March is Here -
ISSUE 4 VOL UME 2 March 1 0, 2 011
Think Spring!
Group
Focus 2011
What’s God Up To In Your Group?
For most groups who are following a semester
schedule this is week 6 - so we are about half-
way through the semester, depending on when
you are choosing to end. Wow! It’s hard to
believe!
This is a great time for you as leader to evaluate
your group and answer the question - what’s
God up to in our group? And what can I do to
best facilitate God’s transforming power?
Consider these questions:
• What were my hopes for my group when I
started? Is what I hoped for happening?
Why or why not?
• What goals do I have for my group by the
end of the semester?
• Are we making regular progress toward
those goals?
• Have we done something fun together
outside of our regular group time?
• Have we served together as a group?
• Is there anything I would like to see happen
in my group over the next few weeks?
• What changes do I need to make in order
for that to happen?
Take a few minutes to ask yourself these simple praying together as a group. I hope it gives you
questions. If you have trouble answering these insight and help to focus your group during your
questions, talk with your coach or contact me.
We want to be asking and answering questions
like these, because we want to make a
difference. Life-change will happen as we are
intentional about providing opportunities for next
steps and new growth.
What’s God doing in your group?
A publication to
encourage and equip
Group Leaders
www.NCGrouplife.blogspot.com
As you continue to lead this
semester:
• Remember to “Think Life Change”. We
do groups because we believe this is the
best place for sustained life-change to take
place. Everything you do should be
centered around the reality that God is in
the business of changing lives, because He
loves us far too much to leave us the way Calendar
we are and our job is to provide the
environments and relationships that allow
life-change to happen.
March
• Pray for a discerning eye toward new
potential leaders. Always be looking for Looking for a way to serve as
opportunities to share some of the a group? Check out Relay for Life
leadership responsibility. opportunities
• Pray—God calls us to pray, He expects us
to pray and I believe He longs to hear our What are your plans for the
prayers. Pray for your group members, for summer semester? It’s not too
God’s transforming work in their lives as early to begin thinking about how to
well as your own. gather people together during the
summer months
• Pray together as a group. Provide
opportunities for group members to pray
together and watch how God shows up! April
Easter
The article I have included this month addresses Jesus Christ is Risen Indeed!
How will you celebrate with your
prayer time. group this month?
Linda Get your group info for summer
semester to Linda!
An Audience of One 
The following is located at: http://SmallGroups.com/articles/2010/audienceone.html 

believers and end up praying in ways that may

Here's why it can be so hard to pray together as
not be appropriate in a group setting.
a small group.
What It All Means
Andrew Wheeler | posted 7/05/2010
"Praying to God" means that we address God—
Note: This article has been excerpted from
not the group—in prayer. Our prayers are
Together in Prayer, by Andrew Wheeler.
focused on asking God to intervene in
Community prayer is to private prayer what a situations and in people's lives, not on changes
symphony is to a solo. An orchestra playing that people need to make. Praying to God
together—with various sections picking up means that we're praying always for his will,
refrains from each other, with chords dependent submitting our requests to him but not
on the contributions of multiple instrumentalists, demanding that he answer in a particular way.
with a beautiful collective voice raised to the We're trusting that he will answer according to
his perfect wisdom (and acknowledging that our
We are
audience—this picture begins to describe the
ideal of group prayer. wisdom is imperfect). Finally, praying to God
means that even as we pray over temporal Better
Together
Often, however, group prayer turns out to be circumstances, we're focused on "kingdom
more like a collection of soloists each playing prayers"—prayers that emphasize God's
their own piece than a concerted voice arising eternal work in the lives of those for whom
out of teamwork. One particularly experienced we're praying.
soloist plays a very long piece, and others are
intimidated to follow. Multiple soloists each play "Praying with people" means that as we pray,
a piece of their own, but there is no relationship we keep in mind the presence of the community
Things to
between the pieces, no common refrain. The of believers. We pray in concert with others in
result is a cacophony of individual prayers and the group, limiting our prayers so as to invite
Pray About
participation of the whole community, and
not true community prayer—not the picture
Jesus had in mind in Matthew 18:19-20 when agreeing with one another as we pray. We as a Group
he spoke of two or more people coming enter into the prayers of others in the group,
together and agreeing in prayer. rather than focusing strictly on our own
concerns. We develop a true community
conversation with God, rather than a series of
Two Dimensions of Prayer 1. For God to show up in
one-on-one conversations.
our group
One of the main reasons we tend to struggle in
community prayer is that we fail to recognize its While most of the prayer problems that Jesus
addressed stemmed from heart issues, many of 2. For God to lead us to
two-dimensional nature. Private prayer
concerns itself with only one dimension: the the most common problems in community people we can serve
relationship between the believer and God. prayer are caused not by sinful hearts but
simply by a failure to understand some of the 3. For God to teach us
Community prayer, however, adds a second
dimension: the relationships among the implications of the two-dimensional nature of what it means to love
believers who are praying. Balancing these two community prayer. Him more
dimensions of prayer is not always an easy
task. —Andrew Wheeler; excerpted from Together in 4. For God to teach us
Prayer, copyright 2009 by InterVarsity Press
(www.ivpress.com). Used with permission. what it means to love
Community prayer at its best can be defined
simply as "praying to God with people." The
others more
definition is simple to articulate but not always 5. For God to remove
easy to follow. Even those who have strong
personal prayer lives often struggle with
“We cannot talk to God unless we walk with obstacles that are
Him when we’re not talking.”
balancing the vertical and horizontal keeping us from loving
relationships in community prayer. Accustomed and serving Him
- Oswald Chambers
to private prayer, they can sometimes forget
that they are praying in concert with other