HELPING YOUR GROUP MAINTAIN AN OUTWARD FOCUS

 by Barry McGee

If your group is experiencing staleness and a lack of vitality, take a look at your focus.  While engaging Bible study is a prerequisite to true Christian community, an exclusively inward focus can stunt the growth of most any group.  The inward journey was made to turn outward.  Such a turn usually begins with the leaders.  What can a small-group leader do to encourage an outward focus?

• Get Burdened.  My fire is stoked by reading of others who burned brightly for Christ.  Two of my favorites are David Brainerd and George Whitefield.  Biographies, journals, and diaries of godly men and women are excellent vision-builders.

• Develop Redemptive Friendships.  Help your neighbor build his fence.  Become a reader at a local convalescent hospital.  Challenge the junior high kid across the street to a game of HORSE.
• Model Involvement.  When you do any of the above, take a group member with you.  Don’t treat it like class time.  Just let him see how easy it is to “hang out” with others for Christ’s sake.
• Regularly Highlight Outreach As A Group Fundamental.  Ask for outreach testimonies as often as you ask for prayer requests.  Emphasize a specific opportunity at each meeting.  By giving outreach more than periodic airtime, a leader can counteract the false believe that outreach is optional.
• Facilitate A Group Activity.  Get a list of newcomers who have visited your church and invite a family or individual to one of your small-group meetings.  Or fill a number of grocery bags for a family in need.  Adopt a pregnant teen through your local pregnancy center.  Repair the roof of a widow’s home.  Sponsor, coach, and cheer on a local Little League team.  Work a booth at a community festival.  Join a community softball team.  Just do it together.
• Celebrate Your Group Achievements.  Periodically throw a party to praise God and reward group members for jobs well done.  Remember, Jesus celebrated with the disciples upon the return of the seventy (Luke 10:17-24).

  As the cliche goes, "keep the main thing, the main thing".

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