Another of the interesting conversations that took place with the small group leaders in our recent team forum was about what to do with "small group lifers?"
Perhaps, first a definition is in order.
Small Group Lifer (SGL) - someone who has been a part of the church and a small group for a really long time :-) Some of you are saying, "What's wrong with that? We want our body to be engaged in our 'church OF small groups."
You are right - participation is not the problem. Results of the participation can be.
A number of the small group leaders talked about how these SGL indicated that they were bored ... that they weren't challenged ... that their participation felt rote ...
Solutions?
Here are a couple of ideas ...
1. Be clear about the purpose of your groups - are they intended to take people deep in the development of their spiritual life? If so, and you have SGL in your church, you may need to evaluate the curriculum and processes in place to train leaders. If they are more of a place of connection and fellowship, then point the SGL in your church to the second idea below ...
2. Start a series of classes and experiences designed to take people to a new level in their relationship with Christ. Some have formalized these classes into "institute" type programs with regular schedules and course offerings. All were emphatic that the design of these programs must be heavily experiential - that typically folks are not responding well to the expert talking head approach.
Do you have this challenge?
What are some of your solutions?
Comments