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I thought it would be beneficial to share our philosophy of curriculum. As many of you know, we’ve asked for alignment in the past with the various Travelogues we produced. We are incredibly excited about the disciple-making series coming in August and strongly encourage all of our groups to consider unpacking it with their groups. However, I do not want you to misunderstand what we are asking.

• Curriculum IS a launching pad, a way to get a group engaged. Curriculum IS NOT letting someone else do the thinking and application for you and your groups.
• Curriculum IS a general guide to keep the body (all campuses) moving in the same direction as the Holy Spirit has laid upon our preachers a vision for the future. Obviously, context will dictate specific tactics, but the vision remains the same. Curriculum IS NOT a tight restraint on what avenues you are allowed to pursue in your groups. As Mike Glenn shared on our podcast: the LIFE groups are where the rubber meets the road. The leaders know more about our peoples’ lives than I ever will. They have to be equipped to shepherd our people well.
• Curriculum IS a tool that the group can work through during the week to begin seeing the Scripture played out in their lives and to begin thinking through the filter of a Christian Worldview. Curriculum IS NOT an excuse for you to not study since you can just walk through the paragraphs of the lesson. We assume our people have read the lesson, we are asking you to be faithful to the Scripture for that day and to take your group where it needs to go, not to simply regurgitate someone else’s content.

In short, our philosophy is that we teach people, not curriculum. We advocate for you teaching through a book of the Bible, but let me ask you this: are your people engaging with the Scripture each day before the next group meeting? Are you training an apprentice who can study, discern, and teach the Scriptures like you do? Is the way you teach and lead reproducible so that when you move on, your people are not left like baby birds with their mouths open? If you can answer a bold YES to each of those questions or if you’re willing to learn to develop new teachers and leaders, then go wherever the Scriptures take you.
If you cannot answer yes to those questions, then I strongly encourage you to give the Current Foundations Series (the curriculum that follows the sermons) a strong try. It engages your people during the week and sets a model that most of your members could follow if they were invited to lead the group. I have used it to great success when I teach, both on and off campus. I want us to begin thinking about the kingdom of God and all of the ministry to which we’re called as BBC LIFE Groups in Middle Tennessee and beyond. A lesson is just a lesson that our people can get from any commentary or Bible study product; what they can’t get on their own is your shepherding and leader development of them as you help them to become disciples of Jesus who make disciples with Jesus. Don’t put extra hurdles in their way by creating a model they can’t reproduce.
 

Chatting with Sonnie the other day about hospitality in our groups, I began to reminisce about my Preaching Practicum in seminary. There were 8 students and the professor in this class, and we each, minus the professor, preached 4 sermons throughout the semester. These sermons were videoed so that we could watch ourselves and offer a critique of ourselves – that part was rough! However, the most brutal part was that the professor was not shy about grunting, moaning, or calling out in the middle of your sermon, both to simulate the normal chaos of a congregation and to get us on the right track.
For me, he would always say as I was preaching, “LOUDER . . . LOUDER . . . LOUDER!” His point to me was that I thought that I was speaking loudly enough, but I needed to quadruple that volume for the audience. We never are as extreme as we think we are being.
Apply this thinking to the hospitality in your groups: however hospitable you think you are being, it is likely not being received that way. . . so quadruple it!

• Greet guests at the door and tell them that you are happy that they’re here.
• Give all guests a sticky name tag and be sure that all group members have (and are wearing) name tags. (we will make these for you if you tell us what you need)
• Introduce the guest to at least 1 other person in the group by name.

If you do these three simple things, then guests will feel welcomed and wanted in our groups. Just like I had to go beyond what I thought was loud for the sake of the audience, so too must our groups go beyond what seems hospitable for the sake of our guests.