Starting a Pod

If you want to start a Think Well Pod, congratulations, you are a leader! We’ve put together this guide to help you get started. We ask that you reach out to the Think Well team at pods@thinkwellconference.org to let us know if you start a pod. We’d love to be in prayer for you, and to serve as a resource for you, as you and your friends become warriors for truth.

Don’t be worried if you’ve never started or participated in anything like this before! Ask God for wisdom in faith (James 1:5), and let Paul’s instructions to young Timothy, his son in the faith, encourage you:

Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. (1 Timothy 4:12 ESV)

Growing the Pod

If you’re looking for pod members, your current circle is a great place to start. Reach out to your friends at school, church, youth group, in your neighborhood, etc., and ask if they are interested in reading and discussing a book about apologetics with you.

Alternatively, you could choose a resource, watch/read/listen to it yourself, and then reach out. If a resource is meaningful to you, your excitement about it will be infectious!

Here are some ideas for how to start a pod recruitment conversation:

• “Hey guys, I just read Live Not By Lies by Rod Dreher! I really love the perspective on ____. Would you want to read it too so we can start a book discussion about it?”

• “I haven’t felt engaged with worldview topics since the last Think Well Conference! Would you want to listen to some podcasts together and discuss them to keep our minds busy striving for truth? We could invite some of our friends and make it a pod!”

• “My friend doesn’t understand my faith in Christ. I want to read some books to help me understand where she’s coming from and how to answer her questions. Do you want to join me? We could practice how to have meaningful discussions with people from other backgrounds.”

Structure

Think Well Pods can be structured many different ways, so the purpose of this guide is not to lay out one exact method for leading a pod but to give you ideas and tips for how to proceed. Following is a list of a few “need-to-haves” for a pod.

Discussion leader

You need someone to guide the discussions you will have. This could be you, but it doesn’t have to be! Great discussion leaders tend to be confident speakers and good at both listening and responding to people. They need to spend extra time becoming familiar with the material (a cursory skim won’t yield the best results) and taking notes about potential discussion topics and ways to direct the flow of the conversation.

Host adult/parent

It is wise to have a mature Christian adult attend your meetings or be nearby when you meet (Job 12:12).

Host location

This could be anywhere: a public park, your living room, your church, a coffee shop, etc. Zoom (or a similar platform) is also a good option during this time if you are concerned about COVID.

Resources

We suggest kicking off your pod with an “opening” resource that lays the foundation for a biblical worldview and the necessity of apologetics before getting too specific in your focus.

We’ve included a list of resources, some which are more general and would be great “opening” resources. After you’ve laid a solid foundation for your pod, you can decide as a group what specific topic to focus on. We encourage you to zero in on specific questions you or your pod members have—maybe one that came up in your opening study.

Some topics on which you might explore a biblical viewpoint include: social justice, the sanctity of life, sexuality/gender issues, marriage, religious freedom, science/evolution, critical theory/critical race theory, technology/media, socialism, cults and other religions (e.g., Islam, Mormonism), how to live out your faith, how to share your faith (evangelism strategies), the reliability of Scripture/the Gospels, “progressive Christianity” … and so many more!

Ground Rules

It’s helpful to lay down some ground rules for the pod at the outset; read this at your first pod meeting, and let them head off common problems before they happen! This will help your time together to be enjoyable and fruitful rather than contentious and stressful. Here are some suggested ground rules:

• Don't attack a person; attack an idea.

• Remember every person comes with different experiences (including, for some, painful pasts) and assumptions. Instead of immediately becoming presumptuous or labeling someone as being in a certain category, try to get at the root of what they believe. Ask questions like, “What has led you to that belief?” or “What do you mean by that?” Sometimes by asking probing questions will help someone see a problem in their own thinking without you ever having to point it out explicitly.

• Let everyone have a chance to speak at each gathering (if they wish); no one should dominate the discussion.

• If the discussion gets too intense, take a “time out” as a group; take a deep breath and pray together for wisdom and clarity, reminding yourselves of your goals and of the need to show gentleness and respect.

Prayer

Bathe your pod in prayer! Pray about it outside of your meeting time and when you meet, both at the beginning of your study and at the end. These group prayers do not have to be long; just make them an earnest acknowledgment that it is only through the Spirit of God that our eyes are opened to truth and our hearts and minds become receptive to God’s instruction and transformation (James 1:5). Ask him to bless your gathering and then enter into your time together with the confidence that he will do just that.

Tips for Group Discussions

The discussion leader’s role is to:

• Keep the discussion on track—digressions are fine, but if the conversation strays too far off topic, it’s your job to bring it back.

• Introduce a new focus or question if the conversation seems to be flagging.

• Make sure that everyone feels that their voice has been heard and that no single person’s voice is heard too much (and that includes your own!).

• Keep things civil—it wouldn’t be much of a discussion if everybody agreed, but it is important that people express their alternate opinions in constructive ways that open up a point for discussion rather than disrespectfully squashing the opposition.

• If you’re worried that someone in your group is suggesting something that runs counter to Scripture, it’s usually best to wait and see if someone else in the group will gently correct that thought with Scripture. This usually works better than if the discussion leader immediately jumps in (it could seem like you’re trying to “shoot down” their ideas and acting as a superior rather than as a peer). However, truth is important, so if you’ve waited and it doesn’t seem like anyone feels free to object, feel free to gently state what you understand the Bible to say.

• Finally, feel free to say, “I don’t know!” It’s totally appropriate to tell your group, “Let’s all do some homework on this and continue this discussion next time.”

Resources

Don’t miss our recommended resources page HERE! We’ll update this page as needed with new resources that we run across.

Contact Us!

Feel free to reach out to us anytime if:

• You have an apologetics/worldview question that stumps you

• You need any advice about your pod

• You start a pod (we’d like to pray for you and serve as a resource to you)

• You want to join a pod (no promises, but if we know of other interested students in your area, we’ll try to connect you!)

Pastor Todd Cothran: todd@crosslife.church

Think Well Team: pods@thinkwellconference.org