The Three Habits of Highly Contagious Christians: A Discussion Guide for Small Groups

By Garry D. Poole and Bill Hybels

“Push the pause button on whatever it is your group is doing now and follow this guide—study it, discuss it, digest it, and apply it to your everyday life.”—Bill HybelsA small group discussion guide for equipping Christians to effectively reach seekers by building relationships, sharing a verbal witness, and extending invitations to outreach eventsThis discussion guide for small groups is based on the first three steps of Willow Creek’s seven-step strategy for turning irreligious people into fully devoted followers of Christ. Each session begins with a compelling story that sets the stage for group discussion and sparks ideas for putting into practice each of the three habits. Discussion questions walk participants through the emotional, motivational, and intellectual facets of each step and provide an opportunity to wrestle with the challenges and discoveries they make individually and as a group.The “Charting Your Journey” section helps participants go beyond discussion and move toward personal application. It provides an opportunity, before God and one another, to commit to specific actions that could make all the difference in the lives of seeking friends and family members.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zondervan
• Release date: May 11, 2010
• ISBN: 9780310873976

Garry D. Poole

As Willow Creek Community Church's key evangelism leader for over sixteen years, Garry Poole is the innovator of seeker small groups and a strategist of creative outreach initiatives. Passionate about reaching people for Christ, Garry and his team have trained thousands of leaders to launch seeker small groups in their own settings. His award-winning book, Seeker Small Groups, provides a detailed blueprint for facilitating small group discussions that assist spiritual seekers with investigating Christianity. He also wrote The Complete Book of Questions, a collection of 1001 conversation starters and numerous group study guides including The Three Habits of Highly Contagious Christians; The Tough Questions Series, and Experiencing the Passion of Jesus (with Lee Strobel) to accompany Mel Gibson’s film, The Passion of the Christ. In 2005, it became the first discussion guide ever to receive the prestigious Charles “Kip” Jordon Christian Book of the Year award. Garry lives in suburban Chicago.

Book preview

The Three Habits of Highly Contagious Christians

Other Resources by Garry Poole

The Complete Book of Questions

Seeker Small Groups

In the Tough Questions Series:

Don’t All Religions Lead to God?

How Could God Allow Suffering and Evil?

How Does Anyone Know God Exists?

Why Become a Christian?

Tough Questions Leader’s Guide (with Judson Poling)

The Three Habits of Highly Contagious Christians

A Discussion Guide for Small Groups

Garry Poole

foreword by Bill Hybels

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ZONDERVAN™

The Three Habits of Highly Contagious Christians

Copyright © 2003 by Willow Creek Association

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Zondervan.

Epub Edition © APRIL 2010 ISBN: 978-0-310-87397-6

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New American Standard Bible, © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan.

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Table of Contents

Cover Page

Half Title Page

Other Resources by Garry Poole

Title Page

Copyright

FOREWORD

INTRODUCTION

SESSION 1 HANG OUT TOGETHER

SESSION 2 LOOK FOR OPEN WINDOWS

SESSION 3 MAKE THE INVITATION

IMPACT LIST

DO VS. DONE

THE THREE HABITS OF HIGHLY CONTAGIOUS CHRISTIANS

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES

SEEKER SMALL GROUPS

THE COMPLETE BOOK OF QUESTIONS

TOUGH QUESTIONS

Willow Creek Association

About the Publisher

Share Your Thoughts

FOREWORD

Lost people matter. This phrase reflects the heart of God and the heartbeat of Willow Creek Community Church. It’s why we work so hard to build relationships with people who are far from God, put together high-impact services, and communicate the Gospel creatively and clearly. We have been seized by the vision that God wants to use our lives, our relationships, our words, and our collective efforts to impact the people around us for all of eternity.

And as fully devoted followers of Christ, we are called upon to fulfill our redemptive potential. It’s our job, according to Luke 15, to search high and low as we go wherever we need to go and do whatever we need to do to reach people throughout our spheres of influence. People with names and faces. People we care about deeply. People in our families, our neighborhoods, our workplaces, and our schools. And it takes each of us doing our part, with God’s help, to reach those all around us.

Can you be counted on? Are you in? Will you enroll in this great redemptive adventure? I believe it’s what you want to do. There’s no greater endeavor. There’s nothing your seeking friends need more. There’s nothing that would better please the heart of God.

How do you start? That’s the question this