Sometime Autumn Calendar Guide

BEFORE SCHOOL STARTS

Are you familiar with the term “cycles of momentum”? Understanding the natural flow of a school year is indispensable & will help as you plan SomeTime . For more on this, check out this article on Cycles of Momentum .

• Order Resources

• Print Materials – Print Bible studies, small group supplements, and articles.

FIRST STUDENT LEADER MEETING OF THE YEAR

• Briefly Introduce SomeTime with Vision. Introduce SomeTime to your leaders. You probably don’t need to give a lot of details. Let students know how SomeTime fits in the calendar and give some vision for it. Here is a  sample guide that provides one way you might offer a brief introduction and a little vision:

• Supplement Your Small Groups. (Optional) You can help cultivate success by incorporating supplements into your small groups before starting SomeTime. For example, the Soularium Ice Breaker can help your students get to know each other, reflect on their own faith journey, and become more comfortable talking about their story with others. Or perhaps you might consider the One Verse Evangelism supplement for your non-freshmen groups. Provide (perhaps print) supplements for your small group leaders.

FIRST 6 WEEKS OF SCHOOL: OPTIONAL TRAINING

SomeTime doesn’t really require training. It's quite simple and involves skills that we use everyday: asking questions, meeting with friends over lunch, and listening. However, training does often boost confidence for students.

So if you want to offer training, think through your student gathering points already in place (leadership meetings, Fall Retreat, etc). Consider where it might make sense to offer training. Do you want to train the whole movement? Or do you want to focus your training on leaders?

• CoJourners - The Explorer Role. Many of you might be familiar with CoJourners. It’s a way of thinking about evangelism—a paradigm. CoJourners teaches principles for coming alongside others on their spiritual journey. You could say that SomeTime is a practical guide for living out the CoJourners paradigm, primarily the “Explorer” role.

• Soularium™ or Perspective Training. Many of your leaders might be familiar with these explorer tools, but, minimally, you will want to help your leaders explain Soularium™ or Perspective to their small group members.

LEADERSHIP MEETING BEFORE FALL RETREAT

As you get ready to begin SomeTime , you will want to provide your leaders with the vision, motivation, and heart behind it—as well as all the materials they will be using.

SomeTime is a guide to help a person take his or her first steps in understanding the faith stories of friends. Your role in helping students enter into the spiritual journeys of others by listening and asking questions is immeasurable; it’s one of the most important skills that you can pass on. The lessons learned from these experiences will form a foundation for being a cojourner for a lifetime—no matter one’s career or life stage. Remember that SomeTime simply involves asking a “Sometime…” question. For example, “Sometime, I’d like to hear about your spiritual journey. Would you be up for that?” And during that conversation (or in a next one), asking if you can meet to hear his or her story.

Here is a basic guide as you prepare to get your leaders ready to begin SomeTime . (Remember to take note of the leaders who were not at this meeting and make sure that they get the vision and resources they need for SomeTime .)

Start the SomeTime Bible study series after your Fall Retreat (or after the first 6 weeks of school). Be sure that all your leaders have the materials they need and know where they can review the information.

SOMETIME WEEK BY WEEK

Students will live out SomeTime individually, but small groups will go through SomeTime together simultaneously.

Your student leaders will play a meaningful role in shepherding the groups.

• Bible Study—Week 0. You will not introduce SomeTime during this Bible study. The purpose of this study is to simply help your group begin praying for their friends and cultivate compassion for those who don’t yet know Christ. (Bible study content provided.)

• Bible Study—Week 1. ***IMPORTANT NOTE*** This Bible study requires preparation! You cannot simply print off this study and show up. This week you will introduce SomeTime and hand out materials to your group. There is some Bible study content, but much of the time will be spent on SomeTime . Encourage your group throughout this week! (Bible study content provided.)

• Bible Study—Week 2. Review how SomeTime is going with your group and discuss 1 Corinthians 2:1-5. (Bible study content provided.)

• Bible Study Weeks 3-5. NO BIBLE STUDY CONTENT IS PROVIDED DURING THESE WEEKS. You will be resuming your previous Bible study series or beginning a new one, but it’s really important that you use 10 or so minutes out of your group’s time each week to ask how things are going with SomeTime.