Category Archives: small groups

Your Mission, Should You Choose To Accept It

26 Tuesday Jan 2021

Posted by in Decisions For Christ, mission, Oikos, small groups

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We’ve been given a very clear mission in Scripture. Any Mission Impossible fans out there? This is your mission, should you choose to accept it…

From Acts 20:24 we read, “My only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.” 

Notice, it doesn’t say our aim is to “start” the mission. It doesn’t say that we should aim to “think” about the mission. Our goal is to “complete” the mission of telling people about God’s grace. When we became Christians, we were actually given a mission to accomplish. 

The most important thing in our life is to complete the task the Lord has given us. Acts 13:36 says, “David did the will of God in his own generation and then he died.” Is there anything better that can be said of someone? That they did the will of God for their time on earth? That is completing the mission! 

That’s why evangelism is part of our Core Values at Skyline Church. Our church family knows that FOUND people, FIND people. Now, evangelism is a very churchy “Christianese” word, but it doesn’t have to be weird or awkward. So, how do we do it? Well, let me share a story with you from my baseball days when I visited a church as a new Christian. 

I sat in on a service where the pastor was sharing about a time he was in New York City. He was walking past a traffic cop when the Holy Spirit prompted him to go witness to the cop. But the pastor kept walking. Well, soon he felt guilty for ignoring the Holy Spirit and so he walked back to the traffic cop. In the middle of the street, he told the cop, “Hey, I want you to know, God told me to tell you He loves you.” And he turned to walk away. But the traffic cop said, “Whoa, hold on.” After calling for backup to have someone take his place in the street, the cop joined the pastor on the side of the road to chat. Tears slowly fell under the rim of his mirrored sunglasses as he spoke to the pastor and said, “I prayed last night for the first time in a long time. I asked God that if He was real, to send someone and just let me know.” The pastor led the traffic cop to Christ right there and then! 

NOW that’s something to get excited about––what a powerful story! I got so pumped up when I heard it that I went out looking for traffic cops to witness to!

We ALL get excited about stories like that!

But how do you think the church responded to that story? I’m not against doing what God tells you to do. However, we can hear a story like that and think that’s how we’re supposed to lead people to Christ. Did you know, less than 1% of people come to Christ through a stranger. The most effective way to help people know Jesus is by being a witness. Acts 1:8 tells us that we will spread the Good News of Jesus by being a witness. God doesn’t expect you to be a salesman. God doesn’t expect you to be His attorney. He doesn’t need your defense. He does say, to be a witness. 

But what does it mean to be a witness? It simply means to share what you’ve seen or experienced. It means sharing what God has done in your life. You don’t have to be a Bible Scholar, a Christian for 20 plus years, or sinless. We say it all the time at Skyline, NO PERFECT PEOPLE ALLOWED. You can share what God has done in your life with authority and confidence because it is YOUR story. Your story matters!

Do you remember the Bible story of the man born blind? The religious leaders were distraught over his healing and accused Jesus of many things. The healed man couldn’t speak to their accusations and said, “All I know is that I was blind and now I see.” 

You don’t have to be an expert or have it all figured out! You can take the evangelistic, preachy, and condemning pressure off your shoulders and remember the moment that Jesus changed everything for you. Sharing the Good News will suddenly become easy and impossible to keep to yourself. 

THIS is your mission, should you choose to accept it … to finish telling people of what God has done for you. 

You can start by telling me! Fill out a Connection Card at SkylineChurch.org. Tell me how the grace of God through Jesus Christ has saved your life. But don’t stop there. Our aim is to finish the race and complete the task Jesus gave us. Think of who else you can share this news with today … because your story matters!

Meat and Football

22 Wednesday Oct 2008

Posted by in small groups

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Saturday we’re having our first 7SD Men’s Breakfast…eggs, sausage, bacon, pancakes, hashbrowns, OJ and coffee…oh and a football game after breakfast. I’m going to be giving a vision talk and we’re going to hang out and have a great time…who knows we may go hunting, kill something, bring it back and cook it for lunch…all I know is we’re doing guy things and 7SD is all about helping men be men…the type of guy God created us to be.

Hope you can make it.

Small Groups and Monday Night Football

14 Tuesday Oct 2008

Posted by in grow, seven church, small groups

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We had our second small group session last night. Our small group is awesome. Here’s what we do. We record the first half hour of the Monday night football game and everyone meets at 6:00PM. We have food and watch the first half commercial free. We pause the game at half then do the Bible study. The Bible study is based off the message from the weekend service, discussion questions are printed on the notes each week. We pray for each other and then watch the second half commercial free.

We have a point system we’ve developed to add a little extra to the game. Prior to Monday night everybody emails their picks and we record the predictions like…1. who wins the coin toss, 2. 1st catch 3. 1st points 4. 1st Touchdown 5. score at end of each quarter 6. and score at the end of the game. 7. Who wins the game., etc. We are keeping a running tally and the winner will receive a MNF Bible Study trophy…and bragging rights for the rest of the year.

Small groups are vital in churches but I think especially in a new church. It really helps people get connected and put down roots and grow. God uses small groups to help each of us learn from others. And, when the group is doing the study based off the message from the weekend it helps everyone take the message deeper. Studies show that people forget 95% of what they hear within 72 hours…bummer for preachers when we take all week to prepare something people are only going to remember 5% of at best. So, this is another way to help people really “get” the message and take it to the next level.