Living Out Balanced Growth

Build one of the four pillars into your group each week. Over a month you hit all four.

That rhythm is what keeps a group from turning into the same night ten times. It also makes room for the relationships and the growth you started the group for.

Connecting

Build relational bridges.

Connecting nights grow and strengthen the group’s relationships, and they give new friends a way in. Aim for one connecting night a month. We are also asking every group to sponsor a Hoboken Grace connection event once a quarter.

• Connection events
• Impact events
• Us nights
• After parties

An us night is just your group. Board games, 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

Share experiences, stories, and faith.

Communion means the act of sharing. On these nights we share in common activities that encourage each other in our faith. Some weeks a group worships together or shares their stories. Other nights the group prays for each other, our church, and our city.

• Encouragement night
• Worship
• Prayer
• Communion
• Devotions
• Stories

Encouragement night is three questions. What do you value and appreciate about the people around you? How have you seen them grow since we started? What are their strengths? One rule: only say what is true. Encouragement that is not true only hurts.

Common growth

Grow together through shared material.

Each Sunday series explores a theme that applies to everyday life. We are all at different points in the journey, and this gives your group a chance to take a step in the same direction.

• Weekly discussion questions
• Equip studies
• Pre-approved books, like The Purpose Driven Life, New Rules in Sex Love and Dating, and Love and Respect

The weekly questions are your safety net. They are there every week. Change them to fit your group if that serves the conversation better, and if a question is still working, stay on it.

Personal growth

Encourage individual growth.

On personal growth nights we each share the next steps in our relationship with God that we are taking or hope to take. Then we celebrate and encourage each other for every step.

• Experience plan
• Your circles
• Rhythms
• Put off, put on worksheet

The experience plan is the bread and butter here. People pick three spiritual habits to work on over the next month, and you review it together a month later.