Fall

July 29, 2019

Top 5 Articles to Send Your Leaders before Fall

Fall is right around the corner. Kids are going back to school, the weather is falling back into cooler days, and you may be stepping back into your small group routine. As you get ready for the fall kickoff, how can you prepare your leaders?

Small group leaders can gain key wisdom from this roundup of practical small group leadership articles.

The Top Five Questions Every Small Group Leader Has

Every small group leader has questions. Most have lots of questions. It can be intimidating to take on the leadership of a group, but you can be assured that (almost) every small group leader has the same doubts, concerns, and questions that you do. The second that we as leaders think we have it all figured out is when we should stop being leaders. I have discovered that the best leaders always have questions—and they’re not afraid to ask them.

How to Train Your Small Group Leaders to Deal with Just about Anything

One of the great privileges of leading small groups is having the opportunity to help someone work through a tough issue. Yet, the fear of dealing with these issues can actually cause a leader to never step up to lead, or to quit or do all they can to remain on the surface to avoid an issue. It’s also what can cause a well-intentioned leader to become a “Bible answer assault person,” quoting Bible verses at someone hoping to fix the problem, unaware of how to come alongside the person and help.

Three Ways to Improve Your Skill as a Small Group Leader

When I enlist leaders for new groups, I look for one key trait: a teachable spirit. The value of any teacher—whether he or she has never led a group or has been leading groups for fifty years—is his or her desire to learn—and keep learning. Unfortunately, too many leaders assume they know exactly how to lead a group, and that assumption is based on how someone once led them. Too often, bad teaching skills are simply passed down through the years.

The Importance of Rest for the Small Group Leader

Some of you don’t need this post. If you feel like your day and your week have a good rhythm; if you aren’t burnt out, exhausted, or stressed; if you seem to have enough time to get everything done that you need to do, then feel free to skip this one. This post is for the people who aren’t sure how they’re going to get everything done, whose task list outpaces their availability, who feel like they’re juggling not just one too many things but three too many things.

3 Things a Small Group Leader is Not

The number one barrier to someone stepping up to lead a small group is the word leader. Take five seconds right now and think about what you imagine when you hear that word. Go ahead, I’ll wait. What came to mind? A CEO of a large company? A head of state? The senior pastor of your church? We all have preconceived ideas of what a leader should be, sound, and look like. I imagine someone who is tall (I’m short), extroverted (I’m an introvert), a scholar (I, um … struggled), and forceful (definitely not me). Basically, someone who is the opposite of me.

Deborah Spooner is a Minnesota-born analytical creative serving as a Marketing Strategist for LifeWay’s Groups Ministry. As a pastor’s daughter with a background in Digital Communications and Media and Biblical & Theological Studies, you can find her at her local church, in deep conversation, or with a book or pen in hand as she seeks to know Christ more and make Him known.

Group Leadership

October 19, 2017

Three Ways to Do Small Groups This Fall

By Rob Tims

“All of the Bible is always good, all of the time.”

I first heard that statement in a meeting with other pastors visiting Mark Dever at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. We were discussing how pastors should approach their sermon preparation, and how discipleship pastors should approach what their small groups study. The answer: “All of the Bible is always good, all of the time.”

This truth is liberating, for it reminds us that no matter how we go about setting up our small group ministry, as long as we keep the Word of God at the center, we make progress. As you gear up for a new small group season this fall, or if a new crop of members has already begun to grow, consider the way you organize the content of your group. With every new season comes a new opportunity to re-think the way you do small groups. Here are three ways you and your group can approach how you study the Bible:

Sermon-Based

For example, some small groups gather to study the Bible in a way that is tied to the message preached at the service. Using a discussion guide written by the discipleship pastor, group leaders facilitate a discussion based upon the message from the service. Proponents of this method often view the weekend message as the “front door” to the church for a guest. Studies like these help draw in those marginal attendees and make for a more comfortable experience for them since the discussion is based primarily on what everyone heard at the service.

Let Your Leaders Plan

Still other churches let their group leaders plan and teach what they want. They might choose a video-driven study, a short-term study on a given topic, or a book of the Bible. Or, they might subscribe to receive Bible study curriculum from trusted sources, published by LifeWay. Whatever way they choose, group leaders have freedom in this environment to chart their own course for their groups.

Long-Range Planning

Still others might prefer to plan out a long scope and sequence for their groups to study. They might choose to walk through certain books of the Bible for a year, choose various topics to study, or do both over a longer period of time. Planning and purpose are very important variables for churches that take this approach.

With so many ways to set up a small group ministry, there are also many products to help support them. One web-based tool, smallgroup.com, gives churches and their group leaders the ability to create studies for all of these scenarios. Sermon-based groups can quickly customize existing studies to fit the message; church leaders can grant all of their group leaders access to create their own studies; and church leaders can build a scope and sequence by text or topic—or both—for as far out into the future as they please.

Regardless of how you set up your groups or equip them study God’s Word, the important thing is that they are studying God’s Word. “All of the Bible is always good, all of the time.” Enjoy studying God’s Word with your group this fall!

Rob Tims has been married to Holly for 17 years. They have four children: Trey, Jonathan, Abby, and Luke. He has served in the local church for 20 years as a children’s pastor, student pastor, and senior pastor. He currently serves on a team at LifeWay Christian Resources that develops customized Bible studies for groups and teaches two classes for Liberty University School of Divinity Online. He is the author of the book Southern Fried Faith: Confusing Christ and Culture in the Bible Belt.

Group Leadership

September 13, 2017

Fall is Perfect for Community

By Chris Surratt

Who doesn’t love the fall season? College and pro football games are back. The air is a little more crisp in the morning. Sweaters and boots can finally come out of the boxes in the attic. It’s a great time of the year! Fall can also be a productive season for your group, where group members have settled back into a normal routine after the chaos of summer and are ready to engage in community. Here are few things that you can do as a leader to build on the momentum fall naturally brings.

1. Choose a Bible study on community.
One of the primary purposes for having a small group is to create community, and people are naturally pulled toward building relationships during this season. This is a great time to take a few weeks to study what biblical community looks like. You can easily choose a study from smallgroup.com, or get ideas from the options on this list.

2. Add life by adding people to your community.
You’ve probably heard the Benjamin Franklin quote: “Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days.” While that’s not always true (the guest part), it is true that groups can go bad after too much time together. The dynamic of a small group can become stale after a few years together unless new life is introduced into the group. This fall is the perfect time to reinvigorate the conversations by inviting that neighbor to your small group.

3. Practice community through service.
This season offers many natural opportunities to serve as a group. You can serve Thanksgiving meals at local shelter. You can organize a back-to-school drive to help an under resourced elementary school. You can pull together as a group to support a mission like Operation Christmas Child. Don’t let this fall pass without giving your members the chance to serve someone else.

4. Build community through having fun.
The fall season is fun! Lean into it by planning fun activities to do as a group. Take a hayride at a local county fair. Build a bonfire and sing silly camp songs as you roast s’mores. Have a pumpkin carving contest and award the best one with a gift card. Host an ugly sweater contest for a group meeting in December. Almost nothing bonds a group quicker than laughter!

Chris Surratt is a ministry consultant and coach with over 22 years of experience serving the local church. Chris served on the Executive Team at Cross Point Church in Nashville, TN, and was on staff at Seacoast Church in Charleston, SC, for 15 years. He is also the Small Group Specialist for LifeWay Christian Resources. Chris’s first book, Small Groups For The Rest Of Us: How to Design Your Small Groups System to Reach the Fringes, was just released by Thomas Nelson. You can follow his blog at chrissurratt.com or follow him on Twitter @chrissurratt.

Group Leadership