Officers' Christian Fellowship (OCF)

George Kuykendall (Lieutenant Colonel, United States Army, Retired)

RR #4, Box 149

Leavenworth, KS 66048, 913/6514652

Development of Small Group Ministry: When I attended the Army Command and General Staff College at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1970, I began to realize that here were over one thousand officers, gifted leaders who had great potential for achieving the Great Commission of Jesus Christ. These people truly would be going around the world! For twenty years I had been involved in small group Bible studies in military communities around the world. God gave me a vision for reaching military personnel and their families for Christ. Eventually I was reassigned to Ft. Leavenworth and was able to put some ideas into practice under the sponsorship of the military chaplains and OCF, a worldwide ministry among military officers and their families. Since 1973 we have had almost six hundred groups, and have discipled over nine hundred leaders. Currently, we have fifty groups that meet for one evening each week.

Maintaining a Small Group Ministry in a Transient Community: Ministry within the military community is unique in that people come and go every one to three years. After a move people desire to meet their neighbors, and they tend to be more open to evangelistic outreach during the first days of their arrival. Because of this, we reorganize our small group program each fall. We ask those hosting individual studies to hand-carry a formal, printed invitation to everyone in their neighborhoods. When someone hand-delivers an invitation to his neighbors and spends time talking with them, as many as 20 percent visit their neighborhood Bible study group. If we just mail it or stick it in the door, the response rate declines to 5 percent or less. It is important to demonstrate to people that we are interested in them. With the invitation we also include information about the study, the leader, and the host and make sure people realize they are invited regardless of religious persuasion.

Leadership Training: We encourage individuals and couples to participate first at the lowest level of commitment: attending a study. Later, they may host a study. We encourage them to become discussion facilitators and eventually Bible study leaders.

Bible study leaders are responsible for training their discussion facilitators. In turn, the leaders are encouraged to attend a one-hour meeting on Monday or Tuesday morning each week. Tuesday mornings are for first-year leaders, who learn the principles of small group ministry and practice them with their groups. On Monday mornings we focus on helping experienced leaders learn to develop a network of Bible study groups in their community.

Conducting Individual Bible Studies: I am primarily interested in reaching people who have never studied the Bible, so I have some pretty tight rules. If people visit a one-hour study and it lasts two hours, they probably will not return—we have violated our agreement with them. Our invitations state that our studies last one hour. I also emphasize that a group should never consist of more people than can comfortably sit in a circle. Bibles are provided for those who do not have them. No one is required to read, pray, or participate.

The discussion facilitators lead a Bible discussion for about forty-five minutes. The study leaders are responsible for the administration and spiritual growth of the group. They open with announcements, introduce people, guide the prayer time, and watch the clock. Leaders make sure it does not become a prayer group or a singing group without the agreement of those who come. They try to protect members from embarrassment; for instance, when people are asked to turn to a book of the Bible, they at least check the index and say, "In my Bible, the page number is so-and-so."

Since the Bible is our main reason for meeting, I feel that we need to conduct a quality Bible study. Discovery learning is more important than didactic teaching. I teach leaders to ask inductive questions. The measure of a leader's success is how little the leader talks and how much others participate. I try to make sure they never assume that a person is familiar with the Bible. I also train them in the basics, such as not becoming defensive and responding with love and a gentle manner.

We continually bathe this ministry in prayer, and try to remain open to new ideas. Today we have leaders throughout the world who are reaching others in the military for Christ!