Imagine that you are in a café with people from all over the world. You sit at one table with a woman from Tajikistan and a man from Mali. Amazingly, you can understand each other. Then, you move to another table and sip coffee with people from Finland, Bolivia and Yemen. It’s a rich experience as you exchange ideas and learn together.

The World Café Method of Learning is a tool for helping adults learn together – to build knowledge as an interactive community (you can read more about it at the World Café website). Here’s what happens (my approach is slightly different than the one on the website):

Break a larger group into small groups

When I conduct a World Café of Learning, I will set up tables with four to six chairs around each one. This automatically forces people to create small groups as they enter the room. You can do this with groups ranging from ten people to hundreds of people.

Explain the World Café

I orient people to the World Café approach by painting the analogy of a world café like I did in the opening paragraph.

Invite groups to write down the discussion topic

Each table should have a large sheet of paper with several markers. Ask groups to write down the discussion topic in the centre of the paper. For example, at one of my World Cafés, the topic was “Teaching Adults Effectively.”

Introduce the first question

My first question for the “Teaching Adults Effectively” World Café was: Think about a good teacher you have had as an adult. From your perspective, what made this teacher effective? Give group members 10-20 minutes to discuss the question and to write or draw their responses on the sheet of paper. Encourage groups to connect the ideas – to build knowledge together. When I do a World Café with a smaller group, I will serve a different dessert during each discussion round in keeping with the café theme.

Moving to a new group

In Acts 2:42-47, we see an inspiring example of a missional church – a loving, Christ-centered church on a mission to be and make growing disciples of Jesus. What can we learn from the early church in ACTS about being missional today?

Devotion

The early church devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer (Acts 2:42).

The Greek word for “devotion” means to give something our steadfast attention, to care for it relentlessly, to wait courageously on something constantly. What were the objects of the early church’s devotion?

They were devoted to learning truth according to what the apostles taught. They learned and lived out the truth wholeheartedly and courageously.

They were devoted to the fellowship. They were committed to each other in an enduring sort of way.

They were committed to remembering Jesus. They broke bread regularly as a way of rallying to Christ, keeping him at the forefront of their lives.

They engaged in extraordinary prayer.

Awe

In the early church, “Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles” (Acts 2:43).

The people were amazed at what God was doing in, through and around them. It was a powerful time when God regularly demonstrated His power. When God is working in us and through us, there is always evidence to show His working. Sometimes, we miss it. Yet, as we take the time to notice and give thanks to the Lord, we too will be amazed at the miracles that God is performing in and around us.

Togetherness

All the believers were together and had everything in common (Acts 2:44). One would get the impression that the early Christians enjoyed a strong sense of community. They were close to each other. They helped each other. They met together in large groups and small groups. They were together in their relationships and in their sense of mission for Jesus.

Gladness

The people were happy (Acts 2:46). Wouldn’t we be happy, too, if we were experiencing this kind of vibrant, intimate, Christ-centered, truth-inspired, prayer-driven, awe-inspiring community?

Favor

God was powerfully at work in the church in Acts. Part of this work was granting the Christians favor in the eyes of those around them (Acts 2:47). This favor was an important part of people receiving the gospel message and accepting Jesus.

A study on small groups entitled, Small Groups - Big Impact: Connecting People to God and One Another in Thriving Groups (2011) by Jim Egli and Dwight Marable, discovered that groups that see people accept Christ, increase in size, and multiply into additional groups have four things in common. These groups have small group leaders who model and facilitate prayer, outreach, care and the empowerment of group members.

Prayer

The study found that 83% of groups that had a leader who modelled and facilitated prayer saw someone come to Christ in the past nine months (versus 19% of groups that did not have a praying leader). Praying leaders spend time with God. They actively pray for group members and group meetings. They pray for unsaved people in their lives and in the lives of others within the group. As the leader and others in the group engage in a lifestyle of prayer, people sense God’s presence in the group. Life change happens. People get saved. Who wouldn’t want to be part of that kind of group?

Outreach

When group leaders and their groups have an outreach focus, they are much more likely to see people come to Christ. The study found that 90% of groups with this kind of focus saw someone come to Christ in the last six months (versus 11% of groups without this outreach emphasis). In the book, Egli and Marable talk about the five I’s of reaching out: 

• Investment - Members spend time with friends in order to share Christ
• Invitation – Leaders encourage members to invite others
• Intention - Outreach is a stated purpose of the group
• Intercession – Group members pray during their meetings for unsaved friend 
• Imitation - Leaders model relational outreach

If we want to grow our small groups, outreach needs to be an important part of group life.

Care

A strong caring orientation is another key strategy for growing our small groups. The study showed that 44% of caring groups added at least four new members since starting (versus 18% without this emphasis). Caring groups spend time with one another outside of group meetings. They pray for each other, support each other and have fun together. Group members function like a family.