PASSION and Heart Questions.

When the sermon title is about 4 passions,  you had better plan to talk about passion and action more than review information.

HEAD:  What do I need to know/remember?

What were the four passions Ken referred to in Nehemiah 1:

1. Nehemiah 1;1-4:  Passion for lost people.

2. Nehemiah 1;4-6:  Passion for laboring prayer.

3. Nehemiah 1:7-9:  Passion for virtuous faith.

4. Nehemiah 1:10-11:  Passion to be used by God.

General:  What is faith and what is the object of faith?

Specific:  What is meant by “virtuous faith” and the object of faith?

There are two blog posts about "Virtuous faith" at www.emmanuelbaptist.com/blog.  

HEART:  What do I need to love/be more passionate about?

Was Nehemiah a preacher, a prophet or a priest?  What position in his life gave him a passion to be used?

If you don't remember Ken's answer to the first it was this...
NONE OF THESE.  He was the cupbearer to the king - a layperson.  

The position in his life that gave him a passion to be used by God was his relationship with God.

HANDS:  What do I need to do?

Why (note word correction) is time often an issue in prayer?  

You can have some discussion about this question.
I want to encourage you to remind people that one of the biggest issues is we don't view prayer as an important work.

What can you do to change this?

If one of the biggest issues is we don't view prayer as an important, what you do to change this is gain a better understanding of prayer.  

How can you specifically help our church grow in at least one of these passions?

I would love to hear what some of your groups answers to this question are.

Here are some additional question Ken Rudolph sent that you can use in your prayer time:

• What was the difference between those who came from Jerusalem to Susa and Nehemiah’s response to the condition of God’s people and God’s city?
• Is prayer effective in changing history or in changing people?

If for some reason you don't have something to talk about this week...

You missed the sermon.

There are a ton of personal discussions/applications you can make from that sermon.

The links listed on the website have some articles and resources.  

So be sure to check www.emmanuelbaptist.com/blog

Here are some quick things I jotted down during the sermon.

An Honest, Hard Evaluation of Soul Care!

O.K. about a year and a half ago I read a book Gaining by Losing by J.D. Greear.  I posted about it a couple of times on our church blog.  You can read these posts at www.emmanuelbaptist.com/tag/gaining-by-losing/

This past week Pastor Duke let me know that he wanted to encourage the church to read this book especially because Missions Emphasis Month.  The subtitle of the book reflects a great Missions theme Why the Future Belongs to Churches That Send. So over the last two days I have been rereading sections of this book and getting knocked around by the Holy Spirit because of some things Greear wrote in this challenging book.   

Here is one specific thing I have been thinking/processing through....

An Honest, Hard Evaluation of EBC's Soul Care Ministry.
I want to share some incomplete thoughts with you to help us improve the disciple-making work of Emmanuel

One of the quotes that really challenged my thinking about Soul Care is

"Maybe the worst failure for a church is success in things that aren't producing reproducing disciples."  (139)  

Here is a specific question Greear asks in relationship to this quote.

"Are our small group ministries raising up new leaders to plant new groups?"

Now here comes the processing part for me.  Please read through to the end

In many ways, I feel like Soul Care has been successful.

• This year, I believe we have over 225 people in groups.
• Over the 5 +  years we have been doing Soul Care, attendance has either remained steady or slightly grown.  I have spoken with a couple of people who said they thought the small group ministry would lose enthusiasm or die after awhile.  
• Many people are connecting in a deeper way with others in the church.  I have seen this in my own groups. This includes deeper prayer requests and talking about real life personal problems

At the same time, I think of the Greear quote and question above and cannot help but think our Soul Care ministry has not been as fruitful as I would like (Note the use of the word fruitful not successful here).

• While it has maintained, it has not grown.
• I want to be very clear that I am not saying we need to have hundreds of people in groups.  I believe the FIRST and primary mark of a healthy small group is CHRIST-CENTEREDNESS.  However, the growth I am talking about is growth in the number of leaders and growth in the ways people engage with others outside of their current group. 
• We still have about the same number of groups.  In years when we have had growth, the average number of people in a group has grown.
• This addresses the first growth issue: the number of leaders.
• As I think about and evaluate the ministry I am not sure how well we are doing at "producing reproducing disciples."  
• This addresses the second growth issue:  the ways people engage with others outside of their current group.

This is not a "poor Pastor Dave" post, so please know 

I don't need encouragement, pats on the back and "You are doing a great job.  I wouldn't change anything" statements.

I do need your prayers, just like all of our pastors, and help in equipping disciples to be disciple makers.  This help could be in the form of suggestions and even more so in each and every one of us evaluating our own lives in light of the Great Commission.

One of the Plumb lines in the book is "Prayer Doesn't Fuel the Ministry.  Prayer is the Ministry."  You can read more about this Plumb line at www.jdgreear.com/my_weblog/2016/09/prayer-doesnt-prepare-for-ministry-prayer-is-the-ministry.html

I would appreciate your thoughts/responses to this post.  You can either comment below for everyone, which would be best, or email me at soulcare@emmanuelbaptist.com. 

Bad Weather and a "Small Group" of 26.

Last night (March 8, 2017), we had an intergenerational "small group" time with 26.
This was motivated by the weather and a blog post I read recently entitled:  Intergenerational Teaching:  Why and How? 
We don't do this regularly but it was a good night for families to connect and encourage one another.




Here are some pictures from our Soul Care group last night!   
We had 26 people there.
Let me explain why we had this many people and moved it to the church.

Our Wednesday group has several families who have middle schoolers.  Well, last night the high winds knocked the electricity out at the school and our youth building.  So we had to think fast.

We moved our meeting place from our house to the church and planned an evening of brief sermon discussion, prayer, and family interaction.
Now here is where it gets fun.  Enjoy the following dress up pictures then read the explanation of what we did.

After reading the passage of scripture from this past week's message we played two games that connected with the Soul Care notes.

The first was a "put on and put off" game.  You saw the pictures above.  

Even one of the younger kids
got in on the fun.

The second activity was different mixed groups had to pick which one of six pictures they liked the most and liked the least.

After these two games, we discussed the "Put On and Put Off" passage and the Colossians 3:12 - 17 and talked about things we need to "put off" and "put on" especially as it relates to love.

We also talked about what we need to love more and love less.

Then we prayed. 
I asked one person to pray for George Collins, GAP (Global Access Partners) and the Akha Baptist Church.  
I asked another person to pray for our missionary family in general.
Then, I closed our prayer time.
We started at 6:45 ended around 7:50.
People stuck around, talked and played games until about 8:30.  It was a great night.

Romans 13:8-10

The following link is to a sermon based study guide for Romans 13:8 -10.
I would encourage you to look it over and see if there are things you can use in your group.
http://fpchouston.org/am-site/media/small-group-study-guide-november-1-sermon.pdf

Also, I really want to encourage you and your Soul Care group to be thinking MISSIONS this month.
Here are some suggestions.

1. With your Soul Care meeting time.
• Head:  What do I need to remember/know from this passage/sermon?
• Heart:  What do I need to love/hate more from this passage/sermon?
• Hand:  What do I need to do because of this passage/sermon?  How can I specifically help/encourage one of our missionaries?
2. As a Soul Care group write a missionary.
• Send one or more paper letters.
• Email blitz one of the missionaries.  
1. Decide on a missionary.
2. Get that missionaries email
3. Assign each person in your group a day.
4. Each person should send the missionary an email on your assigned day.
3. Plan to come to the missionary movie night but here is the Soul Care part of it.  Do one of the following with your group:
• After the movie go get a sundae at Dairy Queen.  They are on sale.  You can go to another desert place.
• Before the movie have dinner together.  This could at a restaurant or member's house.  Then come to the movie together.