Every set of relationships has written or unwritten expectations. In the same way, our Community Groups agree to a set of community commitments that maximize each member’s experience. Very simply, the level of community we gain from our group will be directly related to the level of commitment we give to our group. As a leader, use this Community Group Agreement at the beginning of each season to be sure your whole group is on the same page.

If you’re just kicking off your first season as a Group leader, you may be wondering, “What did I get myself into?” The truth is, leading is a huge responsibility, but it’s also a great privilege. Your first ninety days of Group leadership will help pave the way for the rest of your experience – and the experience of those in your group. We’ve put together a little checklist to help you with the details that come along with your first few months. Walk through the list before your first meeting and begin to set the foundation for a great Group season! Grab the checklist here.

When was the last time you stopped to check on the health of your group? How would you even know if your group is healthy? Assessment is essential for growth. It’s true for your personal walk with Christ and for your small group leadership. This tool is designed to help you assess your Community Group’s health based on Saylorville’s 9 Essentials of a Healthy Group. This check-up provides a great framework for personal evaluation and discussion with your group. Take a few minutes to work through this assessment on your own, and then share it with your Co-Leaders, and then with the rest of your group. Don’t forget to develop a few immediate growth plan steps at the end.

Download the Group Health Check-Up here.

Download the current Saylorville Bible Study Journal here.

This resource has been designed to help men and women read, study, and listen to the Bible in more meaningful ways. We believe God has created us to live and learn in community with His people, so, the Journal is used best in groups. When people show up having personally spent quality time in God’s Word, the group benefits, and each member has the opportunity to grow. The goal is to challenge group members toward personal life transformation – moving from where they currently are to where God intends them to be.

The Sunday Sermon

The first step is to make sure everyone in your group takes notes during the Sunday morning message at Saylorville. Messages are posted online on Sunday mornings in case someone in your group misses a Sunday. The resources and helps in the Journal are designed to be used in conjunction with the key passage(s) from the Sunday sermon. Each Bible Study Journal includes sections for every week of the current Saylorville sermon series.

Preparation

Ideally, you and your group members will dive deep into Scripture by working through the main steps of Bible study each week. Depending on when your group meets, you may ask your group to complete the steps before or after your weekly meeting. The Journal has built-in flexibility, so you can choose the best way to use it with your group. As a leader, you may want to add specific questions each week, custom-designed for your group. You can also pull a few questions from the weekly Sermon Questions that are posted every Sunday morning.

Participation

In order to get the most out of this resource, and out of your time together as a Community Group, it’s important that you encourage participation during and between group meetings. Start a text thread, or an email chain with specific questions or new learnings each week. Celebrate when someone makes a discovery in Scripture that’s new to them. Be sure to build a group environment that highlights the transformation that comes from Holy Spirit-led application of God’s Word!

Using the Bible Study Journal in your Group Discussions

Personal spiritual growth takes commitment, so the Bible Study Journal begins with a Commitment page. At the beginning of each sermon series, encourage your group members to prayerfully agree to becoming more like Jesus together. Refer back to these commitments throughout the season to celebrate wins and encourage ongoing growth.

It’s important to develop a consistent plan for getting into the Word of God daily. The Bible Study Journal includes a simple Bible Reading Plan that will help your group follow along with our Sunday morning sermons. If you or your group would like to read through bigger sections of Scripture at a time, additional reading plans can be added to the one provided in the Journal.

Each Journal includes a Resources section specific to the current sermon series. Use these resources and helps to deepen your understanding of the passage each week, and encourage your group members to do the same. When you meet together, ask your group to share some of the Bible study resources they found particularly helpful that week.

The Attributes page is a reminder that all of Scripture points to Who God is, not just what He does. Whenever you read a passage, look for Him before asking how this relates to you. The Bible is a book about God! Sometimes it is obvious, sometimes not. The more you look for His character, the more you start to see it in every passage. When you gather with your group each week, ask them which of the attributes of God were on display in the key passage(s) that week.

Each week, the Journal includes sections titled, “Observation,” “Interpretation,” and “Application.” These three key steps of Bible study will guide you and your group into deeper engagement with the text each week. Since the steps are the same every week, you’ll get familiar with them quickly and will be able to dive deeper into each one as time goes on. Use the resources, suggestions, and helps as you study study the Bible for life transformation. When your group meets together, don’t be afraid to share some of your key learnings from the passage – remember, we’re better together!

One of the keys to learning is to take Sermon Notes. Encourage your group to follow along carefully on Sunday mornings, and then to write down important statements, passages, illustrations, or questions that stood out to them. The notes you take during the weekly sermon will provide great discussion material when you get together with your group!

Use the Personal Study pages throughout the week to put your thoughts down as you observe, interpret, and apply Scripture every day. These pages are blank canvases, so encourage your group to jot down notes, write down quotes, or journal key learnings from the passages each week.

Fill out the Growth Plan every week to help you memorize, paraphrase, and stay accountable with what you’re learning. As a group leader, these Growth Plans could be a great resource to help encourage your group to apply God’s Word. Ask your group members to fill out their Growth Plans each week, and then review them when you gather together again.

The Prayer Journal is for personal or Community Group prayer requests. Use it and watch God answer prayer.

Our vision at Saylorville is to be a church that makes more people more like Jesus. We want to be changed daily into people who look more like our Savior. At the end of each Bible Study Journal, you’ll find a “More Like Jesus” section. Walk your group through the questions in this section to help solidify the lessons you have learned throughout the sermon series.

After the initial excitement of group formation begins to wear off, it can be easy for group relationships to plateau. If you want people in your group to continue to experience life change together, you’ll need to intentionally pursue intimacy. As a leader, this can seem like a daunting task, but it is possible! Watch this Two-Minute Training video for some ways to help your group start to grow closer this week.

You might have heard that we’re making some changes…

The Short Version

Starting September 2021, all of our Cell Groups and Bible Studies will be united under the banner of “Community Groups”, and we will encourage people to join at least one per season. Community Groups are gatherings of 6-12 people centered around life and learning together. Groups meet weekly throughout the Des Moines metro.

The Long Version

We’re all about community here at Saylorville. We often say, “Together is better.” That means we’re at our best when we’re living and learning in community with others who are trying to be more like Jesus.

Community isn’t confined to one place, one time, or even one event or program. Community happens whenever and wherever Christ-followers meet to live and learn together.

So, community can happen in a Thursday night Cell Group, where a group of married couples and their kids sit around a dining room table, sharing life, and talking about how to apply the message they all heard that previous weekend at Saylorville.

It can also happen every Tuesday morning, where a small group of women meet at their favorite coffeeshop and learn about how to study their Bible together.

It’s the Young Adult crew that you’ll find out on the back deck on Monday nights, taking the lessons from the Book of James and wrestling with how to live faithfully during their unique stage of life.

There’s no one-stop-shop for community. It happens all over the place, all through the week, with all kinds of people. You can’t squeeze it into a mold, force it to be what you want, or even contain it in one place.

Community happens when people of God live and learn together.

Mature disciples are men and women who are less lopsided and better balanced – they’re growing both relationally AND spiritually. Living AND learning together.

So, starting now, we’re shifting some of the ways we think about “community” here at Saylorville.

First – We’re going to double down on prioritizing a knowledge and love for God and His Word. We’re going to help provide communities that dig deep into the character and the Word of God. Alongside the Sunday morning preaching, our quarterly teaching modules, and the occasional Sunday night teaching environments, we’re committed to developing more consistent learning groups for our adults. These groups will focus on content and education – digging deeper into Bible study in the context of community.

So, here’s what this looks like: Up until now, we’ve encouraged people to get into some kind of Bible Study – two or three 6-8 week studies for men and the same thing for women each year. We’d like to strengthen those learning environments by making them longer and working hard to find gifted teachers. These learning groups will also follow the same seasonal schedule as our other Community Groups, making it easy to keep track of when they are starting and ending.

Along with reshaping our Bible Studies into learning-focused Community Groups, we’re also putting together a scope and sequence for what we hope will become a set of “Core Classes” – classes available for everybody at Saylorville – in personal and practical theology that will meet throughout the week, have set curriculum, homework, and benchmarks. We’re super excited about the potential of these “Core Classes” as part of our goal to prioritize more opportunities for people to access solid, theological teaching at Saylorville. More on this as we continue to develop the idea in the months to come.

Next – We’re going to broaden our scope of community options. Up until now, we’ve highlighted Cell Groups as the primary place to find deeper connections. While that’s been true, we’ve seen God use other small group environments to develop deep relationships too. For instance, our Men’s and Women’s Bible Studies have both provided community for those who might not have been able to be in a Cell Group because of their work schedule, stage of life, or family season. We want to encourage these kinds of learning communities – as well as those that focus more on sharing life together.

So, here’s what this looks like: We’ve consistently said that it’s an expectation for every member, and everybody looking for community here at Saylorville, to be part of a Cell Group. And many of in our congregation are. Almost 75% of those who are here on Sunday mornings are also part of a Cell Group – which is really amazing. But what about those who aren’t? What we’ve found is that many of you are experiencing biblical community in environments outside of Cell Groups – places like our Men’s and Women’s Bible Studies. And that’s fantastic. We want to encourage those kinds of relationships by broadening our definition of “community” beyond Cell Groups to include some of these other groups that are also offering life and learning in small gatherings.

Finally – We’re going to work harder to encourage and promote opportunities for Believers to use their gifts. Some of our leaders are amazing at hospitality – making everybody feel like family when they walk through the front door. A lot of hospitality folks are Cell Group leaders, and that’s awesome. But some of our members have the gift of teaching, and might not using it because they aren’t sure where they can.

So, here’s what this looks like: Up until now, we’ve only had a handful of environments in which those with the gift of teaching, preaching, or leading can really plug in consistently. This new model of Community Groups will open up more opportunities for gifted teachers to serve consistently. God has given our church every gift that He wants us to have in order to do what He wants us to do. And unless we unleash the church to use our God-given gifts to the fullest, we’ll be falling short of His best for us all.

So, here’s what we’re trying to do:

This new Community Group model will emphasize balanced discipleship (people who love God and love people) by broadening our definition of community to include both life and learning groups. The new model unifies Young Adult groups, Men’s Bible Studies, Women’s Bible Studies, and Cell Groups into one combined category called “Community Groups”.

All of our Cell Groups and Bible Studies are now simply “Community Groups”

Each of these groups will focus on either life – prioritizing connections and application; or learning – prioritizing content and education

A few examples of what this might look like:

A Young Adult Community Group might focus on learning for a season by digging deep into a Book of the Bible, or maybe the group leaders feel more led to focus on getting people connected to Christ and to each other – more of a life-on-life focus for a season.

A Community Group of mostly married people might gather on Tuesday evenings to eat dinner, apply the Sunday morning message, and pray separately as men and women – focusing a little more on Biblical relationships rather than Biblical education.

Or the Men’s or Women’s Community Group meeting early in the morning, or after the kids go to bed at night – might choose to dig deeper into the Sunday morning sermon series using the resources provided by our Discipleship Team.

Each Community Group, through their leaders, is free to decide whether they will use this season to focus on life, or focus on learning, because both are an important part of making less lopsided and better balanced disciples.

What’s really changing?

We’ve always expected people to be in community at Saylorville, but we’ve essentially narrowed that community down to Cell Groups. Now, instead of seeing Cell Groups as essential and Bible Studies as extra credit, we’re recognizing that both play an important role in balanced discipleship. So this Fall, we’re combining Cell Groups and Bible Studies under the banner of “Community Groups” and committing to shepherd our Saylorville family to find their people in at least one of these groups.

Each of these groups will use the same basic seasonal schedule, with intentional time for rest and reset between seasons:

Fall Season: Labor Day until Christmas (approx. 14 weeks)

Break: Christmas until Super Bowl Sunday

Spring Season: Super Bowl Sunday until Memorial Day (approx. 14 weeks)

Break: Memorial Day until July 4th

Optional Summer Season: July 4th until Mid August (approx. 6 weeks)

Especially for those who are newer to Saylorville

Break: Mid August until Labor Day

People will still join Community Groups through Group Connect and the familiar ChurchCenter app or website like we’ve already been doing for a few years now.

Like always, our Ministry Leaders will work hard to shepherd people to find a Community Group where they can practice life and learning in a Biblical way.

What do Group Leaders need to know?

Leaders can now choose what type of group they want to lead – based on your gifts, your stage of life, and your schedule: Young Adults, Men’s, Women’s, or Mostly Married

Then, choose a focus for your group this season – life or learning.

Then, choose your content…

Are you going to lean into learning – studying a specific book of the Bible or digging deeper into the Sunday morning sermons using personal Bible Study Journals? Our team will provide several resources for those of you who are leaning this direction.

Or, maybe you feel like your group needs to focus on building relational connections – maybe eating a meal together, going over Sermon Questions, or serving together as part of life-on-life discipleship. Again, we’ll help you figure that out if you need.

If you’re a Young Adult leading a YA group, great! Keep it up.

If you’re a Cell Group Leader along with your spouse, and you want to keep doing that together, great! Keep it up. The biggest change is that your group is now a Community Group, not a Cell Group.

Or maybe you’d like to try leading a Men’s only group, or a Women’s only group for a few seasons. That’s great!

For those who have leading a Men’s or Women’s Bible Study, we’d love for you to keep doing that under the unified banner of Community Groups, and even digging deeper into the Bible and into relationships with the new, longer seasons.

The new group schedule will also give leaders a chance to rest and refresh at important times throughout the year, as well as natural times for groups to multiply and grow.

What do people joining groups need to know?

Community happens when the people of God live and learn together. So, we’re going to work hard to help you find your people here at Saylorville.

All of our groups will continue to be listed on our ChurchCenter page and through the app.

On our Community Groups web page, you’ll choose a type of group (YA, Men, Women, Married).

Then you’ll use filters to choose the options that look like the best fit and contact the leaders right there through the website.

If it seems overwhelming to try to pick a group – let us know. We’ll help you find your people.

If you’re brand new to groups at Saylorville, we’d still love for you to attend Group Connect before each season begins (fall, spring, summer)

Summary:

Emphasize balanced discipleship (people who love God and love people) by broadening our definition of community to both life and learning groups. Putting Young Adult groups, Men’s Bible Studies, Women’s Bible Studies, and Cell Groups into one combined category called “Community Groups”.

Each of these groups will focus on either life – prioritizing connections and application; or learning – prioritizing content and education

So, let’s find our people…and experience life and learning together.

Joining the front lines of ministry as a Community Group Leader can be exciting, overwhelming, life-changing, encouraging, and stretching. If you’re ready to jump in, then it’s time to start forming your new group. But who will God ultimately place in your group for you to experience life change together alongside? Here are some practical tips to help you find the right people to join you in community.

We’ve partnered with RightNow Media to provide additional teaching and training resources for Community Group leaders and co-leaders. Our subscription gives you free access to a huge, streaming, online, access-on-any-device library of over 10,000 video Bible studies, leadership videos, kids shows and more.

To sum it up — it’s like the Netflix of Bible study videos. You will have FREE access to thousands of video resources to help you with parenting, marriage, discipleship and more. It includes content for all ages and stages of life, and all of your Community Group members are invited to set up their own accounts as well.

Check out rightnow.org or contact the church office to request a login.

Looking for a way to get your group on the same page at the beginning of this season? Check out Better Together – a brand new six-session start-up study that will help you and your group launch successfully. Download the study, or grab copies from the church office, and start your group the right way!

Are you a new leader, or are you leading a group of people who are new to Community Groups? The first few weeks of your group life will set the stage for the rest of your journey together. Here are a few ideas to help you launch your group successfully.

The awkward silence. Every group experiences it once in a while. But if you normally hear more crickets than conversation during your group gatherings, you might have a problem. People in your group simply won’t experience life change together without having quality conversations. As a leader, you can help create environments where those discussions happen, but to do so, you’ll need to avoid these five deadly conversation killers.

If you’re a group leader, you want your conversation to be organic, not controlled. That can be tough for those of us that like to talk! But if you want your group to grow to be more like Jesus, you’ll need to open up your hands and allow the Holy Spirit to guide your discussion. Here are five quick conversation killers that we can all fall into once in a while.

Here at Saylorville, we really believe that the Christian life is meant to be lived to the fullest, and that God designed us to live that kind of life together in biblical community. Cell Groups can be a great place to find these kinds of tight-knit, encouraging, challenging, and fun friendships. Whether you’re a brand new group leader or a veteran, it’s up to you to help create environments where your group can share life, pursue change, and grow together. Here’s why these three priorities are so important.

Whether you’ve been leading small groups for years, or you’re just starting in your leadership journey, you’ll need to be skilled at facilitating conversations. Check out these tips on how to lead your group discussions like a pro.

Prepare

• Pray for your group and your discussion
  • Pray that God will give you humility and clarity as you lead your upcoming discussion.
• Watch/Listen to the sermon
  • Most of our Community Groups discuss the sermon from Sunday. In order to best prepare to lead a discussion, make sure you watch the sermon either in person or online.
• Take notes and encourage your group to take notes
  • Taking notes helps us follow along more closely and remember content longer. Bring your notes to your group discussion that week.
• Preview the sermon questions
  • Discussion questions are posted on the sermon page every week during the school year.
  • Make sure to read through all the questions before leading the discussion. Be sure to make note of questions that you think will work best in your group.
• Three ways to use the sermon questions
  • Try them (read the questions as-is)
  • Tweak them (edit or adjust the questions to better suit your group dynamic)
  • Trash them (write your own questions, study something else that week, be sensitive to what’s happening in your group that week)

Discussion Tips

• Ask follow up questions
  • After someone answers a question, use follow up questions to draw out more thoughts from them or someone else.
  • Focus on open-ended questions, rather than asking for “Yes/No” responses.
  • Use statements like “Go on”, “Tell us more”, “What do you mean?”, “Anything else?”, “What does everybody else think?”.
• Get comfortable with silence
  • Don’t be the first to answer your own questions. It usually takes time for people to process the question and think of an answer.
• Give affirmation whenever you can
  • You may not always agree with someone’s answer, but the more you are able to affirm their thoughts, the more likely everyone will be to keep sharing.
  • Use phrases like “Great question”, “Thanks for sharing”, “I love that”, “Very helpful”.
• Try to involve everyone
  • Draw people in that haven’t talked yet. Use phrases like “Anyone who hasn’t shared yet?”, “How about someone on this side of the room?”, “Guys, any thoughts from you?”.
  • Don’t let someone dominate. Talk to them beforehand and ask them to help you involve others. Sit next to them during the discussion. Call on others.
• Begin and end on time
  • Know ahead of time when to begin and end discussion. Plan how long you want to spend Connecting, Applying, and Praying. It is better to leave people wanting more with a short discussion than to drag on too long.
• Don’t focus on getting through all of the material
  • The goal of discussion is to help everyone apply their faith, not answer all of the questions. Be ready to pause the discussion to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s leading.
• Get feedback
  • After your first time facilitating, ask your co-leaders for feedback. Always try to improve!