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March 22, 2010
Making Your Small Group Sustainable for the Future
Two problems that plague movements and small groups
I’m still processing through the information that came out of New Hope Fellowship’s DCAT Conference I attended last month. From a workshop with Wayne and Aaron Cordeiro, came this nugget:
There are two problems that continually plague and stall small groups:
Problem #1 - Losing the 2nd Generation
If done with the right Biblical community values and Spirit-empowered leadership, small groups can start off fast and energized. The problem then becomes failing to get the next generation, the next wave of leaders and group members to embrace the vision and values of the first generation.
More relational energy and time needs to be spent intentionally passing on the DNA of Biblical community to all the members of your small group. If you focus on perfecting the leadership of the current leaders, or you only focus on instilling DNA to your current and perhaps apprentice leaders, you will quickly lose the next generation. You must start emphasizing the right values and vision to all group members the first day they are in the group and never stop. (By the way, these same principles also apply to parenting as demonstrated by Wayne and Aaron Cordeiro who were father and son workshop presenters.)
Problem #2- Passing the Baton of Leadership off Too Late.
Current leadership needs to let the next people up lead earlier rather than later. Even once you hand off the tasks of leadership, it can take years to pass the heart of the baton. Meaning, it takes years for the heart and experience of leading to catch up with the tasks of leading.
That puts more urgency on getting the baton passed sooner rather than later. Even if you don’t think someone is quite ready to lead, start taking small steps to give them leadership experience—leading an ice breaker, leading a prayer time, following up on a member who was missing from a group gathering, etc.
Even if you occasionally experience dropped batons when passed early, the experience of failure can be a valuable learning tool in the hands of a loving and nurturing senior leader or coach.
posted by Dan Lentz on March 22, 2010 10:57 AM
Comments
If you focus on perfecting the leadership of the current leaders, or you only focus on instilling DNA to your current and perhaps apprentice leaders, you will quickly lose the next generation. You must start emphasizing the right values and vision
Posted By: Anonymous | December 23, 2011 10:01 AM