Jesus Embraced Parenting Group Leader Guide: Jesus Embraced Bible Studies

By Eric Lorenzen and Amy Lorenzen

Lead a Parenting Group

Hi there, we are Amy and Eric and we want to thank you for being willing to facilitate a Jesus Embraced Parenting Bible study group. In this study, you don't have to preach or teach or lecture. This is a study where you let everyone else talk, just guiding the conversation to keep it on the subject of the week.
Have fun leading others as all of you learn more about helping your children to grow spiritually.
This Group Leader Guide offers step-by-step directions for each week's gathering, as well as instructions for a Praise and Prayer Experience and a Family Serve Experience.

Jesus Embraced: Bible studies to draw us closer

We craft Bible studies that are intended to bring people closer to Jesus and to each other.
Experience our unique Bible studies that are highly relational and Christ-centered, where you and others gather together to learn, share, and actually do the stuff of the faith.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Reader Hill
• Release date: Oct 19, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215739563

Book preview

GROUP LEADER'S ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES

IT’S ALL ABOUT Jesus and the Group

We want leaders who let others talk, because a Jesus Embraced Bible study is meant to be a group experience. We want you, as the group leader, is to facilitate a safe place where people can share openly and take risks. The idea is that the whole group will become closer to Jesus and also closer to one another. If that happens, then you’ve had a successful study, whether all of the material is covered or not.

We use the acronym DEEPER to describe what we intend for every Jesus Embraced group. Each unique Bible experience is meant to

Draw everyone closer to Jesus through His Word and prayer

Encourage everyone through friendships among the group

Empower everyone with the Holy Spirit’s presence and guidance

Press everyone with tough questions and real-life situations

Exhort everyone into being more of a doer rather than merely a listener

Revive everyone’s love for the Lord

You’ll Facilitate, rather than Teach

Our intent is for this to be an individual study and a group discovery experience, and not the more typical lecture or sermon approach to Bible study. As the leader, your aim to get everyone else talking and sharing.

What we are asking of you, as a group leader, is to commit to the following:

Pray for each person in the group throughout these 10 weeks, that they will be encouraged and exhorted to follow Jesus closely.

Make sure the group understands the importance of respecting each other and keeping confidential what’s shared in the group.

Keep the weekly gatherings on-subject.

Make sure the Prayer Experience and Family Serve Experience happen.

A group leader doesn’t need to prepare a message to share. Instead, as a group leader you’ll be encouraging all participants to do their weekly homework and you’ll be guiding the weekly gathering so that everyone gets the chance to participate.

TIPS FOR LEADING YOUR GROUP

TIPS FOR LEADING Your Group

Being a group leader is a privilege to be taken seriously. People are trusting you to guide and direct them as they explore what it means to be a Christian parent. Following are some tips that might help you as you lead.

Three ways you can respect the people in your group:

Respect Their Time: Do your best to start on time and end on time. Parents often live busy lives, so they will appreciate being on-time. It doesn’t mean that they can’t linger afterwards to chat or pray, but there should be no pressure to do so.

Respect Their Opinions: In this Bible study, most of the questions are meant to be either your opinion or your personal experience. In this way, there are no right or wrong answers to the book’s questions. Try to acknowledge each person’s views, even when you don’t agree with them. Be respectful even when disagreeing.

Respect Their Confidences: We start with a Confidentiality Pledge for a reason. People need to know that this is a safe place to share their struggles. As the leader, it is important that you show that you won’t gossip or reveal other people’s secrets. If you spill secrets (even if they aren’t the secrets of anyone in the group), then those in the group will be hesitant to be open around you.

Three distractions to avoid:

Drift- Good conversation is the foundation of a successful study, but it needs to be worthwhile discussion. Sometimes a conversation can wander off into the weeds, losing the trail of that week. That’s where you as a leader need to step in and encourage the group to come back. Try something like, That’s interesting, but how can we relate that back to our original question?

Takeovers- It’s great when someone is passionate about a topic, but sometimes they can go too far or too long. If someone is dominating the conversation, you’ll need to redirect things. Try saying something like, What do the rest of you think about that? or Let’s give someone else a chance to share too. (Call on another by name), what do you think about this? or I can tell that you really care about this topic, so maybe we can talk more about it after our gathering, but right now let’s talk about what everyone else experienced this week.

Parking- We like to see a group focusing on a particular topic, but sometimes it becomes more of a we’re parking here and not moving, where the same things are being repeated and the group isn’t moving forward in their conversation. You can help by changing the subject. It might be abrupt, but ask a new question to get them talking about a different