Description:
Small groups are the crossroads where life and discipleship meet. This blog is an on going discussion forum about small group ministry in the Christian community and churches.
Whether your group has been together a long time or just a few months it can be challenging for a leader to decide what to do next with their small group. This article can help you gain some perspective by guiding you through some key questions to evaluate your small group.
When trying to figure out where to take your smallgroup (bible study or whatever you want to call it) one of the best things you can do is figure out where you are. There are four major relationship areas to consider:
God - Your personal relationship with God and your group's relationship with God.
Each other - The depth of your relationships with your group members and their relationships with each other.
Leadership - The number of future leaders your group is producing and you are personally investing in.
Evangelism - The relationships your group has with unchurched people and the passion they tap into to connect those people to God.
Evaluation Questions
God:
How often do you pray for your group each week?
Do you and your group members discuss personal time spent with God?
How much time do you spend in prayer and bible study each day?
Does your group spend time talking about prayers that God has answered?
Each other
How many times does your group meet in an average month?
How many parties, socials, or fun group activities has your group had in the past 3 months?
How many times have you invited someone from your group over for a meal in the past two months?
Do you ever participate in church activities as a group by going together?
How often do you communicate with group members by phone, email, cards, or letters to encourage them?
Leadership:
Does your group have an assistant-leader or an apprentice?
How many of your group members expect to lead a group sometime in the future?
How many people in your group participate by leading different components of the meeting? (For example: prayer time, ice breaker, bible reading, etc.)
How often does your group pray about developing new group leaders?
Who in your group would you like to see become a leader?
Evangelism:
How often does your group pray for people far from God?
How many parties or gatherings have you had, not spiritual in nature, that your group members could invite their non-Christian friends to.
When a visitor attends your group for the first time, how often do you follow up with a phone call, card, or an invite to breakfast or lunch?
Does your group have a goal to grow or start another group?
These questions help me figure out if I am on target with leading my group. Hopefully, you find them useful. You may even want to bring them to your next meeting and discuss them as a group!
For other great articles on small groups visit our article section by clicking here.
Matthew 16:24-26 - one of Jesus' provocative questions, What good would it be to gain the whole world but lose your own soul?
The most critical quality of a group leader - leading from a healthy soul.
Symptoms of a diminishing soul:
Isolation Apathy Insomnia Selfishness Anger/bitterness Being busy Secret sins Critical attitude Fear
A healthy soul displays:
Joy Confidence Safety Purpose Energy Attentive and Aware
Only you can put yourself in a place where you receive from God and if your soul is driving everything that happens in our life, leadership is inevitable and leadership is dangerous.
There is a relationship between pace of life and the health of our soul.
How does the soul interface with our pace of life?
Critical Question: How do I keep my pace of life in alignment with the current state of my soul?
Many groups take a break in the summer and often leaders wonder what they should do next with their group as the fall season begins. It is a common question because people are often coming back from summer break and they are ready for something fresh. However, for leaders I think that answers can be found in asking the right questions. To honestly figure out where your group needs to go... you need to figure out where you are and there are four major areas to consider:
1. God - Your personal relationship with God and your group's relationship with God.
2. Each other - The depth of your relationships with your group members and their relationships with each other.
3. Leadership - The number of future leaders your group is producing and who you are personally investing in.
4. Evangelism - The relationships your group has with unchurched people and the passion they tap into to connect those people to God.
Evaluation Questions
God:
How often do you pray for your group each week?
Do you and your group members discuss personal time spent with God?
How much time do you spend in prayer and bible study each day?
Does your group spend time talking about prayers that God has answered?
Each Other:
How many times does your group meet in an average month?
How many parties, socials, or fun group activities has your group had in the past 3 months?
How many times have you invited someone from your group over for a meal in the past two months?
Do you ever participate in church activities as a group by going together?
How often do you communicate with group members by phone, email, cards, or letters to encourage them?
Leadership:
Does your group have an assistant-leader or an apprentice?
How many of your group members expect to lead a group sometime in the future?
How many people in your group participate by leading different components of the meeting? (For example: prayer time, ice breaker, bible reading, etc.)
How often does your group pray about developing new group leaders?
Who in your group would you like to see become a leader?
Evangelism:
How often does your group pray for people far from God and when was the last time you were able to share your faith?
How many parties or gatherings have you had, not spiritual in nature, that your group members could invite their non-Christian friends to.
When a visitor attends your group for the first time, how often do you follow up with a phone call, card, or an invite to breakfast or lunch?
Do you know how to draw the bridge and use it to share your faith? Have you done it recently?
These questions help me figure out if I am on target with leading my group. Hopefully, you find them useful. You may even want to bring them to your next meeting and discuss them with you group or with other leaders in your group ministry.
One thing that never leaves a leader's plate is confrontation and conflict resoultion. However, sometimes it is challenging to know when you need to confront someone. I recently had to confront a family member on an inssue and it got me asking this question - How do we know when we should confront someone? A while back David Foster, author and pastor of The Gathering Church, wrote 10 signs it is time to confront:
1. It's time to confront when things aren't working out even after you've given them sufficient time to do so. 2. When you're avoiding each other. 3. When your silence is more about fear than the truth. 4. When allowing the contact to go on is hurting the other person. 5. When the contact is hurting other people. 6. When you see there is still time to redeem the relationship, the job, the person, or the potential future. 7. When you're responsible for the health and well-being of the people involved in the situation. You have the power to do something, therefore you have the obligation. 8. When you're able to separate the behavior from the person. You love the person always, even though you can't support the behavior. 9. When your integrity and reputation as a friend, manager, leader, or business owner is on the line, it's time to confront. 10. When you understand that sometimes love must be tough if it's truly love. Love that is based on a lie is indulgence. Love that is based on truth and applied with mercy and grace is truly a gift from God.
Last year I this time of year I was thinking about this topic when reading through proverbs. If you want to read my reflections, click here. One piece of advice as you proceed with dealing with conflict in your group and in your church... the longer you wait, the harder it gets. Do it now.
If you watch the video below you can see some experimentation that BMW is doing in changing the skin of their cars to a flexible material instead of rigid steel or fiberglass.
How does this apply to groups?
In one question - is your group model flexible? Does it allow for variety or is it rigid? At the conference I just attended Heather Zempel said that "maturity does not equal conformity." I AGREE. However I would follow that with rigidity does not equal excellence.
I belive that just like the BMW experiment we can build a small group leadership model that has a strong frame but stills allows flexibility for different styles of leadership and different types of groups. Take a look at the video below and let me know what you get from the concept...
