Over the years, dialogue about small group leadership has revolved around the gifting of a "shepherd." This thinking has been so pervasive that it is often assumed the best small group leaders are people with the spiritual gift of shepherd. The role, or gifting, of a shepherd will always be a major factor in how we view and discuss small group leadership, but it is time for the mold that has been cast around the spiritual gift of a shepherd to be broken. One of the problems that comes with defining small group leaders as "shepherds" (or "shepherd-leaders") is that somebody who does not have shepherding tendencies may think he or she is not called to be a small group leader. That is generally not true.
Not all small group leaders are meant to be shepherds. In fact, the most effective leader for a small group may NOT be a shepherd.
For example, a group that has an evangelistic focus will probably be better served by someone whose dominant spiritual gift is that of evangelism rather than that of a shepherd. Do not get me wrong, it is great when a small group leader has the spiritual gift of shepherd, but not all do. Arguably, most small group leaders do not have a strong gifting in shepherding, and the answer is not to train them to be shepherds. We need to utilize people's strengths without compromising the role a small group leader plays in a group.
Regardless of a person's spiritual gifting, to unleash the full potential of small group leadership you first have to dispel common assumptions about a leader's role that can be either implied or self-assigned. For example, popular explanations of small group leaders today make them out to be the caretakers of their group members or even responsible for the spiritual success of their group members. I personally do not like this line of thinking for three reasons:
- Believers are responsible for taking initiative for their own spiritual growth. When they are obedient to respond to what the Spirit of the Lord is doing in their hearts, then others can be effective in joining with them to encourage their growth in the Lord.
- This sets an expectation that small groups are for the purpose of growing believers. That is all well and good, but I do not think that should be our focus. That is secondary. I say secondary, because if our primary focus is missional, the by-product will be spiritual growth. When we follow Jesus, we are on mission. When we are on mission, we grow. Jesus did not call the disciples to follow Him so they would grow. He called them to be fishers of men first, which set them on a growth track that changed the history of the world.
- That is way too big of a burden for anyone to bear. I would not place that responsibility on a senior pastor! A pastor is responsible for carrying out his or her responsibilities of feeding, tending, caring for, and protecting the flock. In other words, pastors are responsible to be faithful shepherds (i.e. faithful to respond to what the Lord is calling them to do). What sheep do in response to a faithful shepherd is between them and the Lord. Even the Good Shepherd had sheep that chose to stray (John 6:66; 18:2, 27).
The lens through which we view small group leaders needs to be gift-based, but that means the way in which we view a small group leader needs to be a composite of all the gifts, versus being telescoped through the gift of pastor (i.e. seeing small group leaders strictly or even primarily as shepherds.)
In Scripture, we are taught that every believer has a role to play in developing the life-giving community of the Church because every believer has been given spiritual gifts to build up the Body of which they are a part (1 Corinthians 12:7; 1 Peter 4:10). To build a strong and healthy Body, it stands to reason that each part of the Body needs to be nurtured and developed. Clearly, if you want to build a stronger hand, you need to build leadership in the hand. If you want to build a stronger eye, you need to build leadership in the eye.
All the spiritual gifts should be given a place of influence in the Church. Here is why: If we assign any one part to lead all the others at the small group level, we not only risk stunting the development of the other parts, we also effectively create a filter through which the rest of the Body is perceived. In short, we are only getting exposed to a fraction of the fullness of Christ among us when we define small group leadership through the lens of a shepherd's spiritual gift description. Even worse, we may signal to great leaders that they are not qualified because they do not have a shepherding gift.
Small groups are great environments for people to step out in using their spiritual gifts in a leadership capacity. We have become near sighted in our understanding of who can be effective in creating an environment where biblical community can grow. We need to broaden our definition of a small group leader and give opportunity for leadership to be expressed through every spiritual gift that makes up the glorious Body of which we are a part!
When small group leaders happen to be gifted as shepherds…great! If not, that is OK too. I agree every sheep needs a shepherd, but a shepherd usually cares for a whole flock of sheep (in other words, more than 8-10). When small group leaders happen to be gifted in other ways besides "shepherd," that is great too! It will likely require all the gifts within your church body to work together to inspire the organic growth of biblical, life-giving community.
How do you build small group leadership around a wide range of spiritual gifts? Maybe instead of us bringing our definition and list of qualifications that we think would make for a great small group leader, we should allow each person inclined to lead a group to bring us his or hers. What does a small group leader with the dominant spiritual gift of helps look like? How would that work and what would it look like?
Some will not like this way of thinking because it turns the table. Instead of being interviewers, church leaders become students. They learn about how God wants to work in and through their churches directly from the people He has placed in their communities. It means relinquishing control…a lot of it! Each local church grows into its purpose and God's larger plan for its community by developing the Acts 2, life-giving dynamic through its resident leadership.
The more believers can be "shepherded" in experiencing and being a part of creatively expressing the diverse manifestations of the Spirit the better. The question remains: How can the people in your church who are called to serve as small group leaders take the lead in creating an environment where biblical community can grow by using their God-given gifts (whatever they may be!)?
If you find the following qualities about a person, you have probably found a great small group leader: love for God and people, ability to be real (authentic and transparent), humility (teachable and open), integrity in word and action (sign of commitment). All the other qualities that make up an effective small group leader flow out of these primary ones. Any personality and gift mix can hold these character qualities. This simplifies the selection process and strengthens the community at large.
1. The following reference is from Network (Zondervan) by Bugbee, Cousins, and Hybels: "The gift of Shepherd (Pastor) is the divine enablement to nurture, care for, and guide people toward on-going spiritual maturity and becoming like Christ (Eph. 4:11-12, 1 Peter 5:1-4, John 10:1-18). Common traits of this gifting: Influencing, nurturing, guiding, discipling, protective, supportive, and relational."
2. Mission is the intentional crossing of boundaries from faith to non-faith to proclaim by word and deed the Good News of Jesus Christ.
3. A bedrock truth of Protestant Christianity is the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. All believers are not pastors, but they ARE servants, which is the meaning of the word "priest". They are servants of God first, and this manifests itself in serving one another. So the objective of a small group ministry is NOT to have small group leaders as "pastors" of the church. The aim of a small group ministry is developing life-giving community that empowers all of God's people to serve effectively in the roles of service to which the Lord has called them.
