To the leaders who are ready to raise the bar,

What a great rally we had at both the 8 AM and 9:30 AM connection group hours last Sunday. Tim Hunter brought a tremendous word to our leaders and participants, and I’m grateful for him and the word he shared.

Here’s a quick, quick recap.  (We’re working on some other ways over the next few months to share these 10 encouragements in more detail, so be looking for that.)

Members – Be What You Want to See

• Bring Your Gift to the Table
• Pray For Your Group
• Be On Time
• Invite Your Friends
• Make it Fun
 
Leaders – Raise the Bar

• Obsess Over Time
• Relentlessly Increase Connection
• Mobilize Every Member
• Win the Guests
• Raise the Spiritual Temperature
 
So, now what?

In my regular Bible reading this morning, I came to Matthew 3, where folks are flooding to John the Baptist in waves, responding to his preaching, and desiring life-change, rooted in faith.  

John preaches a pretty simple one-line message:

. . . “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near!”
Matthew 3:2
 
You heard some great things last Sunday that may have given you and/or your participants some new thought, fresh thoughts, revived thoughts, or different thoughts about how your connection group might be about the business of making disciples.

That’s good! Now repent as needed. And help your people repent.

Express faith, and do something different. Good leadership makes a way forward for people to obey the Lord.  

I love the line in John the Baptist’s sermon that “the kingdom of God has come near.”

It’s hard to repent and do something different when God and his kingdom seem far way. But when the Lord Jesus shows up, it’s easy to put away those old habits and such that are weighing you done. It gets easy to see how today could be different than tomorrow, and how loving our neighbor might matter in their lives for eternity.

So, as you head in to your class this Sunday, you might review Tim’s “big ten” really quick and spend 5 minutes asking what resonated with your class.  See where they heard the voice of the Lord.  And help them to make changes for his glory and the good of those we are trying to reach.

- Dr. Harland Cason | Minister of Education

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