At the end of last week I gave an introduction to how we can vary our large group meetings by referencing a list that Benson Hines put together on different decisions we make regarding our meetings. I wanted to expand on that a little this week and get you thinking about some ways you can change up those meetings.
I think it’s very easy to get caught up in doing our large group meetings the way we’ve always done them. We have worship, someone shares a message, and announcements are usually squeezed in before, after, or in the middle somewhere. There’s nothing wrong with doing a meeting like this, but if this is all we do week after week for an entire semester it can get kind of boring. So, here are some ideas to get you thinking:
[li]Worship night – Have an entire night devoted to spending time in worship.[/li]
[li]Night of prayer – Take time praying for anything you can think of and make sure to have some organization by using powerpoint to go through topics to pray over.[/li]
[li]Evangelism – Teach briefly on evangelism, take a few minutes to pray, then go out in teams and evangelize all over campus (this usually works best if you teach some basic methods of evangelism before you go out).[/li]
[li]Servant evangelism – Go out and serve people as a practical way to show God’s love. Don’t accept any money in return and if they ask just share with them simply why you are doing what you’re doing. Some ideas for this are taking people’s trash to the trash room when it’s open, asking people for prayer requests (best around finals time), cleaning bathrooms in suites where there are no custodians, handing out candy or other food, or doing a free car wash.[/li]
[li]A night of listening to the Lord – When I was in college sometimes our BASIC group would take time one night to just spend time listening to the Lord. Someone would turn on light music (maybe instrumental) and we would spread out in the room to just be with the Lord and listen to Him. Paper and pens were handed out for people to write down anything the Lord spoke to them or to draw. This can be difficult for some people, but in our culture we rarely take time to be still before the Lord and this is a great habit to teach.[/li]
[li]Q&A night – Give time for students to ask questions about Christianity and God. Bring in several people who can really speak to these questions such as pastors, Christian professors, etc. You can either do this as an open forum or have students submit questions the week before.[/li]
[li]Utilize a church ministry – There are plenty of people in your church who are doing ministry in one way or another. Consider having someone come in and use their giftings in your meeting. We recently attended a group who had the prophetic team come in and share about prophecy and then do some ministry. Just make sure, like any other person you bring in, that you know you can trust them.[/li]
These are just a few ideas to get you thinking about ways to change up your weekly large group meetings. Do you have anything you’ve done with your group that could be helpful? Please take a minute to share it in the comments below.