Men’s Tuesday Night Group Guidelines
Men in Christ,
The Samaritan woman story in John 4 reveals how Jesus encounters us personally (4:7-26), which leads to our witness publicly (4:27-30, 39). There are clues in this story that can help us grow as a group of men to become more like Christ, especially as new men visit us who are at different places in their faith (including not-yet believing). To a large extent, we are already doing these things so this serves more as a reminder.
We trust Christ alone to change our hearts. That’s why we get together on Tuesday nights: to encounter Christ as we discuss His Word in the presence of His Spirit. We usurp Jesus’ authority when we try to change people rather than letting Christ do the work through His union with them.
We make time for others to openly share their lives only when they choose and only to the extent they choose. When others share, the best way we can encourage them is to attentively listen. We don’t try to dig deeper, give unsolicited advice, or attempt to fix them. We are providing a safe place for people to share but at the same time, we are not doing group therapy. We encourage men to meet individually outside of our group time, which is also where we can develop friendships with one another. All personal sharing that occurs when we meet together is not to be shared outside the group.
We don’t push our ideas or interpretations on others or preach at them. Instead, we share what we are personally hearing from God as we read and heed His Word. As we see in the Samaritan woman story, our faith grows deeper as each of us hears and understands Jesus’ words for ourselves (John 4:42; Isaiah 6:9-10). This is also why we don’t discuss or try to persuade others of our social and political views during our group time together. There may be times outside our group meetings when that is appropriate. The focus of our group time together is intentionally on Christ and how to live in the world while not being of the world (John 17:7-19).
We consider others above ourselves (Philippians 2:3-4) during our group time by ensuring we don’t share too long or too often, thus giving all in the group a chance to speak. This is also the case when we pray out loud, that we don’t use our prayers to preach and keep our prayers short and to the point. We also refrain from swearing or talking in ways that may offend others.
We strive to make our time together “be to the praise of His glory” (Ephesians 1:12,14) as we seek to “pay much closer attention” (Hebrews 2:1) to His words so “we might understand the things freely given us by God” (1 Corinthians 2:12). We worship God in Spirit and truth (John 4:23-24), and “pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests” (Ephesians 6:18). Our study of God (theology) should lead to our worship of God (doxology).
Blessings in Christ,
Greg
Reformation Day (10/31/22)