Our guest today is Pastor Dean Inserra. Dean is the Lead Pastor of City Church, a church he started in his hometown of Tallahassee, Florida in 2007. Dean has a passion to reach his hometown for Christ through the local church and to see healthy churches planted across the South and the nation. He is a graduate of Midwestern Seminary and is pursing a doctoral degree from Southern Seminary and serves on the Leadership Council for the Southern Baptist Convention’s ERLC. Dean is married to his wife Krissie and they have three children, Tommy, Ty, and Sally Ashlyn. He loves baseball, Starbucks, the New England Patriots, and the indoors.

Questions:

1. What do you think it is about the Bible belt that is different when it comes to group life?

2. What have you learned about cracking cultural Christianity that might help a group leader?

3. What approaches have you found to be successful in making groups more missional and engaged in their cities and towns?

4. On the show we’ve had several people address the political division we’re currently seeing, particularly in group life. I’d be interested in your thoughts about managing differing political and social positions and perspectives within a community or small group.

Quotes:

Church is not something that is treated with hostility in the south.

A group is another thing that would inconvenience people.

There are no next steps taken to live out the Christian life.

We have a lot of unsaved Christians who carry the label, but there’s no context to it.

We need to equip group leaders on how to unpack years of this theistic – where Jesus isn’t necessary – kind of Bible Belt Christianity.

You’ve got to get them lost before you can get them saved.

Resources mentioned:

The Unsaved Christian: Reaching Cultural Christianity with the Gospel

This Episode’s Sponsor:

What happens when the Bible and humanity collide? Not what you’d expect. Living & Effective, a podcast collaboration between Christianity Today and the Christian Standard Bible, journeys through history, current events, theology, and the human condition to uncover surprising ways the Bible accomplishes God’s plan in the world.”

 

 

The Group Answers Podcast is a weekly show designed to resource, train, and encourage small group leaders. Each episode considers current trends and resources as well as timeless truths and methods of discipleship. It is hosted by Brian Daniel, a Bible study and discipleship expert in Lifeway’s Groups Ministry, and Chris Surratt, the small group and discipleship specialist at Lifeway and author of Small Groups for the Rest of Us.