Orientation · Lesson 2 of 2
Pillars of Small Group
The four pillars, two sample plans, and the grid where you build your own.
Thirty two minutes. This is the practical one. It ends with you filling in a ten week plan, so have the workbook open before you start. The video opens with where dinner groups came from in the first place, which is worth the two minutes.
Living Out Balanced Growth
Build one pillar into your group each week. Over a month you hit all four. That rhythm is what keeps a group from becoming the same night ten times, and it makes room for both the relationships and the growth you started the group for.
Connecting 5:55
Build relational bridges. These nights grow the group’s relationships and give new friends a way in. Aim for one a month. An us night is just your group, board games or a table at a restaurant, the things we cannot pull off with 1,200 people. It is also the easiest night of the year for someone to bring a friend to.
Communion 10:02
Share experiences, stories, and faith. Communion means the act of sharing. Some weeks a group worships or shares their stories. Other nights you pray for each other, the church, and the city. Encouragement night is three questions: what do you value about the people around you, how have you seen them grow, what are their strengths. One rule, only say what is true. Encouragement that is not true only hurts.
Common Growth 18:03
Grow together through shared material. Each Sunday series explores a theme that applies to everyday life, and it gives your group a chance to take a step in the same direction. The weekly discussion questions are your safety net. They are there every week. Change them to fit your group, and if a question is still working, stay on it.
Personal Growth 22:24
Encourage individual growth. Each person shares the next step they are taking, and the group celebrates it. The experience plan is the bread and butter here. People pick three spiritual habits for the next month, and you review it together a month later.
Sit with this
Which pillar would your group feel the absence of first?
Planning Your Pillars
Two sample ten week plans. One for brand new groups, built on the Blueprints. One for groups that have been together a while.
Starting out, keep it simple and run one pillar a night. Most of these activities take 15 to 30 minutes, so if you have time left in the evening, fall back on the weekly discussion questions. They are always there.
You do not have to invent any of it. Every activity in the sample plans is already written up with a script you can run.
Sit with this
What is something you would like to see your group do beyond discussion questions?
Your Group’s Plan
Now build yours. Ten weeks, one or two pillars per week. Fill in the grid in the workbook, or print the page and do it with a pen.
This is the one piece of orientation that goes home with you and gets used every week. Do not skip it because you can do it later. Ten minutes now saves you a scramble on a Sunday night in week three.
Sit with this
How will focusing on these pillars help your group grow?