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Tearing Down the Walls Small Group Facilitators Guide

Churches across the Austin area will join together to tear down walls that separate us from one another. We invite you to join us in this exciting and historic campaign. Churches representing more than 10,000 of your neighbors have already committed to Walls.

More than a Sunday morning message series, Walls is a journey for those who are ready to live the life God intended. No longer will spiritual barriers keep us from trusting God and the promises He has made. We long to see the church of Austin love God, each other and our surrounding neighbors.

BIG IDEAS ABOUT GATEWAY ‘WALLS’ GROUPS New Gateway Small Groups guide a group through four important processes:

• A relational process to creating group bonding. • Spiritual formation practices like, reading the Scriptures, conversation, praying,

making practical life applications and so on, for exploring life with God. • Practical serving opportunities so everyone has a role in the group and can make an

impact in the lives of others. • Preparation for a future spiritual formation path where everyone can explore and

grow in the way of Christ.

WHY ARE WE DOING the WALLS SERIES IN GROUPS? We are a church that is helping people who are typically far from God explore and take next-steps to explore and follow Jesus. We believe growth happens best in community. Walls groups will provide an environment for people to focus their attention on conversations about relational walls. The process of tearing down these walls is a part of growing in the way of Christ. Here are several descriptions about what this means. Loving God – The greatest commandment given to us by Jesus himself. Loving God is about recognizing the priorities in our life that have squeezed God out of first place in the

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way we live. Living out the greatest commandment is the process of putting God as our first love and priority in life. Jesus says the greatest commandment quite simply is to:

Jesus said - “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” Mark 12:30

Building Character – Without a doubt, most of us look at ourselves and desire varying degrees of change. We see anxiety where we want peace. We see fear where we want courage. We see addiction where we want self-control. Transformation happens not by applying the latest self-help fad but by understanding and implementing the full richness of inner life change at a heart level. Jesus produces this change in each of us by his power and influence on our heart and ultimately resulting in changed behaviors.

Jesus said - “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5

Loving People – Truth be told, relationships bring about the best and worst of life. Our greatest joys consistently involve people. Our greatest pains consistently involve people. How does love for God impact and influence our love for people? Christ gave two great commandments. First, we are to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. And second, we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. Life is rich when we increasingly practice truly loving people—not put up with people, not walk over people, not use people or avoid people—but truly love people.

Jesus said - “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” John 13:34

Being the Body – The world is a beautiful place, but it is also a broken place. How can we, with our limited time and resources, really matter in a world overflowing with needs? Liberated by a love for God, set free from enslavement to living for instant gratification or the accumulation of things, authentic Christ-followers liberally and passionately pour love and grace into the world around them. Astounding things happen when followers of Christ discover their spiritual gifts and mobilize into action by partnering with the body of Christ around them.

“Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.” 1 Corinthians 12:12

YOUR ROLE as the GROUP FACILITATOR GOD CAUSES the GROWTH You are only responsible for keeping the values and outlines of the Walls Group materials. God is responsible for true growth and change in people.

“I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.” I Corinthians 3:6,7

BEING PREPARED with the RIGHT PERSPECTIVE • Spend about a half hour preparing for each group session. Read through the whole

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session guide prior to your group meeting and get comfortable with the flow, the questions, and the time it is going to take to finish the materials.

• Participate with God before and after group meetings in personal prayer for the people in the group. Ask God to do his work in their lives. Your prayers can be powerful and effective.

• While most people will be thinking about themselves during the group time, as the facilitator you will be trying to assess how everyone is experiencing the group.

• As a church, we provide a high level of care for people through Small Groups like this Walls Group.

As the facilitator you should be looking for the care needs discovered in people and get the group to take action with you to follow up with those people. Make phone calls, send e-mails, give referrals, or do practical services to meet people’s needs.

GETTING PEOPLE to the GROUP INVITE YOUR FRIENDS Inviting your friends or acquaintances to come to the group is the most natural way to have people show up at your home for a Walls group. THE GATEWAY CHURCH WEB SITE We have created a list of Walls groups that have openings in them so that people can contact you. That list is posted at www.gatewaychurch.com/walls. If your group is not listed or the listing is inaccurate, contact Kirby_holmes@gatewaychurch.com. EMAILING GROUP MEMBERS After choosing a starting date for the group be sure and send two emails to the people you are inviting. Send one email about ten (10) days before the groups start date and another reminder email about two (2) days before the meeting. Be sure the email includes these components:

• Has a warm and inviting tone • The time you expect the group to start/end (2 hours at the most) • Meeting address (with directions and landmarks) • Your phone number • Childcare info (if available) • Any materials they need to bring (I suggest you print the Walls materials for everyone

each week. Have people bring a Bible or a pen if they want to make notes.)

PREPARING the ENVIRONMENT Most people meet in apartments or homes but you could also meet in a coffee shop, library or other public place that has space for the group. Just be aware that you are trying to create a safe place for people to share about their life so make sure you can have private conversations. You don’t need a fancy place for people to meet, even if you have to put plastic lawn chairs in the living room to create space for a person that is fine. People are coming over to meet with people! Create a warm and welcoming atmosphere for people. Greet people enthusiastically when they arrive. Tell them how glad you are that they came. Have some low-key refreshments for people (water, lemonade or tea). Put out some inexpensive crackers, cookies or finger foods. Don’t go over the top here. Others in the group will be bringing snacks to future

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group meetings so set an example of simplicity and low cost.

CREATE CASUAL CONVERSATION While you are waiting for other people to arrive create some casual conversation. Simple questions like “How was your weekend?” or “How was your day today?” are fine for creating conversation. Use follow up promptings like “Tell me more about that.”

HOW the WALLS MATERIALS WORK THEME Each week during the five-week Walls group meetings the content will have a major theme. Most of these themes relate to our understanding of God (Loving God) and our relationship with others (Loving People). However, if we are going to change by breaking down our walls we will need to live as different people than we are today (Build Character). When we do this together we become a movement of people who live and love differently in the city (Be the Body).

Overview of the 5-weeks of the Walls Series o Invisible Walls That Hold Us Back (Sept. 11th) o Naming our Walls (Sept. 18th) o Walls Between People (Sept. 25th) o Walls Between Church and Community (Oct. 2nd) o Breaking Down Walls (Oct. 9th)

GETTING TO KNOW YOU – CONVERSATION STARTERS It is fairly obvious that while people are arriving to the group meeting they tend to talk with each other. Thankfully, some people are natural conversation starters and don’t need a prompting question to engage with other people. Others, especially those who are shy, need a specific way to start a conversation. Using the questions at the beginning of each group session will allow the whole group to comfortably interact. INSPIRE SERVICE MESSAGES on SUNDAY MORNINGS We hope the Sunday morning messages at Gateway inspire people to understand the life God wants for them. The Walls group material is a way to facilitate conversation about the Sunday morning message. It makes the experience of Sunday morning more personal and practical to our lives when we communicate about it with others. SCRIPTURE We believe the Scriptures should inform exploring life with God. The Bible is the place we can read the history, poetry, wisdom, life of Jesus, and stories of God’s interactions with all kinds of people. It is also the specific revelation of God that is alive and active to be God’s voice to us. As a spiritual formation tool, it informs the group about God’s desires for the life he is inviting us to live with him. The Walls material will reference the Bible passages used in the Sunday morning message.

• If you don’t know an answer to a question or particular passage of Scripture ask if anyone else has any ideas. You don’t have to be an expert. If no one has any ideas just tell people, “I don’t know, let’s investigate that together and come back to it.” Follow up with a church staff member, or other person you know, that can help you with this question.

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FACILITATE THE CONVERSATION As the group leader you will facilitate the conversation. In fact, the more the rest of the people in the room share with each other the better. Don’t feel like you need to talk all the time. Let people in the group respond to each other and keep the conversation flowing. If things get too far off track you can bring it back to the original question or move on to the next question in the materials. PRAYER TOGETHER Prayer is simply talking to God. This is a time of response to talk to God about our thoughts, questions, frustrations, thanksgivings, fears, or whatever. Praying is an important spiritual formation practice. God is relational and wants to have communication with us. Think of it this way: reading the Bible is how God speaks to us. Prayer is how we speak to God. Expect that some people have probably never prayed aloud before. If someone does not want to participate in praying audibly that is fine. Let them ‘pass’ or just pray silently to themselves.

ROLES in the GROUP This is where everyone in the group gets to participate in making the group happen. Make sure everyone has a specific role after the first week. Here are several benefits of sharing roles in the group:

• It keeps the facilitator or host of the group from getting overwhelmed with all the work.

• It encourages people to come back to the group because they are needed. • It reinforces God’s desire for the church community to use our personal strengths,

gifts and abilities to serve one another. • Use the Group Roles sheet to pass around the group the first week. (Appendix B)

FACILITATING the FIRST WEEK’S SESSION STARTING the GROUP TIME (Appendix A) Give people about fifteen (15) minutes to show up beyond the start time. If the meeting is supposed to start at 7:00pm give people until 7:15pm to show up before you begin going through the session materials. Begin by stating how thankful you are everyone has come. Next, introduce yourself and give people a couple of key facts about who you are: How long have you lived in the city, who is in your family, what is your profession, what are your hobbies, etc. After your personal introduction tell everyone why you wanted to start this group, “I decided to facilitate this group because...” Give about a one-minute explanation of your heart’s desire for why you are starting this group.

EXPLAIN WHAT will HAPPEN DURING the SMALL GROUP SESSIONS Explain briefly, in about a minute or two, the various sections of the group time:

• A main theme relevant to people at all life stages • Reading the Scriptures to understand God’s perspective • Discovering answers and applications from the Scriptures • Prayer time to talk to God • Establishing group roles to serve each other

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• Challenges to new groups - developing healthy group dynamics

DIVE into the SESSION MATERIALS Get started in the session by reading it out loud. Studies have shown that people in new groups need to hear themselves speak in the first 15 minutes of the meeting in order to get comfortable and feel like they belong.

KEEPING an EYE on the CLOCK As you progress through the material keep one eye on the clock. It would be great if you got through the whole session. Don’t feel like you have to answer every question in the scripture section. If time is running out move to the prayer and roles for the group sections. You want to make sure you end with everyone owning a role the first week. In future weeks if you can’t finish all of the material that is fine. Do your best but don’t stress about not completing a session. Remember, some people have busy or family schedules that are important to them. Honor people’s time by ending the group as scheduled. If possible, try to end the Walls materials about 15 minutes before the scheduled end of the group. Invite people to chat casually for 15 minutes or so before leaving. This allows for people to follow up with others they might have made a connection with during the course of the group sharing times. Serve more snacks or drinks if available.

WRAP UP, THANKS, INVITE EVERYONE BACK NEXT WEEK Be sure and communicate your thanks to everyone for coming. Enthusiastically invite people to come back next week.

THERE is NO HOMEWORK, JUST LIFE APPLICATION There is no homework that needs to be completed before coming to each Small Group meeting. People will just want to focus on any application exercises from the discussion or materials.

WEEK TWO INVITATIONS Send an email invitation two (2) days before the week two Walls Group meeting inviting everyone back to the group. Send a note about the thing you are most encouraged by after week one. Also, be sure and make a special comment to people who couldn’t come the first week to come join you in week two. Encourage them to join you. You might call people that couldn’t come to week one and tell them you missed them and hope they can make it week two. People need encouragement; a phone call really helps them feel wanted and included.

WHAT HAPPENS AT THE END OF THE WALLS GROUP? During the last session of your Walls Group you will need to make a decision about your Group’s next steps. Some groups might end after the 5-weeks of Walls. The hope is that most of them will continue as a relationally bonded group of people who are sharing life together, serving one another, serving the needs of the city and exploring more intentionally following the way of Christ. NETWORK BUILDING at GATEWAY CHURCH Our hope as a church is that people can do church where they do life. A Network is a group of 30-75 people who are connected by geographic proximity or life stage that bring them

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together to grow and serve. They are the church for one another and the world around them. If your Walls Group is not connected to a Gateway Network ask another Gateway leader or staff member about connecting to a Network. GET CONNECTED to a GROW COACH We provide a high level of support, care and encouragement for group leaders at Gateway. If you are not connected to a Grow Coach or church staff member to help your group transition from a Walls Group to a new kind of group let us help you. Grow Coaches are involved in each of the Networks. Their purpose is to help individuals and groups take next steps relationally with the best resources for growth on the way of Christ. GET RESOURCES to GROW on a SPIRITUAL FORMATION PATH We have put a lot time and energy into creating and finding the best resources for your relationships to help people take next steps of growth. Use our suggested list of resources on our www.GatewayChurch.com website. Go to the ‘Grow’ page for more information about these resources.

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Appendix A

FIRST GROUP MEETING WORKSHEET for FACILITATOR Starting the Group Time

• “Thanks for coming tonight...let me tell you a little about me...” Next, introduce yourself and give people a couple of interesting facts about who you are:

• My name is_______________________________________________________________ • I have lived in Austin:_______________________________________________________ • I am single or my family is:___________________________________________________ • I work as:_________________________________________________________________ • I enjoy in my free time:______________________________________________________ • I have been at Gateway for:___________________________________________________

Give about a one-minute explanation of your heart’s desire for why you are starting this group.

• “I decided to facilitate this group because...(ex:I am interested in the topic of relational and spiritual walls, I want to create life giving community, explore and grow as a Christ follower with others, serve together to make an impact in our city, etc.”

• Others here:____________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________

Next introduce the materials you will be using in the group with a brief overview.

• “The materials we will be using in our group are called Walls. Let me tell you a little bit about this material.”

• The Walls Group material is based on the Sunday morning messages. It is like a second helping of a good meal. It makes it more personal and practical to each of our lives.

Let me explain briefly the various sections of our group time as we go through the material:

• A main theme relevant to walls in our lives. • Reading the Bible to understand God’s perspective • Discovering answers and applications from the Bible • Prayer time to talk to God • Establishing group roles to serve each other • We might also create a group social time where we get together once to share a meal.

Pass out the Walls Materials and get started on Week 1

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Appendix B Group Roles In order for this group to really work each person should take on a role in the group to share responsibilities. Take a few minutes to read each role and decide who will own that role for the group in the coming weeks.

1. Bring a Snack – each week someone brings packaged cookies, crackers, etc. and fill up a pitcher of water for the group (you don’t have to go over the top here, this is not a baking contest).

2. Clean Up Crew – after the meeting tonight and the next several weeks these people help the host clean up by putting chairs back in place or trash in the can. 3. Social Coordinator – this person will plan/organize a time for the group to meet for a meal together. It might be at someone’s home or at a restaurant. If it is in a home have everyone bring a part of the meal and share it with others. If you go out to a restaurant be sensitive to financial constraints and keep it inexpensive. We hope every Walls Group will have one meal together during the next 4-weeks of this group. 4. Communicator - create a phone and email list. Pass around a sheet of paper right now to collect contact information and then distribute it to the whole group next week (email it or paper copies). After the group list is created make sure everyone gets a weekly email or phone call about the next group meetings, events or updates.

GROUP ROLES Who can bring a Snack one of the next 4 weeks?

[Write Names Here] Week 2: _______________________________________________________________

Week 3: _______________________________________________________________

Week 4: _______________________________________________________________

Week 5: _______________________________________________________________

Clean Up Crew after each group:

Week 2: _______________________________________________________________

Week 3: _______________________________________________________________

Week 4: _______________________________________________________________

Week 5: _______________________________________________________________

Social Coordinator for one group social event:

Name: _______________________________________________________________

Communicator for keeping everyone in the know:

Name: _______________________________________________________________