God has a part for all of us to play in the church, and Life Group Leaders come alongside the pastor and staff of The Life Church to help care for people.

Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. – EPHESIANS 4:11-13 NLT 

The primary role of a Life Group Leader is to help group members take one step in their walk with God. Remember: Connect, Protect, Grow!

Be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds; – PROVERBS 27:23

People in each group will be at different places in their spiritual lives and each person will have different next steps to take. Some next steps leaders can help people take:

• Start attending Sunday services
• Start reading the Bible regularly
• Start praying regularly
• Be water baptized
• Complete Discovery
• Join a team
• Start tithing
• Invite a friend or neighbor to church or a Life Group
• Attend a Life Group Leader Training to become a Life Group Leader
• Attend a Life Group Leader Training to become a co-leader of a Life Group

Here are some important dates to remember if you would like to lead a group this semester:

3.10 – 5.4 | Spring Semester Life Groups

1.7 – 2.25 | Leadership Training every Sunday at 1p

2.18 | Deadline for submitting a group

3.8 | Mandatory Leaders’ Meeting

3.10 | Meet & Greet 

Register a New Life Group

1. Ministry flows through relationships. 

• Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 – Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.
• We are designed for relationships. Relationships define us, grow us, challenge us, strengthen us and bless us. 
• We do life together so that no one stands alone.

2. Life Groups are a place to grow.

• Proverbs 27:17 – as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.
• Life Groups are a place you can be equipped to become more like Jesus and to live a faith-filled life. We believe that every person is created with God-given potential to make a difference in the world. 
• Life Groups are a place where there are like-minded people who believe in you. This is how leaders are developed. We want every person that calls the Life Church home to flourish and become all that God has called them to be!

3. We believe our church must get larger and smaller at the same time.

• Life groups are the vehicle through which people can be known while being a part of something bigger than themselves.
• Life groups provide a setting to build dynamic relationships and facilitate spiritual growth that supplement and support the spiritual growth from weekend services.

“42 They were continually and faithfully devoting themselves to the instruction of the apostles, and to fellowship, to eating meals together and to prayers. 43 A sense of awe was felt by]everyone, and many wonders and signs (attesting miracles) were taking place through the apostles. 44 And all those who had believed [in Jesus as Savior] were together and had all things in common [considering their possessions to belong to the group as a whole]. 45 And they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing the proceeds with all [the other believers], as anyone had need. 46 Day after day they met in the temple [area] continuing with one mind, and breaking bread in various private homes. They were eating their meals together with joy and generous hearts, 47 praising God continually, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord kept adding to their number daily those who were being saved.” – Acts 2:42-47 (AMP)

In this scripture, Paul lays out 4 purposes for small groups:

1. Foster spiritual growth they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teachings

• A Life Group is a significant place to grow spiritually. 
• It’s good that we can be a part of corporate prayer and worship and hear a great Word on the weekend, but we need smaller environments where we can get additional understanding, can ask questions and get help applying scripture to our daily lives.

2. Build life giving relationships to fellowship, to eating meals together

• Vs 46 says they ate meals at their homes and had joy.
• We all have this basic need to belong. We want to feel like someone knows us and we know someone. We don’t have to know everybody but we need to know somebody. A Life Group is a place to hangout together, eat some food, and have some fun.
• Please don’t underestimate the value of fellowship. It harbors a safe place to open up and grow alongside a group of diverse and like-minded people

3. Take care of each other’s needs they gave to anyone who had a need

• Life Groups are the first responder. In a time of need, we all want people we know to help us through. Knowing you can ask for help from an established group of friends is a result of being planted and flourishing. 
• Our lead pastor, nor no one person should carry the responsibility for every person who is sick or every couple having marriage problems, or take food to every person in need. 
• We get to fulfill a divine purpose when we are able to help those in our world, even when it’s with the simplest acts of kindness

4. Position the church for growth And the Lord kept adding to their number daily those who were being saved.

• This is God’s strategy for growing the church. As the early church met in small groups, God added new people to them. 
• If we do not have effective Life Groups, we will stop growing and start shrinking as a church. People won’t feel connected and cared for. They will stop coming. But as we create environments where people can get connected, we position ourselves for growth, and the church must keep growing!

Life Groups have a simple purpose – to bring people together in community. We believe this is how God created us to live with others and only then can we experience the full life He intends for us.

We believe life change happens in the context of relationships.

People find forgiveness from God but find healing in relationship with other believers.

“Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” – James 5:16a

Life Groups ensure that there is a place for everyone to be known and pastored throughout the week. Our church must get both smaller (through groups) and larger (through evangelism), at the same time. Life Groups are how we pastor our people.

We have a directory of Life Groups above where you can inquire about the group(s) that interest you. A leader from the group will reach out to you.

We use a free market system, which means we want people to come together based on the things they enjoy and are important to them. Each semester, leaders form groups around their gifts or interests. We have an array of groups from Bible and book studies to basketball and recovery.

Life Group Leaders bring in a spiritual component (Bible study, passage, or devotional) and offer prayer at each meeting, and commit to pray for their group members daily. Each group is categorized by hubs.

Our hubs are marriage, men’s, women’s, finance, prayer, outreach, family & parenting, students & Freedom.

Our groups meet weekly. The day of the week, time and length of the meetings are decided by each Life Group leader. At The Life Church we structure our Life Groups by semesters.

Semesters:

• Spring | 8 weeks, Feb/March – May/June
• Summer | 8 weeks, June – July
• Fall | 8 weeks, September – November

The structure of the semesters allows leaders and group members to take breaks and new church attenders to easily jump into a group at the beginning of a new semester.

Before the spring & fall semesters we host 21 Days of Prayer and during these times our whole church is encouraged to participate in some way.

Yes! Some groups are more conducive to that than others and so we point people to those groups. Leaders can “close” their groups once they are full or cannot accommodate new group members. 

If the groups being offered are not of interest to you consider leading a group! 

Lead a group on a topic you are passionate about and invite your friends, neighbors and family members to join! 

Life Group leaders are part of the Volunteer Team and every person who serves on the Volunteer Team has completed Discovery and are members of The Life Church.

Life Group Leader Training is a requirement and is to be completed once per calendar year. The leaders also go through an interview process and submit a background check before their group can be approved.