We encourage men to gather in groups of 4-5 to share life together and encourage each other to grow in grace. They are formed around natural relationships and meet in various places at various times throughout the city.
Starting a Life Group
Starting a life group is easy. All you need are three to five men who are willing to share life together in a transparent and safe way and a regular place to meet each week for one hour. Some life groups meet at coffee houses, over breakfast, in homes, or at the church. We encourage all men to get connected to a life group and to feel free to form one as God leads. Please contact Chad Middlebrooks at 423-821-4528 if you would like to join a Life Group and need help forming a Life Group.
Sharing our Stories
It is important also to take time as a group to learn each other’s stories. One helpful way to share your story is to tell of your heroes in life, to share of the deepest hardships life has brought to you, and to celebrate the greatest highlights that life has brought to you. This may be done with one person sharing until he is done or by taking a season for all group members to share their heroes and then moving on to the next two categories.
Heroes: Who have you encountered and enjoyed in your life that has had the most impact on you?
Hardships: What hardships have defined the trajectory of your life and most deeply impacted your relationship with God?
Highlights: What highlights have defined the trajectory of your life and caused the deepest celebration within you as you look back on your life?
Guided Conversation for a Life Group
Life groups exist to create meaningful conversation with brothers over life’s most important questions so that we help one another look in at our hearts, look up at the Savior, and look out for the needs of others. The four questions listed below provide guidance for a life group that may need help in finding meaningful conversation.
1 Timothy 4:16 Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.
1. Learning: What are you learning about God and yourself?
Matthew 22:36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
2. Loving: How are you loving God and others?
Mark 8:35 “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it…” Mark 10:45 “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
3. Losing: How are you losing for the sake of Christ and others?
Romans 8:13 For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”
4. Leading: How is the Spirit leading you to repentance and renewal?