Calling – Called to Shepherd God’s People
Leaders have a heart for being caregivers. They see others with compassion, as Christ saw them in Matthew 9:36-38-distressed and downcast, in need of a good shepherd who will protect them and provide nurturing care for them. Deep in their hearts, leaders are convicted about the need to do ministry and use their gifts to shepherd others (Phil. 1:8; 1 Thess. 2:7-8; 1 Peter 5:1-4).
Competence – Able to Lead and Guide a Group
Leaders set direction, keeping the group focused and guided toward its purpose. Leaders also take the time to develop the skills they need to effectively facilitate a small group (Matt. 4:19; 9:36-38; Acts 6:1-7).
Compatibility – Having the Temperament and Passion for Leadership
Leaders lead well because it is part of the way the Holy Spirit has designed them. Their design is compatible with the ministry to which they are called and with people with whom they must work. Teamwork in leadership is essential. Using their spiritual gifts to lead alongside others is the kingdom design for ministry (Acts 6:2; Rom. 12:8; Heb. 13:7,17).
Commitment – Doing What it Takes
Spirit-led leaders are committed to the vision of the ministry, to Christ, to their calling, and to helping develop the members of their groups. They realize that leadership requires commitment, not convenience. Leaders are committed to seeing people grow in Christ and to reaching new people for Christ as they are able (Matt.28:18-20; Rom. 16:3-4; 2 Tim. 2:2).
Capacity – An Ability to Serve People and Provide Care for Them
Leadership is serving others and doing whatever it takes to accomplish the ministry. This means having time, energy, and resources at your disposal. Leaders must free themselves from unnecessary commitments and distractions so that they have the capacity (spiritual, emotional, and physical resources) to do what God has called them to do (1 Tim. 3:4-5, 12).
Leadership – How will it work?
Small Group Leadership Responsibilities
You must be willing to commit to doing the following four major tasks:
Build a Leadership Team
Your leadership team should consist of you, an apprentice whom you will mentor and train, and a host or hostess for your small group meeting.
How to build a leadership team
- 1. Sense God’s calling for you to lead a small group.
a. Do you have a passion for nurturing others in the Lord (John 21:15-17; 1 Peter 5:1-4)
b. Do you enjoy relating to others in a way that brings them together in group life (Heb. 10:24-25)?
c. Do you sense you have a genuine walk with God that will be an example to others (1 Thess. 2:10-13)?
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- 2. Choose a person to mentor as you lead your group (an apprentice).
a. Choose someone who has the desire to demonstrate the characteristics of a small group leader and who desires to help others grow spiritually (2 Tim. 2:2).
b. Include your apprentice in as many of your leadership activities as you can. Spend time with this person to disciple him or her (Matt. 4:18-22; Mark 3:13-15; 2 Tim. 3:10).
3. Find a host/hostess for your group (a place to meet and a person to be responsible for the meeting place).
a. Work with your host/hostess to plan your meeting schedule and any other important details such as refreshments and child care if necessary.
b. Remember to update your meeting schedule regularly with your host/hostess.
4. Receive the training needed to lead a small group and continue growing spiritually as a leader.
a. Participate in:
· Leadership development with your coach (shepherd) for information, problem solving, support, leadership gatherings, and celebrations
· Training events as needed or as recommended by your coach (shepherd)
· Annual small group leadership retreat (Future)
b. Make sure you are spending consistent time in the Word of God and in prayer (Ps. 1:1-3; Acts 1:13-14). You cannot spiritually impart what you do not have. Only growing leaders produce growing Christians. Read your Bible, asking God to teach you and give you a vision for your group.
c. Work through this notebook with your coach (shepherd)
Conduct Life-Changing Group Meetings
As the LIFE group leader, your responsibility includes assembling the group and leading the time in a way that facilitates self-disclosure, understanding and application of the Word, and mutual care and support.
Leading your small group
1. Identify who will be in your group and challenge them to make a commitment for a
period of time. It is best to meet with each individual (or couple) to get to know them
before inviting them to be in your group. A group can grow to about eight to twelve
people and still experience discussion and vulnerable sharing.
a. Use the natural connections or relationships that you already have to find your group. This might include people in your ministry, neighborhood, place of work, or acquaintances. Remember, the body of Christ is diverse, so your group might include various kinds of people as well.
b. Set your meeting time, place, and frequency. We will start out meeting once a month on the second Sunday night. Your group may decide to meet more often and your are encouraged to find another time to meet in addition that Sunday night.
2. Use the most appropriate resources available for small group study that seem to fit the
needs of the group. We will start out providing the same curriculum for all the groups for at least four lessons. Those lessons will be over the Mission and Values of the church so we can all start by understanding the goals of our church. After the initial studies are finished each group will review their particular needs to determine what they want to study. We will always provide general lessons which will benefit everyone that you may always use.
We will always strive to supply biblically based material that is application-oriented and good for discussion. All needs and studies must be discussed with your coach (shepherd) to assure the highest possible quality and lack of doctrinal error in all our studies.
3. Share the responsibility of teaching, leading discussions, social time, prayer, and
ministry involvement with gifted members of your group. Don’t feel as though you
have to do everything for the group. Use your apprentice.
Some in your group might be more gifted than you in certain areas. Allow
them to exercise their gifts in the group, such as teaching, leading worship,
leading prayer, care-giving, et cetera.
4. On a monthly basis, report the progress of your group using the Touching Base (TB)
forms your coach provides.
Shepherd the Members of Your Group
It is your spiritual responsibility to care for and nurture your small group members so they become fully devoted followers of Christ and participating members of the church.
Shepherding the members of your group
1. Pray for your meeting time and for each member of the group (Phil. 1:3-11;
Col. 1:9-12).
2. Exercise oversight of your members (1 Peter 5:1-3). Another word for
oversight is care or shepherd. It means to be concerned about the welfare of
each member of your group just as you are concerned about your own welfare
(Phil. 2:4, 20-21).
3. Model Christlikeness to you group. Serve them as Christ served His disciples
with acts of kindness (John 13:1-5). Help them grow in Christ. Encourage one
another to live each moment of life as Christ would.
4. Create a safe place for others to share their feelings, hurts, pains, and concerns.
People will be only as vulnerable as you are. Admit your weaknesses to the
group in a way that encourages others to see themselves as they truly are
(2 Cor. 4:7; 12:20).
Expand the Ministry
As the Lord grows the group, it will be necessary to consider birthing a new group in order to provide the appropriate amount of care for each person and to allow others in the church to experience life change through small groups. This should only be done when you feel the group is ready to birth and when the apprentice is appropriately trained.
Expanding the ministry
1. Use the open chair to invite others to your group. There are many people who
are in relationship with your group members that are unconnected to your
church.
a. Invite prospective new members to a social event with your group.
b. Get a feel from the group on whether these new members would be a
good fit. You might need to cast the vision that growth is healthy and
normal for a good group.
2. Encourage each group member to maintain a healthy relationship with the
church. Members should aspire to become fully devoted followers of Christ
who participate actively in the life of the body. This is best done by modeling
it yourself.
3. Develop your apprentice by providing him or her with leadership
responsibilities and people to shepherd. It is likely that these people will join
the apprentice to form the nucleus of a new group.
Value and Commitment to membership in LIFE groups
Membership… how it will work.
Formation of Groups
Step 1)
We will pass around a general sign-up list on Sunday in all the Adult Bible Classes. Everyone interested in participating in LIFE groups will write their name, phone number, number, and ages of children.
We will also pass around a general sign-up sheet for Leaders Apprentice Leaders and Host family candidates. Candidates because they will be considered for those positions but it is not a guarantee that they will immediately be given the job.
Step 2)
All of the LIFE group Leaders will meet around a table and each will have a complete list of names of all the members that would like to participate in LIFE groups. Then they will look for 10-12 names of people that they think would FIT in their group. They should select half of the people from the list that are already in their friendship circle. They might be people they would ordinarily talk to after services or maybe see socially. Then they should select the rest from people they may or may not know well but are convinced would fit in with the group.
Step 3)
Next the LIFE group leaders will call those people they have selected or meet them at the church building to invite them to be in their LIFE group. If the person or couple readily accepts they will be part of the group but if they say no or even hesitate then the leader will ask them if they already had a group in mind. If they do the leader will offer to contact that person for them and turn their name along with their response back into the LIFE group’s ministry team. The leader will also suggest they call that other leader as soon as they can then he will call the leader and tell them that persons name and to expect a call from them.
When any leader gets 8 people on his list to accept he may close his group with 10 being the maximum one should start off with.
Step 4)
Once the LIFE group is going adding new members to the group will always be one of the four goals of the leader and the group. Sources for new members will come from three areas. The first is all the church members and are active but not involved in a LIFE group. Your ABC leader should be able to provide you with a list of class members NOT involved in LIFE groups to invite. The second area will be new members and even visitors to the church. LIFE group leaders should always be on the lookout for new members and visitors to invite to their group. The third area will be friends and neighbors of the group members. These may be the hardest but will also be the most rewarding.
Pre-Meeting (It’s important to define the expectations)
It is important to get together with your group in a pre-meeting or in the first meeting to clarify everyone’s hopes, dreams and expectations. Be assured that every person will come to your group with their own unique expectations of what they want to get out of their LIFE group experience.
Paul and Mary brought little Scott (4) and Sara (6) in and confidently set them down in front of them looking forward to a quality family Bible study that they could all discuss on their way home that night. Bill sat there glaring at them thinking “you got a lot of nerve plopping your kids down right in the middle of our study.” You see Bill was looking forward to some in-dept Bible study; he loves the meat of the Word. Margaret, a first grade school teacher, had such a bad day and was looking forward to tonight’s sharing time when she planed to complain about all her kids a little. “Well there’ll be no sharing tonight with those kids in the group” she thought. Boy, you talk about tension, how would you like to be the leader of that group?
Remember, the number one cause of conflicts in the group will be from IMPLICIT rules that are set up but not communicated clearly to everyone. Be EXPLICIT as you set up the group’s purpose, plans and goals so everyone in the group can get behind them and support them enthusiastically? As a leader you can have many things already decided and communicated explicitly though a Group Agreement.
Group Agreements
In your pre-meeting or first meeting as you discuss the goals for the group and how you will handle the meetings a Group Agreement can be very helpful. This is an example of a group agreement that you can get from the office or you may write your own. Do not skip this step because it will come back to haunt you.
Example of a LIFE Group Agreement
“To connect people relationally for the purpose of becoming more Christ-like, loving one another, growing in service, and glorifying God by making and maturing disciples.”
Place of Meeting:
Frequency and time of meetings:
Leader:
Co-Leader:
Host:
We will have the following agreements…
1. The agreement of affirmation (unconditional love, agape love): There is nothing you have done or will do that will make me stop loving you. I may not agree with you actions, but I will love you as a person and do all I can to hold you up in God’s affirming love.
2. The agreement of availability: Anything I have – time, energy, insight, possessions – is at your disposal if you need it to the limit of my resources. As part of this availability I pledge my time on a regular basis, whether in prayer or in an agreed-upon meeting time.
3. The agreement of prayer: I agree to pray for you in some regular fashion, believing that our caring Father wishes his children to pray for one another and ask him for the blessings they need.
4. The agreement of openness: I promise to strive to become a more open person, disclosing my feelings, my struggles, my joys, and my hurts to you as well as I am able. The degree to which I do so implies that I cannot make it without you, that I trust you with my problems and my dreams, and that I need you. This is to affirm your worth to me as a person. In other words, I need you.
5. The agreement of honesty: I will try to mirror back to you what I am hearing you say and feel. If this means risking pain for either of us, I will trust our relationship enough to take that risk, realizing it is in “speaking the truth in love that we grow up in every way into Christ who is the head” (see Ephesians 4:15). I will try to express this honesty in a sensitive and controlled manner and to meter it, according to what I perceive the circumstances to be.
6. The agreement of sensitivity: Even as I desire to be know and understood by you, I agree to be sensitive to you and to your needs to the best of my ability. I will try to hear you, see you, and feel where you are and to draw you out of the pit of discouragement or withdrawal.
7. The agreement of confidentiality: I will promise to keep whatever is shared within the confines of the group in order to providethe atmosphere of permission necessary for openness.
8. The agreement of accountability: I consider that the gifts God has given me for the common good should be used for your benefit. If I should discover areas of my life that are under bondage, hung up, or short circuiting by my own misdoings or by the scars inflicted by others, I will seek Christ’s liberating power through his Holy Spirit and through my agreement partners so that I might give to you more of myself. I am accountable to you to become what God has designed me to be in his loving creation.
9.We will take care of our children or provide childcare in the following way.
10. We typically will handle “Fun, Food, and Fellowship” in the following way.
Leading Life Changing Small Groups
