Small Group Resources

What does your small group study? Are you a straight up Bible reading and discussion group? Do you like study guides for Biblical books or topics? Are you book readers with or without included study guide? Or do you just wing it each time you meet?

I have to admit that I like them all, but sometimes one way works better than the others depending on the group. At times I have come fully prepared to challenge the group with something I might be excited about only to bag the whole plan because real people deal with real life and needed something other than my plans for the evening. As a leader you have to pay attention and listen to your group to determine what is going to work best. If your group doesn't have time to read and do homework, you may want to take a different approach and prepare so that all they have to do is show up.

We started a sermon series at Vineyard Community Church this week that plays into the small group studies. We are reading through the book of Acts and there are some guided questions that will be made available to us each week. I really like this because it gives the leader a chance to just participate with everyone else and the main teaching can come from church on Sunday.

I am sure by the time this series is over, I will be ready to jump into a book or something different and lead some more. It is nice to get a little break, but not have to take a break from the group.

Not sure if there are a lot of readers to this blog yet, but if you do, please comment and let me know what resources you like to use for small group.

Connecting Small Groups Online

I am a big fan of the Internet. I have been connecting with people online since 1994 and I have many new friends/acquaintances because of blogs like this one. I have a personal blog where I keep friends and family up to speed with my life. You can find pictures of my kids, videos, and other random stuff that I think about from time to time. There are a lot of online communities springing up all over the place. A lot of people are now using Facebook to connect with other people and blogs have become places for community to thrive.

So, I ask, how can we utilize online social networks, blogs, or the next new online service as a tool to help our own small group communities connect and grow?

I have experimented in the past with a blog for my small group. The blog was a place where everyone could go to see updates, announcements, prayer requests, stories, pictures...etc. I was posting recaps and notes from our meetings each week. This was nice for people who happen to miss that week. Comments were left open too so that discussion could be had online during the week. It was a very simple setup really and worked great for a time. It was bridging the gap where communication of the group had been lacking. And then suddenly it all fell apart.

The small group blog that I created failed because of lack of participation. I would post updates or questions and people became too busy to visit the site and check for updates. It was agreed that email was the best way to communicate, so I blew up the blog and we went back to emailing everything.

I still believe that online social networking has great potential to be a very useful tool for small groups. Most of the services out there cost nothing so it is a free tool to use. I think that small groups can benefit from connecting more often than a few times a month and the Internet provides the tools necessary to do so. It doesn't require another meeting for everyone to make time in their schedule to participate. You can login whenever you have time and participate as much or as little as you like. Share a lot or share little or nothing at all. The sky is the limit.

I know there are not many readers of this blog yet, but I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences with small groups using online technology. Also if you have any questions about how to get setup on something, I can help with that too.

Tell Me More About Your Small Group

I occasionally get emails from prospective small group members wanting to know more about our small group. Sometimes they just want to know details about when, where, and can I bring my kids. The other day I received an email with a list of specific questions. I kind of felt like my small group was being interviewed.

I went through and answered all of the questions, but also described our small group with a short sentence or two describing what we are about. I think that each small group member should be able to tell others what their small group does in a short sentence or two. This can help prospective members make a decision to come visit or to look for a different group. I always feel bad when someone takes the time to come to visit a small group and realizes right away that it is not what they are looking for one reason or another.

I am not suggesting that you try to scare people away from your group, but be honest about what your group does. Don't worry about numbers, just sell your group for what it is. The right people will join your group and it will make for a better community than trying to be something that you are not to attract a lot of people.

Small Group Leaders and Social Networking

Caught this on Josh Griffin's blog MTDB (More Than Dodgeball) this morning about how small group leaders need to think about what they are posting on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

We love that our volunteers are on Twitter and Facebook! It seems like everyone is enjoying the benefits of social networking these days – so it shouldn’t come as a surprise your volunteers are interested or already involved for sure. Most use the technology to their groups’ benefit, though from time to time we’ve had to have conversations and consider removing volunteers for what they put online. At small group training this week I’m going to ask our small group leaders to apply these three simple guidelines when updating social networks:

Click here to go read the goodness at MTDB.

Small Group Covenant from Saddleback HSM

Saw this on Josh Griffin's blog tonight and thought that this was really good stuff. Will probably use it or something similar for my high school small group.

Here is the small group covenant from the front of our student journal this year. If it would work for you, copy/paste! Edit at will …

CONSISTENT
I promise to regularly attend my small group. If I have to miss, I will responsibly let my small group leader know.

COMPASSIONATE
I promise to be patient, loving, and forgiving toward my small group family because I understand that I am a part of a family of students who want to grow.

TEACHABLE
I joined this small group to grow spiritually, so I promise to do my part by listening attentively with an open heart, as well as bring my Bible and notebook each week.

AUTHENTIC
I promise to be open and honest about my life with my small group at all times, allowing for accountability and encouragement between my small group and myself.

CONFIDENTIAL
I promise to honor my small group by not communicating what we discuss with anyone outside of our group.

Thanks to Jessica for letting me share it!

JG

3 Solutions to Small Group Commitment Issues

I know that you life is busy and you feel like life is pulling you in 100 different directions, but I am tired of hearing excuses about why you cannot make it to small group. You commitment to being a small group member is very important unless you want your small group to just be a shallow social club. How do you expect to be a part of the community if you are only there occasionally? I was in a small group that met every other week and when we had to miss a meeting, we didn't see anyone for an entire month. So if we missed half then we were only doing small group 12 times a year. Personally, I don't think that is enough to really invest in a community.

So how do you work small group into your already over busy chaotic life? I have a few suggestions that both leaders and members should pay attention to.

1. Put small group on the calendar first. Don't schedule anything that night of the week ever. Learn to say no to other activities because you cannot make everyone happy.


2. If that night of the week is bad, you may need to look for a small group that meets on a different night or time.


3. Don't want a different group? Talk to the leader and see if there is a possibility to change the meeting night. The leader can offer that up to the group and maybe the group will be able to make a change to accommodate you. If this works, you had better show up every meeting because everyone else is sacrificing for you.

Bonus : For Radical small groups only......I would talk to the group leader about planning more frequent meetings. It is easier to recover from missing 1 week if your group meets every week. I would also suggest taking your small group online so that people who miss have a chance to catch up. Make efforts to connect outside of the scheduled meeting to maintain that community connection. It doesn't always have to be deep Bible study. Go do other things with your small group. Take part in some aspects of their chaotic life and maybe you can find ways to serve each other and keep that community connected.

Shopping For A Small Group

A friend of mine from high school saw that I was listed as a small group leader at our church and decided to contact me about possibly joining our group. I shared the details of my group with her and advised her to check out all of the different groups available to see if there maybe one that will be best for her.

I think it is important to shop for your small group and find one that you really like. Note to small group leaders. You should not be offended if someone visits your group and never returns. Small groups are key at many churches to becoming a part of the church community, so picking a group that you don't have much in common with may not be the best idea no matter how cool you think that they are.

I would encourage someone who is looking for a small group to find a group that fits you, instead of looking for a group that you can conform to. I know people that have visited multiple small groups before deciding to stick with one for a while. I know people who have changed groups every year or two. Sometimes groups grow and change over time, but you have to think about what is going to work best for you, your schedule, and your family.

On a side note, although I encourage you to shop for a small group, at some point you have to make a commitment to the group for an extended period of time. I don't condone group hopping every time you get uncomfortable. You are going to encounter real people with real problems in all small groups. Not everyone is going to be nice all of the time. So stick it out for a while and try to work through and resolve conflicts within the community.

Have You Communicated With Your Small Group This Week?

My small group had a week off because we were out of town and the thought crossed my mind that I had not communicated to anyone about small group this week. It is easy to get caught up in the business of life and we can sometimes forget to make regular communications to our small group members to remind them about what is going on. They have crazy lives too and need to be reminded about meetings especially when we have had an off week. Are you making efforts to communicate regularly with your small group?

Does Your Small Group Do Outreach?

I was just wondering how many small groups out there get together for outreach.  My church has hundreds of small groups and some of them are dedicated specifically to outreach.  I want to do outreach with my small group as well as Bible study, but adding other events to the schedule can sometimes be difficult.  It is easier to jump on board with big church outreaches, but I think that we should also be doing things on our own.

Is your small group doing outreach, or is it strictly a Bible Study?

Small Group Leadership

[Photo Credit - mikebaird]

Small group leadership can vary depending on the purpose of the group. The most common small group has one leader who handles all of the organization, communication, ang group preparations for everyone else. This can work very well as long as the individual leader is able to stay focused and committed to leading the group. Often small groups are made up of regular people who have families and go to their job everyday. This can make for distractions to the responsibilities of leading a small group. This can be easily managed if balance can be found with the other responsibilities of your daily life.

Sometimes when these responsibilities cause a small group leader to become overwhelmed, leadership can be shared or handed off for a time to allow a break for the regular small group leader. Sometimes a small group will use a shared leadership model. If you group meets at the home of a different family each week, maybe the host family will be leading group. I have also seen where a small group will hand off the study preparation to different people in the group each week or each time they change books or series that they are studying. This spreads the work load around and gives others a chance to learn leadership responsibilities.

A third type of small group leadership uses delegation to share the responsibilies of the group. When the work load becomes too much for one person to handle and other members are uncomfortable with taking on the full workload for a time, the responsibilities can be delegated. This works very well for small groups that are attempting to go beyond the typical simple Bible study. I have seen small groups that have the study leader, a secretary, outreach director, and social director. The study leader can focus their energy on preparing the Bible study for each week. The Secretary handles all group communication and logistics. Outreach focuses on organizing outreach activities for the group, and the Social director plans and organizes social events for the group. You may not need that many delegations, or your group may need more. You can break it up however you want. This model will allow the group to use the gifts of the group members to help the group grow in community. This is my personal favorite small group model as it divides the work load so that each person who is responsible for some aspect of the group is not overwhelmed and allows the group to become more effective.

Small groups can be led in many different ways. Pay attention to the needs of your group to determine what type of leadership is needed. Also you should not be afraid to change or adjust the leadership model if something is not working.

Small Groups Need a Purpose

Every small group needs to have a specific purpose.  That purpose can be as simple as gathering to study the Bible or it can be more complex with a detailed vision and direction.  Whatever that purpose is, I believe that it needs to be communicated to the small group on a regular basis to remind everyone what that purpose is.  If the purpose changes over time, that also needs to be communicated.  Have you ever joined a small group with the intention of getting to know more about the Bible and then suddenly the group changes directions and begins to read books outside of the Bible?  If the group agrees to change things up a little bit, that is fine, there aren't any rules.  But the purpose and direction of the group needs to be discussed, communicated, and agreed upon.

A small group can be like a miniature version of the church.  A church without a purpose and direction really is nothing more than a holy huddle.  It makes me want to ask what the heck are you doing?  Jesus commanded us to go, not to sit around and compliment each other about how holy we are.  I don't know about you, but I don't want to be that.  I want my small group to do the work of God.  I want my small group to listen to God and respond.  I want my small group to be there to encourage me when times are tough.  I want to help my small group when they are in need.  I want to come together with my small group and do things that have kingdom sized impact.

As I mentioned before, it could be as simple as studying together, serving together, or helping each other.  It doesn't matter how simple or how complex your purpose is, but there must be a purpose.

4 Keys To Starting A New Small Group

Here are 4 important steps to starting a small group from scratch. 

1. Find a core group of committed People.
A small group community needs members who are committed to showing up, participating, and meeting consistently  If you have different people every week, you have a different group every week.  If you do not meet often enough, you spend too much time catching up and your group will never gain any traction.

 

2. Establish an effective method for group communication.
Communication is key for any type of organization large or small.  Find out the best method to communicate with your small group members and utilize available technologies to communicate consistently.  No one gets left out of the loop.  People feel disconnected if their is no communication to them.  Don't under communicate, but don't spam your group either.  Joining a small group should not automatically put you on the "If you love Jesus..." FWD mailing list.

3.  Layout the vision/mission/purpose for the small group.
Find out what your small group members are really about.  Find out who is gifted and passionate about what and try to utilize the gifts of the group.  Once you figure that out, you should be able to come up with a good idea of your vision/purpose/mission.  It should answer the question, "Why does this small group exist?"  People who are new to your small group should be able to get a quick idea of what you are about.  You should be able to share your mission/purpose/vision in a few sentences.

4. Meet consistently.
A small group needs to meet consistently.  How often can be determined by the purpose of the group.  If a small group meets sporadically on different nights, times, places, it makes it hard for members to consistently make time for it.  Keep it simple.  Plan for your meeting agenda to fit within the agreed upon time frame.  Break it up or postpone until next time if more time is needed.  Respect other people's schedules.

Why Small Groups?

I decided to dedicate this blog to small groups because I am a big fan of small groups and what I believe they can accomplish. I found that I spend an abnormal amount of time thinking about small groups, what they can be, how they can be better, and what I can do to help.

Over the past decade I have led many small groups of different ages and participated in several others. I have encountered successes and failures in my small group leadership. I have worked in small groups with good chemistry and bad chemistry. I have learned that each small group is different and each group will determine its own success or failure. I define small group failure as a small group that fails to establish a community. This community can be working together and growing, or it can be struggling. A struggling community that is fighting adversity internally or externally does not spell failure for a small group community. Often struggle within a community helps it to grow closer and become stronger in the long run. But if a group of people get together and fail to form a community where people feel connected and move in a common direction, then what is the point? When a community is established whether it is growing or struggling, there is potential for great things.

A New Project

Simply Small Groups is a side project that I am starting so that I can document and share my small group experiences with the rest of the world. My initial idea was to have a blog where I would post all of my small group studies that I create and share them with anyone else who would like to use them. My idea then snowballed into other blog posts about how to lead small groups and guide a group of people in a common direction.

This seems to be something that I touch on my personal blog often enough that I can see an entire blog dedicated to it. My passion for small group ministry is very much in need of this outlet, so I hope that this little project of mine is able to help others in some way as well.

Currently, I am just getting the blog started and I do not have a rolled out plan for content yet, but I will be brainstorming on and off of the blog. If you happen to stumble across this site and you have ideas or questions, please leave a comment and I will see what I can do.

I am looking forward to sharing some great stuff here soon.