Getting small group leaders to become consistent happens in a variety of ways. It’s a bit organic. But as far as we can tell, these factors help:
- Cast vision for what you want to see happen. Since many church leaders grew up under a teacher/student paradigm, you need to continually remind people that leading small groups is about relationships.
- Create a great serving environment.
- Is your environment fun? Do people like to serve?
- Are you prepared for your volunteers when they show up? Are things in the right places so leaders can focus on relationships?
- Do you celebrate wins? When relationships go deep, celebrate it and tell others what a great job your group leaders are doing. What you celebrate gets repeated.
- Do you thank them regularly and meaningfully? Gratitude fosters generosity.
- Make the message from the adult service available. Many volunteers don’t want to serve every week because they want to be in an adult service. If you have a second service, encourage group leaders to serve for one and attend one. Give them a free CD of the message.
- If for various reasons you can’t have a consistent group leader serving the same group of kids every week, choose two leaders per group and rotate them. While not ideal, kids can better relate to two leaders than to a random assortment of leaders.