A Reach 4 Life Group is a small group of young people who have decided to take the 4 Journeys of Believe, Grow, Live and Change together. Doing the 4 Journeys on your own is amazing, but it’s even more fun and life-changing doing them with a group of fellow explorers!
The group lasts for 40 weeks. If you add a few breaks, it might take you a year to journey through everything. By the end of it, you’ll be stronger in your faith, growing in your life and slowly changing to be more like Christ. You’ll also probably have made lifelong friends. You may also be ready to start your own group!
Catch the spark, let God ignite your heart with his and join the ultimate love revolution!
Who can start a Reach 4 Life Group?
You can start one if:
• You love God, the Bible and people.
• You’re involved in a spiritually healthy church.
• You have a desire to be used by God, and you’ve prayed to him for wisdom and help about doing this.
• You have found a Reach 4 Life Group Coach who is a respected Christian and has experience in working with young people. They should have their own copy of Reach 4 Life, and must have read these pages. They should meet with you regularly to encourage, guide and pray with you; perhaps visit the group now and then; give you helpful feedback; and help you identify people who can start their own group. Once you’ve led a group yourself, you can become a coach.
How to start a Reach 4 Life Group…
• Invite people to join your group. Tell your friends and ask them to tell their friends. Make an announcement at school or church. The more spiritual explorers who join, the better.
• Group size can vary between 2 and 20 people. Too many will make it less personal.
• At the first gathering. Make sure people get to know each other and relax. Explain the six guidelines (here). Make sure everyone has a Reach 4 Life book. Decide when and where you’ll meet each week. You’ll need between 40 minutes and 2 hours to make it work.
• Start with Believe 1 (here). Ask people to commit for one journey of ten weeks. At the end of the ten weeks, ask who wants to complete the next three journeys. It will take 30 more weeks to complete all the journeys.
• You lead the discussion for the first few weeks, but then begin asking other people to lead as well. This is a good way to raise up new leaders.
• If someone stops coming, contact them and ask them what’s wrong. Hopefully, you will be able to encourage them to come back.
• Do your best to connect everyone in the group into a church. It’ll be sad if after the 40 weeks some are on their own again, without a supportive spiritual community to support them.
What happens in a Reach 4 Life Group?
• Begin socially. If possible, organise background music and some food/drinks. If it suits your group, start with a short time of group singing.
• Connect. Call everyone together. Sit in a close circle with nothing between you. Find out how everyone’s doing. A good question to ask is: What’s been your best high and your worst low this past week? If you need to encourage people to talk, go around the circle, giving everyone a turn.
• The next step in the journey. Ask a couple of people to read aloud the next step and Bible passage from their Reach 4 Life book. Or, everyone can read it silently at the same time. Or, if your group is diligent, have everyone read it before coming to the group.
• Discuss. Lead a discussion by asking open-ended questions and giving everyone a chance to speak. You must not teach, preach or talk too much. This will ruin the discussion.
Four questions that work really well on every step of the journey are:
• What stands out most for you?
• Have you experienced any of this personally?
• Why are these truths so important to hear and do?
• How can we put them into practice in our lives?
You can also use some of the questions under Live, at the end of each journey step.
Prayer. Pray together once the group is ready. Pray a few short prayers for each other, or about what was read and discussed, or about anything. If there’s time, ask if anyone needs special prayer and pray for them as a group.
The end. Remind everyone about the following week. When? Where? Who’s leading the discussion? Bringing snacks? It’s also good to go over the six guidelines every few weeks.
What are the six guidelines?
• Be real and respectful with each other.
• Give everyone a chance to talk – listen more than you speak.
• Do your best to attend every week, be on time, and bring your Reach 4 Life book. If you can’t come, send a message saying you can’t make it.
• Laugh with each other, but not at each other.
• Keep your mind and heart open to God and his Word.
• Once you’ve been in a group for all 4 Journeys, think about starting your own Reach 4 Life Group with new people. This way the group will multiply into many groups.