Miles, Senior Pastor of The Rock Church, will be one of the featured speakers wrapping up the Group life Conference this year. And don't forget - as a reader of this website you get a discount by using this code - GLC8BLG
The Hartford Institute recently released a report on Changes In American Megachurches and found that a focus on small groups was one of the things in common for growing congregations. Here is a summary of the report:
Megachurches - Protestant congregations that draw 2,000 or more adults and children in a typical weekend (attendance not membership) - show considerable consistency over the past eight years.
They continue to:
Grow in size,
Lead the way as America's most multi-ethnic class of church,
Show a strong bias toward contemporary worship, and
Remain minimally involved in politics.
However, they also are institutions in transition. They are now:
Offering more worship services and expanding to multiple-locations,
Shifting to playing a greater role in community service,
Decreasing their use of radio and television, and
Putting greater emphasis on the role of small groups.
The video below really shows how a group of friends can have an impact on their community in a practical way. Try to think of a way that your small group can have an impact on your neighborhood!
I was reading some blogs on Small Groups recently and I ran across this post that focuses on the qualities and practices of effective leaders.
1. Leaders Model the Way
Leadership is not about personality; it's about behavior.
Leading means you have to be a good example, and live what you say.
Leaders must find their own voice, then they must clearly and distinctively give voice to their values.
Leadership is about the power of spending time with someone, of working side by side with colleagues, of telling stories that make values come alive, of being highly visible during times of uncertainty, and of asking questions to get people to think about values and priorities.
2. Leaders Inspire a Shared Vision
Every organization, every social movement, begins with a dream.
Leaders have a desire to make something happen, to change the way things are, to create something that no one else has ever created before.
In some ways, leaders live their lives backward... it is their vision of the future pulls them forward.
Leaders cannot command commitment, only inspire it.
Leadership is a dialogue, not a monologue. Leaders must know their constituents and speak their language.
3. Leaders Challenge the Process
Leaders venture out. They are pioneers. They are willing to step out into the unknown.
Leaders search for opportunities to innovate, grow, and improve. They are constantly looking outside themselves and their organizations for new and innovative products, processes, and services.
When it comes to innovation, the leader's major contributions are in the creation of a climate for experimentation, the recognition of good ideas, the support of those ideas, and the willingness to challenge the system to get new products, processes, services, and systems adopted.
Leaders are learners.
Life is the leader's laboratory, and exemplary leaders use it to conduct as many experiments as possible.
4. Leaders Enable Others to Act
Grand dreams don't become significant realities through the actions of a single person. It requires a team effort.
Leaders foster collaboration and build trust.
Leaders work to make people feel strong, capable, and committed.
Authentic leadership is founded on trust, and the more people trust their leader, and each other, the more they take risks, make changes, and keep organizations and movements alive.
5. Leaders Encourage the Heart
It is part of the leaders job to show appreciation for people's contributions and to create a culture of celebrating values and victories.
Encouragement is, curiously, serious business.
Leaders make sure people see the benefit of behavior that's aligned with cherished values.
Leadership is a relationship between those who aspire to lead and those who choose to follow. It is the quality of this relationship that matters most when we're engaged in getting extraordinary things done.
