Life Group Leader Newsletter

Ben and Hailey Ness host weekly game nights for their life group, and have found it to be incredibly useful (not to mention, fun!). Here's their story:

Last year, our group merged with another life group, and we eventually became the group's leaders. Many of the people in this new group were unfamiliar with us, and we were concerned that during the leadership transition, they may not stay in our group if we didn't work on building relationships with them. One of the ways we decided to work on this was to start a weekly game night for our group. We weren't sure how it would go, if people would come, or if it would die out quickly, so we were prepared to be flexible and not have our hearts broken if it didn't work out.

To our delight, the game nights have gone well each week! As we had hoped, the game night has provided our group the opportunity to build relationships. It has also helped bridge the gap between people in our group who didn't have a lot in common, demographically. We believe it has been a major factor in causing certain people to stick around even after the leadership transition. It also has been perfect for inviting Sunday morning visitors, to help them get connected. We are amazed at how God has used something so simple, relaxed, and fun as a doorway into our group. We decided to make the game night a part of our group's Mission Action Plan, as it helps us to reach both in and out. While this experience has been a little messy at times, and certainly not perfect, it has definitely been worth it! We recommend it to any life group-- God can use it in amazing ways!

The practical stuff:

Game night is every Friday at 7 at our house.
Group members are not expected to be at game night every week.
We (Ben and Hailey) bought a few group/party games to start.
Everyone brings snacks and other games when they can, so it doesn't all fall on us every week. (Helps keep it simple for us, as we're hosting 2-3 meetings in our home each week.)
We change it up every once in a while. Instead of regular game night, occasionally we will go bowling, dancing, to a movie, play mini-golf, etc.
While these details have worked for us, game nights would look a little different in each group.

Benefits of game nights:

Build relationships within your life group.
Help visitors get connected to specific people in the church.
Provide a less intimidating, more informal venue for unbelievers and the unchurched to be introduced to your group (and the church!).
Have fun! We all need time in our schedules to slow down, have fun, and laugh!