Grace Group Guide — Checking the Roots
Psalm 1:1-3 (CEB) · Tending the Soul: Growing in Grace Through Three Questions · Week 1 · May 31, 2026 · Trinity Sunday
Psalm 1 opens the entire Book of Psalms with a portrait of happiness that has nothing to do with achievement. The truly happy person delights in God’s instruction day and night and becomes like a tree replanted by streams of water, bearing fruit at just the right time because its roots go deep.
New to Grace Groups? Grace Groups are small communities of 6 to 8 people who meet weekly to grow deeper in faith and support each other. They’re a place to be honest about your faith journey and watch over each other in love, not a Bible study, not a therapy group, not a place to fix each other’s problems. The format is simple, the conversation is real, and over time, these become the people who know your story. Every meeting follows the same five-part rhythm below.
1. Center
Open with prayer or a moment of silence. Take a breath. Let the week fall away.
God of deep roots and living water, slow us down. Open our hearts to examine honestly what nourishes our souls. Help us delight in your instruction, not as duty but as gift. Plant us where the water runs deep. Amen.
2. Soul Tending
Check in with where you are spiritually, not where you think you should be. These five areas can help you find your way into the conversation. Pick the one or two that feel most alive, or most stuck, right now.
Prayers — How is your prayer life? What are you reading or listening to?
Presence — How has worship or being with other Christians shaped your week?
Gifts — Where are you giving your time, money, or energy?
Service — Where are you serving? What does that look like right now?
Witness — Where have you shared your faith or lived it out loud?
The first Grace Group question, asked honestly. Where are your roots reaching, and where are they shallow?
How is it with your soul this week, feeding on what nourishes or drifting near what does not?
Where in your life are you producing without remembering what feeds the production?
What practice of returning to God do you want to build, and what is getting in the way?
3. God Sightings
Share something from this week where you noticed God moving, in your life, in someone else’s, or in the world around you. Big or small, it counts.
The psalm assumes God is already at work, drawing the tree near the water. Where have you noticed that pull this week?
Looking back at this week, where did you notice God already at work before you asked?
What scripture phrase or image has stayed with you through the week, even unbidden?
Who in your life is bearing fruit at just the right time right now, and what does that show you?
4. Growing in Grace
Name something you’re carrying, a decision, a fear, a next step you’ve been avoiding. The group isn’t here to fix it. Just to hear it, sit with you in it, and pray.
The psalm names a drift from following to standing to sitting. The Grace Group is where we name the drift out loud and decide together to step away.
What part of your spiritual life feels rooted, and what part feels shallow or thirsty?
Where in your week have you been sitting too long near something that is not feeding your soul?
What is one rhythm of return, five minutes with a psalm, a daily prayer, a Sabbath hour, you will commit to this week?
5. Close
Pray for each other before you leave.
Each person shares one prayer need in a sentence. Then someone in the group prays for them out loud. Keep it simple: “God, I pray for [name]...” and one or two sentences is plenty. Hold the hard things to the light. Trust that God is already at work in the soil.
Roots reach where you cannot see. Grow with us at mcphersonfirst.org/next.