NLCC Discipleship Strategy: StudyGroups

By Jonathan | September 20, 2016

Continuing the discussion on the New Lisbon’s discipleship strategy, let me briefly recap what we have talked about thus far. First, I spoke about Neighborhood groups, and you can read more about that here. Second, I shared with you the mission behind PointGroups, which you can read about here. So now, I am moving on to our third style of group and that is StudyGroups.

StudyGroups I believe are very important to the development and establishment of the local congregation. I have written on another website about the importance of Sunday School and teaching the Bible through classes here. Let me explain how we actually elevated Sunday School by making a few adjustments to this long standing, traditional program.

First off, New Lisbon has taught the Bible in a classroom style long before I or anyone reading this blog got to New Lisbon, and my hope is that New Lisbon will go on teaching the Bible in a classroom style long after any of us leave New Lisbon. So when I started at NLCC back in 2015, Mark and I spoke a few times about what kind of role Sunday School would play in my job but also in the development and growth of our church. It is becoming increasingly popular among larger churches to slay Sunday School on the alter of the weekly, in home, small group system. I do not believe that is wise for a number of reasons which you can read about here. So instead of doing away with Sunday School (which would never happen anyways) I along with the Discipleship Team and the Church Leadership knew that we would want to make a few adjustments. Primarily, we knew that we needed to rebrand this long standing program. So we changed the name from Sunday School to StudyGroups.This may seem minor, and in essence it is. However, the change allows us to open up the primary biblical education of the church to more possibilities. The name Sunday School implies two things; (1) that we only have opportunities to study the Bible on Sunday morning, and (2) school. School is what children go to while the adults go to worship. Furthermore, “school” does not have much of an appeal to it because it sounds boring, dry, and drudges up memories from primary and secondary education. Therefore we changed the name to StudyGroups. This name allows us to have Bible studies on more than just Sunday mornings and it specifies the purpose of the group getting together. This leads me to my next point.

Second, the purpose of a StudyGroup is distinguished from say a PointGroup or NeighborhoodGroup. A StudyGroup will have some fellowship but the mission of at SG is to investigate the depths of God’s word in community with other believers. This mission shows that the Bible is the center, not anything else. Certainly, fellowship will happen along the way however, StudyGroups are not a social hour. So this group has a unique purpose that distinguishes it from its counterpart groups at NLCC.

Purpose: to investigate the depths of God’s word in community with other believers

Third, we are moving past the typical Sunday school setting that never really alters its patterns and people. Let me be clear. For the foreseeable future, those groups that want to remain together will remain together however, we will be offering electives in the various seasons. This will provide opportunities for people to go for a season to another StudyGroup if there is something specific they want to study. Electives will allow us to do focused studies on various levels of difficulty. We can offer an introduction to Jesus or an in-depth study of Romans. That way, those who are new to the StudyGroup scene can better navigate the options available to them.

Fourth, StudyGroups will be a program with a secondary purpose. It is in this program where we will field future teachers and leaders of our groups as well as allow them to train, lead, and teach under the supervision of experienced leaders.

So how does this fit into the bigger picture? Glad you asked.

Growing in Christ certainly implies learning more bout God through his revealed word. This program provides that opportunity that is specific to where they are at in their walk and faith. Once someone has come to our church via NeighborhoodGroups or other avenues, gone through the assimilation process provided by PointGroups, connect with other christians in both those programs, then the next step for them is to seek out God in his revealed word. While biblical knowledge does not make a mature disciple of Jesus, it is a natural result of someone striving to transform their lives.

We will continue to develop StudyGroups so we have regular Groups at various levels so anyone at any point in their walk can find something to help them move to the next level in their faith.

Finally, let me add this final point.

I mentioned this earlier in this blog but allow me to elaborate a bit. Each program’s leaders (ex. NeighborhoodGroup Leader, PointGroup Leader) are looking for something specific in people and pointing them to what is next for them. Those who are “popping” or you might say getting excited about their faith, on fire for Jesus, and development stands out in a StudyGroup then the leader’s job is to show them the next step. NeighborhoodGroup Leaders try to get their people either into a PointGroup or regularly attending church. PointGroups help people find out what their immediate needs are and show them the path, like StudyGroups or NeighborhoodGroups. Those in StudyGroups will be pointed to TransformationGroups and Disciple-Making opportunities, but you will have to wait to hear about that in our next blog.