FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS about LIFE GROUPS

1. I don’t understand the “Meeting Times” of the groups.  I thought all the LIFE Groups met at the same time.
• LIFE Groups are designed to be Biblical and meet needs. To meet the needs of each LIFE Group’s members, they must be present at the LIFE Group meeting. Therefore it is crucial that each group have the ability to meet at the time that is most appropriate for its members, taking into consideration such things as travel time, child-related issues (school night or not, attention span, nap schedules…), driving limitations after dark, job schedules, etc.

2. What is the planned "lifetime" of the groups?
• Question -- Why will each LIFE Group have to re-form annually? If we are supposed to really get to know each other deeply, I don’t think that’s long enough.
• Question -- Why is each LIFE Group together for so long? Since the main purpose is to get to know each other, why don’t we change groups every three months or so in order to meet people faster?
• Answer
• The “best lifetime” is a matter of balancing two factors: “Barriers to Entry” and “Mutual Accountability/Friendship.”
• After some point in time, the longer a group stays together it becomes harder and harder for new members to feel comfortable when they join the group. They don’t know the “inside stories,” they didn’t raise their children through elementary school together like the long-time group members, and so forth. No matter how friendly the existing group members are to the new members, the new members feel like “we will never really belong in this group” and thus one of the primary reasons for existence of LIFE Groups, incorporation of new members, is violated.
• On the short lifetime side, while it is indeed a goal of LIFE Groups for members to become acquainted with members that do not know well, it is not simply a “get acquainted” goal. Rather, the goal is to become intimately involved in each other’s lives, to get past the masks which we all wear routinely, and this can not typically be done in only a few months.
• It was determined that the best balance point between these two extremes is one year.

3. Do LIFE Groups have a curriculum?
• Question – I’ve been wanting to study the book of John. Why can’t our group do that?
• Question – I don’t understand the plan. It says the study time will be based on the sermon material from that morning. What does that mean? I thought we were going to study the Bible.
• Answer
• One of the primary purposes of LIFE Groups is to create greater congregational unity. It was felt that unity could more effectively be enhanced where most groups are studying the same thing than if all groups were studying different topics.

4. How are families assigned to LIFE Groups? By geographical area? By age? By whether or not they have children?
• Families will not be “assigned” to LIFE Groups.  That would go against the spirit of what LIFE Groups are expected to accomplish. Instead, families will be asked to select for themselves which LIFE Group they would like to be a part of. The elders strongly encourage us to sign up for a LIFE Group which has families we don’t know, however. This is to help us forge stronger bonds of friendship and Christian fellowship across the entire congregation.

5. Is a LIFE Group basically a Bible study group?
• No. Though Bible study is one of the three primary activities of each LIFE GROUP, that is not its only, or even its primary, purpose. There are three legs holding up each LIFE Group. Bible study is one. Praise is another. Mutual support and edification comprise the third. The absence of any one of these three legs will keep a LIFE GROUP from reaching its full potential.

6. What is the plan for children in LIFE Groups? I read where the LIFE Group plan says each LIFE Group is responsible for its own children, and that they should engage in a “planned, age-appropriate activity", but what does that mean? Do you have some sort of curriculum or Bible school materials we could use? What about if some groups would like to meet at the building to utilize the child care facilities there? Would the church provide nursery workers in that case?
• One of the purposes of LIFE Groups is to recreate the intimate fellowship groups that we see existing in the New Testament. As best we can tell, these included children and older generations as well. For this reason our LIFE Groups have been designed with children in mind; this is why we have not suggested all the church’s children go one place while their parents go somewhere else. The children should be with their parents and come to know the other members of their LIFE GROUP as part of their special “church family.”
• There is no intent to put “Bible class teachers” in each LIFE GROUP to take over the responsibility of the parents to teach their children. This is what is meant by “Each LIFE GROUP is responsible for care of the children in the group.”
• To summarize the points above:
• Children will participate in some of the adult LIFE GROUP activities (Praise probably, Bible Study possibly, but typically not the Mutual Accountability and Sharing time.)
• During the time the children are not participating in the adult portions of LIFE GROUP activities, they should be supervised in another area.
• It is expected that part of this “supervised in another area” time will be spent in age-appropriate Bible education.
• After the time the children spend with the adult portions of LIFE GROUP activities, and after the time they spend in age-appropriate Bible education, they may spend the remainder of the time in a (supervised) play time.
• If several LIFE Groups would like to meet at the building in order to pool child care resources, that would be fine. However, the church does not provide nursery workers; LIFE Groups are responsible for providing child care, and for all straightening and clean up afterwards.