Leading a Discipleship group is not difficult, but it does require attention and thoughtful words. The purpose of this guide is to help you lead your group carefully and respectfully.
The basic structure of an hour meeting is as follows:
- 5 minutes for Scripture and opening prayer
- 45 minutes for examines
- 10 minutes for closing prayer
It is important to end at the appointed time, so you will need to pay attention to time and be ready to keep the group on schedule.
- Opening prayer & Scripture
- A daily scripture is available on our website under groups/discipleship groups. Alternatively you may pick your own. The daily scripture is provided by the ELCA, http://www.elca.org/What-We-Believe/The-Bible/Todays-Bible-Reading.aspx
- For prayer you may chose to have the group recite together the groups prayer in the covenant, invite one of the group members to pray, or use your own resource.
- Examines
- Roughly divide 45 minutes by the number of people present. That is roughly the amount of time each person has in which to share.
- Ask if someone would like to share. Don’t tell someone to start, wait for them to offer. A period of silence is OK if no one is quite ready.
- As they share make a point of asking follow-up questions.
- Refrain from offering advice or interjecting your own stories.
- Listen carefully as they reflect. If there is an examine that they have missed, you may want to ask them that question.
- Watch the time. It’s alright if they run over a minute or two.
- If they start rambling, you may want to bring them back to topic by asking one of examines as a question.
- If they are sharing something very emotional, don’t cut them off, but do ask the group if it is alright.
- Make sure to keep focus on one individual until they are done sharing.
- Listen careful to what they ask prayer for. If you need to, write it down.
- Closing prayer
- In the closing prayer time, it is important to pray for the concerns each individual offered.You may lead this prayer, ask someone else to, or have the group go around the circle offering prayer for the person on their right.
- Close with the Lord’s Prayer
Helpful things to remember:
- Follow up with those who have missed to let them know they were missed.
- Be aware of pastoral issues that should be shared with pastor, but ask permission from the individual before sharing them.
- Discreatly watching the clock is important for the leader. Make sure you sit somewhere where you can easily glance at the time without calling attention to the action.
- Never cut anyone off, even if they are speaking out of turn. Allow them to finish their sentence and then call the focus back on to the individual whose turn it is. You may do this gently by asking the individual one of the examines or if necessary saying “name, you’ll have an opportunity to share in a minute, but right now it’s name’s turn.”
- Start the group promptly and end on time.
- Make sure to pray for group members who could not be present.
- Remind the group that the conversation within the group is confidential
- If you want you may bring a group symbol (such as a candle) to the meeting to help people focus
- It may be helpful to have an extra copy or two of the covenant on hand in case someone forgets.
- Once a group is formed, do not add group members without asking the permission of everyone in the group.
