The Truth at the Very Center of What I Do

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The Truth at the Very Center of What I Do

I’ve been preparing for this week for months. Monday and Tuesday small group pastors and teams showed up from around the country for GroupLife Southwest ’17. Today and tomorrow the members of my 2017 coaching network are here for 8 hours of intensive work on some of the more challenging aspects of small group ministry.

The arrival of this week forces me into some thinking about the ideas and assumptions that inform and drive the way I do small group ministry.

After many years of working this puzzle there are some irreducible ideas that shape the way I do things. I realized this week that one of them is this statement:

“Whatever you want to happen in the lives of the members of your groups must happen first in the lives of their leaders.”Whatever you want to happen in the lives of the members of your groups must happen first in the lives of their leaders. Click To Tweet

How is it that that truth is at the heart of what I believe and do?

First, that truth informs leader development. It clearly identifies what must happen to group leaders in order for them to be most effective in their role.

Second, that truth informs the job description and role of a coach. What is at the essence of the role? Here is the big idea:

“Do TO and FOR (and with) the group leaders in your huddle whatever you want your group leaders to do TO and FOR (and with) their members (from the Life Group Coach job description).”

Third, it clarifies how a coach must be developed. Once you know what you want to happen in the lives of the members of your groups, you know with certainty what kind of a person a coach must be and what a coach must be able to do.

Finally, that truth ought to inform what is still needed in my own life. Think about it. Since I am not what I used to be and not yet what I’m going to be (Philippians 3:12-14), the missing attributes in my own life must play some role in the development of coaches and/or leaders and must ultimately play a role in the development of the lives of the members of our groups.

Further Reading:

Image by Jeremy Brooks

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