Most leaders who dream of "finding a shepherd for every sheep" find themselves a bit lost when it comes to starting small groups. You're not alone.
At Lifetogether, we say,"Fall is to small group ministry, what Easter is to the church"—that is, if you want to launch a small group ministry, do it in the fall. You can also, of course, start one in January or after Easter, but there's nothing like the fall to give you momentum for the entire school year.
Here are 5 steps to help you turn your dream of starting a small group ministry into a reality.
1. Pray for God to help you gather a few folks to help you. Okay, so that isn't a profound insight. But you can't do it alone. How many do you need? A handful or two … but they need to have the heart for small group ministry—as well as the gift of leadership. They also need a passion for reaching your neighborhood and community for Christ. One more thing: do this with people you like. Make sure you would enjoy having them on your team. This process should be both fruitful and fun.
2. Meet with the Senior Pastor or Staff Leadership. You may need to cast the vision for "transforming lives through community." Ask them your pastor or church staff if they would come to your first meeting and listen to a few tapes and review the some ideas about your curriculum. More importantly, ask them to share their dreams about community not only with their congregation but their community for Christ. Just watch their vision rise and ownership increase. If you are the staff leadership, do the same with your volunteer team.
3. Develop a simple plan. You may want to listen to our tape series called "Building Lifetogether"—which is a six session audio series explaining how to connect your congregation, recruit unlimited leaders, train new leaders, develop those leaders, and ultimately sustain the new groups that you launch. You need a basic understanding of what you're trying to accomplish and how that fits with your church's overall vision. If you're using our tapes, be sure to have your team listen to the tapes at the same time as a discussion starter.
4. Launch your groups in one of the three key windows. That is, as mentioned above, in September, in January, or in April-after-Easter. As I mentioned earlier, the best time is definitely during the fall season. It's the "Easter" of small group ministry. People expect something new in the fall.
5. Select your small group kick-off curriculum series. It's critical that you have a curriculum for the entire year. There is so much great material being published for small groups. The big issue is how to choose something that fits your strategy moving forward. With our Lifetogether product line, we recommend the first book in the 36 week "Doing Lifetogether" curriculum, called "Beginnings" or the second "Connecting with Your Church Family"—which includes not only the study but the corresponding teaching DVD. We even have a 3-5 group starter kit that could help you launch your first few groups.
In starting a small group, it's important to remember that it's mostly important only that you start. Do something. Get going. You may find initially that you have some big wins and some big losses building your your small group community. Ultimately, if your groups are kept healthy, the wins will out-weigh the losses, and the ministry will flourish over time. Look for additional upcoming articles on specific strategies to open the floodgates of recruiting small group leaders.
