Knowing Their Story
A leadership goal for Growth Group’s is for the group to know one another’s stories. Knowing their story allows for a real relationship, and when a group of people all know each other’s story, then you get an authentic community.
I think “know their story” actually means four things for our Groups:
Know God’s story…
At the core of your group has to be the Gospel. God created us, we live estranged from Him apart from the redemptive acts of His son Jesus Christ, and by faith in Christ we are recreated to live in true freedom in the presence of God! Stay in love with God’s story.
Understand the people in your group’s story…
It is not simply enough to know details about someone’s life. When you find out someone is a recovering alcoholic, dig deeper to find out the life circumstances that gave rise to the alcoholism in the first place, and what pushed them to enter into recovery. Don’t just stop at facts, get into the emotions. Until you turn sympathy into empathy, they will not fully trust you with their lives.
Help to show them where those two stories interact…
Life transformation happens when God’s story intersects with the story of someone far from God. And the beauty of it is, it always will, or already has, and all you have to do is help show them where! Luckily for us, Paul repeatedly showed us where: “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Jesus Christ.”
Encourage them to share it…
The Gospel is the “Good News”. It is the exact same word in the Greek language that we use for ‘evangelism’. The word ‘evangelist’ conjures up negativity in our culture, but an evangelist is simply someone who shares the Good News. Once people see where God’s story intersect with their story, and accept it, it will be hard for them not to share. But encourage them to do so. Let them know its OK!