Discipleship group leaders’ hub
We’re so grateful for this collection of Spirit-filled leaders helping us cultivate the community life of Trinity Church. This ‘hub’ is a dedicated web page for you, as leaders, where you can find all the information you will need to lead your Group.
CONTENT
Discipleship Groups take shape around four core practices of Eat, Share, Pray and TRY. As we said at our Discipleship Group Leaders’ Day, we are asking that you help us to build a culture of TRY in your Discipleship Groups by (1) sharing TRY stories every week, and (2) regularly making space for the prophetic by all praying for someone specific (e.g. the ‘Mush Pot’).
In addition, we’d love to encourage your group to dive deeper into our new sermon series, “David.” To do so, we suggest you read the scripture passage aloud, make space for people to share what stood out to them from the text, and discuss the questions provided.
Questions to revisit each week:
1. What stood out from the sermon?
2. What did you find hard or what didn’t you understand?
3. What are you still reflecting on from the sermon?
Week 1 — A life after God’s own heart
Read: 1 Sam 16:1-13
Discussion question: How is your heart? Where do you feel distracted or divided and how could you move towards devotion?
Week 2 — A warrior in God’s battle
Read: 1 Sam 17
Discussion question: What would it look like to remind your fears who God is? Is there a ‘Goliath’ that God has laid on your heart to battle for his Kingdom?
Week 3 — Right worship first
Read: 2 Sam 6
Discussion question: Where in your life are you hurried, and how does this impact how aware of God you are?
What is one thing you could do to slow down in order to be more present to Jesus?
Is there a link between Jesus being at the centre of your life and that then impacting others around you? How could a life of TRY (telling someone about Jesus, giving a prophetic word, doing a miracle) correlate with Jesus being the centre of our worship.
Week 4 — A king out of place
Read: 2 Sam 11
Discussion question: What stood out to you from the comparison between King David and King Jesus? What are your reflections on having vulnerable friendships for accountability?
Week 5 — Confronted by the word of the Lord
Read: 2 Sam 12:1-14
Discussion questions: TBD
Week 6 — Giving back to God
Read: 1 Chr 29:1-19
Discussion question: TBD
KEY DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
Please note our termly Trinity Leaders’ Gathering gathering happening on Wed 8th July 7-9pm which is an invite to those who lead across the life of Trinity in different ways for a night of food, sharing and input from Jonny & Amy.
ATTENDANCE
In order to make sure that our Discipleship Groups are serving our whole church family as best as they can we are asking that you take an attendance for your first, last and mid-term gathering. We’ve made this as simple and easy as possible by setting an email reminder for you each time you need to submit an attendance with simple instructions on it - it should take you less than 2 minutes! If you want to find out more read this article.
our FOUR core practices
EAT
Eating together is one of the ways that we practice family together in Discipleship Groups. As you share food together, we encourage you to re-centre your hearts and invite Jesus into the midst of the meal using a piece of liturgy. Please find some example prayers you could use on page 16 of the Leader’s Handbook (find below).
SHARE
Sharing our lives with one another and learning together from the Way of Jesus are key ways that we grow in discipleship. For Lent 2026, we will have a short Scripture exercise for you to engage with each week.
PRAY
Turning our attention outwards towards our neighbours, streets and city is a key way in which we engage missionally through our Discipleship Groups. As well as joining in with Trinity’s simple daily prayer practices, we encourage you to spend time each week praying for one another and the needs of the church, city and world.
TRY
Here at Trinity, we think that faith means trying! As we continue to build a culture of TRY at Trinity we are asking you to (1) share TRY stories every week, and (2) regularly make space for the prophetic by all praying for someone specific (e.g. the ‘Mush Pot’).
LEADERS’ HANDBOOK
For more information on our core practices, what it means to be a group leader and more read our Leader’s Handbook here, which includes a guide for the first four weeks of your Discipleship Group.
PASTORAL CARE
While many of you are gifted in supporting and pastoring your Group, this is a responsibility and honour we share together. If you feel that a group member would benefit from some more targeted pastoral support, you can suggest that they get in touch Trinity’s Pastoral Care team. There are two options:
PASTORAL PRAYER
Our pastoral prayer team can meet with you 2 or 3 times over a few months. They will listen and pray with you. This is helpful if something in your life is significantly affecting your relationship with God and others. In these conversations and prayer times we hope to stand with you to bring this before God and see Him work.
To request pastoral prayer please complete this form
ENCOUNTER PRAYER
This is a one-hour prayer session with two people who will guide you as you meet with Jesus. Encounter prayer is often helpful if there’s a memory, thought pattern, or belief that is holding you back. Many people find new freedom and healing during this time.
To request encounter prayer please complete this form
SAFEGUARDING
We ask that all leaders complete the Church of England Basic Awareness 2024 safeguarding course which can be done here: CofE Safeguarding. Once you have done the course, please send your certificate to groups@trinitychurchnottingham.org.
If you have any safeguarding concerns that come up in your group, no matter how small, please don’t hesitate to pass them on to one of the team. Luke Meadows is the parish safeguarding officer for adults at Trinity and will log or action your concern as appropriate, but any one of the safeguarding team would be more than happy to help.