Ever wondered what it takes to start a small group?
The answer might surprise you. It doesn’t take that much at all. Really.
Think of any small group study you have been a part of and you’ll realize that you only need the following three things and I’ll give you one of them for free.
You Need A Place To Meet
I know. You probably have Han yelling in your head “I’m glad you’re here to tell us these things!”
It’s true. You need to have a place to meet. Why not make it your home?
Sure you could meet at your church or the local Panera Bread, but that can complicate things.
If you’re church is like mine, you have to fill out a form or talk with some one to get permission to use the room and there is limited space.
If you meet at a local restaurant, there is the implied need to buy something- otherwise it could be considered loitering.
Your place is your place. You decide how is invited, what time you start and finish, and you control (within reason) the atmosphere.
Do you have un-churched friends? I hope so. I also hope that they would be willing to come over your to your place.
There are many people that will not come to a small group that meets on church grounds. Usually the meetings are Wednesday night or Sunday mornings. Sure you can have a group that meet other times, but usually Wednesdays and Sundays are it.
You Need A Reason To Gather
People normally do not just show up at your house for no reason. They come because they have been invited or are so close that they just like being around you (and your food).
If you have a good size TV, DVD player, and the Star Wars DVDs, why not invite 6-10 people to come over and watch each of the Star Wars movies every Friday until The Force Awakens comes out?
If you do a movie a week for 6 weeks leading up to the December 18 release of The Force Awakens, you should start on November 6.
If you or your friends are a huge Black Friday shopper, take the Friday after Thanksgiving off- most people will still be recovering from all the food they ate the previous day.
That pushes it back a week to October 30. That’s Halloween weekend, so lets push this back to October 23.
You Need Something To Study
The purpose of starting this new small group is to get together and share. Hopefully you have 6-10 people in mind who’d like to watch Star Wars. If not, I’m sorry.
In this group, how many of them are followers of Christ? Hopefully a few of them, if not all of them. How about making a conscious effort to include some people who do NOT have a relationship with Christ?
To get a weekly lesson sent to you for the next 6 weeks starting October 19, just sign up below.
What can you share with this group? You already have a few things in common: they know you, presumably they like you and you like them, they like Star Wars, and if they like Star Wars, they probably like to talk about it.
Now is the time to use Star Wars to share your faith in Jesus with your non-believing friends. If your group is made up of believers, now is the time to learn how to share your faith using Star Wars.
Based on a survey I did (please add your thoughts to it), one of the hardest things about doing a Bible study is finding a topic and materials and then preparing for the lesson.
What if I could solve both of the pain points for you? Would you be willing to give it a try?
My Bible Study Series
Using a lesson from each of my books, you will receive a lesson for each movie on Monday. That will give you all week to read the lesson before you show the movie for that week.
Reading the lesson will take you less than 6 minutes. After you watch the movie that week, you can lead the discussion by asking the questions in the study that I emailed you.
The studies are designed to last 30-60 minutes. It all depends on how talkative your friends are and how many rabbit trails you go down.
Get a free lesson emailed to you each Monday for 6 weeks.
The lessons will start with The Phantom Menace and go on through Return Of The Jedi.
I know that we should start with A New Hope, but starting with The Phantom Menace allows us to go through the whole trilogy and end with a nature transition to The Force Awakens.
So sign up for your free 6 weeks of Bible studies and leave a comment below as to which is the best Star Wars movie and why.
[…] have groups that we can be a part of; work, church, neighborhood, sport teams, etc. If you want to start a small group in your home, you can do that as […]