How To Discipline Your Children

Community Groups are officially on Summer Break!

Enjoy your summer.

If your group is meeting, you’ll find a discussion guide below for discussing this week’s sermon.

If you have not made any social plans for your group yet this summer, here are some ideas.

Have a great week!

The Primary Goal In Parenting

Community Groups are officially on Summer Break!

Enjoy your summer.

If your group is meeting, you’ll find a discussion guide below for discussing this week’s sermon.

If you have not made any social plans for your group yet this summer, here are some ideas.

Have a great week!

Hope for Redemption

This is the last week of the Spring Community Group Trimester.

This is a great week to do a meal, get feedback from your group members on changes for your group this fall, and talk about plans for Community Group socials this summer.

You may also consider pairing up with prayer/accountability partners for the summer to make sure no one falls through the cracks or drifts away spiritually. Encourage weekly text messages, phone calls, Bible reading plans, or coffee meet ups.

If you are discussing the sermon, you’ll find Ruth chapter 3 discussion questions below.

Honoring Your Family When Life Is Hard

This is the 2nd to last week of the Community Group trimester.

Before the summer break, make sure to put some dates on the calendar for your group to connect this summer.

This is also a great time to review your Growth Goals for the year, celebrate how God has worked in your life, and set some goals for the summer.

Lastly, take some time in group this week or next to ask for feedback about everyone’s group experience so you can make helpful adjustments for the future.

You can hand out a 3x5 card and have everyone shared 1 thing they loved, and 1 thing they’d change. Or you can have everyone fill out an End of Trimester Feedback Form.

Loss, Loyalty, and Friendship

As we discuss a heavy message about pain and loss, make sure to give lots of time for discussing the application questions and for prayer time.

Many people in group will be struggling with pain and loss and difficult relationships and could use encouragement, support, and prayers.

If someone is struggling heavily, this is a great opportunity to apply the message and get together with them outside of group to listen more and be present with them in their pain.

Consider organizing prayer partners for the week and encourage connecting outside of your weekly meeting for prayer and conversation.

Why is Finding God's Will So Hard?

Is the weekly routine growing stale? Here are 10 ideas to change up your group this week.

This sermon discussion is a great opportunity to share with each other hard decisions you are wrestling with and to pray for each other.

If there are decisions you’d like further input into for yourself, or your group members, make sure to reach out to your Group Coach or a staff member at Northridge. We’d love to talk and pray with you as you wrestle with them!

We have 4 weeks left of the Spring Community Group Trimester.

This is our last week of the series, Questions, Answer, and the Things We Will Never Know.

Why Does God Choose to Save Some and Not Others?

This is week 2 of our 6 week Spring Trimester.

If you didn’t take some time last week, make sure to set some growth goals with your group in prayer time, or followup on your previous growth goals to encourage progress as you seek to grow in your faith.

As we tackle hard questions in this sermon series, make sure to encourage your group to check out the “A Little Better” podcast where we dive more deeply into these questions.

Does Science Contradict The Bible?

This is week 1 of our 6 week Spring Trimester.

Take some time to set some growth goals with your group in prayer time, or followup on your previous growth goals to encourage progress as you seek to grow in your faith.

As we tackle hard questions in this sermon series, make sure to encourage your group to check out the “A Little Better” podcast where we dive more deeply into these questions.

Why Can’t I Stop Doing the Wrong Thing?

This is the last week of our Spring Groups break.

Take some time this week to plan out your final 6 weeks of the spring trimester, reach out to a group member for a one on one connection, or plan some upcoming group socials.

Or just enjoy the Community Group break and get some rest.

Why Does A Loving God Allow Suffering?

This is Week 1 of our 2-week Spring Break from Community Groups.

While your group may not meet, this could be an opportunity to meet up with 1 or 2 people from your group for dinner on the night your group would normally meet.

One-on-one connections provide an opportunity to deepen your friendship and build memories.

Or, you may want to just enjoy the chance to rest and prepare yourself for a strong finish to the Community Group year.

Our Spring Trimester meets for 6 weeks, beginning April 14th.

Dangerous Prayers

This is our last week in our prayer series, and the last week of our Winter Community Group trimester before a 2-week break. Groups begin again the week of April 14th.

Here are 4 ideas for your prayer time this week:

1.     Confession: Share something you’ve been struggling with that you have not told others about. Ask for prayer for this.

2.     Read Psalm 139:23-24. Read this passage in your prayer time and pray those 3 prayers: Search me, Test me, Lead me.

3.     Private and Communal Prayers: Have each person spend 5 minutes in personal prayer, then spend 5-15 minutes praying all together.

4.     Prayer Partners for Community Group Break: Write your prayers on a 3x5 card or sticky note, then exchange cards with a prayer partner for the 2-week group break ahead. Connect with your partner at least 1x a week during the break.

Developing a Habit of Prayer

In Nate’s message on Sunday he challenged us to have a habit of praying with others in Community.

Community Group meetings are the primary place that happens each week, but let’s not end there.

Make a plan this week for everyone in your group to pray with at least one other group member during the week, between meetings.

It could be on the phone, over a meal, coffee, or a walk in the park.

In your prayer time as a group this week:

  • Pair up

  • Plan a day and time

Don’t leave your meeting without a plan.

Praying Scripture

In Sunday’s message Bailey talked about using the very words of Scripture as our words in prayer, and then praying our own words in line with what we’ve read.

Bailey provided a list of psalms we can use to guide our prayers.

In your prayer time this week, pick out one psalm or several to pray through with your group.

There are psalms for when we:

·       have messed up: Psalm 32

·       are in trouble: Psalm 27

·       are broken: Psalm 42

·       are oppressed and need justice: Psalm 9

·       are in the middle of a trial: Psalm 28

·       are experiencing relational conflict: Psalm 133

·       want God’s blessing: Psalm 1

·       want to praise God: Psalm 145

·       don’t want to praise God: Psalm 104

·       want to live for God: Psalm 15

·       need comfort: Psalm 23

·       need to be reminded of what Jesus did for us: Psalm 22

·       need forgiveness: Psalm 51

·       need to cry out in desperation: Psalm 88

·       need to refocus: Psalm 37

·       need God’s help: Psalm 57

·       feel God is distant or indifferent: Psalm 139

·       feel God has forgotten us: Psalm 13

·       doubt our worth: Psalm 8

·       doubt God’s goodness: Psalm 19

·       doubt God’s love: Psalm 103

·       doubt God’s forgiveness: Psalm 130

·       doubt God’s ability to help: Psalm 146

·       doubt God’s faithfulness: Psalm 13

Teach Us to Pray

As you prepare for group, here are some ideas for how you may want to pray together this week:

  • Consider reading Jesus’ prayer from Matthew 6:9-13 in your prayer time. Pause after each verse, and pray about what Jesus talks about in that verse.

  • If you don’t usually pray with men and women together, consider praying all together this week.

  • Consider breaking into smaller prayer groups of 2 or 3.

  • Pair up group members to call each other during the week to pray together.

  • Consider meeting up an additional time during the week to pray (breakfast, coffee, before church, after church, dinner together, at a park, at the beach).

We’d also love to share ideas from other groups of what has worked well to pray with and for each other. Can you share your thoughts in the survey below?

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The Necessity of Prayer

This is week 2 of our 6-week series on prayer.

While we want our groups to talk about prayer and learn from the Scriptures how to pray, we want to do more than just talk about praying. We’d love to spend more time praying together.

Consider abbreviating discussion time so you can spend more time praying with your group. Or consider spending a whole meeting praying and skipping sermon discussion.

Here are some ideas for prayer together:

  • Pick prayer partners.

  • Do extemporaneous prayers (no one assigned, not in a circle). As someone to start and someone to close.

  • Pray one sentence long prayers, thanking God for something:

    • “Thank you for friendships.”

    • “Thank you for listening to us.”

    • “Thank you for dying for us and rising again.”

  • Pray one sentence long prayers asking God for something:

    • “Please forgive our sins.”

    • “Please heal my wife’s body.”

    • “Please save my neighbor.”

  • Pray the Bible by reading one passage at a time and then praying about what you read.

  • Share your requests as you pray instead of talking first and then praying.

  • Call each other during the week and pray with each other.

What else would you add?

My Problems With Prayer

This is week 1 of our 6 week series on prayer. This is a great opportunity to spend more focused time in prayer with your group.

You may want to break into smaller prayer groups of 2 or 3 so people can spend more time sharing and praying.

You may also consider having everyone write down their prayer requests on a 3x5 card and then trade cards with your group members. This makes it easy for people who are newer to or uncomfortable with prayer; all they need to do is read the prayer off of the card.

One other idea for your prayer time would be to share your prayer requests as you pray. This will save time as everyone will hear what you would like prayer for by listening to your prayers.

 
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Northridge Church Office | 2052 Saint Paul St. Rochester, NY 14621 | (585) 338-7810