101 Great Ideas to Create a Caring Group: A Classic Resource
Looking for an idea source that will help your small group leaders develop caring groups? You might want to take a look at 101 Great Ideas to Create a Caring Group by Thom Corrigan. A classic resource, first published in 1997, this little gem ought to be on every small group champion’s recommended list.
Assembled in much the same way as Steve Sjogren’s 101 Ways to Reach Your Community, 101 Great Ideas is just that: a simple but very helpful collection of practices designed to inspire more caring groups.
Corrigan, at one time the president of Pilgrimage/NavPress Training, has taught leadership and small group development nationally and internationally. In 101 Great Ideas, he’s separated the practices into four main categories:
- Caring for Your Group: a set of leader to member actions that every leader could add to their practice.
- Caring in Your Group: a subtle shift in focus, this section offers leader practices that happen primarily during a group meeting that when modeled for members become part of the way group happens.
- Caring Outside Your Group: a very helpful set of ideas that will help leaders creatively connect with members in between meetings; an essential practice for developing a caring group.
- Caring as a Group: this set is all about practices that make a group more than a regular gathering of acquaintances. Doing the things listed here will weave members together in a way that begins to feel like family.
While every one of these ideas will be intuitive to certain leaders in your small group ministry, every leader will quickly find several easy-to-implement practices that will have immediate impact and help build a caring group. I like 101 Great Ideas to Create a Caring Group, and I bet you will too!
