ABOUT THIS EPISODE
As leaders, we're called to make disciples. So, let's continually look for fresh ideas that help people take their next steps toward maturity in Christ. Here's one idea Jay learned from a colleague that helps group members verbalize the next step they'll take based on their group study.
Chris and Jay trade stories from life and ministry, then land on a simple small group practice that turns Bible study into real-world obedience. We want our groups to aim beyond good teaching and build a culture of transformation, next steps, and steady growth.
• quick catch up on family, travel, and real life pressures that shape leadership
• five core competencies (see below)
• a practical disciple-making habit: end group by breaking into twos or threes to name application
• why speaking intentions out loud helps truth move from head to heart
• using soft accountability and weekly challenges to support follow through
• cautions about breakouts becoming side groups and how to keep it temporary
• remembering that everyone is in a different spiritual place and avoiding putting people on the spot
• modeling spiritual maturity as a journey rather than perfection
put some of these things into practice, give them a try.
As promised, here are Pastor Matt's Five Core Competencies of a BH Group Leader:
1. Knowledge of God
2. Character
3. Teaching Ability
4. Encouragement of Others
5. Team Mentality
In upcoming podcasts, you can hear Matt talk about knowledge of God. We'll also meet with Parker Snider to review the Brook Hills Group Values.
Thanks for listening to the Great Groups Podcast. Please visit GreatGroups.org for a list of all our episodes.
We'd love to hear from you! Click here for our contact form.
Jay Gordon is the Small Groups Minister at The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. Chris Amaro is an IT professional and serves as a Small Group Leader and Elder at Brook Hills.
Brook Hills Pages:
- The Church at Brook Hills, Birmingham, Alabama, USA
- Small Group Leader Resources Page
- Small Group Discipleship Resources
- Small Groups @ Brook Hills
SHOW NOTES 🔗
TRANSCRIPT 🔗
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Welcome to the Great Groups Podcast.
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We're here to encourage and equip small group leaders at Brook Hills and beyond.
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I'm Jay Gordon, Small Groups Minister at the Church at Brook Hills, and I'm here with Chris Amaro, one of our small group leaders.
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Listen in and hear a new idea about how you can make disciples.
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It's been a minute.
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Oh man, just to be honest, Chris and I were talking when we were about to get started, and I went, Hey, do I do a cold lead in or does the music start?
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And he said, We do music first in now.
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And I went, No, no, I don't think so.
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Oh, oh yeah.
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Yeah, that's right.
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That's right.
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That's the way we do it.
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So we're gonna do this more often.
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So I think we missed the like entire back end of the uh major league baseball season.
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That's how long it's been.
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Man, I tell you, I have totally forgotten about baseball.
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Once the Braves are gone, I'm out.
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And I don't even know.
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Did Boston did your team make it at all?
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They lost in the first round.
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Okay.
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They turned around a terrible season.
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Yeah.
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Like they were like 0-40 in the beginning of the season and finished pretty strong.
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So very proud of the turnaround.
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Well, some of the things that have uh kept us away.
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Do you have the applause button ready?
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Okay.
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Ooh, I hope it's somewhere on here.
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Somewhere on here.
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We'll see if Chris hits it or not.
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I am a new grandfather.
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That was not it.
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Neither was that one.
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Oh no, that was the late end.
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All right.
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I am a new grandfather.
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Oh no, no, no, no.
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I am a new grandfather.
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Oh man.
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We got it somewhere here.
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There's one button left.
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There are eight buttons.
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There's two.
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That's not it.
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That's not it.
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You're laughing at me for having grandfathered.
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Do we have an applause button?
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Yeah, I'm sure.
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I bet you over overwrote it when you did something else.
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Hey, that's awesome, Jay.
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Yes.
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New grandfather number two.
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Yes, I am a grandfather again for the second time.
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That's fantastic.
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Blur girl.
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Boy.
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Oh, so one each.
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I have one of each.
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That's fantastic.
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Yep.
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And what a great name, too.
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Like instant, instant nickname, Graham Cracker.
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Yes.
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Actually, that was uh, you know, our almost four-year-old granddaughter.
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They they actually told her you can call him Graham Cracker or Graham something else.
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Yeah.
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And, you know, Teddy Graham.
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And she actually said, we're gonna call him Go Go Red Light.
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Okay.
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I don't understand that, but she stuck with that.
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Whatever she wants.
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You know?
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Yes, that's it.
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She's the boss.
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Yes.
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That is awesome.
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Congratulations.
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Thank you.
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In the meantime, I have uh been out a couple of weeks.
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We went over for the birth of Graham.
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I've spent quite a few days there.
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Almost missed him.
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He was late coming.
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We had to come back, but we did get to see him, so that's good.
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And then we're here for a day or two and then went to Glacier National Park in Montana where I officiated the wedding.
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Sorry to say birth of the wedding.
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The birth of the wedding.
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The wedding of my nephew, Lakeside in Glacier National Park, so that was pretty cool.
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Banff is about five hours north.
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It has been on our bucket list for a long time, so Liz and I went ahead and took a few days in front of the wedding and went up to Banff.
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And I took a few pictures that just still amazed me.
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Liz and I stood there looking at the water, how blue it was, and it it was just, we told ourselves, that just doesn't look real.
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Your pictures look like something you'd see on a puzzle.
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Yeah.
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I mean they're that like incredible.
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Yeah.
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If you haven't seen them, friend me on Facebook.
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I posted them all there and you can go and see those.
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So all right.
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Pretty amazing.
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So anything going on with you, Chris?
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Nothing like that.
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Okay.
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That's yeah, we're we're walking through senior high school year with one of our kids, and it is wild and crazy.
00:04:04.240 --> 00:04:06.719
Yep, and we're getting ready for a hurricane coming through.
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We are.
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Yeah, this is Friday, so in the next 24 hours, we should have some rain and some wind.
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Lots of it.
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Yep, lots of it.
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So we're getting ready for that.
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So anyway, well, church-wise, we've had our group leader gathering a couple of weeks ago.
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That was really good.
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Pastor Matt talked about five core competencies of Brookhills group leaders, and then Parker shared some new Brookhills group values that we've been putting together.
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So we not this episode, but next couple of episodes.
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We hope to hit on that.
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And so Pastor Matt talked about, he took the first core competency, Knowledge of God, and really broke that down and talked about that.
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But we would love to introduce all of those to you.
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In fact, you may be listening and and miss that.
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I'll go ahead and give you the five core competencies in case you're curious about that, and I'll put them in the show notes as well.
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Knowledge of God is the first one.
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Character is the second one.
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Three is teaching ability.
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Number four is encouragement of others, and number five is team mentality.
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So those are five core competencies of Brookhill's group leaders.
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But Chris, what I wanted to do on this podcast is just share a little bit of an idea that I heard.
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Once a year, some discipleship pastors from across the state of Alabama get together, and it's really cool because there's not much of a program, but when we start the meeting, we list things people are dealing with and have answers about in their own ministry.
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And then I think this year there were 11 or 12 people there and from some of the larger churches in the state.
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And we just everybody kind of talks about how their church is approaching that certain thing.
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So it's a good insight into what's going on in other churches, and there's certainly a lot of wisdom around the room to share.
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And um one guy shared something, and I I was thinking in my mind, that is money, that was worth the trip.
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And then another um another discipleship pastor from another church looked at him and said, pointed to him and said, That was worth my trip here.
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And anyway, so I thought I would share that and then give some some background.
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But it's really a simple thing, but he we were talking about making disciples in small groups, and so he said one of the things they do, and this this is gonna sound so small, but I'm gonna break break it out a little bit and hopefully we'll think about it and understand that some more and and what an impact it could make.
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But he said at the end of all of their small group meeting, he encourages his leaders each week to break up into groups of two or three at the end and talk about how they are going to apply what they've studied.
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And I just I just thought, man, that could be so valuable.
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And I just wanted to share some of the basis of that one.
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I think that's a really, really good idea.
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Number one, I believe in our groups we're called to make disciples.
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And if you're listening, I really want you to hear this and understand this.
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We are not just called to teach God's word.
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And so often we get that in our head, just teach God's word, teach God's word, teach God's word, and you know, it's like shooting spitballs on a wall.
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We hope that something sticks.
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But I love to see us doing some things in our group, some teaching methodologies that that really help people take what they've learned in Scripture and apply that to life.
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And so I just want to remind you, as a small group leader, your single goal is not to teach God's word.
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Your single goal is to make disciples.
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And so let's remember that.
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And so let's let's think about teaching methodologies that that will help.
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All right, another thing in my life, reason number two, I think this is really key, and this is sort of anecdotal.
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I'm sure somebody has done some studies out there and come to understand this, but I found it in my own life that when I'm in a group and I share with others what I hope to do or something God's working on in my life, I've just seen that it it moves from head to my heart, and I'm more likely to implement that, to stay on track, to to just realize it's a goal.
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You know, James 5, you know, talks about confessing our sins to one another, and I I think that's part of it.
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There's just something about confession, and not just confession of sin, but but confession of what we're gonna do and what our intentions are.
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So if you've been through our group basics, group leader basics, we call it now, you've heard me talk about doing a challenge at the end of every small group meeting, and let's just help people put some put some feet to what they've learned.
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And so this is just a new and a different way to do that.
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You know, you don't have to do that every week.
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You might not have time to break up into groups of two or three.
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But the way I've taught that in the past is just do what I call soft accountability and throw it out there and say, hey, I'd love for two or three of you to tell me, you know, how you're gonna apply this.
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Or you may give a specific challenge and just ask two or three people, you know, you know, the following week particularly, we'll look back and say, hey, how did that go for you?
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But sometimes in giving a challenge, I would teach people, hey, just ask people at the end of the lesson, hey, what are some of the ways that you can implement what we've talked about here today?
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And so anyway, so this this really fits with the challenge part of that as well.
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So that was actually point number three.
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We do here at Brook Hills, we want to challenge our people.
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Another word that might be helpful there is just thinking about next steps.
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We want people to take the truth and just picture a a next step that they could take with that.
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So anyway, Chris, what thoughts do you have?
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Do you think that would work?
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Yeah, it's they're it's a very powerful way to press in.
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I think it's a you have to be cautious because I've had situations like this happen where you've got you in my case, like you break up to a couple couple of guys, and then there's another couple of guys and another couple guys in a group, and then those those two couple guys create like a little group chat, and then that kind of spirals into this own like mini group kind of thing.
00:10:09.120 --> 00:10:09.279
Yeah.
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Like it's really just a temporary thing.
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So just you know, fight to keep it just what it is, you know.
00:10:13.519 --> 00:10:16.960
Hey, just let's have a quick conversation on yeah, how can we apply these things?
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Yeah.
00:10:17.600 --> 00:10:20.240
So you might you might tell people, hey, take one minute.
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I'm gonna call us back together in one minute, you know.
00:10:23.120 --> 00:10:33.919
And another thing I thought about in processing that is that not everybody sitting in our small groups are really at a point they're seeking to grow.
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And so one thing you might do is just ask people, hey, share some ideas about how you how a person might take this and grow.
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And then if you're willing to do one of those, go ahead and state that as well.
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That way it's leaving it a little bit open.
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I don't want us to put people on the spot.
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And often, you know, I I'd say most of the time, there are people in our groups who may not be ready to take some steps, but I I think it's good to you know to paint a picture of, hey, we're not just here to learn about God, we're here to to grow and be more like him.
00:11:05.919 --> 00:11:09.519
In fact, I I glanced down just now at our our Brooke Hills group values.
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Number one is transformation.
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It says we pursue spiritual growth and maturity as we take next steps to follow Jesus and become more like him.
00:11:17.600 --> 00:11:20.559
So anyway, there's there's just some thoughts on how to do that.
00:11:20.799 --> 00:11:25.120
Yeah, I th I think, you know, just like you said, all of us are at different spots.
00:11:25.279 --> 00:11:35.600
And you could even not to say that our faith is fragile, but you know, there we're we're one bad day away from you know, really being in a bad spot.
00:11:35.759 --> 00:11:41.039
And I think it's critical for us to have that transformation and and to understand that it's a continual process.
00:11:41.120 --> 00:11:43.519
It's not a you're not going from better to best.
00:11:43.679 --> 00:11:43.919
Right.
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Right.
00:11:44.320 --> 00:11:48.960
You could be going from ground zero, you know, yeah, being that you were at best at one point, you know.
00:11:49.039 --> 00:11:54.080
So it's critical to know that your entire group is g is made up of unique situations.
00:11:54.399 --> 00:11:54.559
Yeah.
00:11:54.639 --> 00:12:02.639
I taught group leader basics just uh a couple of days ago, and one of the things I I told them, I said, look, you're gonna hear me pushing you all the time.
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And uh one of my one of my keys to to spiritual maturity is modeling it.
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And so I I told them I really value leaders modeling spiritually spiritual maturity.
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And so don't hear me say that you have to be perfect because we're not gonna be perfect till we hit heaven.
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And so you know, I I'm gonna keep hitting you to grow.
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And that's the thing, be on the journey.
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You know, stay on the journey.
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And there are things uh it doesn't matter if you've been a m mature believer, been a believer for you know, three or four or five decades, God's still got some corners on us he wants to shave off and some ways we can improve and be more like him.
00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:47.039
And so I I just told them, hey, stay on the journey.
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Let people see that God's still working on you as well.
00:12:50.879 --> 00:12:56.159
You know, in fact, sometimes people are really, really encouraged to know that you know, you're not perfect.
00:12:56.240 --> 00:13:08.000
We've shared some of those stories before about just being transparent with our groups, and it's actually encouraging people to, you know, to some degree share some some areas where where God's working on us still.
00:13:08.320 --> 00:13:08.799
Amen.
00:13:09.519 --> 00:13:12.399
Well, that's about the depth of it today.
00:13:12.639 --> 00:13:15.200
Man, I was just thinking getting ready for this podcast.
00:13:15.360 --> 00:13:22.799
Uh driving in, you know, number one, we were gonna try to start at a certain time and going, oh dude, there's a wreck on 280 or something.
00:13:23.120 --> 00:13:24.159
So I texted Chris.
00:13:24.240 --> 00:13:26.240
I won't be there when I said I was gonna be there.
00:13:26.480 --> 00:13:30.960
And then I'm thinking, man, I just couldn't get my throat cleared driving in too.
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And I went, this is great.
00:13:31.919 --> 00:13:34.399
I'm going to do a podcast and I can't even talk.
00:13:34.639 --> 00:13:36.159
And then I don't know if y'all have heard it.
00:13:36.240 --> 00:13:38.080
Chris has muted the mic four or five times for himself.
00:13:38.399 --> 00:13:38.960
Oh, more than that.
00:13:39.200 --> 00:13:39.679
You know.
00:13:40.320 --> 00:13:41.519
Hopefully nobody heard it.
00:13:41.840 --> 00:13:42.320
Oh man.
00:13:42.720 --> 00:13:50.159
But um, you know, we're looking forward to one of the coming podcasts and just dropping Matt's um first of five, four competencies in there.
00:13:50.240 --> 00:13:54.000
And then what we're gonna do later is get with Parker at the Leader Gathering.
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Parker presented uh Brooke Hill's group values and did a good job of that.
00:13:58.159 --> 00:13:58.960
Did a fantastic job.
00:13:59.200 --> 00:14:04.720
I think we would love to, you know, take two or three podcasts maybe and just walk through those and talk about those.
00:14:04.960 --> 00:14:06.879
Each one has four scriptures with it.
00:14:07.039 --> 00:14:08.720
I really loved what Parker did with it.
00:14:08.879 --> 00:14:19.200
He he brought about, I forgot what he called it, but some questions to kind of analyze yourself on each each one, your your group leadership on each one out and they helped define it too.
00:14:19.279 --> 00:14:21.840
And so I I thought that was uh that was a really good step.
00:14:22.000 --> 00:14:23.279
So we're looking forward to that.
00:14:23.519 --> 00:14:25.039
How'd you like the food at the leader gathering?
00:14:25.279 --> 00:14:25.759
It was fantastic.
00:14:26.320 --> 00:14:26.879
What'd you go with?
00:14:26.960 --> 00:14:27.440
We had choices.
00:14:27.679 --> 00:14:28.240
I had the brisket.
00:14:28.480 --> 00:14:29.120
You had the brisket.
00:14:29.360 --> 00:14:30.159
Yeah, it was so good.
00:14:30.399 --> 00:14:31.120
What else did we have?
00:14:32.720 --> 00:14:33.679
You had some cornbread muffins.
00:14:34.799 --> 00:14:35.360
We had two meat.
00:14:35.440 --> 00:14:36.399
Oh, chicken and what have you?
00:14:36.559 --> 00:14:37.200
It was chicken and brisket.
00:14:38.320 --> 00:14:42.080
And then we had some green beans, believe, if I remember correctly.
00:14:42.320 --> 00:14:42.480
Yep.
00:14:42.799 --> 00:14:44.960
Uh honestly, all I remember is the brisket and mac and cheese.
00:14:45.039 --> 00:14:45.440
It was fantastic.
00:14:45.679 --> 00:14:46.080
I hear you.
00:14:46.799 --> 00:14:47.759
That's good stuff.
00:14:48.080 --> 00:14:51.440
Yeah, we try to feed people right at the leader gathering, so we want it to be a good meal.
00:14:51.519 --> 00:14:53.360
So this was one of the better ones.
00:14:53.600 --> 00:14:55.200
I thought there was been worse, but yeah.
00:14:55.360 --> 00:14:55.600
Yeah.
00:14:55.840 --> 00:15:00.799
One of the things I love about leader gatherings is just having leaders sit around tables getting to know one another.
00:15:01.039 --> 00:15:01.679
Yeah, that's very good.
00:15:02.080 --> 00:15:04.240
About their groups, just encouraging one another.
00:15:04.399 --> 00:15:18.799
And you know, there's just something about people that are in the same life stage that know what you're talking about when you're talking about group leadership or struggles you face or things you're dealing with, and so there's just that kinship, and so that's always pretty cool.
00:15:19.039 --> 00:15:26.320
Yeah, we had a couple of small group leaders that sat down with us that we knew them, but their group is made up of primarily younger families.
00:15:26.480 --> 00:15:30.879
And so they were like, but we're just getting into like this middle school stuff and we don't know nothing about it.
00:15:30.960 --> 00:15:32.000
Like, what is middle school like?
00:15:32.080 --> 00:15:38.399
And we're like, well, we've walked through that a bunch, so it was good to share and kind of grow together a little bit and so encourage one another.
00:15:38.559 --> 00:15:39.600
So it's an awesome time.
00:15:39.840 --> 00:15:40.639
Well, that's cool.
00:15:40.799 --> 00:15:42.000
Well, that's all for right now.
00:15:42.080 --> 00:15:43.279
We thank you guys for tuning in.
00:15:43.360 --> 00:15:48.720
We will try not to stay away from your feed for a whole month next time and look forward to sharing a leader gathering.
00:15:48.799 --> 00:15:52.000
But uh put some of these things into practice, give them a try.