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Small Group Meeting Outlines... |  |
Introduction
Many of our small groups follow a meeting structure called the 4 W's for their weekly meetings together. It has proven to be very effective in supporting the different aspects of small group life, focusing the members on Jesus, his word in the bible, and applying it to our lives today, for our friendship within and on the edges of the group.
The structure consists of 4 basic elements;
For a description of this structure and some hints about writing your own, click here.
A template for this structure is provided in the list below.
To download a Meeting Outline click on one of the pictures below for the file format of your choice:Suggested Meeting Outlines
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Text files |  |
Microsoft Word files |  |
Postscript (pdf) files |
Please note that not all of these Meeting Outlines are complete - some may require tailoring and additions
Title |
Summary |
Download |
| Meeting notes template | A template from which you can construct your own small group meeting notes | |
September to December 2005 |
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| I am the bread of life | Goal: To understand what Jesus meant by offering us the bread of life, and to be encouraged to choose life and pray for opportunities to introduce friends to this life | |
| Joshua 5 - Obedience | There is a challenge to us now as we face our own Jerichos (health, finances, personal and family dilemmas etc) God may offend our minds to move us on, challenging us and calling us to be change agents through our obedience to Him. | |
| Joshua 4 - Remembrance | To explore the importance of the act of remembering God's power | |
| Living as light | Goal: to understand why people need Jesus light and to be encouraged and empowered to be lights to those around us. | |
| Joshua 1 - Courage | If we obey God then we will win our spiritual battles. Since victory is assured then the command is (to us as well) to be strong and courageous. On the other hand, if we wilfully disobey God in our daily walk then we will meet insurmountable difficulties. Every day we hear conflicting voices and have to make difficult choices. This is a challenge for us to choose to serve the Lord in all we do. | |
| Faith when facing challenges | Goal: to recognise challenges and learn how to face them with God | |
| Harvest in a desert | Goal: to become aware of the needs of others in the world, pray for them and consider ways to help them, and to pray for those who need spiritual refreshment | |
| Love, the whole picture | Description of notes | |
April to July 2005 |
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| A Changeless God of Change | Goal: To understand that change is necessary and to encourage each other and build each other up facing/during change | |
| The fear of change | Goal: to realise how Jesus can help us deal with fear, specifically the fear of change, and to share how Jesus helps us with fear, with our friends. | |
| Filling Gods House | Goal: To realise that God wants a full house and that we can take part in inviting the guests in, and to identify those in whom God is already working, being empowered to help | |
| Giving is the true Having | Goal: to explore the things that we are storing for ourselves instead of sharing with others, and to think of practical ways to share our things with those who are not yet Christians. | |
| Loving our brothers and sisters | There are plenty of scriptures calling us to care for all who are weak, poor and sick, but in this passage the emphasis is particularly on how we treat those who follow Jesus. | |
| Pentecost | Goal: To get something more out of this passage in terms of expecting God to pour out His Spirit on us, and to encourage each other and build each other up | |
| Stewardship - Fasting and Prayer | Goal: to understand the principle of stewardship, and To help make our calling and election sure | |
| Strength, Peace, Security | |
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| Welcoming God's presence | Goal: to discover how to welcome God’s presence, and to help welcome God’s presence into our daily lives, as a witness to others. | |
| Welcoming God's Word | Goal: to explore the benefit of having the Word of God at our fingertips, and to think of practical ways to order our lives under the authority of the Word. | |
January to March 2005 |
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| Being a City Builder | Goal: To find out what God wants us to do as part of One Church in the City of Derby, and get on with it! | |
| Fasting and Praying 1 | Goal: To expand our understanding of how fasting can help us enrich our relationship with Jesus, and to be ready to answer people when it is clear that you are doing something different from usual (fasting) | |
| Fasting and Praying 2 | Goal: to understand the importance and potential of fasting with prayer, and to examine ourselves and motives | |
| Mission-shaped church is transformational | Goal: to look at the way God is continuously transforming us & how He uses us as channels for the transformation of others, and to respond to God as we understand how he longs for us to restore our relationship with Him & to bear fruit for His kingdom. | |
| Mission Shaped Church Gods Way | Goal: To understand that God wants us to do mission His way. To listen to God and ask him to help us follow His way of doing mission. | |
| Trinity in Mission | Goal: To understand more about how God plans, delivers and supports mission through the Trinity. To be blessed and more able to be open with those with whom we live and work. | |
September to December 2004 |
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| Daily Christian Growth | Goal: To encourage people to look after their friendship with Jesus on a daily basis. To think about and plan how to share Jesus' "fruit" with others. | |
| God in our Lives | |
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| Jesus as the priority | Goal: to help us understand how Jesus might want us to put Him as number one in our lives. To make a commitment to change our own priorities, and allow other people to see this. | |
| Trying Hard - No (apparent) Fruit (yet!) | Goal: to gain an understanding of God's timing being better than ours! make personal and group commitments to mission/witness. | |
| WORSHIP - Worship | |
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| WORSHIP - Moving in Worship | Goal: To improve our understanding of worship and praise. Try and make worship a way of life. | |
| WITNESS - Mission by story telling | Goal: To be encouraged that mission is a non-threatening story telling everyday thing. To try out a little story telling with friends | |
| WITNESS - Mission in our Daily Lives | |
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| WITNESS - Our part in Mission | Goal: To realise mission is God's work, and that He wants us to be involved. To encourage each other to ask God for help. | |
| WITNESS - Targeted Evangelism | Goal: To understand the "why" and "how" of targeted evangelism, seek God's will for who are your 'targets' | |
| COMMUNITY - Community at the Heart of God | Goal: To explore why Community is important for God, He wants us to share community with Him, and that Community and mission are inextricably linked | |
| COMMUNITY - Friendship | |
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| COMMUNITY - The Family of God | Goal: To understand and receive afresh the realisation that our salvation is not earned. This is what we share as the family of God. To be more open to talk about our faith being different (good news) from the world view, and praying for our friends to notice. | |
Before July 2004 |
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| Why do we need a Vision? | A discussion about why is it important to have a vision as a church | |
| What is your Goal? | Exploring what it means to be focused on pleasing the Lord | |
| God is in control | An evening listening to the story of Esther, and discussing how God is in control in difficult situations | |
| Encouragement and healing | Looking at how Jesus healed and restored Peter after the ressurection - and how Jesus restores our lives today after failure | |
| What is the Church? | A look at the church's role as a church of mission, with reference to St Alkmund's Mission Statement | |
| World Affirming Evangelism - Part 1 | A refreshing discussion about evangelism in the 21st Century - with thanks to John Leach for his inspiring talks | |
| World Affirming Evangelism - Part 2 | A refreshing discussion about evangelism in the 21st Century - with thanks to Rev John Leach for his inspiring talks | |
| World Affirming Intercession | An inspirational discussion about how we can pray for the world in which we live - with thanks to Rev John Leach for his inspiring talks | |
| Jesus at the Centre | Putting Jesus at the centre of our lives together - what this means in practice - with thanks to Cell Church UK | |
| Loving the lost | To encourage us to demonstrate the love of Jesus to our friends and family - with thanks to Cell Church UK | |
| Old Out, New In | Practical learning to deal with and overcome temptation and becoming more Christ like - with thanks to Cell Church UK | |
| The Way of Love | Practical learning to love each other as Jesus modelled - with thanks to Cell Church UK | |
| Accept One Another | Exploring how we can better live as a community by accepting one another - with thanks to Cell Church UK | |
| Watch your Tongue | Exploring how we can be careful about what we say, and use our words to build community, not break it down - with thanks to Cell Church UK | |
| Overcoming the impossible | Exploring how Joshua and Caleb approach a seemingly impossible situation God put them in - adapted from notes by Scripture Union | |
| The Mercies of God - Remembrance | Goal: to remind ourselves of the great mercies of God and receive His forgiveness | |
| The Mercies of God - Repentance | Goal: to help each other find out what God is calling us to, and to help each other receive the Holy Spirit's help in serving God | |
| The Mercies of God - Mission | Goal: to understand how important showing mercy is to life as a follower of Jesus and receive His power to do it | |
| Harvest Festival | Goal: to realise how much of what we have is from God and learn to share it with others (give it back to Him) | |
| The Mercies of God - Relationship | Goal: to understand how important showing mercy is to life as a follower of Jesus and receive His power to do it | |
| The Mercies of God - Judgement | Goal: to remind ourselves of what the second coming is all about and ask for God's help to prepare on a daily basis | |
| Standing Firm | Goal: Consider Gods call to stand firm for him in the world and come up with some prompts that will help us rely on Him, the 1. Identify areas of our everyday lives where we need the Holy Spirit's help in our witnessing and in our lifestyles. 2. Get that help. | |
| Giving and Receiving | Goal: To come to a greater understanding that we cannot afford NOT to give more. Be challenged to try to out give God and be accountable to each other for our decision. | |
| Living Rightly | Goal: To understand how important making the right choices is to life as a follower of Jesus and receive His power to do it. Identify the practical things God wants you to do as a group or as individuals. | |
| The Lord is near | Goal: To recognise the importance of sharing our faith as we prepare for Jesus' second coming and helping each other to be bold. | |
