Yes, But What Do I Do First?
You’re in, right? Ready to do the work that will take your small group ministry to new levels in 2015? You’ve taken the time to write some new year’s resolutions and are beginning to figure out where you need to go.
But where do you start? How do you figure out what must happen first? Or does it matter where you start?
I call your dilemma “joining a game of pick up sticks in progress.” I call it that because the truth is there really are some things that you must tackle before you can even get down to the issues you want to work on.
I believe in almost every church there are two primary issues that must be tackled at the same time.
First, if you believe that unconnected people are always one tough thing away from never being at your church again, then you are already certain you’ve got to find better and faster ways to connect more people. Waiting until certain deeper issues are solved or waiting until certain capabilities are developed won’t make sense in light of your awareness that every unconnected person in your crowd has a closing window on their availability to connect. See also, 5 Things You Need to Know about Connecting Unconnected People and What’s Your Urgency Level for Connecting Unconnected People?
Believing this is true should prompt you to take seriously the urgency of connecting unconnected people.
It should also convince you to:
- Design an annual calendar that leverages the best opportunities to connect people. See also, How to Develop an Annual GroupLife Calendar.
- Take advantage of the best ways to start new groups. See also, Top 10 Ways to Launch New Groups.
Second, if you believe that coaches play a key role in sustaining new groups and furthermore, that whatever you want to happen in the lives of the members of your groups must happen first in the lives of your leaders, then you already know you that identifying, recruiting and developing coaches must be an immediate priority. See also, Life Change at the Member Level
Believing this is true should prompt you to take seriously the need to identify, recruit and develop coaches.
- Identifying the right people, hundred-fold candidates is an essential task. See also, 6 Essential Characteristics of an Effective Small Group Coach.
- Recruiting hundred-fold (or sixty-fold) candidates is best done in a certain way. See also, How to Recruit Additional Coaches for Church-Wide Campaigns and Imagine If Your Coaching Structure Looked Like This.
- Developing coaches is a serious responsibility. See also, 7 Practices for Developing and Discipling Your Coaches.
Aren’t there other important things that must be done to build a thriving small group ministry? Yes! But without a doubt these are the two most important things and they will not wait for a better season. They must be done well and they must be done now.
What do you think? Have a question? Want to argue? You can click here to jump into the conversation.
