Week 3: Dream Now For Our Church

We're also joined by a very special guest, your friend and mine, our pastor of Dream Now. Groups and one of the elders here at Saddleback, Steve Gladen.

You're like, if you are an existing small group, and that's where my small group is, we've been around for a couple of decades and motoring through life and in that. Yeah. But this is the time in that halfway point when you're going to start to put the seed in the ground of just talking about, you know, what's

next. And if you're an existing small group, we have two amazing curricula that is coming out. One of them is What's in a Name by Megan Greider. And it's a brand new series that we have out. It's on the watch page. I would encourage you to do that. It's got a great workbook that goes with it and a video series that's there.

And another one that if you're an existing group, that'd be great is, uh, whether you know it or not, we've been releasing the book of Mark in a great way where you, uh, read the book, read through the book of Mark. You get to know a little bit about the context of where you're going to have some discussion questions.

Unfortunately, uh, I, and I say, unfortunately, because a lot of small groups love this mark series because there's no homework and you just kind of show up to group and you do everything in house, but it's, it's one of the popular ones you may want to consider. Mark one chapters one through four is already out. We're getting ready to release mark five through eight. And as an existing group, I encourage you to jump in there. If you're a brand new group.

Uh, this is a good opportunity for you, Dean, to talk to your group and to say, Hey, we have, uh, we've enjoyed this DreamNow study. And there's two curricula that we have that are especially designed for a new group. One of them is called Basecamp. It's on the Watch page. Uh, you can be able to get that and we also have mark one through four. Both of those are great introductory studies that your group can move at whatever pace you want to do.

It also be great for, if you're an on, on campus group, if you've been at a table for a while and you're listening to this and you're had that opportunity to take it into a home, this, these curricula that we've been mentioning would, would be great there. The main thing is, is that you want to start to be thinking through and just planting the seed, like saying, what if we could dream, no pun intended, about staying together as a small group?

And one of the other things I want you to start thinking about as the host, Is, right, it won't be too long, we'll be sitting at the end of week 5, and Andy will have concluded the dream now, and we're getting ready to head into holy week and then to Easter, but I want you to be considering, you know, how are you going to be celebrating and we're going to be giving you a couple great things to talk about when you're at your celebration that have direct correlation to each one of the five circles

in dream now. So be looking for that excited about that. But the main thing is that we want to talk about is just to be start to be thinking about, you know, what is it? That we we want in the future of our group So planting that seed of what's maybe another curricula you want to do and talking about the celebration

One of them is, is that we want you to continue to preview the content, you know, you've been reading through the devotionals, you know, make sure that you're caught up, you know, on the study part, you know, what is it that we're going to do? Think through your transitions. And then also watch pastor Andy's video. Uh, it was in the newsletter that, uh, we sent out to you, and then we want you to watch that video.

And we also want you just to be acquainted with the book, understand what's going through, what are the topics of the week that you're going to be talking about. And then this is second, but obviously, and it's just not a, you know, a church trite statement, but we want you to be praying for your meetings, pray for your meetings, pray for your conversations because every time your group gets together, it's a divine appointment.

God has put, you know, a handful of souls in your care that he wants you to help navigate and help them with be able to pray for your group, you know, name by name, and just praying for the conversations. I know that, you know, you as the leader, uh, you don't, you don't have to spend a ton of time on this, but you know, your people and just spend that extra bit of time before the meeting.

Now I want to talk to you about the, the meeting itself. And part of you want to do is, you know, after you, you may have be doing a meal together and then going into group, you may just have a, you know, a handful of snacks, which tend to be a meal. At least that's what happens with my small group. Even though they're quote unquote snacks.

Uh, this is when you're heading into this time, you may want to think of an icebreaker and, uh, you know, in the newsletter you, we gave you a, uh, an icebreaker or two, but also one that you, as we were talking about dream now for your church, you may just want to ask your group, what is it that you love about the church? What is it that you love about the church and what brought you back to the church?

You know, when you think about Saddleback, because so often we start to take for granted that we just go to Saddleback church, but without thinking about. What was it that I really like about it? And so that would be a great first question there. Then the other thing you always want to be thinking through and rolling back in your head is make sure you want everyone to talk.

If you've been into this for a few weeks now, if someone hasn't been showing up or talking a lot, uh, make sure that you, you engage them and make sure you think it through some time in the meeting. How can I get them to share a little bit? Uh, about what they're thinking about. And so make sure you, you do that and make sure everyone talks. Then another point that you may want to do is, uh, just go through and say, what, what stood out to you in the message?

Uh, if you can remember the message and hopefully that is a positive, yes. Uh, but you know, what stood out there, look at your notes. They, you know, what, what stood out. You know, the fourth thing that you may want to be thinking through during your meeting is, you know, discuss, just ask them when you are listening to the message, discuss with them what dreaming about the church looks like to them. And for every person that may be just a little bit different.

The last thing I want you to jump into is, you know, thinking through as you're, and again, as you're going through the book. Remember, it's not just about, you know, motoring through the material to check the box to say, I got through all the questions in dream. Now I got through everything that pastor Andy talked about, but be, be sensitive to the room. And what do you think is happening in the room? So just remember, you don't have to get through all of it.

There's been many times in my own small group that as we're going through something, we may not get through everything in that particular week. And we just say, Hey, we'll pick it up next week. Uh, I know for some people that are pretty linear and you're like, well, man, it's a five week series. I gotta get through all five weeks, uh, but we've left a little cushion in there for you.

So feel free if you need to, uh, either, you know, just catch up with everyone in the following week or, you know, just say, Hey, you can study it on your own if we don't get through everything. But the main point is, is don't stifle a great conversation because you're just trying to get through the material.

And at the end, bring it back together and kind of share what you got out of the discussion. And a lot of times this allows for, uh, opening up a lot more.

Uh, obviously if you're in a men's group or a women's group, you're going to just subgroup by numbers, uh, with that. But a lot of times just people of the same gender will go a little bit deeper for different prayer requests. And so, uh, I love what you're talking about there, James, because it's a, it's a great way just to throw a little bit of spice into what your small group has normally been doing throughout these, uh, first few weeks of the.

How's everyone doing thumbs up thumbs down But just get some engagement between your meetings so that you just know people are alive You can always step that up just a little bit And be able just to ask them what's a prayer request that they have going into it, or, you know, as you know, you get the email about, you know, Andy's video, you could even, uh, you know, Copy that, uh, URL link or, you know, a way to watch the video for them, send it to them so that, you know, they can watch the video

ahead of time. Again, it, it's not so much what you're doing, but you gotta make sure that you have some type of touch point between the two meetings. It'll help the stick factor. It'll also help feel much, people feel much more, uh, connected. And then also, you know, get to know each other in a special way.