Do You Have Great Expectations?

How God works through you and your small groups ministry
Category: Pastor/Church Leader

In planning a small group ministry, you may wonder how much you can expect from your coaches, leaders and members. But one person you can expect great things from is yourself—that is, if you expect God to use you.

Here's what Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church has to say about our expectations:

If He's going to use you, you need to expect Him to. There are many examples I could have used, but the one I use is from John 11:41-42, where Jesus is going to raise Lazarus from the dead. Remember this? Jesus was just a few miles away in anther town. One of His best friends, Lazarus, was sick. Mary and Martha, Lazarus' sisters, sent a message to Jesus, "Jesus! Please come quickly. Your friend Lazarus is sick."

And it takes Jesus about three days to get there—and He's only a few miles away. What was He doing? He should have rushed over immediately, right? But nothing ever pressured Christ. He was never in a hurry. They said, "Your best friend's dying," and it took him three days to get a few miles!

By the time he arrives, Lazarus has died. The friends of Lazarus cry, "Oh, Lord, if You'd have been here, He'd still be alive. You blew it."

He said, "No, this illness is for the glory of God. I had a purpose in delaying. I am fulfilling the plan of God." He walks up to the tomb where Lazarus has already been buried and in verse 41, says, "Father, I thank You that You have already heard Me [emphasis added]. I know You always hear Me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that You sent Me."

When Jesus Christ went to raise Lazarus from the dead, He didn't say, "Father, please raise him." He didn't beg God. He didn't request of God. He says, "I thank You that You've already heard Me. And by the way, I'm just saying this for the people around Me so they'll believe I am who I say I am."

So what was He doing when He said, "I thank You that You've already heard Me"?

He was expecting to be used.

Paul's another great example of this. He expected God to use him and expected God to take care of him. "Indeed, in our hearts, we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves, but on God, who raises the dead," Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1:9-10. "He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us." Paul expected God to work in his life. And God did.

Do you know how much God's working in your life? He's working as much as you expect Him to. No more, no less. When you study Scripture, you find every time God moves out of heaven and performs a miracle, it was because somebody believed.

What are you expecting God to do in your life and in your small group ministry?

Leaving a Spiritual Legacy

4 Tools for Effective Spiritual Mentoring
Category: Coaches

As you plan your role in your church's small group ministry, it's important to remember the key principle behind your role as spiritual mentor: More time spent with fewer people has a greater impact. Let's break this down:

1. The starting point of all effective mentoring is RELATIONSHIP. Mark 3:14 says, "And he chose 12, whom he named apostles. 'I have chosen you to be with me,' he told them. 'I will also send you out to preach.'"

2. More than teaching, effective mentoring is SPIRITUAL FATHERING. First Corinthians 4:15 says, "Even though you have 10,000 guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel."

3. Effective spiritual fathering requires good MODELING. First Thessalonians 2:10 says, "You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed."

First Corinthians 11:1, "Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ," reminds us that we cannot pass on what we do not possess.

4. Effective spiritual fathering requires SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP. First Thessalonians 2:11-12 says, "For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worth of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory." But you must be skillful and wise to know when each of these is needed.

Planning for the Future

Identifying the key roles in your group ensures its long-term health.
Category: Leaders

As a leader, you're the champion for fulfilling the purposes of your group. It's critical, then, that you fully understand each member's role ahead of time. That will simplify figuring out who should be in them after your group kicks off. Below are several "job descriptions" of key roles in the group. You'll need to identify who can fill these roles—and then recruit members in your group for the position.

1. APPRENTICE LEADER

Purpose: To serve the group leader and regularly rotate leadership. This person is the future leader of tomorrow. "These things which you have heard from me…teach to faithful men who will be able to teach others also" (2 Tim. 2:2).

Possibilities:

Step 1: Share weekly responsibility within the group.
Step 2: Regularly rotate the leadership of the group.
Step 3: Stay in your existing group once completed, but eventually start a new short-term group.

Profile: Shepherd's heart, servant leadership, spiritual walk and spirit of humility.

2. MEMBERSHIP PURPOSE CHAMPION

Purpose: To champion the fellowship and community building activities within the small group (Heb. 10:24-25, Eph. 2:19).

Possibilities:

Step 1: Coordinate a group social and/or celebration of life.
Step 2: Follow up on new and absent people with calls and cards.
Step 3: Help assimilate people into the life of the church.

Profile: Social, fun-loving, encouraging and has hospitality gifts, gathering personality; a welcome-wagon type.

3. MATURITY PURPOSE CHAMPION

Purpose: To champion the spiritual growth and personal next steps of each member in your group (Col. 1:28, Eph. 4:15).

Possibilities:

Step 1: Help the group share their progress in their spiritual journey.
Step 2: Help your group grow their habits of maturity by regularly sharing their experiences.
Step 3: Helps each member identify their spiritual next steps.

Profile: Loves learning, has a heart for the Word, desires a growing walk with God.

4. MINISTRY PURPOSE CHAMPION

Purpose: To champion the SHAPE process in the group, the church and the community (Eph. 4:11-13, 1 Cor. 12:7, 1 Peter 3:10).

Possibilities:

Step 1: Help the group share about past and present experiences in serving Christ.
Step 2: Encourage the group to select a ministry opportunity that they could do together.
Step 3: Have the group share their SHAPE profiles and seek to mobilize them into a ministry role.

Profile: Cheerleader, goal-oriented, loves to see people develop and grow themselves.

5. MISSION PURPOSE CHAMPION

Purpose: To champion outreach to the unchurched in your community and around the world (Matt. 28:18-20, Acts 20:24).

Possibilities:

Step 1: Encourage members to pray for unchurched/unconnected friends or family members.
Step 2: Encourage members to invite an unchurched/unconnected friend or neighbor to your group or to a church service.
Step 3: To keep the small group aware of mission prayer requests and/or to participate in short-term missions projects.

Profile: Inviter and bringer, heart for people, cross-cultural experiences, is interested and involved.

6. MAGNIFICATION PURPOSE CHAMPION

Purpose: To champion the purpose of worship and whole-life surrender in your small group (Rom. 12:1-2, John 4:24).

Possibilities:

Step 1: Coordinate a weekly praise and prayer list.
Step 2: Get your group attending worship services in community.
Step 3: Host a communion service or worship time for your small group.

Profile: Encourager, heart for personal and corporate worship, desires a deeper walk with God through prayer.

Hit the Ground Running!

By establishing ground rules ahead of time.
Category: Members

While the idea of establishing Ground Rules for your small group may sound like it takes the fun out everything, these "rules" put all members at ease by letting you know what to expect. Within that framework, members can get the most out of their group experience.

The group decides which Ground Rules to choose. But here a few things LifeTogether has found to help you at your first few meetings. Simply read each sentence and confirm them with your group:

• Provide acceptance: This is an imperfect group for imperfect people in an imperfect Church. So please don't expect us to be perfect.

• Actively participate: This is not a spectator group. You can be shy but not silent forever. Your input matters.

• Show support: Differences of opinion are respected and dumb questions are encouraged.

• Be confidential: What is shared in the group stays in the group.

• Faithfully attend: Group meetings and starting times will be given priority for the next six weeks.

• Encourage growth: Each member will encourage the others' spiritual growth and movement.

• Welcome newcomers: The group will stay open to new people who would benefit from attending this group.

• Share ownership: Every member is a minister. Each attendee will share a minor responsibility within the group.