The Big Idea Increases the Quality of Small Group Experiences

Small groups are a risk! They are a low-control venture and by nature are a decentralized way to pastor and care for people. We want to do whatever we can to make our leaders as successful as possible. With the proliferation of small group discussion guides (both good and bad) and an array of other uncontrollable variables, the quality of any given small group experience will be uncertain. Even with a well-trained leader, a small group can easily be derailed by choosing content that is less than stimulating or by selecting a discussion guide that does not foster life-changing conversations. While many factors contribute to a great small group experience, writing our own curriculum or discussion guides increases the likelihood that each group will have an outstanding small group experience.
We have found the Big Idea to be very effective in helping our small groups to become places of real life change and transformation, not simply places where people can gather more and more information.
It’s too late for Adolf Stec of Chicago, but our hope is that his tragic life and death will serve as a constant reminder that people all aroundus are suffering from Information Isolation. They have access to loads of data with the touch of a finger, yet at the end of the day (or at the end of their lives), all of that data might ultimately do them no good at all. However, as a community of faith, we can help people combine that information with life-changing relationships in small groups, and they can experience true transformation.

We have found the Big Idea to be very effective in helping our small groups to become places of real life change and transformation, not simply places where people can gather more and more information.

Here’s how Kathy Fuhrman, also from the Chicago area, describes her experience leading a small group with the Big Idea:

Small Group and the Big Idea

Our small group has used the Big Idea discussion guides for more than a year now. One of the things we like about the Big Idea is that it gives us the opportunity to discuss the weekend message in more detail. As a result, we find that we’re more likely to apply the principles of the Big Idea to our lives. We often spend some time reviewing the service at the beginning of our discussion. It gives people the opportunity to raise questions from the message or discuss a significant moment from the service. As a leader, I like it because the service has helped me better prepare for the group discussion.

Several months ago our weekend series was titled New Year’s Revolutions, and the topic for the week was “Relational Revolutionary.” The session concluded with a challenge for the group to do a service project together. At the same time some of us in the group were following the diary of Ben and Melody, a couple in our church who started a mission in Rwanda. They were hosting a refugee family from Africa and the diary chronicled their experience. We wanted to help them and decided to invite them to come to our group and talk about Global Family Rescue and their work in Rwanda.

Their presentation touched our hearts. They left us with some pictures of the fatherless families they were hoping to help. Over the next few weeks, we discussed this as a group. Three of the couples in our group decided to help one family together. For one of the couples, this was the first time that they had given beyond a tithe. They spent some significant time discussing this new direction for their lives. I was very excited to see them take this step in their spiritual journey.

A few months into our sponsorship, we received word that the widow we were sponsoring was avoiding meetings with the caseworker and there were rumors of her spending some of the money on alcohol. Ben emailed us and told us that the board had put her on three months’ probation and that had ended without resolution of the problem. “What would you like to do?” they asked us. We could drop her sponsorship and pick up someone else. They would continue to work with Marie, provide accountability, and eventually offer sponsorship to her again.

At our next small group, we sat around the dining room table discussing our options. We truly felt the enormity of the situation. I still am moved with emotions when I remember our faces around that table discussing the real-life decisions involving forgiveness, restitution, discipline, honoring God with our money, bearing others’ burdens, and trying to feel someone else’s pain. Later that week I received an email from her caseworker. He asked us to give Marie more time and renewed his commitment to continue to try to reach out to her. He also let us know that he had a pastor who was willing to try to reach her as well.

In the end we decided to give her some more time and continue to send our support. We tried to imagine what she had gone through in staying alive through the genocide and trying to keep her family alive. We tried to imagine the things that she was trying to forget by drinking. We committed to pray for her more than ever.

Just last month we received an email picture of our Marie. She is smiling and holding the card and photos that we sent to her. She continues to meet with the caseworker and the pastor. She is working through her drinking problem. We sent extra money for her to buy two goats.

When we first made this decision to support one family together, I was concerned about making it work. It’s difficult to be involved with other people’s money. But after experiencing that group discussion, I knew that God had a plan — that doing this as a group caused us to talk about what we are doing with our money. It gave us an incredible opportunity to be real with each other. Our lives have been changed. My life has been changed.

God used our small group and the Big Idea to impact not only the life of a widow in Africa but the lives of my small group in Na-perville, Illinois. I am grateful for these significant moments in life when God gives us a glimpse of himself and we get just a peek into heaven.

Ferguson, D., Ferguson, J., & Bramlett, E. (2009). The big idea: focus the message---multiply the impact. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

If you need help with custom lessons for your church, please contact me. josh@joshhunt.com 575.650.4564

-- Josh Hunt