Book Club

1. Pray Ask the Lord for wisdom, divine inspiration and guidance.
2. Review and be clear about the vision of Lady Delois’ Book Club (on the flyer)
3. Reach out to the ladies in the congregation to ensure you have accurate contact information.
4. Assimilate a team.  Ministry is best accomplished in teams.
   • If possible -Team Leader, Communication liaison, Small group coordinator.
5. Establish a way to share information about Book club.
   • Note: (All churches of God by Faith have Flocknote available to communicate information to targeted groups.
6. Ensure that this is established for the Women’s Ministry in your church, if you are the administrator, grant permission for the communication liaison to be a note sender, if not request it from the administrator. Text, email, Facebook are also good options to disseminate information.)
7. Invite everyone to participate in the Book Club. Note* Don’t be disappointed if everyone is not as excited about it as you are. Continue to pray, share and invite.
8. Purchase selected book.  Free of Me is available through our National Bookstore and bulk purchases may be made by contacting the store manager.
9. Follow the suggested reading plan or develop your own that may better fit your group(s) needs.  Keep in mind that we hope to keep the groups “on the same page” literally and figuratively.  This will help facilitate discussion across the National Church.  The suggested plan takes into consideration other initiatives across the National church, as well as the upcoming holiday and winter Convention. However, it is just that, a suggestion.  Feel free to modify to what works best for your congregation.

Small Group

1. If you already have small groups established in your church, Congratulations!  Your work is mostly done.
2. If you have never had a small group and feel like you need training, no worries. There is a wealth of FREE training materials from ministry friends with proven track records of doing small groups right.  A list of training resources will be provided.
3. By design, small groups are meant to be just that, small.  Group dynamic tends to lend itself to a more vibrant discussion with smaller numbers. If you have more than 14 ladies in your church who will participate in the reading plan, there should be 2 small groups.   When there are more than 10 to 12 persons, make the effort to split the group, encouraging each group to invite others to participate with them.  This may be someone from outside of the church, a friend, co-worker, someone being discipled, but not a member of your congregation.  Remember, part of why the Book Club was established is Growth, spiritually and numerically.
4. Once groups are determined, establish a meeting day, time and location agreed upon by the group members. Suggested locations can include, the church, a member’s home, a coffee shop or other public meeting place  Also, for those that are highly mobile, (2CBF, drivers, students etc.) an online or conference call discussion group is a feasible option.

Basic group rules should minimally include the following:

1. Confidentiality. It’s not just for Las Vegas. What’s said at group stays at group. No one wants to find out he or she has been the subject of gossip or well-meaning “prayer discussions.” This is probably the most important ground rule of all.

2. Start on time—and end on time. It will be up to the leader to guide the group in sticking with this commitment. It’s especially helpful to those who have children at home with babysitters and those with work schedules that are affected by late nights or meetings that run over.  We suggest that you keep the time of 1 to 1 ½ hours.

3. Discussion involves everyone. To make this work, everyone needs to participate as a listener and as a speaker. It should be understood that when one person is monopolizing the discussion, the leader could say, “Let’s hear from someone else now.” Then, when another person has listened for a long time, the leader might ask, “Jennie, do you have any input you’d like to share?”

4. Remember your manners. Avoid dismissing the thoughts of others, don’t laugh at others when they’ve shared (unless they’ve just told a joke), and no putdowns of any kind. These are the actions that make others “shut down” and feel uneasy about sharing.  Opening up can be hard enough for some people as it is. Your group should be a safe, welcoming place for all.

5. It’s OK to agree to disagree. It’s just a fact of life that everyone has different opinions. If the group has differing thoughts on an issue, there’s no requirement that everyone agree. After a reasonable time of discussion, the leader or another group member could state that it’s time to leave this point unresolved and move on to another discussion question or activity. No one should have his or her feelings hurt if others don’t share all the same opinions. Make every effort to maintain a non-judgmental environment to promote authentic discussion.

6. And perhaps one last suggestion… Ask everyone turn off cell phones before group begins!

7. Reminder:  The Book Club coordinator and support team are here to help facilitate your success.   Look for updates, tips and answers to FAQ’s to be posted on the COGBF National Women’s webpage.  Also, like and follow Lady Delois’ Book Club on Facebook-LadyDelois BookClub, Twitter@ladydeloisbc and Instagram.com-ladydbookclub/.