Ask these questions to get a grasp of the vitality of your congregation's group life.
Jeff Weber
I smiled a few weeks ago as I read a framed quote on a pastor's desk: "Ministry is hard work—get over it." I'm always a bit leery when someone wants to make simple the difficult task of fostering community in the body of Christ. While this happens in many areas of ministry, one of the most critical areas of small-group development that people often oversimplify is health assessment.
Check out these statistics to get your finger on the pulse of small-groups ministry.
Dan Lentz
Definition: Benchmarking is a tool used to measure or compare your work or progress with others who are doing the same thing. Benchmarking is a powerful tool because it overcomes "paradigm blindness"—the mode of thinking that says, "The way we do it is the best because this is the way we've always done it."
Because it is difficult to get a handle on what is going on in other small groups outside ...
Teams, says author Charlene B. Adair-Heeley, need to critique themselves regularly to stay on track. It is like weight control-it's easier to take off five pounds a week for ten weeks than to lose fifty pounds all at one time.
Your small group is a team. You are united with common purposes and goals. How are you doing in achieving those goals? Adair-Heeley recommends two methods to find out.
Once your group gets rolling, it's easy to just let it be.
Pat J. Sikora
"While all members are periodically involved in evaluating how the group is performing, the good leader will be constantly evaluating and taking corrective actions as necessary."
—Bob Parker, Small Groups: Workable Wineskins
Once your group gets rolling, it's easy to just let it be. But I find it helpful to take the pulse of the group periodically. To do this I use various evaluation tools.
I smiled a few weeks ago as I read a framed quote on a pastor's desk, "ministry is hard work—get over it." I am always a bit leery when someone wants to make simple the difficult task of fostering community in the body of Christ. While this happens in many areas of ministry, one of the most critical areas of small group development that people often over simplify is health assessment.
A simple tool to help evaluate health at the various levels of small group ministry.
Dan Lentz
I have found that small group "health" gets evaluated from very different perspectives depending on your role in small group ministry. When I talk to small group directors or staff pastors or leadership boards, small group health seems to have much to do with uniform measurements (% of people in groups, development of new group leaders, retention of existing small group leaders, % of leaders who actively ...
Ask yourself these questions when assessing your small group's health.
Rick Lowry
As the group leader, is my walk with God incomplete?
When it comes to group health, there may be no more important question than this one. I cannot take a group to a spiritual place I have not been myself.
Just what is it that makes me an effective small group leader? Is it seminary education or years of experience in small groups? Is it the ability to think up creative ideas? As helpful as all of ...
Our small groups need a check-up much like our physical bodies need a yearly physical.
Keith Wright
Conduct an annual check-up to determine your small group's health. Evaluate your group's dynamics by using the "five senses checklist" to discover if you are growing together as a community, progressing along the road to spiritual maturity, and increasing in ministry effectiveness.
Eyes—Small groups look to God's Word and each other in order to catch a better glimpse of Jesus. Do you peer into ...
Ten questions to ask to help determine what's wrong with a sick small group.
Rick Lowry
IS IT TIME FOR A SHIFT IN LEADERSHIP?
Has the leader grown tired of leading? Was the leader ever effective as a small group leader, and should consider another ministry area? Is more training needed for the current leader? Does the leader need to recruit a co-leader, to share the load and to prepare for future leadership of additional groups? Is it time for someone else in the group to "step up to ...
When our small groups are sick, we have to diagnose correctly before we can make them well.
Dan Lentz
For some time my life has been an illustration of the ideas I'm going to share with you. I have struggled with a chronic illness for the past couple of years. Over that time, my symptoms have led to many different diagnoses. Most of which, unfortunately, were misdiagnoses. I even had times when my doctors all agreed there was a problem, but had no idea what the problems really was! It wasn't until ...
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