Grace Group Guide — Releasing to Grow
John 15:1-5, 8 (CEB) · Tending the Soul: Growing in Grace Through Three Questions · Week 3 · June 14, 2026
In his final conversation with the disciples, Jesus reaches for an image from the vineyard. The Father is the keeper. Jesus is the true vine. We are the branches. The keeper removes dead branches and trims living ones, so that the vine bears more fruit. The instruction that holds the passage together is short: remain.
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 vine and branch, vineyard keeper, give us courage to release what no longer bears fruit. Hold us in the cutting. Teach us to remain when our instinct is to pull away. Grow in us what we cannot grow in ourselves. 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?
This week’s emphasis is the promise of presence, the discipline of remaining connected to the vine and to one another, season after season.
Where in your life right now does “remain” feel hardest, and what’s tempting you to pull away?
Which of the five promises (prayers, presence, gifts, service, witness) keeps you connected to the vine in the seasons when you’d rather drift?
What practice of remaining could you build into your rhythm this week, knowing the keeper is the one who produces the fruit?
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.
Jesus says the keeper trims even living branches so they bear more fruit. Sometimes we only see the keeper’s work in hindsight.
Where have you noticed God producing something good in your life that you didn’t engineer or earn?
What season of pruning, the loss of a role, a relationship, a chapter, do you now see as preparation rather than punishment?
Where is something tender and green just starting to break through that you want to pay attention to?
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 third Grace Group question lands here: what challenge are you giving to God? What are you willing to release so something new can grow?
What dead branch in your life have you been protecting, and what would it take to cooperate with the keeper’s cut?
What good thing might God be asking you to release, not because it failed, but because the next harvest needs the energy?
If becoming a member, or recommitting your membership, is one way of saying “I am willing to remain,” what does that look like for you this season?
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. Trust that the keeper has not stopped tending you.
The keeper is still tending. Grow with us at mcphersonfirst.org/next.