What Orbit Small Groups Do
Do you ever go to movies by yourself? Back in 2006, I was so drawn to the premise of “The Pursuit of Happyness” that I just had to catch it in the theaters, but I worked nights at the newspaper. What grownups go to afternoon movies? I went by myself.
I was drawn into the story, aching and rooting for Will Smith and his kid, and at the end felt like celebrating. It was so frustrating to have nobody to high-five on the way back to the car. After an experience like that, you want somebody to process your reaction with. Maybe church is like that for you—the words of a song resonate with your spirit, or a convicting or encouraging word from Scripture hits home, or a nagging question becomes a pebble in your shoe as you head out the door on Sunday. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to talk through what you just learned and experienced?
That’s what Orbit small groups are for. Every Sunday our elementary kids gather for worship, games and Bible teaching, and then we send them off to small groups to talk and work through what we heard from God’s book. It’s not really Sunday school, where a teacher conveys knowledge and students try to see how many facts they can remember. It’s a little more like driver’s ed: There are facts to be learned, but we put this knowledge to use as we all climb into the car together and try it out.
Adults model for kids how to listen to, learn from and respect each other while they consider and apply what God tells us about Himself in the Bible. The great love that God pours into them, they pour out on each child in the room. The presence of a trusted adult sets kids free to wonder about God, and honest wondering about God always leads to awe and amazement.
Equipped with activities designed to help kids develop their own faith, these adults listen to and explore alongside these kids, ask what they’re thinking or going through, ponder their questions and explore ways to chase answers together. They start with a tub full of games, roleplay scenarios, and art supplies. With these tools and the provided activities, they guide kids on a mission to use the knowledge shared in the Bible teaching to uncover answers to questions that matter. Why did God make me? How can I hear from God? How can I know what Jesus would do?
This kind of work is an investment. How are your investments doing? Are the people you spend time with growing, seeing their story woven into God’s story, coming to know God as someone they can talk to, trust in, and worship? This is what Orbit small groups do.
God always brings us exactly the help what we need, even though it does feel like we need an awful lot—27 people? Really? Why so many?
Kids need a consistent relationship with their leaders in order to understand expectations, to know how to behave, and to be open to learn and connect. That comes with seeing them regularly. But for an adult to give up that whole first service hour basically every Sunday from August through May is draining, especially if it means leaders don’t connect with the rest of the body. Volunteers deserve to feel like they are part of the church, to hug and shake hands with their fellow worshipers on a regular basis. We want each of our small-group teams to have a rotation of leaders so these adults are continually connected and refreshed.
That’s where this vision of 27 volunteers comes from. Two leaders in each room, each Sunday—and one leader from each group taking the week off. Nobody serves every week. That means three regular leaders for each room, and with our current age distribution, there are nine small groups.
In our growing, loving church 27 caring adults have already said “yes” to investing in this way. You can help support them as a substitute when leaders are ill or need to travel. If God is calling you to stand in the gap for these faithful leaders, let me know here, or by email at kids@ccames.org.