How do I get consistent leaders in small groups?

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How do I get consistent leaders in small groups?

(3 posts) (3 voices)

Started 2 years ago by Beth Nelson
Latest reply from csykes

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Beth Nelson
Key Master
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.
Posted 2 years ago #
todd4h2
Member

One thing I have been guilty of in the past is trying to plug names into empty slots. ("We need one more leader for 8th grade and a helper for 10 grade.") I was having a hard time finding people who would even commit for a quarter at a time. But recently I tried something different. I met with parents and other adults, in groups or even individually, that I wanted to get involved, and laid out the our entire vision in a way that they could see the significance of the role I was asking them to fill. Much to my surprise, everyone I talked to not only agreed to be long term small group leaders, they were excited and thanked me for the opportunity. That is something I had never experienced in my 13 years of student ministry. I was thinking, "Why didn't I think to this years ago?"

Go Orange, or go home. lol

Posted 2 years ago #
csykes
Member

We are changing the structure of our small group time this year. In the past, we have used the entire large group/small group curriculum in a traditional Sunday School small group environment. This year, we decided to utilize a rotation that will get us a little closer to the way the curriculum is intended to be used. Kids will rotate through three stations each Sunday morning during our SS hour. They'll go to 2 activity rotations and 1 story telling rotation. We've recruited separate leaders for each of these rotations, so that their prep responsibility is lower. In addition, we've recruited small group shepherds who will meet with the kids at the beginning and end and take the groups through all the rotations. They are not responsible for any weekly prep. Instead, their responsibility is to build relationships in and out of the church building.

This has helped us recruit based on gifts, interests, and abilities for the first time. While we more than doubled the number of leaders required, it's been fairly easy to recruit. I've always had a goal of having two leaders in every room, but never met that goal. Now, there will be a rotation leader and shepherd with every group all the time.

We have some kinks to work out and this system has its pros and cons, but I really think it's going to prove to be a fantastic year.

Posted 2 years ago #

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