3 Small Group Ministry Missing Ingredients that Lead to a Bad Taste
Years ago my wife and I came home to find our son cleaning up the kitchen.
"I baked a chocolate cake today. Want a piece?"
The first bite revealed that something wasn't right, but what was it? The cake was very crumbly and dry.
"Did you follow the recipe?" my wife asked with a furrowed brow.
"I wanted to make it less fattening so I didn't add the oil or the egg."
Try to bake a cake without certain ingredients and you'll discover right away that something is amiss. It turns out that some ingredients are really not optional.
Guess what? The same thing is true in small group ministry. Oh...you can try to do it without certain things. And you might even fool yourself and some people. Just don't miss the fact that when you serve it up it won't taste quite right. And it might even be a little crumbly.
A few common missing ingredients
1. First steps that are easy, obvious, and strategic.
Having a hard time developing traction in your small group ministry?
Take a look at the steps that lead to groups. A first step that is too difficult or too hard to figure out is an obvious explanation for low engagement.
Take a look at your menu while you're at it. If you have menu options that don't lead to groups (that are promoted equally alongside groups), it should be easy to figure out how important the missing ingredient is.
Take a look at the steps that lead to groups. A first step that is too difficult or too hard to figure out is an obvious explanation for low engagement. Click To Tweet
See also, How Would You Rate the First Steps out of Your Auditorium?
2. Preoccupation with life-change.
Settling for connection instead of designing for life-change leads to a less than desirable flavor in my view.
Unless you are intentionally designing your groups for life-change, they will almost always drift in the direction of fellowship without discipleship and mission. Like Coca Cola without the co2, a group without the presence of life-change will always feel flat and will never last long.
Unless you are intentionally designing your groups for life-change, they will almost always drift in the direction of fellowship without discipleship and mission. Like Coca Cola without the co2, a group without the presence of… Click To Tweet
See also, Essential Ingredients for Life-Change.
3. Intentional span of care.
Regardless of whether you use a high bar of leadership or a low bar of leadership, attempting to build a small group ministry without an appropriate and intentional span of care always leads to a failed experiment.
Regardless of whether you use a high bar of leadership or a low bar of leadership, attempting to build a small group ministry without an appropriate and intentional span of care always leads to a failed experiment. Click To Tweet
If whatever you want to happen in the lives of the members of your groups must be experienced by the leaders first...you must build an effective coaching structure.
If you don't have an effective coaching structure, you may not be able to put your finger on the missing ingredient, but you will know something is definitely amiss. See also, Model Whatever You Want to Happen at the Member Level.
Can you see how these missing ingredients might lead to a tasteless concoction? Have a question? Want to argue? You can click here to jump into the conversation.
Image by Simon Law
