LEADING SMALL GROUP WORSHIP

Transcription

1 LEADING SMALL GROUP WORSHIP

2 SESSION ONE HOW SMALL GROUPS WORSHIP TOGETHER You are part of a small group that often meets together for fellowship. Some members of the group are Christians and some are non-christians. You may meet together at a restaurant, a coffee shop, a karaoke box, or someone s apartment. Everyone enjoys meeting together, but you feel like there is something missing. You may be asking, When Christians meet together, shouldn t we do more than fellowship and have a good time? The answer to this question is, Yes. When you meet together you should worship together. Until now, you may have experienced worship in large building and at home by yourself. But you have had no experience or worship in a small group. In this case, your own experience of worship will limit your image of worship. This may cause you to ask, Can I really worship with my small group? Can we worship God in a coffee shop or restaurant? Can a karaoke box become a place of worship? This idea may seem very new and strange to you. Do you think that small group worship is a new idea or an old idea? However, the custom of Christians meeting together in small groups for worship goes all the way back to the New Testament. Jesus sometimes met with His disciples as a small group for teaching or prayer. It was at one of these small group meetings that Peter first confessed faith in Jesus as God s Son (Matt. 16:13-20). At another one of these small group meetings, Jesus instructed His disciples to begin to keep the Lord s Supper (Matt. 26:17-30; Mark 14:12-26; Luke 22:7-23). The disciples were meeting as a small group when Jesus first appeared to them after His resurrection (John 20:19-23). The pattern of meeting together as small groups for worship continued in the early church. According to Acts 2:46-47, Everyday they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. In Acts 10:23-48, Peter met with a group of people who had gathered at Cornelius house to hear the Word of God. In Acts 16:13-14, Paul and Silas shared the Gospel with a group of people who gathered beside a river for prayer. When one woman, Lydia, believed, the place of worship was moved to her house (Acts 16:15). A short time later, Paul and Silas met with a jailer and his family at their house. At that time they fellowshipped and ate together and shared testimonies about salvation through Jesus Christ. As a result, the whole family believed in God and was baptized (Acts 16:31-34). Small group worship is very simple. Any small group of Christians can worship God together. You can worship God anywhere you meet together, whether it is an

3 apartment, a restaurant or a park. You can even worship God together while riding in a car, a train or an airplane. Also, your small group can worship God together anytime. Please do not think that worship time is limited to two hours a week on Sunday morning. Jesus is always with us, and we can worship Him anytime, day or night, seven days a week. Worship can take place Monday through Friday as well as on Sunday. When your small group meets together for worship, you should try to include the following activities. Small group worship times should usually include all of these activities. The activities are listed in a sequence which many groups will find useful to follow. However, the order of the activities is not so important. You can change the order to meet the needs of your small group and the place and style of your small group meeting. You may even leave some of the activities out sometimes. Begin by using this sequence, but feel free to change it later. 1. Fellowship Small groups worship God together. When people are open with one another, they also become open with God. As your group spends time together talking, sharing, and getting to know one another, this forms the warm environment where worship takes place. Continue to begin you meetings with the kind of activities that you already enjoy doing together eating a meal, having a cup of coffee, even singing karaoke. This will encourage everyone to relax and become open with one another. 2. Praise Experience God s presence together. This can be done through singing praise songs, people sharing testimonies about how God has blessed them, reading psalms and other Scriptures that praise God, and prayers of praise to God for His blessings. A combination of two or three of these activities should be used for each worship time. Testimonies can be spontaneous or you can ask people beforehand so they can prepare, but each testimony should be 2-3 minutes, focusing on a recent specific blessing from God. 3. Meditation Focus the small group s attention on God. This will be a quiet time in contrast to the praise time previously mentioned which may be more lively. Use a song, Scripture or prayer that focuses on one or more aspects of God s character God s love, God s grace, God s mercy, God s power, etc. You may want to relate this to the Scripture that the small group will study together, but this is not necessary. Sometimes it is better for the meditation to be on a different theme than the Bible study so that the small group will experience more of the breadth and depth of God s character during the worship time. For example, that God not only loves us, but He is also just; that God not only has grace, but He is also trustworthy, etc. 4. Hearing God s Voice Study God s Word together. Use the principles in the Leading Small Group Bible Studies unit. Remember, the primary purpose of the small group meeting is worship, not Bible study, so the Bible study time should not become too

4 long. Usually about 30 minutes is long enough for the Bible study. Also, remember that the goal is for everyone in the small group to participate in the Bible study. You must be careful not to allow one person to dominate or to talk all of the time, including you or whoever is the Bible study leader. The person is leading everyone to study the Bible together, not teaching the Bible to the group. 5. Responding to God s Voice At this time small group members make definite decisions about how they will apply what they learned in the Bible study to their own lives. This may include a decision to become a Christian, to do a specific act of service, to turn away from a specific sin, or to do something new that will result in spiritual growth. Small group members should be encouraged to share their decisions with the group so that other group members can encourage them. Newcomers, people who are shy, and others who do not want to share with the group should not be forced to share. You want to develop an environment that encourages people to be obedient to Christ, but not an environment that manipulates people. After everyone has had an opportunity to share who wants to share, there should be a prayer of dedication. 6. Intercession Ask small group members to share about personal needs and needs of family members and friends. Take time to pray for these needs. It would also be good to speak words of encouragement to the people who share about needs. At times the group may want to plan a specific ministry activity to respond to a need that they hear about. This could include visiting someone in the hospital, providing food for someone who is sick at home, visiting a lonely person, providing childcare, going shopping for someone, or any other activity to help someone in need. These kinds of acts of Christian service often provide opportunities for evangelism as well. 7. Closing Praise Finish the worship time with a praise time together. This may be a praise song, sharing a word of testimony of how God has blessed during the worship time, or a prayer. This closing praise time can be short or long it may be one praise song or many praise songs, testimonies and prayers. Do what fits your small group. 8. Closing Fellowship Finish the worship time with more fellowship. Once again, this can be long or short, according to what fits your group. Small Group Worship Variables There are certain factors that will differ from one small group to another. Because of this, every small group will not do worship in exactly the same way. You need to keep these variables in mind as you plan and lead worship for your small group. 1. Time Small group worship can be done in 1-2 hours. Some groups have limited time when they can meet. Other groups will extend their fellowship so that the meeting lasts 3 or 4 hours. Be aware of the time limits of your small group and plan the worship to fit within that time limit. If you only have one hour, do not plan for two hours of worship. In that case, try to finish within one hour, even if you must sing only two songs and shorten the Bible study to 20 minutes.

5 2. Place Small group worship can be done anywhere, but where you meet may limit some of the activities that can be done. For example, if you meet for worship at a restaurant you will not be able to sing praise songs. However, you can still praise God through testimonies, reading Scriptures and prayer. If your small group usually meets at a restaurant of coffee shop occasionally you may want to meet at another location, such as an apartment or karaoke box, so that you can sing together. 3. Spiritual Gifts and Abilities You should not do everything yourself! Allow small group members to lead in various parts of the worship based on their spiritual gifts. Someone gifted in singing can lead the praise time; another person gifted in prayer can lead the time of meditation or intercession; a gifted teacher can lead the Bible study. As group members participate on the basis of their abilities and spiritual gifts they will grow spiritually. 4. Include Everyone Personalities vary. Some people are outgoing while other people or shy. Do not let one or two people dominate the small group worship time. Your goal is for everyone who comes to have the opportunity to participate. When everyone participates, everyone becomes part of the group. Be careful with newcomers. When a new person comes into the group he may want to be a tourist for a few weeks. In this case let him watch until he becomes comfortable with the group. If you try to force him to speak or pray or sing too soon he may become uncomfortable and stop coming. 5. Baptism and the Lord s Supper Baptism and the Lord s Supper are important acts of worship, but your small group will not do them every week. When someone decides to become a Christian your small group will want the person to be baptized as soon as possible. Also, sometimes your small group will want to celebrate the Lord s Supper together. The small group should decide when and how often you will have the Lord s Supper. You may do it once a month, once in three months, or twice a year. You can find detailed instructions on how to do baptism and the Lord s Supper in the Leading a Small Group unit. Application 1. Based on the guidelines in this session, plan and worship for your small group. 2. Lead your small group in worship based on your plan. 3. Meet with your small group leader or encourager to discuss your experience. Talk about what God taught you and the questions that you still have about leading small group worship.

6 SESSION TWO MEASURING YOUR WORSHIP TEMPERATURE A thermometer is used to measure temperature. A weather thermometer measures the temperature of the air. Based on the reading of the thermometer we decide whether we need to wear a coat or a t-shirt and shorts. A body thermometer measures body temperature. This helps us to evaluate whether we or healthy or sick. This session will provide you with a thermometer to measure the temperature of your small group, to evaluate whether your small group s worship is hot or cold, sick or healthy. In session one you learned about what you should do to lead your small group in worship. However, you cannot evaluate your small group s worship only on the basis of what you do. Your small group may do everything described in session one and still not experience true worship. Read 1 Corinthians 11: When the Corinthian Christians met together, were they experiencing true worship? The Corinthian Christians were not experiencing true worship. They were allowing their differences to divide them. They could not experience God s presence and love because they were too busy fighting with each other. Furthermore, they were selfish. The people who had food and drink would not share with the people who did not have food and drink. So some people went home drunk with full stomachs and other people went home hungry. This does not describe the kind of love, fellowship and ministry that take place when true worship occurs. Worship can be measured on the basis of results. Just as average body temperature is a sign of good physical health, there are certain results that are signs that true worship is taking place in a small group. You can use the following questions to evaluate whether or not your small group is experiencing true worship. 1. Do people feel God s presence when you worship together? 2. Do small group members experience real fellowship? Do people share their needs openly? Do people express concern for each other? 3. Do people openly participate in the small group worship? Do they share prayer requests, words of testimony and praise? Do they talk about their thoughts and questions during the Bible study?

7 4. Do people respond to God s Word by making specific commitments to apply God s Word? Are people doing what they say they will do? In other words, are small group members becoming more obedient to Jesus? 5. Are people becoming more Christ-like in their character and actions? 6. Is evangelism and ministry taking place outside of the group? Application One Using these questions measure the worship temperature of your small group. 1. What evidence do you have true worship is taking place? 2. What evidence do you have that your small group s worship is not as healthy as it should be? Worship in your small group will never be perfect! There will always be areas that your small group needs to work on. Maybe you need to have better fellowship or praise. Maybe your Bible study can be improved. Or perhaps you need to be better at intercessory prayer and ministry. There are sometimes, however, when you may sense that your small group s worship is sick. In such times you will want to pray to Jesus, the Great Physician, for spiritual healing for your small group. A small group that does not worship well together usually has other spiritual problems as well. If your small group s worship is unhealthy, there are also some things that you can do to try to make your small group s worship healthier. 1. Change the atmosphere. Sometimes the place and time that a small group meets is convenient for group members, but is not good for worship. Try changing the time and place that your small group meets for worship. 2. Change your exercise routine. If you always follow the same sequence in your worship it may become boring. The objective can become finishing the routine rather than meeting and worshiping God. Try changing the routine of your worship. For example, if you begin with fellowship try having the fellowship time in the middle or at the end. If you always do the Bible study in the middle, try doing it first or last. If the sequence that you have been using does not result in the members of your small group really meeting and worshiping God, it is time to do something new. 3. Change your diet. In order to be healthy physically, we need to eat a balanced diet. In order for your small group to be healthy spiritually, they must have a balanced spiritual diet. The Bible is our spiritual food. If what you are studying in

8 the Bible is not meeting the spiritual needs of your small group, change to another study that will meet their needs. Ask the question, In what area do the members of our small group need the most spiritual growth? When you know the answer to this question find a passage or book of the Bible that meets the small group s need and study that. 4. Is your small group overweight? A person who only eats and never does any activity becomes fat and lazy. The same is true with Christians who only receive spiritual teaching but never do anything to share their faith. If your small group only receives God s blessings through fellowship, worship, and Bible study, but never shares these blessings with others, your small group will become unhealthy. In order to prevent this, your small group must always be outward-focused rather than inward-focused. You must be involved in evangelism and ministry to people who are not in your small group. If you are not doing this, plan a small group evangelism or ministry project. Encourage everyone to experience caring for the needs of other people. As small group members learn to share God s love with other people one result will be more healthy worship in your small group. 5. Does your small group have a disease? The spiritual disease that people have to deal with is SIN. Even Christians continue to struggle with sin. The result of sin is death (Romans 6:23). In the case of individual sin, this may mean physical death. In the case of sin in a small group, it may lead to the death of the group. Sometimes small groups are destroyed because of pride, complaining, envy and unresolved relational conflicts. If you realize that two or more members of your small group are having a relational problem encourage them so seek forgiveness and reconciliation. Application Two 1. Using the suggestions for healthier group worship in session two, plan one action that will help your small group to have healthier worship. 2. Carry out your plan. 3. Talk with your small group leader or your encourager about the results of your activity. Talk about what God taught you through the experience. Reflection 1. As a result of this unit, what has God taught you about small group worship? 2. What questions do you have about small group worship? 3. What is your plan to share what you have learned about small group worship with someone else?

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