Small Group Resources

Looking outside our four walls and getting connected to people, for people.

Sometimes small groups grapple with how to keep their meetings alive and stimulating, or decide to take a new direction for their meetings.

Given that we live in an age of incredible accessibility to information, with the internet for example, there is a vast amount of information available at our finger tips to help make those changes.

A simple google search, 'Small groups, Lutheran' resulted in 621,000 links, so if you want some new materials for group study, some new ideas on how to lead or enliven your group, or just find out what other people are doing around the country and the world, the world wide web is a good place to start.

Despite the vast amount of information, the emphasis in many of the sites is the power and richness of belonging to a small group.

The small group section of the Hales Corners Lutheran Church website http://www.hcl.org/index.php summed it up this way:

We believe that small groups are critical to your life.  God made you to live in community.  He does not want you to go through life alone.  God made you to grow in community.  He does not want your spiritual journey to be a solitary one.  And we believe that small groups are the optimal environment for these things to take place.  In your small group experience, you will find that you are able to safely discover who you are, and safely reveal who you are to others.  You will find that you are cared for and supported throughout life!

A lot of what is available is in the form of study ideas. In just a few sites, I found lists of references to books, studies and other resources too numerous to mention.

One example

Not from a Lutheran site but still a rich resource www.smallgroups.com is a site that has a lot of resources for leaders, groups, churches and individuals.

Modern Heresies

The following 4-week course will help you and your group explore modern cultural heresies by posing questions like: Are people from other faiths who don't believe in Jesus still God's children and will they go to heaven? How can we evaluate practices like yoga and their compatibility with Christian discipleship? What are some of the heresies of today's culture? How much truth is there to claims made in The Da Vinci Code?

• E Week One

What Good are Religions without Christ?

Testing the theology of a born-again paradox.

• E Week Two

The Dangers of Modern Meditation

Trendy meditation practices like yoga may be relaxing, but are they in line with biblical teaching?

• E Week Three

The Da Vinci Code and Other Heresies

What is the allure of secret knowledge about God?

• E Week Four

Debunking The Da Vinci Code

Christians must know the truth to recognise lies.

This resource can be downloaded for $19.80 at:

http://smallgroups.com/downloads/biblestudy/currentissues/bsc27.html

by Stuart Gray