Once you have told someone about Jesus, why not ask if they would like to ‘follow’ Him? If they say yes, they are going to need some help working out what this means. One way of helping them is to invite them to a ‘Practical Spirituality’ group, which can happen either online or in-person, where people will read God’s Word together and start doing what it says. It’s both simple and exciting.
To start with, try to invite a load more seekers than established believers to the group (this makes it much more interesting). When the group meets, begin your time together by explaining what you are going to do, by reading out the 5 simple steps below. Give them an idea of when you are planning on finishing the meeting and how you would like them to interact with one another.
Then, in the first week, just follow these 5 simple steps:
- Ask someone to read a story or passage from the Bible…
- Ask someone else to re-tell it, in their own words…
- Ask the group what they think the passage is saying…
- Ask if it would make any difference if they did that, in some way…
- Ask if they would be willing to try that out this week, as an experiment?
The first question for the following week would then be…
- How did your experiment go? Did it make any difference to your life?
Then you can go back to the 5 simple steps from the first week, but you will probably want to explore a different bible passage each time. At some point you could introduce ‘mindful moments’ at the end, to make some space for personal reflection, and be praying that the Holy Spirit would connect with people deeply during these times – transforming them into ‘holy moments’.
If an issue comes up over which there are differences of opinion in the group, it might be helpful to affirm that everyone’s perspective is of equal value, but then ask them to imagine what Jesus might have to say about it. To broaden their perceptions of what Jesus is like, you could encourage them to watch ‘The Chosen‘, – a multi-season T.V. series based on his life.
There are a huge number of other resources which you could recommend to people which will help them engage more with the bible, including the Read Scripture App. (for daily personal bible readings), Haverim Devotions (for weekly learning groups like this one) and the Bible Project web-site (for those who want to know more about the background and structure of biblical books and themes).
As there are so many different ways in which people and groups may develop over time, remember to always be creative and follow the leadership of the Spirit of Jesus as you pray over, plan and lead each session. Remember also that the long-term goal is to help others grow so that they will one day be able to lead similar sessions with other people, without you even being there.
Enjoy the journey!