About Michael
Michael Groves’ desire is to use the gifts God has entrusted to him to come along side churches providing short term, detailed theological teaching and encouragement for a deeper knowledge and worship of our God.
Michael heard the call of God whilst at University (UNE Armidale) in Australia when he was 20. He obtained his Ph.D. in Biophysics from Flinders University, South Australia and worked in the medical field through most of his working life. Michael’s first position was in Germany as a “Guest Research Scientist” and then on to the USA where he worked in a variety of medical companies in R&D and finally in sales and marketing. His wife Shirley was a science teacher and left formal teaching to raise our two children and now teaches ESL to migrants.
Michael is an Elder Emeritus in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) and is part of REF (Reformed Evangelical Fellowship) and a teacher with ITEM (International Theological Education Ministries). Within his home church he has focussed much of his ministry on men’s discipleship and been blessed to be trained in Evangelism Explosion and Christianity Explored. Outreach is a major focus of all his ministry involvement. His theological training has mainly been through the local church, reading, and completing a Graduate Diploma of Divinity from Ridley Theological College, Melbourne, Australia. Michael has preached at his home church, overseen the Bible study groups and men’s discipleship.
Over the past 8 years (with a 2 year hiatus owing to Covid), Michael has taught week long courses in Bangladesh to Muslim converts and seekers on topics such as the Trinity, Atonement and Adoption in Christ. His approach has been to combine passages from the Old with the New Testament to provide an integrated view of the particular subject. Ultimately, the focus of all his teaching is to take the chosen topic and help people worship God. This has been taught over a period of 5 days, 4 lessons a day for a total of 20 lessons. However, 50% of the time was taken up with translation, so the same course would be taught over a period of 10 hours. Daily assignments of both questions and memory verses helps keep the attendees focused on the subject. The unit is often concluded with a worship service to once again, encourage and experience delighting in God. The attached outline provides an example of Michael’s teaching module on the Trinity,
Michael has also taught and preached in Malaysia and Ethiopia. A topic “Scientists View of Creation” is a favorite of Michael’s helping young people understand how to think through the data regarding how we got to be here.
Discipleship:
In the Western church there is a paucity of knowledge about the nature of the Trinity which leads to a reduced understanding of how to truly delight in God. This is true in the PCA church that Michael belongs to. Michael has used several different syllabi for men’s discipleship. The most intense one is the Life on Life series developed by Randy Pope, Perimeter Church, Atlanta GA. This is a 3 year weekly program that helps men develop in grace in a range of different areas with a strong focus on developing relationships with non-Christians and how to share the gospel in a systematic way. The other is Serge’s Discipleship course which is designed for preparing missionaries (a required syllabus for all Serge Missionaries). This helps refocus a Christian on their identity in Christ and to develop a lifestyle in which their “boasting” is more and more about Christ and less and less about themselves.
Materials:
Michael has developed a 5-6 week course that he has used in both a Bible study and discipleship group. The result of this has been a deeper understanding of God’s love and a delight in worshipping Him.
Michael has also developed a series of 5 videos on the Trinity to help people discover anew the delightfulness of the Trinity. Each one is ~4 minutes each. Whilst the initial focus was on the Trinity, the series provides a overview of the gospel as well. A trifold has also been produced that can be handed out to people interested in knowing more about the Trinity, and as an evangelism tool.
Theres is also a certified 8 lesson course titled “Learning to Delight in the Trinity” which is now part of the ITEM curriculum and being taught by Michael.