Identifying the key roles in your group ensures its long-term health.
by Life Together
As a leader, you're the champion for fulfilling the purposes of your group. It's critical, then, that you fully understand each member's role ahead of time. That will simplify figuring out who should be in them after your group kicks off. Below are several "job descriptions" of key roles in the group. You'll need to identify who can fill these roles—and then recruit members in your group for ...
A helpful overview of the basics of small-group leadership
by John Ortberg, Angie Ward, Kevin Rapp, and others
This guide is designed to help you equip your church to provide orientation and basic training to new small group leaders, and to help seasoned small group leaders refresh themselves on their responsibilities. You may use it either for a group training session or to give individually to small group leaders.
PREPARE FOR YOUR ROLE
The Big Picture of Small GroupsLeader, get ready to take part in a savory ...
Know the dangers involved with teaching what you never meant to teach.
Sam O'Neal
My wife and I were visiting Southern California on vacation when we decided to stop by Mission San Juan Capistrano—an adobe chapel complex founded by Franciscan monks in 1776. In the back of the mission was a small replica of the gardens that produced much of the monks' food for hundreds of years.
As I walked through the garden, I noticed a large sign tacked in front of a particularly leafy bush. ...
The biggest problem churches face in recruiting small-group leaders is that they are confused about what they are looking for. It is as if they go fishing for trout using the tackle designed for walleye. They either don't catch anything at all, or they catch the wrong kind of fish. ...
Note: This article has been excerpted from the SmallGroups.com training tool called Effective Turbo Groups.
I'll never forget the first time I was asked to lead a small group, which also happened to be a turbo group. My one concern that trumped all others was the fear that my group members would not like the way I facilitated. Consequently, I felt uptight, which of course made me more reserved and ...
Small groups can meet one another's needs and reach out to others.
Michael C. Mack
What is the biggest issue on which people disagree regarding small groups? As I have led small group workshops, I think I've found the answer to that question: Should groups be open or closed? If the emphasis leans too far toward meeting believers' needs in a closed group, an unchurched person would not feel comfortable. And after all, says the open-group adherents, the mission of the church is to ...
An easy guide to selecting, training, and sending apprentices in your church.
Stan Lubeck
We live and die in the ministry based on the number of laborers in the harvest field. The Home Group structure not only provides a superior vehicle for providing quality care to every member in the church, it is also a fantastic leadership equipping environment where the burden of responsibility for the ministry is shared by many. Apprentices are a critical factor in the multiplication of Home Groups. ...
Don’t do it all yourself—here's how to delegate the work.
Stan Lubeck
EPHESIANS 4:11-14 - "It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no ...
Models for intentional discipleship in a small groups church, focusing on closed discipleship groups.
David Limiero
Two years into my ministry at First Christian Church in Naperville, Illinois, I came to a stunning realization. Although by all outward signs our groups were a success, something vital was missing.
A person could be actively involved in our small group system (or our Adult Bible Classes) and conceivably never learn how to have a personal prayer life, never get a basic overview of the Bible, never learn ...
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