Christmas Eve Services
Join us for our Christmas Eve party and service. Dec 24th. 4-5:30pm
Week 2
ICEBREAKER: What’s something simple—maybe even small—that you’re thankful for today?
As you bring your time of connection to a close, share the following:
I am so glad you are here tonight! Before we begin, let me share three simple "house rules" to make sure our group is safe for everyone to explore and grow together.
1. What’s said in the group, stays in the group. Let's make our group a safe place to share by agreeing to maintain the confidentiality of what we discuss.
2. Avoid easy answers or trying to fix others.
3. Make space for everyone to engage in the conversation.
In his letter to the Philippians, Paul is writing from prison, yet his words overflow with joy and encouragement. In Philippians 4:6–7, he reminds believers not to be anxious about anything but to bring every concern to God through prayer and thanksgiving. Gratitude, Paul says, is not just polite—it’s powerful. It shifts our focus from what’s missing to what God has already provided. And as we practice gratitude, God promises something incredible in return: His peace. This peace doesn’t always change our circumstances, but it guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. As we read this passage, think about how gratitude might be less about what’s happening around us and more about who is with us through it all.
Read the passage of Scripture aloud while everyone sits and listens. Then, ask each person to share a word or phrase that caught their attention. Don’t offer commentary but take notice of people who share the same word. Next, reread the passage and have everyone read along in the passage themselves. Take your time through this guided reading and give your group 2-3 extra minutes to contemplate what they've read.
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Why do you think Paul connects gratitude with peace?
What’s one area of your life right now where you could practice more thankfulness?
How does focusing on gratitude change the way you handle worry or stress?
Close your time in prayer. It's a best practice to start winding contribution down around 15 minutes before the end of your gathering. That will allow about five more minutes of conversation and then 10 minutes of prayer time. Create space for everyone in your group to offer prayer requests (if they would like to). Use this form to capture your group's requests and then after you pray, you have the option to email the prayer requests to yourself or to anyone in your group. PRAYER REQUEST FORM
Every small group gathering begins in prayer. The purpose of this prayer is to focus our attention on the presence of God and quiet the distractions and noise competing for our attention. As you prepare to lead, read through the passage of Scripture and the discussion questions and look for a word or idea that you can incorporate into your opening prayer.
Allow everyone to get settled, grab some food, and wind down. This is a great time to ask how everyone’s day or week is going and if they have anything they would like to share. You can also use the ice breaker question to help in facilitating connection.
Everyone will be coming from a different place (hectic day, running late, etc.) and building in this space will help shift their train of thought and get them engaged as you dive into your time together. The goal of connection is to get everyone talking so make sure every voice is heard.
As you bring your time of connection to a close, share the following:
I am so glad you are here tonight! Before we begin, let me share three simple "house rules" to make sure our group is safe for everyone to explore and grow together.
1. What’s said in the group, stays in the group. Let's make our group a safe place to share by agreeing to maintain the confidentiality of what we discuss.
2. Avoid easy answers or trying to fix others.
3. Make space for everyone to engage in the conversation.
The primary components of our small group content are Scripture notes and the passage of Scripture being studied.
The way we share our primary passage of Scripture is through what's known as the Lectio Divina (Divine Reading). Lectio Divina is a way of praying the scriptures that leads us deeper into God’s word. The intent is to slow down and savor it. Allow Scripture to speak to us in a new way. to speak to us personally, and aid in the union we have with God through Christ who is himself the Living Word.
Read the passage of Scripture aloud while everyone sits and listens. Then, ask each person to share a word or phrase that caught their attention. Don’t offer commentary but take notice of people who share the same word. Next, reread the passage and have everyone read along in the passage themselves. Take your time through this guided reading and give your group 2-3 extra minutes to contemplate what they've read.
We’re cultivating a sense of listening to God. There is no need to rush, but be mindful of those who might finish early.
Now that the Divine Reading is complete, transition to a time of contribution. Begin by asking the group to share a little more about the word or phrase that stood out to them during the Lectio Divina. If you noticed multiple people chose the same word or phrase, invite them to share more to see if there were differences or similarities in why they made the same choice.
Here, you'll begin to make the bridge from the passage to the discussion questions. Think of contribution as a time of organic growth. The Holy Spirit is leading the discussion, and you're simply there to keep the contribution flowing. It's not your goal to get through all the discussion questions, but rather to allow everyone space to be heard. Let the conversation go where the Spirit leads and use questions to spur on more conversation.
Close your time in prayer. It's a best practice to start winding contribution down around 15 minutes before the end of your gathering. That will allow about five more minutes of conversation and then 10 minutes of prayer time. Create space for everyone in your group to offer prayer requests (if they would like to). Use this form to capture your group's requests and then after you pray, you have the option to email the prayer requests to yourself or to anyone in your group. PRAYER REQUEST FORM
Leading a group doesn't have to feel overwhelming. Use these tips to set yourself up for success.
Small Group facilitating can be flustering; it doesn’t matter if it's your first time or your hundredth. Prayer is simply talking to God about what matters. While you may have big plans and prayers for your group, God wants to also talk about your heart. Take 15 minutes during the day to review the material and talk with God about your hopes, fears, and stresses about the group.
Provide time for each person to participate before moving onto the next question. It is important to build space for each person to be comfortable in sharing. There may be individuals that aren’t comfortable or aren’t sure how to respond. That's okay too.
Stay focused on the individual who is speaking. Being engaged will build a connection for them to feel seen and heard.
Listen for keywords/topics that relate to the question, and follow up with a question to build on. Or try paraphrasing their answer and asking them to affirm that what you heard is what they said. You can also use paraphrasing to invite others into the conversation. (i.e. "Based on what Sally shared, she feels like only faith is required for salvation. Tom, what do you think about what Sally said?"
If the conversation is drifting off-topic, listen for a window to steer the group back. Ways to guide the group back could be restating the question or calling on another individual to answer the question. If neither of those tactics is successful, it is okay to politely say, “These are great conversations. To make sure we have space to make it through the full experience, I would like to shift us back.”
This is the art of facilitation. The quality of the contribution matters, so veer away from rabbit holes and keep the group on the main thing.
If your group starts at 7:00 and someone knocks on your door at 6:45, guess what? Your group just started. The unofficial start is the moment someone arrives, so be ready for early arrivers and start connecting.
Because you don't. Only God does. Remember, it's not your role to know everything about Scripture or how it's interpreted. In fact, the more you study the Bible, the more you come to realize there are multiple ways many well-known verses are interpreted. Open it back up to the group (i.e. That's a great question. What do you all think?) And don't be afraid to say, "I don't know. But let me check with Nick and see if he knows."
The most valuable commodity in this world is time. It's precious, not promised. So, if you're gathering ends at 8:00 pm, then you close that prayer at 7:59 pm. Do not give into the temptation that more is better. Don't believe that somehow if you don't keep going then everyone won't be heard and people will be disappointed. Instead, end on time, and then if, and only if you want to, offer to go into overtime. This gives folks who need to get home a guilt-free chance to leave on time. And then for those who want to hang around and keep the conversation flowing, there's room for them as well. Just don't sacrifice your margin or boundaries for overtime. It's not worth it.