Sharing Your Stories

Here is a great idea on sharing stories together in your Community Group. Sharing your stories leads to deeper community.

10 Keys to a Healthy Small Group

Some challenges that small group leaders face are unavoidable. Even the most prepared and seasoned leader will face difficulties and obstacles. The beauty of challenge is that it presents opportunity for growth and learning. I know for me, some of my best learning has come from the trials and obstacles I've faced.

Some challenges are unavoidable, others are not. The kind of challenges small group leaders face that are avoidable often come about through a lack of preparation, knowledge, or a lack of implementation. Here are five of ten quick hitting keys to leading a healthy small group. They don't guarantee a trouble free small group, but they will increase your effectiveness as a group leader and help to create a group environment of enjoyment and growth.


1. Be a facilitator, not a teacher.
The difference between facilitating and teaching is like the difference between the dorm room and the classroom. In the classroom, the teacher has all of the answers and does 99% of the talking. In the dorm room, discussion is valued and talking is a shared experience. Guided discussion is key to a great small group. Our desire is to guide people into self-discovery. As people see for themselves how God’s Word applies to their life, it will have lasting meaning. Guide the discussion, but don’t dominate it.


2. Share responsibility, don’t hoard it.
Another key component to leading an effective group is the sharing of ministry. Allow others in the group to lead the worship time, lead the study, bring refreshments, host the group, etc. Cultivating group ownership is important if members are going to feel needed and appreciated. This makes for a great way to begin surfacing an apprentice leader. It also helps to keep you from burning out or from thinking that you have to do it all. Share ministry, don't hoard it.(Ephesians 4:12)


3. Be a community, not a clique.
One thing that stood out in the early church was the love that believers had for one another. But the oneness they experienced was not an end in itself. The early church was passionate, and compassionate about inviting others into this new community that God was creating. Verses such as Acts 2:47, 5:42, John 13:34-35, John 17:21, Mark 3:14, bear out that what Jesus and the early church were developing was Community with a Cause. Be open, and invite people who are on the outside looking in into the powerful realm of True Biblical Community.


4. Depend on God, not on yourself.
If you don’t think you can be a good community group leader, you’re the perfect person for the job. God wants people who abandon themselves and trust completely in Him to work through them. As a leader, you have launched out in faith and are trusting God to do something great in your life and in the lives of those you’re investing in. He’s responsible for transforming the lives of people; prayerfully depend upon Him to do just that.


5. Capture moments, don’t miss them.
Remember, this is not about getting you through the curriculum; it is about getting the curriculum (more specifically the Word) through you. I have had the experience of being in small groups in the past where someone will share a specific need, or struggle, and the leader says, “We’ll be praying about that for you.” Prayer is one of the right answers, but so is compassion which leads to action. If you, or someone in your group is capable of meeting a need, meet it. If someone shares a real struggle, or issue, address it. Don’t simply gloss over that because you feel compelled to get through the study, or because you don’t know how to respond. Respond. When the Spirit of God is moving, and people are sharing, mark those moments. Don’t let them slip by.

Those are the first five keys. Keep an eye out for the remaining five.

What to Do When Bad Stuff Happens

When one suffers - all suffer.

When one member of a small group is in crisis, the entire group will experience pain and discomfort: pain for their brother or sister in Christ, pain that is reawakened in their own lives, and the painful effect that the crisis has upon the group.

Everyone has good intentions, but many times, neither the group nor their leader is equipped to respond in helpful or healing ways.

What does it take to provide safe harbor in this kind of storm?

This month at our Community Group Leader's Meeting, Community Group leaders will receive the practical and necessary skills to help individuals - and the group as a whole - manage crisis.

"We all have needs. But what do groups do when one or more persons has extreme pain or crisis?" says Bill Donahue.

In this practical training, group leaders will find useful answers to tough challenges:

1. What are helpful vs. unhelpful responses?
2. How can a leader provide direction?
3. What kind of boundaries are needed?

Help your group become a place of God's strength, healing and sheltering love.

Join us on Thursday, September 25 in Room 200 of the Ministry Center. Feel free to bring a couple members from your group to hear this important topic addressed.

Group Life 2008

Join us for Willow's Group Life Conference.

Contact Lois Schraf at loisschraf@lifpointchurch.us