Planning an EQUIP19 Debrief

Your group has been to EQUIP19 (at ICC or via livestream), so what’s next?

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Sometimes on Sunday afternoons, I meet with a wonderful group of women to think about Women’s Ministry, in particular the intentional discipleship of women at our church. The women have distilled down this huge topic down to a triple focus for their day-to-day thinking:

  • initiating gospel conversations

  • initiating prayer, and

  • initiating opportunities to read the Bible.

Before EQUIP19, we were brain-storming ways that we could use EQUIP as a catalyst for our triple focus. For example, one of my favourite ‘before’ ideas was listening to chapters 12-14 together in the car on the way in, via an audio Bible app and sharing any questions it raised.

Well, now it’s ‘after’ EQUIP … what plans do you have for ‘initiating’ women’s discipleship based on EQUIP?

Idea 1: Swap notes (121 or small group)

Arrange a meet up with a friend to re-read chapters 12-14 and compare notes. Or if your friend couldn’t make it to EQUIP19, share what you learnt. Then pray together about any ways that these chapters have re-ordered your thinking and life. You can upscale this idea from one friend to a few women easily.

Idea 2: Recap & de-brief (larger group)

If you have a larger group in mind, then something a bit more formal might be helpful. We’re planning to get all our women together one Sunday afternoon.

Here’s a simple template:

  1. Ask 3 women to give a 3-5 minute summary of each of the talks from the conference.

    It’s a good way to refresh everyone’s memories of what they heard, whilst giving three women a manageable opportunity to learn to teach upfront. And it means women who weren’t at the conference can catch up on some of the teaching, enabling them to participate or at least keep up with the conversation.

  2. Break into small discussion groups so everyone can contribute.

    You might consider providing some more text based discovery questions, if there are a number of women who didn’t come to EQUIP19 or if it’s a long time afterwards. If it’s a large gathering, you could find a way for each small group to share their reflections and applications with the whole group. See ideas of questions below.

  3. Pray in pairs, in small groups, or as a large group.

  4. You could add some other elements from the conference like singing some of the songs we sang at EQUIP19 or saying The Apostle’s Creed together.

Ideas for Reflection Questions

  • Here’s some great questions to get you looking at the text carefully.

  • Here’s some reflection and application questions that I’ve been thinking about…

Chapter 12

“All needed, all needy, all His.” - Annabel Nixey

  • How does this phrase sum up Paul’s main points in Chapter 12?

  • We often feel we ‘belong’ to a group, if there are lots of people ‘just like us’. How does this chapter challenge our feelings?

  • What correction(s) in my attitude or actions do I need to make based on this chapter?

Chapter 13

“Without Jesus, this chapter is about impossible love…” - Carmelina Read

Paul wrote this chapter as a stinging rebuke to the Corinthian church, directed at their lack of love. In what ways, am I stung by Paul’s words too?

  • How does Jesus make this kind of love a daily experience for Christians?

  • Will those I serve and minister to remember me for my gift, or my love?

Chapter 14

“All gifts are not equal…” - Caitlin Orr

  • This sounds wrong to our modern ears but based on what he has already said in chapters 12 and 13, why is prophecy greater?

  • How does this counteract the ideas we get from the world around us about giftedness?

Summing it up…

What did you learn about true spirituality?

Isobel Lin