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Another summer is behind us and we’re heading full
steam ahead into Fall! For many reasons this is my
favorite time of the year, as it is for many of you.
Fall brings back memories of a new school year, and
excitement of learning new things.
During the summer months I’ve had some time to reflect on our small group ministry, our recent campaigns, and last year’s growth. It is clear that God has been at work in each of our small groups. At last count (June ’06), we had approximately 70 small groups of couples, men’s, and women’s groups combined, with around 600 total participants. But the size of our ministry alone isn’t what our Lord is looking for in a successful ministry. Our ministry needs to be rooted in the five (5) purposes of our church, which will cultivate a balance of fellowship, discipleship, service, evangelism, and worship into each group member’s life. Life transformation toward the image of Christ is our goal. We will transform lives for Christ as we develop skilled and trained leaders throughout our small group ministry. So how do we teach our leaders? What is our strategy to train and equip our ministry’s Community Leaders, Small Group Leaders, and Hosts? I met with our Community Leaders this summer to discuss these questions and our team formulated a 3- Tier training strategy to train and equip our leadership to effectively shepherd their group members. The table below summarizes our training strategy to be implemented over the next 12 months. 
Our Tier 1 training includes a Life Together Leadership series, which is designed to sharpen your small group leadership skills and provide encouragement through peer to peer dialog. Our Tier 2 training occurs during your monthly face-to-face or phone conversations with your Community Leader or SG Pastor. Through discussions about your small group’s successes and challenges your mentor will share his/her experiences and provide recommendations, advice, and prayer. This form of training is invaluable because it addresses the issues you are facing at the moment. The Tier 3 training utilizes our monthly Small Group Newsletter and New Hope Church website Small Group page to provide training articles, new ideas, resources, advice and encouragement on your own schedule. I encourage you to create a Small Group training notebook and collect these resources for future reference. I pray in this coming year our small group leaders will grow spiritually and with effective leadership skills as they lead their groups. I pray that our training significantly impacts the lives of our small group members; in a way never seen before at New Hope Church. This is a call for you as a small group leader to make a renewed commitment to attend these formal Fall training sessions, and put into practice these resources throughout the year. I thank you for your faithfulness in following God’s call to lead or host your group with love and care. Your brother in Christ, Bob Mimiaga Small Group Pastor |
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We have developed a Living Beyond Myself Study
Guide for our small groups to accompany Pastor
Randy’s Living Beyond Myself Sermon series, which is
scheduled to start the weekend of October 7-8.
This is a four week study guide, which contains material and questions to lead your group through a journey of Christ’s fulfilling life, and learn about His promise to experience joy and fulfillment in our own lives. Your group members will experience a First Serve activity and share their experience with their group. All small group members will receive a free copy of this in- house developed study guide! Why are we doing this? There are several reasons. (1) We believe that this series has the power to impact mightily when our group members come to learn and appreciate God’s plan for their lives as a joyful and fulfilling servant of Christ. (2) We want to create an atmosphere of church-wide participation as we experience this journey together. (3) We want to use this event to invite our church attendees that have never experienced small groups to join one, and multiply the number of small groups in our church. (4) This will provide an opportunity to increase your small group member size if you so desire. Therefore we are asking all New Hope Church Small Groups to participate in our October 2006 Living Beyond Myself study. Small Group Leaders and Hosts can pick up these study guides for their group members at the Connection Center on the following Dates: Weekend services of Sept 30th-Oct 1st, Oct 7th-8th, and First Wednesday Service on Oct 4th. Thank you for your enthusiasm and support for this exciting event! |
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