Cooper Mountain Presbyterian Fellowship

Getting BIG Results with Small Groups

a Small Group Leaders Training Manual Web Sample by Rev. David Weidlich, Pastor, Cooper Mountain Presbyterian Fellowship

2. Adoration of God

Building Community In Your Small Group

Four Goals of a Small Group:

Worshipping God in Small Groups

Acts 2:47: ...praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.

Ascribe to the Lord, O mighty ones,

Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.

Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;

worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness.

Psalm 29:1-2

Worship Defined...

• ..a string of breathing holes...
• .."An active lifestyle of response to the person and work of God."
• .."the human response to divine initiative" (Richard Foster)
• .."to fall prostrate" (literally in Hebrew)
• ..what we do to honor God- in spoken words, in actions, in attitudes and thoughts

Human beings were created to worship. It is as much a part of our constitution as our longing for the eternal or our sense of justice. To deny this natural response or to assume its irrelevance is like submerging a balloon under water. It continually springs up. If we are forced to suspend our worship of God, it does not mean that we stop worshipping, only that we redirect its focus toward ourselves or toward another created object rather than to the Creator.

-George Mallone, Furnace of Renewal, p. 44.

Why Worship God?

• Because God is worthy to receive honor and praise.
• We can't help worshipping- if we don't worship the One who alone is worthy, we will find ourselves worshipping other people or things: ourselves, what we produce, movie stars, the rich and famous, drugs, etc. (Note Romans 1:21f- failure to worship God led to a horrifying slippery slope of foolishness and wickedness)
• We need to adjust our perspective and remind ourselves who is in charge of the universe.
• Worship brings about enthusiasm to witness and live as Christians in the world.
• We are commanded to worship God.

Matt 4:10 - "Worship the Lord your God and serve him only."

Psalm 29:1-2 (above)

Exodus 20:2-3 - "I am the Lord your God...You shall have no other Gods before me."

Westminster Shorter Catechism: "The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever."

· Worship positions us to receive God's grace.

Why Worship in Small Groups?

• Worship is not a spectator sport. It's a participation sport. Worship in small groups is necessarily participatory. (Worship in large groups can easily be spectator)
• Worship helps the group experience the presence of God.
• Worship puts everything the group does in perspective.
• Worship will change the life of the group.

To study God's Word and not respond with worship is to treat the Bible as a stale text book, we might as well be gathering together around Homer's Odyssey.

Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law. --Psalm 119:18

"If Socrates should enter the room, we would all rise and do him honor. But if Jesus Christ came into the room, we would all fall down and worship him." -Napoleon

Some Worship Ideas:

• Ask group members to worship God by completing this sentence: "God is worth it because..." Say brief prayers that focus on praising God for who he is and what he has done (not asking for anything).
• Take the chorus, "God Is So Good," and ask each group member to write a new verse. (For example: God is so fair, God is my friend," etc.) Finish the exercise by singing your new song if you wish.
• After reading a verse of Scripture, or after comments that speak of God's attributes, call a "time-out" and say a prayer of praise to God.
• Pray together, using Psalm 136 as a guide. Each verse recounts some event of Israel history in which God proved his faithfulness, then the congregation responds, "His love endures forever." Ask each group member to look up the chapter (or hand out a copy of your version). Go around the room having each person read a verse. When they get to the part that says, "His love endures forever," have everyone say that together. You may go around the room once, or go around until all verses are read. Then make it more personal: ask each person to give a one sentence summary of some event in their life when God proved his faithfulness. After each "verse," the whole group responds, "His love endures forever!"
• Ask the group to respond to the question, "What do you find from today's Bible study that makes you want to praise God?"
• Not just at Thanksgiving, ask each group member to tell one thing for which they are thankful to the Lord. Then pray, thanking God for these things.
• Make a "joyful noise." Sing a hymn or chorus together that focuses on God. If you have an accompanist, so much the better, but don't wait for one.
• Invite a Pastor to come and lead an informal communion service.

Reflect:

We worship God in our church worship services. Why is it still important to worship in our Small Groups? What are some advantages for having the whole church together for corporate worship? What are some advantages to worship in small groups?

Small Group Leaders Manual

A. W. Tozer on Worship

In this hour of all but universal darkness one cheering gleam appears: within the fold of conservative Christianity there are to be found increasing numbers of persons whose religious lives are marked by a growing hunger after God Himself. They are eager for spiritual realities and will not be put off with words, nor will they be content with correct "interpretations" of truth. They are athirst for God, and they will not be satisfied till they have drunk deep at the Fountain of Living Water.

The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His Presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of their hearts.

The modern scientist has lost God amid the wonders of His world; we Christians are in real danger of losing God amid the wonders of His Word.

Religion, so far as it is genuine, is in essence the response of created personalities to the Creating Personality, God.

Read this on your knees:

O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, that so I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, "Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away." Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

-from A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God.

If you have never heard the mountains singing, or seen the trees of the field clapping their hands, do not think because of that that they don't. -McCandlish Phillips