Table of Contents

You can scroll through the entire manual below or you can click each subject to jump to a specific section.

1) The Purpose of our church and Life Groups

What are we doing here?
What are Life Groups all about?

2) The Role of the Life Group Leader

What is a Life Group Leader?
The Importance of Character
Abiding in Christ

3) Your Mission... should you choose to accept it

Reaching
Teaching
Training

4) The Weekly Meeting

Fellowship
Discussion
Prayer
Common Small Group Issues

5) Outside the Weekly Meeting

Weekly Communication
Important Reminder

6) Miscellaneous Matter

Gray Areas
Important Theological Issues
Secondary Issues
Call the Pastors

The Purpose of our church and Life Groups

What are we doing here?

The Purpose of our Church

Compass Bible Church exists to make disciples.

We get this mission from Matthew 28:18-20.

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

This mission involves three more specific parts.

Reaching - “baptizing” new converts that are getting saved.

Teaching - “teaching” people to grow in obedience as they follow Christ.

Training - equipping people to “go” and lead by making disciples themselves.

What are Life Groups all about?

On a surface level, Life Groups are adult small groups that meet every week to discuss and apply the sermon from the weekend.

On a deeper level, these groups are meant to be the hubs of fellowship and discipleship within our church. This is where people do life together!

Life groups are a place where…
...people share life.
...discipleship relationships are built.
...practical needs are met.
...gospel conversations happen.
...accountability is found.
...information is communicated.
...servants are recruited.
...future leaders are recruited.

The Role of the Life Group Leader

What is a Life Group Leader?

Qualifications

- Godly character
- Spiritual pacesetter for the group
- Proven by being faithful in previous CBC ministry
- Proven to be teachable
- Been through Partners
- Agrees with Compass Bible Church’s distinctives and ministry philosophy
- Willing and able to personally invest in individuals in the group

Responsibilities

- Leading weekly meetings
- Praying faithfully for the group
- Fostering group community
- Connecting personally with your group
- Recruiting to your group
- Always thinking like an evangelist

The Importance of Character

Hopefully this manual is full of practical helps to you as you lead a Life Group, but let’s remember this important truth up front:

Nothing in leadership can replace the value of godly character.

Notice that when the Bible talks about selecting leaders in the church (Acts 6, 1 Tim. 3, Titus 1), it starts by focusing on character. God is not just looking for people with a certain skill set, he is looking for people with a certain lifestyle. 

Remember that one key image for your leading the group is setting the pace. You are setting the direction and the speed that your group will run after the Lord. The best way you can do this is with how you live your life.

Abiding in Christ

If character is the most important aspect of leadership, how can you focus on continually developing that? The answer is that this increased fruitfulness will only come from abiding in Christ. Remember the words of Christ in John 15:4-5:

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 

The most practical way we can live this out is by daily spending time with Jesus through Bible reading/study and prayer. These may be the most important things you do as a Life Group leader.

These practices are what will form your character and ultimately build your faith in Jesus the most.

When difficult situations arise in the course of serving in this role, these are the places you will want to run.

Your Mission…should you choose to accept it

Reaching

If the mission of our church is making disciples through reaching, teaching, and training, then we want to see all three of these elements being carried out in our Life Groups!

That means we want to see people getting saved through our Life Groups. Here are a couple ways you can set that tone for your group.

Never assume that everyone in your group is a Christian. Just because somebody attends a church and signs-up for a Life Group, does not mean they have genuinely repented of their sins and trusted in Christ.

Always encourage your group towards evangelism. Help everyone to see themselves as an evangelist. Encourage them to share their faith and/or invite people to church. Pray often for open doors and for people to get saved!

The Goal for Everyone

Our prayer is that everyone who attends our church would (a) genuinely be saved and (b) have assurance of their salvation. We see in Scripture that each of these elements can be a problem.

Some people think they are saved when they are not. Some of the most frightening words in the entire Bible are found in Matthew 7:21-23,

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

I pray that no one at our church will hear these words from Jesus Christ on Judgment Day! I don’t think there is a greater tragedy than this.

In light of this truth, we should never just “assume” that someone is saved just because they show up to church.

The Goal for Everyone

While there might not be a greater tragedy than someone falsely believing they are saved, there is another problem that we as leaders need to be aware of.

Some people are genuinely saved but struggle to believe that they are. For a variety of reasons, many people who have a genuine, saving relationship with Jesus lack assurance of their salvation. They often deal with a nagging thought: “What if I’m not really saved?”

We also don’t want anyone at our church to be here, either. Like the Apostle John as he wrote 1 John, we want people to know that they have eternal life (1 John 5:13).

We want everyone at our church to actually be saved, and to know that they are saved.

So how do we get there? How do we achieve this goal of helping people to genuinely be saved? Let’s start with what we shouldn’t do.

Don’t try to answer the question for people.

On the one hand, we don’t want to walk around telling people that we don’t think that they are really a Christian. That probably isn’t going to go over very well.

On the other hand, we don’t want our first response to someone who is doubting to be, “Of course you’re a Christian!” We want their assurance to be based on God’s Word, not our word.

In either case, we want to direct people towards what the Bible teaches about what it means to be a Christian and then help them draw conclusions from that.

Resources to Use

Partners Chapter 1 or Exploring the Gospel.
This resource helps answer critical questions biblically. What is a Christian? How do you become a Christian? How do I know that I am a Christian? This is a great template to go through as it will invite someone to look at the biblical evidence and then draw conclusions about themselves.

1 John.

If someone is struggling to understand if they are really saved, reading through this short book of the Bible will be very helpful. This book helps us see that the direction (not the perfection) of our lives reveals so much about our spiritual state.

One final caution.
We must ALWAYS be clear that while good works are necessary evidence of genuine faith, our salvation is based solely on the work of Christ, not our own works!

“Enough” can be a very dangerous word in these conversations. Some people will worry whether or not they have enough faith or enough fruit or enough love for God’s Word. This kind of thinking is troublesome because it can actually be a symptom of works-righteousness.

Our salvation is based on the work of Christ alone.

Our works are merely evidence of whether or not a profession of faith in Christ is genuine.

Teaching

After new disciples profess faith in Christ and are baptized, Jesus instructs the apostles (and therefore the church) to be “teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.”

Our goal is not only to see people become Christians, but to see Christians growing in their faith, their obedience, and their Christ-likeness. Your prayerful objective as a Life Group leader is to encourage everyone in your group toward this direction.

This task is certainly weighty, but in the next few pages, we’ll cover a few practical ways you as a leader can work toward this goal of increasing growth for every Christian in your group.

Practical Steps

Prayer. God can do more in a second than you can do in a lifetime. All of our efforts need to start with prayer. Pray regularly for everyone in your group. Pray specifically that God would grow them in obedience. 

Investing in your relationships with the people in your life group. People won’t care what you know until they know that you care. Spend as much time as possible with your people. Call/text them. Send them notes of encouragement. Don’t let more than two weeks go by without some kind of contact (outside of Life Group night). Take an interest in the things that interest them. Make sure they know that you would run through a wall for them if necessary.
Encourage people toward spiritual disciplines. The bottom line is that spiritual growth doesn’t really happen apart from spending time with God through his Word and prayer. Do whatever you can to spur people on in this, whether through personal conversation or activity as a group.

Follow up on Life Group discussions. Hopefully your weekly discussions provide some fodder for future conversation. Bringing up something somebody said or a prayer request that somebody made could open the door to a profitable discussion.
Ask good questions. This is one of the best tools in your arsenal. A great place to start is by asking, “How can I be praying for you?” This often opens the door to great conversations. Here are some other examples that could be helpful.
- “How would you like to see yourself grow in Christlikeness this year?”
- “What’s the most challenging aspect of your current stage in life (whether being single or parenting young kids or being retired)?
- “What time in your life would you say that you were most ‘on fire’ for God?”

Going through specific material. While this will likely not be the case with everyone in your group, there will be times when it is helpful to go through a specific book or study with someone in your group. Partners would be a great example of this!
Facilitate a group of encouragement. If it’s all up to you, this is a very uphill task. The more your whole group is engaged in encouraging each other, the better! Encourage others to go through Partners or meet up outside of the group as well.

Pray some more. You can do nothing. God can do everything. Act like it in your prayers.

Training

Every leader should be working to replace themselves. We should also think of Life Groups as the main source of recruiting other leaders at our church.
Watch & Pray - Through prayerful attention, always keep your radar up for people with leadership potential.

Identify - Choose a person/couple or two that you want to focus on.

Pursue - Jesus didn’t make an announcement. He put his finger in people’s chest and said, “Follow me.” Directly invite people in your group to step up and lead, whether that be in the Life Group or in other areas in the church.

Commission - Start giving them responsibility. Have them plan a fellowship. Have them lead the group for a night. Encourage them to pursue/encourage others in the group.
Communicate - Keep the pastors in the loop as you think and pray through this.

If you got hit by a bus, who would replace you?

If our church is going to grow/plant, who in your group is going to be ready to step up their service?

The Weekly Meeting

Life Groups generally meet on a weekly basis. What should leaders be trying to accomplish at these meetings?

Let’s break it down into three main elements of each meeting.

Fellowship - Usually as the meeting begins, make sure there is some unhurried time for people to connect and converse.
Discussion - The bulk of each weekly meeting will be spent discussing the weekend sermon and going through the questions.
Prayer - Prayer is obviously such a central element of church in the Scriptures. We want to spend time doing it as a group and for it to be more than just a token “let’s-close-in-prayer” kind of thing.
In many ways, these priorities match up with what we see in the early church. Consider Acts 2:42

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

Fellowship

Ideally, each gathering should include an unhurried time for people in the group to connect with each other.
The easiest way to facilitate this is FOOD. Organize your group so that dinner or dessert is offered as the group is gathering.
As the leader, try to be intentional about using this time.
- Try to sit next to somebody in the group that you don’t know very well.
- Follow up with people in the group from comments or prayer requests they made during the week before.
- Have fun! Use this time to really enjoy the group.
Consider even how the room/home is set up, and try to make it conducive for this time.

Discussion

The bulk of each Life Group meeting will be spent discussing the most recent Sunday sermon. Here are some helpful but general guidelines for making this time the most profitable.

Show up prepared. The more effort you put into it, the more fruitful the discussion will be.
Tailor the discussion to your group. Not all of the discussion questions are created equal. Each week, it may be helpful to zero in on a couple that are most pertinent to your group. You can even go through the questions out of order. Also, you might come up with some specific follow-up questions that might be more focused on your group. For instance, “How does this question pertain to those of us who are parents/single/retired/etc.?”
Answer the questions yourself. As the leader, you set the tone for the group. If your answers are not personal and genuine, why will anyone else’s be?
Keep the conversation flowing. While as a leader you never want to dominate the conversation, you should be pretty active in it - whether you are affirming someone’s answer, restating the question, offering a follow-up question, or moving the conversation along.
Watch the clock. You only have so much time. Make sure you give ample time to the questions that need the most discussion. Be sure to leave ample time for prayer at the end of the group.
Promote truth. Make sure your group gets to the “right” answers. What you say, what you agree with, and what you disagree with will communicate a lot. Some statements will need to be affirmed. Others will need to be challenged (sometimes gently; sometimes strongly.)

Prayer

If we have small groups that meet on a weekly basis and they don’t devote part of their time to praying together, we must be doing it wrong. Here are some things that can help set up this time for success.

- Cast vision! Help your group to see the importance and power of prayer!!! Help them understand why this should be so much more than a token closing in prayer.
- Help to identify some strong prayer requests. There are usually a few on the back of the worksheet. Also, pick out some key parts of that night’s discussion and turn those into prayer requests.
- Open it up for anyone to share any urgent or pressing prayer requests. Do this instead of going around the whole group and asking for requests. Asking for urgent requests will provide an opportunity for those who need prayer and allow you to spend more time praying instead of talking about prayer requests.
- Building up to consistently praying for at least 10-15 minutes would be a good goal.

Common Small Group Issues

Dominating Don - This person/couple just talks way too much in group. In a one-on-one setting, be direct with them. Thank them for their participation but encourage them to slow it down a bit and open up space for others.
Shy Sally - They never, ever talk. What’s up with that? See if you can get together with her outside of small groups. If they are more comfortable with the leaders in the group, they may get more comfortable about speaking up.
Flaky Frank - These people show up sporadically. They don’t really come to fellowships/accountability. Be consistent in reaching out to them, but don’t make them the focus of your attention. Run with the runners.
Contrarian Carl - He loves to present the other side of every issue. Be patient, and don’t get drawn into an unhelpful debate.
Rabbit-Trail Rita - She likes to get off-topic. Don’t be afraid to interject/interrupt with a question that will help her get back on track.
Emotional Emily - Her feelings and personal experiences take over the conversation. Be gracious and understanding, but try to help them connect their experience to biblical truth.
Intellectual Ian - Hypotheticals. Sophistication. How many angels can dance on a pinhead. He loves these things. Encourage him to get practical (what difference will that make for you this week?).
Bad Theology Biff - Don’t let bad theology go unchallenged, but you will probably want to follow up one-on-one.

Outside the Weekly Meeting

What can you do outside the weekly meeting to minister to your group? Here are a few suggestions:

Pray. You’re probably sensing a theme by now. Praying for your group faithfully is probably the most important thingthat you can do as a leader.
Communicate. Try to get in a rhythm of touching base with people in your group regularly outside of the weekly meeting. This could be via text, phone call, or face-to-face. A good goal would be to not let two weeks go by without some touch point outside of the Life Group meeting.
Meet with people. One of the best things you can do is spend time face to face with people in your group. Whether one-on-one or two-by-two, over a meal or over coffee, prioritize spending time with your group!
Facilitate fellowship. People will also enjoy spending time with each other outside of the weekly meeting - after all, we’re trying to do life together! This could look like anything from sharing a meal together to doing an activity together to something that’s just for the men or the women. This is also a great way to get others involved in the group by encouraging them to host or plan something like this!

Weekly Communication

It is important for there to be an open flow of information between the church's Life Group leaders and pastors. There are two specific ways we do this every week.

Weekly Dispatch updates. Every Friday, you will receive an email with information and a link to a weekly post on the Dispatch website. We will send you essential items to communicate to your group and to plan for as a leader. This update will also include the application questions for the upcoming sermon. Please take some time to read these updates each week! We will work hard to give you the most up-to-date information so that you can take action with your Life Group immediately and often.

Weekly reports from you. You will get an email each week to report your Life Group attendance. Please make sure to fill those out promptly. The pastors meet monthly to review attendance to better shepherd the body. So those attendance reports make a big difference! Also, if anything noteworthy happens during your Life Group meeting, please be sure to email a pastor for prayer and follow up if necessary.

Important Reminder

The task of the Life Group leader is never ending. When the goal is reaching, teaching, & training, there will always be work to do. Our task is also humanly impossible - we cannot change anyone’s heart! In light of these realities, here are three important words for you to remember.

Patience. There will probably always be a gap between what you would like to see and what you are seeing. People won’t grow or change as much or as quickly as you would like. Some people will be flaky or inconsistent for no seemingly good reason. Remember that God is in control. Remember how patient he has been with you. Realize that sometimes change and growth takes time. Always treat the people in your group with tenderness, gentleness, and patience.
Prayer. Lift all the frustrations and concerns that you have up to God. Cast your cares upon him because he cares for you (1 Peter 5:7). Remember that he is the one who will ultimately bring fruit in ministry.
Persistence. Never give up. Keep doing the things we have discussed in this manual. “Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:58)

Miscellaneous Matters

Gray Areas

Some things in the Christian life are black and white and spelled out clearly in Scripture. Other things are not. Sometimes we refer to these matters as “gray areas.”

Here are some examples:
Is it ok for me to drink alcohol? What kinds? How much?
Is it permissible to watch an R-rated movie?
What forms of birth control are acceptable?
Can I listen to “secular” music?
Should I vote for this politician or not?

Here are some things to remember as a leader.
Keep the main things the main things. If gray areas are dominating your discussions, we’re off track.
ALWAYS be considerate of others. While you may have a clear conscience about a certain matter, remember that others may not. So be careful how you talk about these matters or what you post on social media.

Important Theological Issues

1 Corinthians 1:10 says, “I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.” While there will never be complete agreement about every piece of doctrine and ministry, these are some important elements that we should agree on as a church.

CBC Doctrinal Statement.
The Biblical Gospel. We must all be on the same page about what it really means to be a Christian. See Exploring the Gospel and earlier parts of the manual.
Gender Exclusive Eldership. Our church understands the Bible to teach that the role of elder/pastor is to be held exclusively by men.
Baptism. Baptism is an important and commanded symbolic action that should follow a profession of faith.
The Lord’s Table. Communion is another important symbol that we practice as a church as we remember the death of our Savior.
Sign Gifts. While this can be a complicated issue with various opinions/explanations, Life Group leaders should refrain from actively instructing their members to speak in tongues, prophesy, or perform miraculous acts.

Secondary Issues

While every Life Group leader should be able to sign off on the CBC doctrinal statement that covers the most important aspects of what we believe, something inevitable is going to happen:

You will eventually disagree with me on something.

This might be a secondary doctrinal matter or something that is said in a specific sermon or maybe the way a certain situation is handled. While these disagreements are unlikely to be a big deal, we need to handle them the right way.

Never highlight the disagreement to others. If there is a difference, it’s best to defer to the pastors. While you are not prohibited from ever discussing a differing viewpoint, it is best to do so in a way that doesn’t encourage division.

Always feel free to talk to me! The door is always open. The phone is always on. Reach out. Especially if it is a matter of concern to you, please feel free to bring it up or meet with me!

Call the Pastors

First and foremost, you should always feel free to reach out to the pastors or their wives for help if you feel like you need it. Here are some specific occasions where you should reach out to a pastor:

• Suicide

• Sexual Immorality

• If divorce is being brought up

• Abuse (and I will reach out to the authorities)

• Hospitalization

• Negativity toward the church or other leaders