your life, but to choose if you will be a rebel of reality or a child of the kingdom. Now before notions of American history, star wars, or other modern media muffle the conversation with thoughts of noble rebels battling the tyrannical leaders demanding all to conform, remember the Biblical narrative of the Kingdom. In this story the original rebel was Satan and his tyrannical rule seeks the destruction of you as he shakes his fists at the noble king, along with any who would follow his example.

To be directed by Lordship is to bow to Jesus not only as savior but as the rightful King of my life. Our lives are directed by His authority as we seek to obey His commands, to give Him the leading voice in our decisions, and to do whatever we do for His sake. Like a fish in or out of water, we find life within the confines of His authority and death to our design outside of His loving authority.

Common Feeding-behaviors (page 1), attributes (page 2) & principles (page 3) for the SG leader to prioritize while emphasizing this attribute:

Small Group/One-on-One Meeting Resources

Some Scriptures related to the topic:

  • Romans 10:9-10 If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.

  • Matthew 28:16-18 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me."

Creative SG/1-on-1 meeting ideas:

  • Take communion together. If you want to take it a step further than look up how to host a seder and discuss how what the Lord did for the Jewish nation was a foreshadowing of what Jesus did for us on the cross.
  • Have a burn party where SG members burn things up, or representations of the things they are giving up to the Lord.

Some questions to pose:

  • Have you ever accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior?
  • What has Christ commanded of you recently?
  • How is freedom found in service to Christ's Lordship?

Some practical challenges you could give:

  • Give something up that hurts either because He would want you to or because it expresses His love to another. Pray first!
  • Write down ten top reasons why He deserves to be Lord in your life and pray those to the Lord in your devo time this week.

Resources and Reading

  1. Winkie Pratney Podcasts #17 “Conditions of Salvation” #15 “Living like Jesus” #8 Change Your Name or Change Your Conduct, #7
  2. Is that really you God? by Loren Cunningham
  3. Making Jesus Lord by Loren Cunningham
  4. The Refiners Fire Vol. 1 and 2 by Wilkerson and Ravenhill

SHAPED BY THE BIBLE

HOW IS THEIR CONVICTION FOR, LITERACY IN, AND UNDERSTANDING OF THE LORD'S CHARACTER THROUGH THE BIBLE?

Maxims and Quotes

  • You will be tomorrow where your thoughts about God have taken you today
  • Thoughts -> Actions -> Habits -> Character -> Destiny
  • “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us." - A.W. Tozer
  • "Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God." - A.W. Tozer

Questions to help you access if you need to prioritize this attribute in their lives:

  • Do they have regular time in the word on a weekly basis?
  • Do they read good books, listen to kingdom focused podcasts or in other ways fill their mind with good stuff?
  • Do your small group members understand the meta-narrative of the Bible and can they identify where parts of the Bible fit into that narrative?
  • Do they have good questions about God when you talk?

Why Do We Need The Bible To Shape Our Understanding Of And Experience In Faith?

In our world, that has continued to shrink its boundaries, we are continuously confronted with competing thoughts, philosophies, and worldviews. On a university, that is often a global village with diverse countries and cultures represented, within a space that encourages deconstruction of past beliefs and presumptions, belief in God can be an overwhelming thought that leaves most believing that belief is unattainable. Others look to experiences as their primary lense to filter reality through and so, even within Christianity, are swayed to one or another novel way of seeing reality and the divine that connects with our experiences to date. Questioning our presumptions can be a good thing but by itself leaves you without a way to move forward in your questions, and while experiences can be a great way to know an experiential God they are far too limiting and vague with the limited view we have from our short and nuanced life experiences. Gratefully the character of God does not change and so our experiences with Him may help focus and refine our understanding of the Bible, but they cannot compete with it.

The analogy of different blindfolded people feeling a different part of an elephant and thinking it's a snake or a tree, for example, is a deeply flawed metaphor people try to use when saying all religions are the same. The flaw in part is because it doesn't address the idea of the elephant (namely God in this case) being able to pull off the blindfolds of the people trying to understand what they are experiencing. However when it comes to knowing God by experience only it becomes an apt analogy because our belief in God without the word is like the person experiencing part of the elephant but refusing to let their blindfold be taken off. Said another way this would be like you trying to understand another person only by limited interactions you had with them. You might get some things right but a lot of your deductive reasoning would lead you to not only incomplete but even entirely flawed conclusions.

To take the example one step further emagine the person you were trying to get to know was trying to explain who they were to you, and to have other people share their experiences and understanding about the person as references about the person's character so that you could better know them but you refused to listen. This is like our world deconstructing our beliefs about the divine without looking at what He has claimed to have revealed about Himself for our benefit. For those who believe in the God of the Bible, to not grow in our understanding of the word is like trying to get to know someone without them ever being able to share anything about themselves to you. If our experiences lead us to think of Him as something other than what the Bible teaches then it is our experiences, not the Bible, that are too limited in scope to see Him clearly. The Bible as God's revealed character through others experiences and reflections that He guided also gives us a foundation to know God in a far grander way than our lives could hope to experience or understand without it.

What Does It Mean To Be Shaped By The Bible?

What we mean here is that your understanding of who God is has been largely influenced by and is not in contradiction to who He has revealed Himself to be in the Bible. For this to happen we need to be students of the word, continuing to grow in our understanding of what it says about Him, as we pursue Him in our own lives.

Common Feeding-behaviors (page 1), attributes (page 2) & principles (page 3) for the SG leader to prioritize while emphasizing this attribute:

Small Group/One-on-One Meeting Resources

Some Scriptures related to the topic:

  • 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NIV) All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

  • Matthew 24:35 (NIV) Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

Creative SG/1-on-1 meeting ideas:

  • Have you SG break up into groups of 2 and each group take a section of a psalm chapter. Have each group answer "what are ways that our group may face what the psalmist is talking about" or "what are reasons we may struggle to have the same mindset as the psalmist". Then have each group share their thoughts and pray over the group related to the observations they made.

Some questions you could pose:

  • Do you think that Scripture is inerrant (meaning, without error)? Why or why not?
  • Why does the Bible still have relevance for us today?

Practical challenge you could give:

  • Read through a book of the Bible together

Resources and Reading

  1. The Reason for God by Tim Keller
  2. New Evidence That Demands a Verdict by Josh Mcdowell
  3. The Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer
  4. The Secret of the Universe by Nathan R Wood
  5. The Bible Project

FINDS VALUE AND VALIDATION IN CHRIST

DOES THEIR LIFE REFLECT AN IDENTITY THAT IS IN CHRIST AND A SATISFACTION FROM THAT IDENTITY

Maxims and Quotes

  • Why do you do the things you do and who do you do them for?
  • Jesus is the integration point of all life
  • Sin is overcome by the expulsive power of a greater affection
  • You emulate what you elevate, you elevate what you entertain
  • God’s right on our lives is founded in his value

Questions to help you access if you need to prioritize this attribute in their lives:

  • Do they turn to the Lord when they experience failure and disappointments?
  • Is their sense of self shaken when they experience failure and disappointments or do they model a steady resilience?
  • Do they celebrate their time with the Lord or their accomplishments more?

Why Is It Important For Us To Find Our Value In A Christ Centered Identity?

I remember the university at CSU a few years ago doing a presentation for religious leaders, who worked on the campus, where they showed the data revealing that the students on campus were more anxious than any other generation of college students that they had on record. The obvious question was "why". While the administration couldn't give clear cut answers for the trend, I am reminded of William Lane Craig's argument that if you don't believe that God exists than you are left believing that you are without value, meaning and purpose.

Now I'm not trying to oversimplify a very multifaceted conversation, but I would say that within many of the other aspects that are often pointed out as why the younger generation in our country is so anxious is an underlying issue of finding and creating value. If my value is found in anything other than God's validation of me as His son, even for those who "believe" but have not fully taken hold of their God given identity, we find ourselves constantly needing to achieve and seek validation for our efforts in order to have significance. For those who, either because of wounds or failures, feel like they are not enough in some way can often find it impossible to move forward with hope and resilience to deal with the obstacles faced in life. Even those who feel like they are achieving some level of significance in this life have to wake up every day with the realization that if they don't live up to their identity then their significance will be lost. It’s no wonder that things like social anxiety and test stress are so prevalent today. Everything is a test and not just of how much I am accepted or known, but of my very sense of self.

In a world struggling with significance; to be able to find it, in greater measure than we could ever hope to attain in our lives, and with the security of a son or daughter is an impossibly great gift that could only be found in an all powerful and loving creator God. For those who find and take hold of a Christ centered identity, they find a resilience to face any obstacle as every act becomes a means of expressing love to the world and back to God instead of a means of seeking and possibly losing value.

What Do We Mean By Finding Value And Validation In Christ?

A good way to answer this question is by asking another question. Why does it matter that you exist? Finding value in Christ is to have an identity as His son or daughter that is the most important thing about you, and the thing that gives your life fulfillment. It's from taking hold of our God offered identity that we find value, and it's from abiding in the relationship with Christ that is our source of value that we find fulfillment.

Common Feeding-behaviors (page 1), attributes (page 2) & principles (page 3) for the SG leader to prioritize while emphasizing this attribute:

Small Group/One-on-One Meeting Resources

Some Scriptures related to the topic:

  • 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

  • 1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

  • JOHN 1:12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

  • Genesis 22 Study God's fighting for Abraham's identity in the story of God testing Abraham.

Creative SG/1-on-1 meeting ideas:

  • Have each SG member write on a poster board a timeline of their life. Then have them put different colored post it notes on the timeline for the 5 best and 5 worst moments/seasons of their life. Then have them share about their life and answer in what ways those experiences shaped who they are and what they are fighting for in their life.

  • If there are wounds that have shaped someone's sense of self worth then spend time in your 1on1s where, after identifying and talking about when the wound was created, you spend time in prayer just asking the Lord what He would say to them about that situation or about how He sees them. Its more powerful to give the Lord space to minister over them in situations where deep wounds have affected them. Have both of you spend a few minutes praying quietly and being still so the Lord can speak. Then after 5 minutes, or whatever you feel is appropriate to the moment, share anything each of you felt the Lord speak into the situation. While it's helpful to lead them into a space where the Lord can speak to them, it's also beneficial if you ask the Lord if He would give you a scripture verse, a picture or a word to also share with them. We have regularly seen or heard accounts of breakthroughs in people's lives as the Lord either affirms His goodness, His love for them, that He has not left them in the situation or as He speaks identity over them.

Some questions to pose:

  • Do you do faith more to earn value and validation or to express love?
  • Do you experience God's peace when you experience failure or is your value shaken?
  • How much do you think your value comes from other identifications in your life? Examples include your degree, your gpa, your looks etc. How do you think God wants you to see those identifications?

Some practical challenges you could give:

  • Give something up that competes with your identity in Christ or if not practical than fast it for a season. Pray first!
  • Meditate on Scriptures that define who you are in Christ's eyes for a month in your devo life.

Resources and Reading

  1. The Freedom of Self Forgetfulness: The Path to True Christian Joy by Timothy Keller
  2. The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer
  3. Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul by John Eldredge
  4. Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman's Soul by John and Stasi Eldredge
  5. On Guard: Defending Your Faith with Reason and Precision by William Lane Craig

EXERCISES A MIND IN LOVE WITH JESUS

DO THEY THINK REGULARLY, DEEPLY, AND GRATEFULLY ON THE THINGS OF GOD? IS THEIR A HABIT OF READING IN THEIR LIFE?

Maxims and Quotes

  • Share your thought life for your sake and theirs
  • You talk about what you love most
  • “What you got?"
  • Read, and let it be a balanced diet
  • Thought -> Action -> Habit -> Character -> Destiny
  • You will be tomorrow where your thoughts about God have taken you today
  • *You emulate what you elevate; you elevate what you entertain
  • Read your bible, your bible will read you
  • ODG's ("Old Dead Guys & Gals" - older authors we like) can often be more deep than new authors as their lives have proven longevity of fruit and character, and any who's thoughts or character were not up to the task have long since been relegated to irrelevance.
  • “The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man’s spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God.” ― A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy

Questions to help you access if you need to prioritize this attribute in their lives:

  • Do they ever have thoughts to share?
  • Do they read good books, prioritize the Word, listen to kingdom focused podcasts or in other ways fill their mind with good stuff?
  • Do they ever express wonder when talking about God?

Why Is It Important To Exercise A Mind In Love With Jesus?

In Deuteronomy 6:5 Moses articulated "Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength". This came right after what is called the Shema Yisrael where Moses proclaims that God is one being. Essentially this section of scripture states what would have been the most unusual idea about the God of the Jews by the religions surrounding them, and then Moses told the Jews what their response to this God was to be. God is one being and we are invited to love this incredible creator being.

A fascinating observation in the teachings of Jesus' earthly ministry comes from His response to a scribe who asked Him what was the greatest commandment. Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 6:4-5 affirming that God is one even as he claimed divinity, but then when articulating how we are to respond he added to the ways that we should love God. Instead of the Deuteronomy list of loving God with heart, soul and strength Jesus said we should love God with our mind as well.

Christ does not call us to leave our minds at the door when serving Him, rather He invites us to learn and love as we discover the God who loves us. As we not only think deeply about an infinite God but share what we are thinking about with our friends, who are also learning to Love God with their mind, our understanding and affection for Jesus grows.

What Do We Mean By Exercising A Love To God With Our Minds?

Culture often connects faith with ignorance, as if they were synonyms of each other. Its one reason why many struggle with belief and even some Christians will feel justified in their lack of understanding. Part of the confusion comes from the real experience of learning to trust God instead of trusting only what you can understand. God will often call us to trust His leadership as we have learned about His character. While a sign of a healthy relationship is the trust you have in the other, that trust grows from understanding. We love God by being students of His character, and by letting that learning grow us with

This can come from meditating on your experiences with God and reflecting on His faithfulness for example. It can also come from reading the Bible and reflecting on His revealed character in its pages. It can also come from reading and listening to other Christian authors and leaders as they share their observations, and give us the challenge to let what we know transform us. While all of these approaches are valuable you will find that most of what you hear and read will not stick in your mind, grow affection for God or transform your life like they will if you share them with your small group. Because of that we need our small group to be marked by the group having and expressing their thought life so that love becomes the fruit of their thoughts.

Common Feeding-behaviors (page 1), attributes (page 2) & principles (page 3) for the SG leader to prioritize while emphasizing this attribute:

Small Group/One-on-One Meeting Resources

Some Scriptures related to the topic:

  • Matthew 22:36-40 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

  • Psalm 1:1-2 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or set foot on the path of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers. 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on His law he meditates day and night.

Creative SG/1-on-1 meeting ideas:

  • Go to a Christian used book store as an outing and make authors a big deal
  • Hike Horsetooth Rock and talk about this principle on top as you look at the stars and mountains

Some questions to pose:

  • “What you got?” i.e. "What have you been learning/reading about?
  • What does your thought life dwell on?
  • What is the difference between believing in God and loving God with our minds?

Some practical challenges you could give:

  • Let's go through a book together
  • Have a set amount of time each day for devoted devotional time

Resources and Reading

  1. XA CSU ODG Book List
  2. Apologetic Resources: See "Belief In God" above
  3. The Reason for God by Tim Keller
  4. William Lane Craig website
  5. Ravi Zacharias website
  6. More Than a Carpenter by Josh Mcdowell
  7. New Evidence that Demands a Verdict by Josh Mcdowell

INTERACTS WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT

IS THEIR FAITH LIMITED TO THEIR DEVOTION TO THE BELIEF IN GOD OR DO THEY EXPERIENCE A PERSONAL WALK WITH GOD?

Maxims and Quotes

  • Jesus is the integration point of all life
  • You’re as close to God as you want to be
  • The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever

Questions to help you access if you need to prioritize this attribute in their lives:

  • Are there things in their life that they have given up because the Lord has told them to or they have sensed the Lord would want them to?
  • Do they experience the recognition of God’s presence in their inner self at times not related to corporate gatherings?
  • Have they experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit?

Why Our Faith Needs To Be Marked By A Regular Interaction With The Holy Spirit

In John 14:16 Jesus said He was leaving but He would send another who would never leave us. Too often we live for the time when we will be with Jesus again, but we ignore His Spirit with us now (Galatians 4:6). I don't know about you but as much as I look forward to the day that I can be united with Christ, it is hard to find the motivation to serve Him today simply from that future hope. I need to abide today with the God I serve today. I need to sense His love for me. I need to be reminded that He is there and with me in every situation, I need His encouragement and direction if I am going to navigate this life. Gratefully Jesus said that is exactly what we have in the Holy Spirit. Someday we will have more of the God we have now but can we say we are truly living for that future hope if we aren't taking advantage of that promise for today?

We need our SG members to learn to abide with the Holy Spirit if they are going to experience their lives transformed by our faith and not just learn obedience to our faith. They need to interact with Him if they are going to grow the convictions that serve deepening that relationship with Him. They need to learn to abide with the Holy Spirit if they are going to learn service to the Holy Spirit.

What Do We Mean By Regular Interaction With The Holy Spirit?

While a number of other attributes on this page lean into this idea as an underlying premise (such as lordship, prayer and abiding) each of these other attributes can be done at some level without any direct interaction with the Holy Spirit. If for example I know God loves me from scripture then that is a powerful revelation, and a tool the Holy Spirit can use to communicate His care for me, but if I hear the Lord tell me He loves me today that affirms scripture and so much more. To use a personal example my wife loves keeping cards I've given her over the years where I have articulated my love for her. While reading those cards can remind her of my love she also needs me to tell her today that my commitment to her has not wavered. We can express many of the convictions of our faith without seeking an active interaction with God but why would we want to?

Having regular interaction with the Holy Spirit means we are fostering a relationship with God that is two ways. Me following, meditating on and speaking to God is part of having a personal relationship with God, but so is me being still, listening and seeking His presence in my faith's journey.

Common Feeding-behaviors (page 1), attributes (page 2) & principles (page 3) for the SG leader to prioritize while emphasizing this attribute:

Small Group/One-on-One Meeting Resources

Some Scriptures related to the topic:

  • Romans 8:15 (ESV) For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

  • John 14:15-17 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

Creative SG/1-on-1 meeting ideas:

  • Have everyone pray for 1 person in the group. Start by being still before the Lord and see what He would share, then each person prays very briefly for the person. After you have prayed then go around and share anything you sensed the Lord sharing with you about the person. Do that for each person in the group in one night or do it each week for one person.
  • Spend extended time after teaching to seek the baptism of the Holy Spirit together

Some questions to pose:

  • Have you ever experienced a season where the Joy of the Lord was real and tangible in your life? What was that like?
  • What do you think it means to have a personal relationship with God?
  • Describe a season when you felt close to God and describe the attributes of that season.

Some practical challenges you could give:

  • Before you do anything this week take a second and ask God to be with you. If what your doing is spending time with friends then pray for them for a brief moment.

Resources and Reading

  1. Knowing God by J.I. Packer
  2. Intimate Friendship with God by Joy Dawson
  3. Abide in Christ by Andrew Murray

DEVOTED TO PRAYER

HOW IS THE EXISTENCE AND VIBRANCY OF THEIR PRAYER LIFE?

Maxims and Quotes

  • If you are too busy to pray, then you’re busier than God wants you to be
  • Thought → Action → Habit → Character → Destiny
  • Major on the majors. Minor on the minors
  • The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever
  • Have a daily devotional life
  • The Kingdom of God is built on relationship

Questions to help you access if you need to prioritize this attribute in their lives:

  • Do they seek out what the Lord would have them do before making decisions?
  • Do they pray regularly?
  • Are they comfortable praying publicly?
  • Do you get the sense that they are really talking to God, versus just acting out a religious duty, when they pray?

Why Is A Devotion To Prayer Critical In The Lives Of Your SG Members And What Is Prayer?

"Why did God make us" is a profound question as it frames nearly any other question we could ask about ourselves and many of our questions about God. Questions like what is morality, what is our purpose, is their meaning to life and do we have any intrinsic value are questions that society is trying to regularly answer. One of the reasons that we see our society so deeply longing for unity while fracturing from its absence can be found in the lack of a foundation to build its answers of such questions upon. We as a society are like Jesus' metaphor of a house built on sand instead of a secure foundation (Matt 7:24-27). Contrary to the secular narative today that thinks society can function well with subjective answers to these questions, we were made to build our lives from discovering the answers to these questions rather than creating our own.

I remember my accounting professor giving his first lecture during one of my introductory courses sharing that if you chose accounting as a major because you liked math then you were going to be sorely disappointed. The reason, he said, was because math is built on the premise of understanding reality and reality is logical, consistent and does not contradict. If my calculations do not align with reality then I'm wrong and the universe is correct. Everything from your smartphone to traveling to the moon is from using what math has discovered about how the world works around you. In contrast he said accounting was man made math. It was not consistent, regularly wasn't logical and if our calculations didn't align to reality we could choose to ignore it or change the rules of accounting to make it fit our desires. My professor's observation of accounting is an apt description of secularism where we choose what we want our reality to be based upon vs the Biblical narrative that says you must discover reality and then leverage that reality to build your life upon its tenants.

Now you might be asking yourself "What does this have to do with prayer". Like the wise person who builds their house on the rock we have to understand what prayer is built upon before we can go any further in building a theology for and a healthy experience with prayer. In Christianity the answer to the original question "Why did God make us" is profoundly unique in the world and can be simply put "For Relationship". While much more could and has been said about that concept, we will leave it there for our purposes here. Prayer, for all its approaches and attributes, can be boiled down to that core purpose. In prayer we see the created communing with the creator in a connection that transforms our human experience. We are invited to connect and communicate with the one who made us to have relationship with Himself. How can you have a relationship with another person without interaction and what is more fundamental to interaction than to communicate with one another? Abiding might be keeping that interaction going past the moment of communication, intercession might be communication for the sake of another’s interaction with the Divine, but through it all is the underlying foundation of relationship. If the other people in our small group are not in regular communication with their creator than how can we say they are drawing into a meaningful relationship with Him, and if they are not drawing close to their creator than they are not learning to exercise the core of their humanity.

Common Feeding-behaviors (page 1), attributes (page 2) & principles (page 3) for the SG leader to prioritize while emphasizing this attribute:

Small Group/One-on-One Meeting Resources

Some Scriptures related to the topic:

  • John 17: 20, 21 20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

  • Matthew 17:14-21 Jesus heals a boy through prayer and fasting

  • Ezekiel 22:30 "I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one."

  • Ephesians 6:18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.

Creative SG/1-on-1 meeting ideas:

  • Walk around campus and pray for colleges, dorms, etc. as you see them

  • Hike the A and spend time praying over the city & campus from that vantage point

Some questions to pose:

  • Why do we pray?
  • What would having a strong prayer life look like for you in this season?

Some practical challenges you could give:

  • Tithe 10% of your time this week or 2.4 hours a day. Do this for a whole week.

  • As a small group, set up a prayer goal to do that everyone can participate in for the next week

Resources and Reading

  1. Revival Praying by Leonard Ravenhill
  2. Destined for the Throne by Paul Billheimer
  3. With Christ in the School of Prayer by Andrew Murray
  4. The Hidden Life of Prayer by David McIntyre.
  5. The Gospel of Prayer by Leonard Ravenhill
  6. The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence

PRACTICES ABIDING

DOES THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD EXPAND INTO ALL AREAS OF THEIR LIFE?

Maxims and Quotes

  • You’re as close to God as you want to be
  • He’s either Lord of all or not at all
  • Jesus is the integration point of all life

Questions to help you access if you need to prioritize this attribute in their lives:

  • Does their prayer time bleed into the rest of their day or is it only during intentional times?
  • Do they read good books, listen to kingdom focused podcasts or in other ways fill their mind with good stuff?
  • Do they experience the recognition of God’s presence in their inner self at times not related to corporate gatherings?
  • Have they experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit?

Why Is Abiding Important To Impart?

A question I like to ask sometimes is "Why is God worth it". Jesus tells us that He is by using metaphors such as the Pearl of Great Price in Matthew 13, but what is it about the value in the Kingdom of God that has connected to you? How people answer tells you a lot about their faith and life because what motivates us is what moves us day by day.

I remember the first time I experienced the presence of the Lord. I never wanted the encounter to end. In fact many of those times, where I became profoundly aware of His presence, have together shaped my life is a greater measure than perhaps any other single aspect of my life. What I live for, why I do what I do and how I measure everything from enjoyment to success has been deeply impacted by being in the presence of the Lord through my life.

An interesting observation one can make about people, both in the Bible and through the history of the church, who have deeply encountered and known their life with the Lord is that they become dissatisfied with life without God's presence after that (do character studies of Moses and David for example). If you're looking for contentment then don't seek the presence of the Lord because once you have experienced your life with Him you become dissatisfied with anything but more of Him in your life. Those who have encountered God with their heart, soul, strength and/or mind but have not taken the second step to experiencing abiding with the Lord however are not always impacted in a positive way long term for the experience. Often they either have an unhealthy need to chase more such "external" encounters, relegate such experiences to the past (Winkie Pratney would call these people the inoculated church because of how similar encounters will have less impact in their life in the future), or follow out of duty that is often dangerously in threat of legalism or burnout.

Gratefully God says this Holy dissatisfaction can be satisfied and oftentimes experiences in "His throne room" or seasons of profound consecration can help us deepen a faith that is marked by a sense of unbroken abiding. Where experiencing God without abiding is never the goal, abiding with the Lord day in and day out will fill our life with a sense of fulfillment that will transcend our external situations and transform our internal selves.

What Is Abiding?

One challenge to the conversation about abiding is that there can be different forms of abiding and so oftentimes people emphasize one at the neglect of others or will even all out reject some for the sake of aligning their faith to certain theological and/or experiential justifications. Even cursory readings of abiding can become confusing as authors jump from one form to another. For myself I find that thinking about abiding through the four forms of love that Jesus gives in Mark 12:30 helps me see how to abide within different aspects of my being.

  • Abide with your heart
  • Abide with your soul
  • Abide with your mind
  • Abide with your strength

Abiding with your mind can't mean that you are thinking about the Lord at all times as any student taking calculus would attest, but you can "act in accordance with" the commands of love by the Lord and in so doing are abiding (2 John 1:9, John 15:10, Colossians 3:1-3). You may also find that deepening your abiding comes through acknowledging that His presence is already there and with you. In contrast Scripture speaks of the Holy Spirit residing in our lives that Christians through history have attested to the unending awareness of the Lord our soul can have with the Holy Spirit even as our minds are preoccupied (John 15:4-5, Galatians 2:20, I Corinthians 3;16, 2 Timothy 1:14, John 16:13, Romans 8:9). We can abide with our strength as everything we do is driven by our doing for the Lord as He gives us strength to do more than what would be possible in our own strength of character and convictions (2 John 1:9, John 15:10, 1 John 2:6). Our calling in the garden and later reframed through the great commission spotlights our calling to express love by expanding His goodness through labor. As we let our love for the Lord affect our affection for Him (Ephesians 3: 17-19) all the other forms of abiding are strengthened. Each form of abiding while somewhat different should serve and strengthen the others. As we grow our SG members' sense of abiding with the Lord they will find the power to live for the Lord.

Common Feeding-behaviors (page 1), attributes (page 2) & principles (page 3) for the SG leader to prioritize while emphasizing this attribute:

Small Group/One-on-One Meeting Resources

Some Scriptures related to the topic:

  • John 15:1-8 The Vine and the Branches

  • John 6:51 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.

  • I John 2:6 The one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.

Creative SG/1-on-1 meeting ideas:

  • .

Some questions to pose:

  • What does it look like and what might be the challenges in abiding with Christ in your life this week?
  • How can we abide with Christ when our minds are focused on other things?

Practical challenge you could give:

  • Before you start anything tomorrow (class, work, hanging with friends) take a moment to acknowledge God is with you, and invite His presence to be present in your heart during this activity

Resources and Reading

  1. Practicing the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence
  2. The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer
  3. The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life by Hannah Whitall Smith
  4. The Day the Revolution Began: Reconsidering the Meaning of Jesus's Crucifixion by NT Wright

MODELS WORSHIP

HOW DOES THEIR LIFE MODEL WORSHIP TO, AFFECTION FOR, AND WONDER ABOUT THE LORD?

Maxims and Quotes

  • You will be tomorrow where your thoughts about God have taken you today
  • You talk about what you love most
  • Sin is overcome by the expulsive power of a greater affection
  • The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever
  • You emulate what you elevate, you elevate what you entertain
  • You become like what you worship
  • Worship is love on its knees before the beloved; just as mission is love on its feet to serve the beloved. N.T. Wright

Questions to help you access if you need to prioritize this attribute in their lives:

  • Is it easy or enjoyable for them to share about their salvation?
  • Do they model wonder and a visible love for God?
  • Do they most emphasize God's goodness or their contribution when celebrating wins?

Why Is It Important To Express Worship?

Any book reveals a lot about its purpose in the early pages. This is when you are introduced to the characters, their purpose and the antagonists. The Bible is no different in that way. We find humanity and their creator introduced along with the initial sketch of their character development. We see a creator God who is powerful, deliberate and relational. We find humanity expressing a strange duality within this creators world. The humans are both metaphorically angel and animal. They are a unique hybrid of two realities; being made physical like the world they inhabit while also being unfathomably made in the image of the creator who breathed life into their potential. We also find an antagonist in Satan, and shortcomings in humanity's temperament as they struggle to abide in God's design, but what is this purpose that they have fallen short of and which God will seek to restore?

N.T Wright, one of the world's leading contemporary Biblical scholars, summarized humanity's purpose well when he wrote “God chose the human race to be the priests of all creation, offering up creation’s worship to Him and bringing His wise order to it (N.T. Wright, Following Jesus: Biblical Reflections on Discipleship)." When we worship we are expressing one half of our design within creation; namely to be the priests of creation. When we worship we are offering to the Lord praise and gratitude for doing what only He can do. As we join that with Responsibility for His Kingdom (see below on this page) we fulfill our two pronged purpose to act as the meeting place between the natural and supernatural, the physical and spiritual. This is why the new testament will also call us the temple of the Holy Spirit; it is in our worship that we become that place where heaven meets earth. Amazingly it's in this place that we also connect to our true selves as we focus on our creator and exercise our creator's design for our lives.

What Is Worship?

Contrary to the typical picture of worship being singing songs to God, worship is a far more dexterous and deeply meaningful concept. While singing can be worship, worship is not necessarily singing. So what is meant by worship?

When seeking to understand a concept in literature, an insightful strategy Biblical scholars will use is called the example of first mention. It very simply means that the context surrounding the first time a word is used helps us understand what is meant by that word and what subsequent authors would have been working from in their use of the same word. The first time worship is used in the Bible is in Genesis 22:5 when we see Abraham telling his servants why he and Issac are going to go up the mountain where the Lord has instructed Abraham to sacrifice his son. Some core ideas surrounding this situation include surrender of Issac to the Lord by Abraham, acknowledgment of God's right over Abraham and Issac's lives, and the sacrifice that surrendering to God's authority required. While there are other ways of refining those core concepts we can say that worship includes "the act of recognizing God's worth and worthiness of all we could seek to give Him". Worship is often connected to a sense of awe and wonder as the creature recognizes their creator's greatness and seeks to express their adoration to Him. To quote NT Wright again he would say "worship is love on its knees' ' and that in worship (from "worth- ship") "we seek to give God all He's worth". Because of that he suggests that idolatry (the worship of anything other than God) is the foundational sin of humanity and at the core of our rebellion. It's in expressing the central aspect of our humanity for something or someone other than God that is at the core of humanity's issue because it's in idolatry that we sin against ourselves & God as we cheat on a relational creator and reject our own design. As we seek to recognize and express gratitude for God's work and worthiness in our lives and world we begin to worship.

Common Feeding-behaviors (page 1), attributes (page 2) & principles (page 3) for the SG leader to prioritize while emphasizing this attribute:

Small Group/One-on-One Meeting Resources

Some Scriptures related to the topic:

  • John 4:22-24 "You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

  • Luke 4:5-8 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 If you worship me, it will all be yours.” 8 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.'”

  • Genesis 22:5 5 He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”

Creative SG/1-on-1 meeting ideas:

  • Think through ways you can express worship other than in music and do one of them as part of your SG weekly meeting for the rest of the semester. Be creative but here are a few examples to get you started
    • Painting a picture that expresses what your grateful for
    • Journaling with background music
    • Write your own Psalm to the Lord
    • Take communion together
    • Hammer what Jesus has freed you from on a cross. Use cardboard, markers and railroad ties work well but a couple 2x4's and paper work fine as well.

Some questions to pose:

  • What do you think worship means and looks like in a university student's life?
  • Does a sense of wonder ever permeate your worship?
  • How do you worship in your life other than singing worship songs?

Some practical challenges you could give:

  • Think of ways to express worship outside of corporate music and make a plan to include other helps to worship in your devo life this week

Resources and Reading

  1. The Day the Revolution Began by N.T. Wright
  2. For All God's Worth: True Worship and the Calling of the Church by N.T. Wright
  3. The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning
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Survey: Personal walk with God

What attributes of Personal Walk With God should I prioritize in my Discipleship

AREA 3: TAKING RESPONSIBILITY FOR HIS KINGDOM

HAS A VISION FOR THE CAMPUS

DO THEY HAVE A HEART FOR THE LOST AND UNDERSTAND THE IMPORTANCE OF MINISTRY DURING THIS SEASON?

Maxims and Quotes

  • What God does in you He wants to do through you
  • There are no little people, no little places
  • Love finds a need and meets it

Questions to help you access if you need to prioritize this attribute in their lives:

  • Is it the end of the fall semester, and are you hoping to invite them into LTC?
  • Do they sense the Lord wanting to use them during their college career?
  • Have they shown a desire for sharing their faith on campus or from doing missions trips for example?
  • Do they help others in your small group feel included and a part?
  • Do they sense the Lord wanting to use them during their college career?

Why Is Having A Vision For The Campus Important?

It has been argued that the university campus in America may very well be the most strategic mission field in the world. In many ways we are seeing and shaping the world of tomorrow today on our campuses. Now, amazingly to many christian students, they are the most strategic people on the campus for the cause of Christ. Campus ministry directors and staff, local church communities or traveling evangelists may all have an impact but most people at this phase of life are most impacted by peers. Christian college students need to have a vision for their campus because they will be the ones who most shape the view of Christ for their generation, and their university years may be their most influential season to do so. See How Can SG Transform Our Campus for more of a breakdown.

What Do We Mean By Having A Vision For The Campus?

Simply put we are looking for them to grow a heart and vision for their world. That might mean having a desire to have a kingdom legacy after they leave, it might mean wanting to do for others what you have done in their life, or it could be them developing a heart for the lost around them but in some way we want to see their heart stirred to see the Kingdom of God transform their campus.

Common Feeding-behaviors (page 1), attributes (page 2) & principles (page 3) for the SG leader to prioritize while emphasizing this attribute:

Small Group/One-on-One Meeting Resources

Some Scriptures related to the topic:

  • Matthew 28:18-20 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

  • Acts 1:8 "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Creative SG/1-on-1 meeting ideas:

  • Do one of the practical challenges below in place of a typical meeting

Some questions to pose:

  • Have you ever seen someone come to the Lord in your life?
  • What can your life do that pastors and campus staff cannot?

Some practical challenges you could give:

  • Do a missions trip together
  • Go on campus and strike up a faith conversation with someone you don’t know together
  • Do a Chi Alpha "on campus presence" outreach with them

Resources and Reading

  1. LTC Week 1
  2. Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus by Nabeel Qureshi

PURSUES MINISTRY AS A LIFESTYLE

DO THEY MINISTER TO THEIR WORLD OR ONLY, IF EVER, DURING STRUCTURED MINISTRY OUTREACH?

Maxims and Quotes

  • Live life on mission, don’t have mission in your life
  • There are no little people, no little places
  • Stop praying God use me and start praying God make me useable

Questions to help you access if you need to prioritize this attribute in their lives:

  • Is it towards the end of a semester, and are they someone who you want to invite into LTC?
  • Do they ever pray for people in moments not connected with ministry activity?
  • Do they talk about Jesus with their friends?
  • Do they invite their friends into your SG or larger XA community?

Why Is It Important For SG Members To Experience Ministry As A Lifestyle?

Chi Alpha exists to raise up disciple makers through SG ministry that will translate into convictions for their lives. While Leadership Training Class (LTC) is there to help develop a SG member's capacity in ministering to their world, it is not there to necessarily create convictions in responsibility. LTC, and subsequently leadership, would best be seen as space to develop and deepen the convictions that have begun to be created in SG. If a small group member begins to experience ministry first as a lifestyle then they will be less likely to be dependent on intentional outreach and will have more experiences in responsibility as a result that translates to living out responsibility for His Kingdom after college.

What Does It Mean To Experience Ministry As A Lifestyle?

When we talk about ministry as a lifestyle we are contrasting it from intentional outreach. Intentional outreach is when you get out of your world to reach out to someone or some group. It is typically short term and requires more filtering of connections to find those who are already ok or interested in a friendship with you, Jesus and your community. A missions trip would be an easy example of intentional outreach but so is a sr reaching out to the dorms or an american going to an international event. It's anytime that you are going where you wouldn't naturally be in order to Find and Fight For people. Intentional outreach is an awesome thing as it broadens the witness past what is "natural" for us and often takes advantage of moments where people are more open to our pursuit such as during welcome week. It however is not always translatable to every season of a disciplers life as students become less open to connecting with someone new or after someone graduates and begins to minister to the marketplace where their aren't welcome weeks for example.

Lifestyle of ministry, in contrast to intentional outreach, is when you minister to your world. It's learning to be a discipler for those who you interact with every day and who will be in your life whether or not they are interested in Jesus or your community. Lifestyle of ministry changes the progression of Finding, Fighting For and Feeding to first Fighting For, then Finding and finally Feeding. Where in intentional outreach you Find those who are ok with you, Jesus and your community, then Fight For them to have experiences with your friendship, your God, and your community, lifestyle of ministry says you need to start with Fighting For people in your world to have encounters with your friendship (or at least friendliness), your God and your community, then Find those who are ok with you, Jesus and your community before you progress, with either form of ministry, to finally Feed them the Kingdom so they can express it in their own lives.

Common Feeding-behaviors (page 1), attributes (page 2) & principles (page 3) for the SG leader to prioritize while emphasizing this attribute:

Small Group/One-on-One Meeting Resources

Some Scriptures related to the topic:

  • Ephesians 4:11-13 (ESV) And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

  • I Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

Creative SG/1-on-1 meeting ideas:

  • Do your SG weekly meeting as part of some memory making event and talk in advance with your SG members about each having one person in their life that they could and would be willing to invite. Ideas of memory making activities could include the below suggestions but don't feel limited by them. Anything that would emphasize love and laughter is great. When people invite their friends, make sure it's not a bate and switch where the friend of your SG person doesn't know it's also a SG meeting. You're just trying to help incentivize those who may be ok with your community but not especially interested so that your SG member has an easier time experiencing inviting people in their world into your community.
    • Do a sunrise hike up horsetooth or grey rock and do a devo at the top
    • Go camping and do a discussion around the campfire
    • Grill a brisket, or a whole pig if you want to do it with with a larger group, throughout the day and do your meeting before you eat
    • Cook dinner in the dorm lounge that you have students at and invite them to dinner
    • Do SG meeting in the dorm/house of your SG members and invite roomates/people in your dorm

Some questions to pose:

  • Have you ever shared your faith with lost friends?
  • What does it look like to be a minister in your world?
  • Who is someone you have a heart for in your life who is not a follower of Jesus yet?

Some practical challenges you could give:

  • Bring Jesus up once this week in conversation with someone in your life
  • Find one person to pray for in your life this week
  • Invite a friend this week to your SG meeting or OP

Resources and Reading

  1. Born to Reproduce by Dawson E. Trotman Booklet, Audio
  2. Destined for the Throne: How Spiritual Warfare Prepares The Bride Of Christ For Her Eternal Destiny by Paul E. Billheimer

PLAYS WITH FINDING, FIGHTING FOR & FEEDING

Maxims and Quotes

  • Over my dead body am I going to let you live a stupid life
  • May the Lamb who was slain receive the reward of His suffering
  • We are an army not an audience
  • What God does in you He wants to do through you
  • Responsibility is miracle grow for your faith
  • God doesn't call the equipped, He equips the called

Questions to help you access if you need to prioritize this attribute in their lives:

  • Is it early in your relationship but they have a very strong relationship with Jesus? Give them some vision and responsibility to help you. It will create commitment in their hearts for you and your SG.
  • Is it midway through a semester, they are a solid follower of Jesus, and are someone who you might invite into LTC?
  • Do you have a lot of lost people in your SG community and this person believes in Jesus?

Why Is It Important For A SG Member To Play With Finding, Fighting For & Feeding In Their Life?

What is something you are truly passionate about? It might be a hobby, an area of study or really anything that you find an internal motivation for even when no one else is pushing you to express it. Now can you think about what initially caused that passion in you? You may have never thought about it. Maybe even now it's hard to connect the dots in your head with how it developed initially. Researchers have found a fascinating commonality within the things that develop into passions in people's lives. Namely they typically start with a season of Play. Think of the kid watching the professional athlete on TV and then going out to play that sport. Play, researchers observe, is typically identified with high invitation and low challenge situations where the enjoyment of the thing is the ultimate aim. The kid throwing the football with a friend is not challenged to improve but is rather invited to experience the game in a way that is focused on having fun.

A few lead staff and myself were shocked when in an impromptu discussion about this idea we realized we could identify what were passions within their faith based on if they had an early season of discipleship that was focused on enjoying that expression of faith. Things like prayer, reading and outreach were not intrinsically enjoyable for some and dreaded by others but were rather fostered in their early faith journeys in a way that emphasized the love of the thing over the duty for it.

Responsibility is probably the area that SG leaders most neglect within their discipleship and yet having the SG leader develop a passion for outreach is absolutely essential if they are going to be effective at making disciple makers. The reason that most SG leaders would probably identify why they neglect responsibility in their discipleship is the same reason for why the SG leaders investment is so key. Most of the time a SG leader thinks that responsibility is something for LTC and leadership to do. The problem with that thinking is that LTC and its corresponding leadership are environments for deliberate practice. They are like the kid going through tryouts and then joining the team. The team is there to take the kid further in their passion through developing skills and capacities which are essential if the kid will ever get better at their sport but often the kid won't have the grit to develop through deliberate practice unless they have developed the early stages of passion first. Fun can still be there but typically never at the same level unless enjoyment of the thing has been well established first.

What Do We Mean By SG Members Playing With Finding, Fighting For & Feeding

When we say SG members need to play with responsibility we are talking about making sure they have opportunities to interact with Finding, Fighting For and Feeding people in a low challenge but high invitation & support context that gives the student an enjoyable experience that also grows their conviction for responsibility. Missions trips, XA outreach activities or just having them help you as you go out to do ministry are ways that they can begin to experience responsibility. Generally we are talking about situations where you do and they watch, or you do and they help. While you don't need to be limited from going further in that progression we see LTC as naturally taking the next steps in “they do and you help”, and then leadership gives them context for “they do and you watch” as they learn to do it for someone else.

  1. I do, you watch
  2. I do, you help
  3. You do, I help
  4. You do, I watch (as you do for someone else)

So what do we mean by Play? In the above example of a kid developing a passion for a sport I made reference to the common progression of a kid watching a pro sporting game on TV and then going out to play the game. In the above section we looked at the importance of them playing out in their yard with a low challenge environment, but that example also had a preceding step we didn't discuss. Namely the kid was interested in playing because they first watched a pro sporting event. Play as a concept includes developing interest, not just expressing their interest. For a fuller conversation of how to develop interest review the list of culture creating principles on the "Conviction Creation Page"

Play can be challenging such as an out-of-state student might experience when hiking a CO 14er for the first time, but success, even small wins, should be a key component in play. The challenge should come in those situations from the situation rather than from you. Play should also not hold a call to greater commitment than the commitment of the moment. For example a missions trip may be challenging and fun but the commitment is for the short time you are on the trip. There isn't expectation for any longer term commitment even if there is invitation to the concept of a give a year opportunity.

In summary the concept of "Play" is developing interest in and opportunities to express Finding, Fighting For & Feeding in low challenge but high support & celebration moments that don't require any commitment past that moment.

Look at the conviction creation page under the heading of "Access The Maturity Of Your Members" for more details on the progression of passion development specifically.

Small Group/One-on-One Meeting Resources

Some Scriptures related to the topic:

  • Luke 10 Jesus sends out the seventy-two
  • John 18:37 “You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

Some questions to pose:

  • What does it look like to minister to people the way Jesus did?
  • Why does ministering to people in that way have the potential to change their lives?
  • How does feeding your friends the Kingdom look in this season?

Some practical challenges you could give:

  • Bring Jesus up one time this week with a friend through asking questions
  • Find a week for them to lead a weekly meeting, help them prep before and celebrate it after. Make it a low challenge and high invitation moment without much critique in this context; constructive or otherwise.
  • If they have a solid walk with Jesus and have been committed to your SG then talk about other members of your small group with them and ask them to help you make them feel a part.
    • Ask them to grab a meal with another student in the SG
    • Encourage them to make the other members of the SG feel welcome and wanted
    • Encourage them to share their thoughts, though not to dominate, during SG meeting discussions so the Biblical perspective is strengthened and they can be permission giving for the less assertive people in the group to also share

Resources and Reading

  1. Look at the "WHY" explanations on the Find, Fight For & Feed behaviors page
  2. Wilkerson Sermons
  3. Aggressive Christianity by Catherine Booth

EXPRESSES THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

DO THEY UNDERSTAND AND EXPRESS THE HOLY SPIRIT'S EMPOWERMENT IN THEIR LIFE?

Maxims and Quotes

  • God doesn't call the equipped, He equips the called
  • We must be able to do what an equally talented group of atheists cannot do
  • Stop praying God use me and start praying God make me useable - Reinhard Bonnke

Questions to help you access if you need to prioritize this attribute in their lives:

  • Have they experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit?
  • Do they pray for healing if friends are going through a physical ailment?
  • Do they experience the recognition of God’s presence in their inner self at times not related to corporate gatherings?
  • Do they sometimes do things because they sense the Holy Spirit telling them to?

Why Is The Baptism Of The Holy Spirit Important In Ministry?

Movements often spotlight leveraging the moment and using momentum to reach the impact they were striving for. The example of the momentum the bolder has rolling down the mountain comes to mind as an example of what they are talking about. The boulder may be hard to move even a little on the top of the mountain but as it begins to roll it's even more difficult to stop than it was to start.

One of the most supercharged moments in the Bible for creating momentum was the time after Jesus' resurrection and before His ascension. The disciples, and many others, had come to realize that Jesus had come back to life under his own authority. His divinity was incomprehensible and yet here was the Son of God standing before them. What zeal must the disciples have felt in that moment, what a sense of purpose and destiny they must have felt standing at the feet of Jesus. So what did Jesus speak to them in that season, in that moment that was so full of potential and promise, where their youthful exuberance was brimming, and their devotion never more certain? He said "wait"! Luke in Acts 1:4+ highlights that Jesus told the disciples that after His ascension they were supposed to wait until they were filled with the Holy Spirit.

For more than a week they sat with no clarity of what they were waiting for, and no knowledge for how long they needed to wait. Just that they need to wait. I imagine the exuberance of seeing Jesus ascend into heaven must have passed, and while the devotion had deepened as a result, the enthusiasm probably dwindled at the daily prospect of more uncertain waiting. When the Holy Spirit did come at Pentecost He was well worth the wait but the point is Jesus saw the world being reached primarily through the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives not youthful passion or theological rationalism. Both are great, as well as any number of other aspects of our lives and faith, but when it came to the disciples fulfilling the great commission He did not see anything other than the power of the Holy Spirit expressed in their lives sufficient, but with Him none of their shortcomings or failings were great enough to hold back the momentum of the Kingdom of God through their lives.

What Is The Baptism Of The Holy Spirit?

While the promise of the Holy Spirit is a concept that is hard to get away from in scripture, the church has contended over any number of ways to define what it looks like to have the Holy Spirit in our lives today. Broadly there are two areas of contention. One is the question of whether the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Luke 3:16) is a seperate act of God in the life of the believer from the work of salvation. The second is what does it look like to have the Holy Spirit active in the life of the believer. While we are not going to try to do a thorough job here (see the below video for a fuller look at these concepts) here is a brief look at each.

Early in the life of the church the Gospel began to spread past the ethnic boundaries of the Jews to the surrounding people groups. One of the first to receive Jesus' salvation were the Samaritans in Acts 8. After Philip shared the Gospel message with them they accepted Jesus' work on the cross and were baptized in water. When the church in Jerusalem heard what was happening they sent Peter and John to investigate. Acts 8: 15-17 account what happened next

"15 When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, 16 because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit."

This passage is more than a little problematic for those who believe that the receiving of the Holy Spirit is complete at salvation. Clearly these Samaritans are Christians who have accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, and have even been water baptized. Nothing about their salvation would be different from any person who becomes a follower of Jesus. If one of the Samaritans passed away before Peter and John arrived they would be with Christ. So why did Peter and John act as if something was missing in their relationship with the Holy Spirit (not to mention Luke who wrote Acts and, as an influencer of Acts, most likely Paul) spotlight what happened next as a result of them not having the Holy Spirit. Then suddenly after the Apostles laid hands on them something changed in their relationship with the Holy Spirit. Clearly these men saw the baptism of the Holy Spirit being something different from salvation.

The second area of contention, namely what it looks like to have the Holy Spirit active in the life of the believer, becomes less contentious if you see the baptism of the Holy Spirit as a separate act from the work of salvation in the believer's life. However in either case the question still remains, what does it look like to have the Holy Spirit active in the life of a believer? The main area is in the expectation of the supernatural, and within that idea the biggest area of confusion comes from the idea of speaking in tongues being the initial physical evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. While their are strong reasons to see and pursue speaking in tongues as the first supernatural expression the Holy Spirit does in your life (see below video) I like to mention to people that Paul tells the church to "seek the greater gifts'', so no matter what you think about the idea of tongues as the initial way God will work, you are still called to pursue Him working through you with His supernatural power and authority. Some will try to sidestep that command by saying that the gifts have ceased but after more than 15 years of campus ministry I have yet to come across a Biblically based reason to believe such an argument that was not overly complicated, convoluted, or self contradictory, not to mention the centuries of Christian testimony claiming the power of God working in and through their lives. Occam's razor, the principle of reality that the simplest solution is almost always the best, applies well here. The God of the Bible is the God of today and what He did with the early church he continues to do today.

So after all of that what can we say about the baptism of the Holy Spirit? It might seem like I am defining this work of God by its attributes, and that would be a fair assessment. Much like concepts that pull us to gaze more closely into the inner workings of God, we become more uncertain what we are seeing the closer we get, even as our wonder and awe increase. The work of salvation, and the nature of the Trinity are similar such concepts. What we can say here is that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is an act of grace by God to empower us for the work of the great commission amongst other things. The baptism of the Holy Spirit draws us to encounter the Holy Spirit in a unique way and teaches us to surrender to His leading in powerful ways as we learn to let Him live through us. If Jesus put such profound emphasis on it then we need to emphasize it, and even if you think it's all complete at salvation that doesn't get you off the hook from seeking Him expressing Himself in His power and authority through your life. We should seek the baptism of the Holy Spirit because it is a refining fire in our own lives, and power to express His love to a world that desperately needs Him.

Common Feeding-behaviors (page 1), attributes (page 2) & principles (page 3) for the SG leader to prioritize while emphasizing this attribute:

Small Group/One-on-One Meeting Resources

Some Scriptures related to the topic:

  • Acts 1:8 "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

  • Acts 2:1-4 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues[a] as the Spirit enabled them.

  • Acts 8:4-17 They had been saved before Peter showed up so what did the Holy Spirit give them at that time?

Creative SG/1-on-1 meeting ideas:

  • Have everyone pray for 1 person in the group. Start by being still before the Lord and see what He would share, then each person prays very briefly for the person. After you have prayed then go around and share anything you sensed the Lord sharing with you about the person. Do that for each person in the group in one night or do it each week for one person.
  • Spend extended time after teaching to seek the baptism of the Holy Spirit together
  • Watch something like The Insanity of God movie and discuss how you would like to be used by God in your life and if you would be willing to pay the price
  • If XA is doing outreach activities invite SG members to join you

Some questions to pose:

  • What questions do you have about the Holy Spirit?
  • Why is the baptism of the Holy Spirit important for the believer?
  • Have you ever experienced anything divine in your life besides possibly salvation?

Some practical challenges you could give:

  • Set aside some time together to pray for the baptism of the Holy Spirit
  • If they have experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit then challenge them to exercise their prayer language for 5 minutes each day during their devo time and see how that affects their walk with God
  • Go on campus and find someone to pray for as a 1-on-1

Resources and Reading

  1. National XA one page summary
  2. National XA video on the Holy Spirit
  3. Chasing the Dragon by Jackie Pullinger
  4. Translating God by Shawn Bolz
  5. Power Evangelism by John Wimber
  6. Surprised by the Power of the Spirit by Jack Deere

MINISTERS IN AND THROUGH RELATIONSHIP

Maxims and Quotes

  • The Kingdom of God is built on relationship
  • People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care
  • Love & laughter plow hard hearts
  • If you pray but you’re not willing to pay it probably won't happen
  • Something must be loved before it becomes lovable
  • Place a crown above their head and watch them grow into it
  • Pursue intensely but come across casually

Questions to help you access if you need to prioritize this attribute in their lives:

  • Do they ever pray for friends in moments not connected with ministry activity?
  • Do they talk about Jesus with their friends?
  • Do they invite their friends into your SG or larger XA community?
  • Do they minister to the other members of your SG?

Why Is It Important For A SG Member To Experience Ministry In And Through Relationships Specifically?

I have talked with a number of Chi Alpha leaders over the years who had formerly been part of church, foreign missions, or any number of other parachurch type ministries. When I ask them what is different about Chi Alpha ministry philosophy from what they knew they inevitably highlight some version of how much more relationally focused Chi Alpha discipleship is from what often was a more attractional event driven approach.

There is a maxim that goes "you keep them how you get them". Basically it's saying that whatever is the reason someone joins your group is the reason they will or won't stay in it in the future. Because of that our ministry is built on a relational approach as we invite people into a relationship with a relational God. Sometimes students, if they have history with ministry, know different forms of ministry than ministry through things like life together, and having a relaxed love relationship. While these other experiences may have very well been a healthy experience in their life we want them to learn how to draw people close to them as they learn to draw people close to Him.

What Is Discipling In And Through Relationships?

To love God and to love your neighbor are so inexorably linked that Jesus couldn't define the greatest commandment being to love God without giving what can almost be seen as a definition to loving God which was to love your neighbor (Matthew 22: 36-40). Love at its ethos is a relational concept and so you could say that all of the law and the prophets are built on relationship (Matthew 22:40).

To disciple in and through relationship is to learn how to Find, Fight For and Feed people in a relational way. When we do testimonies on the stump in the middle of the university plaza that is a great exercise in boldness and courage, and while those principles can translate over into relational ministry, it is not by itself a relational form of Finding. That's not to say such types of outreach aren't great as long as they are quickly followed up with a relational Fighting For approach, but we want to also teach SG members how to minister in their relationships and in a relational way. Discipling in and through relationship is to do things that draw people close to Jesus as they draw people close to them. Learning to have a relaxed love relationship, to do life together with people and to bring Jesus up regularly in your friendships are principles that express what we are talking about here.

Common Feeding-behaviors (page 1), attributes (page 2) & principles (page 3) for the SG leader to prioritize while emphasizing this attribute:

Small Group/One-on-One Meeting Resources

Some Scriptures related to the topic:

  • Matthew 11:19 "The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is proved right by her deeds.”
  • Do a study on Jesus' ministry to the disciples

Creative SG/1-on-1 meeting ideas:

  • Do your SG weekly meeting as part of some memory making event and talk in advance with your SG members about each having one person in their life that they could and would be willing to invite. Ideas of memory making things could include the below suggestions but don't feel limited by them. Anything that would emphasize love and laughter is great. When people invite their friends, make sure it's not a bate and switch where the friend of your SG person doesn't know it's also a SG meeting. You're just trying to help incentivize those who may be ok with your community but not especially interested so that your SG member has an easier time experiencing inviting people in their world into your community.
    • Do a sunrise hike up horsetooth or grey rock and do a devo at the top
    • Go camping and do a discussion around the campfire
    • Grill a brisket, or a whole pig if you want to do it with maybe your cohort, throughout the day and do your meeting ideally before you eat
    • Cook dinner in the dorm lounge that you have students at and invite them to dinner
    • Do SG meeting in the dorm/house of your SG members and invite roomates/people in your dorm

Some questions to pose:

  • What are other ways you have seen discipleship done?
  • Why is discipleship through relationship so powerful?
  • How can you minister through friendship in your life? Be practical.
  • How do you keep outreach from becoming counter to this principle?

Some practical challenges you could give:

  • Share something the Lord is teaching you with a friend this week
  • Do a devotional this week with a friend
  • Invite your SG leader to come with you when you hang out with other people in your life. Hang out with Jesus as you hang out with each other in your other community.

Resources and Reading

  1. The Master Plan of Evangelism 2nd Edition by Robert E. Coleman
  2. Eli Gotreaux on Discipleship/Love
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Survey: Responsibility for his kingdom

What attributes of Responsibility should I hit on in my sg?