Helpful Tips & Best Practices.
Starting a DBS should never sound as intimidating as Western-church culture makes starting anything new for a church is. DBS will become on of our natural tools of inviting people into discovering the Kingdom of God. On this page, we’ll go through a few top tips for inviting and leading people through DBS groups as well as some best practices to help DBS groups flourish.
“Disciple-making must be both light-weight and deep-rooted: Light enough for anyone, anywhere, to replicate with their friends and family. Deep enough to make surrendered and transformed disciples of Jesus. DBSs are simple, easily reproducible, and train new disciples to obey Jesus in everything.”
Best Practices for a DBS group:
To facilitate a DBS, you’ll need a couple of participants, a bible story, and a few simple questions. You can find great lists of passages to engage pre-believers with by clicking here. Alternatively, if you have a group of new believers, you can find great lists of passages for them here. Or perhaps you want to try out a DBS list on a group of established believers, you can find great lists of passages for them here. You can also get creative by setting your own passages around a theme that your group is particularly interested in. If you need help, you know where we are or if you make one yourself, be sure to tell us about it so we can add it to the lists in the future and expand our tools for a variety of people groups!
Connect
Start by asking some ’connect’ questions:
If it’s the first DBS of the group, you could ask:
“What are you thankful for?” or “what’s been a challenge for you this week?”
If you’ve had a DBS with the group before, a ‘connect’ question could be:
How did you get on with your “I Will…” statement since we last met? or Did you talk to anyone about what we discovered last session?
Discover
Next, start the ‘discovery’ process. A helpful way to remember the steps of a DBS is using the acronym H.O.P.E.
Hear from God through the scripture.
Ask someone to read the passage out loud - you could try two different versions of translation if you have them.
Have someone re-tell the passage in their own words.
Observe what it says.
Ask the following questions: What stands out to you? What does this story tell us about God? What does this story tell us about people?
If you’re coming up with your own additional questions, keep them as open-ended as possible.
Put it into Practise.
Challenge them to reflect on what this means for them personally and try to get everyone to write down an “I Will…” statement for the week(s) ahead.
Encourage someone.
After a few sessions (or maybe straight away!), you could ask if there is anyone that they know who could be interested in joining. Or you could encourage them to tell a friend about what they learnt this week. If they aren’t ready for that, perhaps encourage someone to lead the next session. All of these processes work towards the next goal…
Multiply
Set this vision from day one. We want to make people aware of the awesome power of God and to empower these people to reach their own friends and family by starting a DBS of their own.
Remember, they don’t need to be an expert. There are no qualifications to be a DBS facilitator… just a willingness to discover God together.
It’s always good to bear in mind that DBS groups have the intention of being fluid so the multiplication process happens naturally. Just like our intentions with our microchurches, sometimes people will stay in the original group while starting new groups, sometimes they won’t. But the potential for DBS groups are huge - they could be the next microchurch ready to hit the streets of Glasgow!
However, whether they choose to stay or move on, staying in touch with these new leaders and continuing to disciple them is also crucial to helping the network grow! We want to help grow leaders of all ages, backgrounds, and people groups.
We all have a part to play - making disciples who make disciples.
For further information on the what and whys of a DBS, click the button below to download a document that our affiliates, NOVO Missions Org. have created.
Top tips for starting a DBS group:
No matter how clichè it may sound, all DBS groups must start with movemental/activating prayer. As we lead more mission-focused lives, in our microhcurches and as individuals, we will continue to grow in boldness and courage when listening to what God is saying to us and acting upon it. The DBS starts here, seeking out opportunities to care for people, addressing injustice, showing compassion to friends and colleagues. As we engage with the culture around us, we can start asking God to highlight people we may want to invite to a DBS. Alternatively, God may already be placing people on your heart to engage with.
Identify whether someone is a Person of Peace (PoP). A PoP is simply someone who is open relationally with you and spiritually curious (Mark 2:13-17). They are often gateways to other people groups or are key to a network of people. You’ll know if they’re spiritually curious if they lean in when you talk about your testimony or when they actively seek to ask you questions about your faith. Sometimes, a PoP can seem interested but not active in their pursuit to know me. That’s okay too! Continue to serve them if God is continuing to place them on your heart and never stop asking good questions. Jesus asked 307 questions in the four gospels - that’s a lot!
Invite them along! Take a faith-filled step and ask them to join you in a discovery of Jesus. This totally sounds easier than it can seem, especially with British culture, but sometimes it’s just about being obedient to God’s word and going for it! Coming up with your own invitation to a DBS is a great way of being prepared without it sounding too generic, keeping in mind that every person will need a nuanced approach in the moment. Here’s a few examples:
“Hey, it’s cool that moment of prayer the other day has had such an impact on you… you know, what you experienced is just what Jesus is like. If you’re up for it, would you like to look into more of what He is all about with me sometime?”
“If you ever want to chat more about that (topic we were just on), I do this thing called a ‘discovery group’ where we read the bible and talk about how it affects our lives. You interested?”
“Do you wanna learn about _ (mercy, strong women, compassion)? I’m studying it at the moment, would you like to join?”
Find a 2nd or 3rd space to do it at first. Try a pub, a coffee shop, a park (if the Scottish weather is alright), or a place at work, a lunch break room etc. Keeping it out in places where others feel naturally comfortable makes it easier to explore. Try to keep it away from formal church-like environments so any pre-conception of the word ‘church’ isn’t present as a blocker to imagination and hunger to learn. You could also use your home and turn it into a meal etc. but this can sometimes make the entire ‘discovery’ process feel too formal as well so judge accordingly and experiment. A DBS can be 10 minutes before a sports game as well as an hour of group-filled discussion during your lunch break.
Top tips for facilitating a DBS group:
Ask questions, lead the group forward, but don’t teach. The beauty about DBS is that it’s a free-for-all! Everyone is discovering together so there is no need to fill it with your own teaching. If people are looking to you to answer the questions, ask a better one back and keep the discovery process going rather than preaching everything you may have learned about this passage before. Knowledge is better on the backside of obedience rather than the other way around.
Let the Holy Spirit lead. This sounds super obvious, but let Him lead it. Part of the DBS learning process for us is putting our entire trust in Him. If they say something heretical, go deeper and explore it further or move on instead of correcting them, trust God to be much better at teaching truth than we are.
Stay on the passage. One of the golden rules for DBS is to try your hardest to stay on the passage and not reference other parts of scripture to back anything up. The likelihood is that no one else will have read the bible beforehand or at least have very little exposure to the bible so referring to other passages adds confusion and apprehension into the mix. We want to keep the environment safe and without any pressure.
Leave gaps! Many facilitators of any profession will tell you the importance of this when leading anything interactive. Don’t be afraid of silence. Count to 10 really slowly then count a few more before pushing the conversation along. If you feel awkward with silence, so will they.
Pass on the leadership. After a couple of sessions, let someone else facilitate it! Or even better, if you feel uncomfortable leading it from the get go all it takes is a two minute conversation with someone to hand over facilitating the group. You could simply ask: “Hey, who wants to ask the questions and take the reigns on this today?” If you are passing on the leadership to someone else - be intentional about it.
Give everyone a chance. Make sure everyone gets a chance to contribute to the conversation. Try and keep that in mind throughout the discovery process, enabling the quieter ones to express what they’re thinking and feeling.