online groups Archives - Passion for Planting

6 Components of Authentic Discipleship that Work Online

Esther Ritchey — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 09:00:00 +0000

By: The Church.Digital

One of the greatest pushbacks against church online is that an online church cannot provide authentic discipleship because it is not authentic community. Though I will save the authentic community argument for another post, I want to make the case here that you can provide authentic discipleship in an online environment. In fact, the same components that create healthy discipleship in person are the same components to create healthy disciples online. If you are struggling with the concept of discipleship in an online community or how to make disciples in your meeting time online, here are six components to help you establish a discipleship culture.

Shepherding

Shepherding is too often reserved for pastors and not lay people. Yet, the concept of shepherding is simply to care for other believers, often those you have been entrusted to lead. Though you may not be able to hug someone online, you can still shepherd them effectively. Caring for other believers does not require to be with them in person. If someone is having financial troubles, send them some cash via Paypal or Venmo. If someone is having a difficult week, encourage them through prayer and scripture in text or messaging. If someone is facing big life decisions, provide wise counsel and fast and pray with them.

Accountability

After focusing on shepherding, transition to accountability. Accountability consists of holding each other to obedience in our walk with Christ. Of course, this can mean asking someone who struggles with sexual sin how they have been doing, or utilizing online tools like Accountable2You to help. This also includes setting goals together (see number four) and holding each other to those goals that are being set. Use this time to ask about each other’s prayer life, their time in the word, and sin issues that can be holding someone back from an abundant life in Christ.

Worship

This one may be the trickiest. Of course, you can play a song on youtube and sing together. If you are musically inclined, feel free to play and sing together. However, this could also be something as simple as asking a question like: “What is your favorite attribute of God and why?” or “Tell me something that God did in your life this past week that you are grateful for?” Any act that draws our gaze and attention toward God is worship, so be creative. Note that this comes after accountability. If someone has had a hard week with accountability, it is important to immediately draw their eyes to Jesus for hope and to prevent shame and guilt that surfaces from sin.

Study the Word

Too often, we only study the word in our discipleship meetings, foregoing all the other things I mention in this post. However, time in the word should still be at the center of discipleship. The key to disicpling in the word is to come to the Bible with an obedience-based approach rather than a knowledge-based approach. In other words, we read the Bible to know God and to obey him through what we read, not to learn new things alone without concern for obedience. For Bible study, I highly recommend the Discovery Bible Study. It is the most adaptable approach to studying the Bible I know of, is obedience-driven, and is centered around a community approach rather than an individualistic approach.

Set Goals

After reading the Bible, the most important step is to take what has been understood and apply it to our lives in specific ways. Often, we use application in abstract ways by saying, “I just want to love God more.” That’s a great desire, but that is not a goal. A goal would be to spend thirty minutes in prayer every day for the next week, or to read 1 John once a day for the next week. In my groups, I use the acronym C.O.S.T to guide us in goal setting.

C – How will I Connect to God this week?

O – How will I Obey God this week?

S – Who will I Share the Gospel with this week?

T – What other Christian can I Train this week?

It is important that the leader provide a way for these goals to be made public to the group as these goals serve as a prayer guide for each other throughout the week and a chance to see how things are going as we seek to meet our spiritual goals. It is also important that the leader set goals as well and invite the group to hold him/her accountable.

Commission the Group

After setting goals and recording them, the leader ought to cast vision and commission them out into their communities. At the end of every group, we consider the Great Commission and remind each other that there is a real mission with high stakes that Jesus gave us to complete, and that is what we are being sent out to.

Disclaimer:

You may notice that prayer is not one of the six components. That is on purpose. Rather than making prayer a section during the time a group has together, I recommend making prayer center to every section. How can you shepherd each other without prayer? How can you determine what goals God would have you set without prayer? How can we understand the Word without prayer? Prayer ought to be in the ebb and flow of the group meeting rather than just one section.

These six components of a small group will create disciples online or in-person. For more resources like these, please visit http://t4tonline.org/ and https://noplaceleft.net/four-fields/.

Source: 6 Components of Authentic Discipleship that Work Online

The post 6 Components of Authentic Discipleship that Work Online appeared first on Passion for Planting.

PODCAST 086: Ali Roohi – My Church is Healthier Because of COVID

Sean Cronin — Mon, 27 Jul 2020 09:00:07 +0000

by TheChurch.Digital: I’ve talked with hundreds of Pastors in this COVID season. Easily. Not an exaggeration. If I count emails, texts, social media, direct messages, pings… geez, may be over a thousand. Never, never, NEVER have I heard a Pastor tell me this: “Our Church is healthier because of COVID.”

Enter Ali Roohi, Pastor of CenterSet Church in California. In this COVID season, he’s seen online attendance drop. Most churches have, after all. At the same time, though, he’s seen Online Groups triple in size and giving increase substantially.

How’d he do this? A major philosophical shift of his church… and you’re going to want to hear him say it… here on The Church Digital Podcast.

Stadia is getting ready to launch another round of their Phygital Learning Communities. Almost 70 churches right now are learning how to THRIVE, GROW, and MULTIPLY. We want to help your church learn how physical and digital can work together to achieve your mission and vision, meanwhile letting your Church, Online, be authentically you. Phygital Learning Communities are starting soon. Check out http://stadiachurchplanting.org/phygital for more information.

If you’re enjoying this episode, subscribe for free using your favorite podcast app below:

ON THE SHOW

Source: PODCAST 086: Ali Roohi – My Church is Healthier Because of COVID

The post PODCAST 086: Ali Roohi – My Church is Healthier Because of COVID appeared first on Passion for Planting.

Four Tips for Training Up Good Online Small Group Leaders

Sean Cronin — Fri, 03 Apr 2020 09:07:35 +0000

Psst. Church leaders.

Let’s rap about Zoom.

You know the whole video conferencing thing that has become even more of a thing in the last few weeks, as COVID-19 has taken over?

I don’t want to talk about the stock price ZOOM-ing incredibly high (even if people are buying the wrong stock).

Sorry, I’ll take my dad jokes elsewhere.

I don’t even want to talk about how Zoom was sharing user data with Facebook, (although, as of this writing, the newest update had fixed the supposed “bug”).

I want to talk about the fact that Zoom is changing the way we do life.

How it’s an evolution of tech that has gone before.

I’m looking at you, Skype.

My 3 kids are all going to be using Zoom starting next week for their distance learning. Every business in the world has been going to Zoom for virtual meetings. It’s an incredibly useful tool.

And churches everywhere have started to use Zoom for their small groups. Living their group life online.

This is an astounding turn of events for a lot of churches that were on the fence about “digital discipleship.”

If you’ve read anything from this site in the past few weeks, particularly from yours truly, you can see that the necessity of online small groups is palpable. Small groups, primarily using Zoom, are changing the way the church-at-large thinks about meeting.

But all of those groups still need leaders. Because I’m just one person. And so are you. And even if you see the necessity to connect people in groups, you can’t lead every group each week.

We as church leaders are called to raise up new leaders, right? (YES, we are!)

Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen an uptick in the want to virtually volunteer. People that were once able to come to the church building no longer can do so.

So, church leader, it’s time to use that uptick to fill out your ministries and to connect people to Jesus.

Does the medium look different? You bet your sweet Bible it does.

But the skills are essentially the same.

Because online small group leaders are just that: small group leaders.

And with that, here’s a couple of tips to training up good online small group leaders:

Identify the right person.

Don’t just look for a warm body who can “fill a spot.” If God truly did make us a “body” (spoiler: He did), then there are certain people who are MADE to be group leaders. Find them.

Who are you looking for? Someone who:

Is dedicated to praying for a group of people
Will be committed to personal and corporate growth
Will be able to reach out to their group even after the hour or two of their group time
Can train up or mentor another leader
Is committed to grow along WITH the group (we all know that group leader who thinks they have all the answers!)
Above all, can humbly seek the Lord in all discussions.

Provide a clear expectation for them.

And make that expectation match the church’s expectation for groups. An online small group is just like a regular small group. So if your church sees groups as outreach, great.

Discipleship? Awesome.

Multiplication? Even better.

Let your leaders know what you’re wanting from them. It’s a lot easier to play in a sandbox with defined walls than it is a beach where the options are limitless.

Train your leaders to, before anything else, be able to LISTEN.

We all know how to hear, but to LISTEN takes intentionality.

It takes time.

It takes patience and wisdom and humility.

Just because you’re on a webcam doesn’t mean that people can’t pick up on the clues that you’re not paying attention. Train your leaders to make eye contact, even if it’s on a screen, to not follow distractions. Trust me, this is HUGE in group life, and it shows that your leaders actually CARE.

Train them on the specifics of the platform.Notice this is last on the list.

It’s the least important thing in all of this. The heart of the leader, their ability to be in touch with the Holy Spirit while leading a group, and their ability to listen are all SO MUCH MORE IMPORTANT than knowing how to use the “mute all” button (although, trust me, that’s very important).

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but if you’re in the rush to get online groups up and running to replace the church-sized hole in many of your people’s hearts, this is a great way to start.

Let me know via my socials how your group life is going. I’d love to connect with you, to help in any way possible, and to resource you however I can.

This is a long season we seem to be in, and it may be getting even longer. Rest assured that we can use this tech to our advantage, and we will see the Kingdom expanding even further than we can even begin to imagine.

Source: Four Tips for Training Up Good Online Small Group Leaders

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