How do I recruit and train new leaders?

Brett Eastman: Over the last 10 years I've hosted small group conferences at Willow Creek and Saddleback Churches. Every time I ask the question, "How many of you could use another 5, 10, or even 25 new small group leaders?" almost every hand goes up!

Then I ask "How many of you have a working strategy for training and coaching your leaders?"—almost every hand goes down!

You are not alone. Here are several ideas that could get you started.

First, stop recruiting "leaders" and start recruiting people who would be willing to open their home!

With the new Video and DVD curriculums available from Lifetogether or others, ordinary members can lead or "host" a group like never before. Your response will be 10:1 of previous methods. We used to say, "If you can read, you can lead," with the Doing Lifetogether print series. Now, we say, "If you have a DVD, just watch it and see."

This is the new blockbuster video small group series.

The new Building Lifetogether Teaching Series has over 6 hours of just-in-time training for new and existing leaders. It's like having a small group pastor in a box (unless, uh, you are the small group pastor). But if you are, now you can use your time on more strategic matters. If that's not enough, we just released a new six-session small group leader's video training series called Leading Lifetogether and another six-session series for coaches called Coaching Lifetogether.

These series come complete with a video, cassette and CD set, and one workbook. Additional workbooks for each leader are available at nominal cost.

Second, rotate the leadership of your groups weekly. This is the most natural way to cultivate an unlimited harvest of leaders for any group. One group, one leader at a time—what I call the "crock pot method" of leadership development. This has become the most revolutionary approach to preparing the soil for an upcoming harvest.

Finally, recognize that ultimately, it is not about your great training program; it's more about getting people into groups and just watching what God does through the lives of ordinary leaders and their groups. The Bible says that Paul planted, Apollo watered but God caused the growth.

Simply pray to the Lord of the harvest, get them into community, and watch God do the rest.

Okay, so you recommend recruiting "hosts." What is a "Host Home" and why don't you simply call it a small group?

Most churches, even with a decent small group ministry, need to launch new groups with new leaders. And if you have no small group ministry—it's the only way to begin.

So, what is the bottleneck of small groups in most churches? Leaders, right? If you could crack the code for recruiting and developing leaders, your ministry would explode.

We've found the best way for that to happen is to launch a 6-week small group campaign in your church. It has a beginning and an end—and so people feel it's doable. And you don't ask for leaders. You publicly invite people to open their homes to host one of these groups. One church we consult with called this six-week campaign "Designed for Life." We used the "Beginning Lifetogether" study guide, and the corresponding DVD.

People are not intimidated by opening up their home. We've found that when churches ask for hosts—they blow the doors off—they end up with more hosts than they expected. And then they struggle to fill each Host Home with 8 to 12 members. It's a wonderful problem to have—more hosts than people to fill the home.

So, a Host is simply someone or a couple who opens their home for a six-week study. And then, in the coaching process, we help churches identify the leaders in each group. The purpose of a "Designed for Life" group, for example, is to engage—in the context of community—to answer the question: "What is God's design for my life?" We encourage churches to align their weekend services with the six week campaign. It simultaneously combines the weekend services and the formation of people in small groups on the same topic: to focus on and practice God's core values in our lives—together.

What is a Host responsible for?

Opening their home to a few friends and church family, plugging in the DVD, and facilitating a few questions for six weeks using the Bible Study Guide, "Beginning Life Together." Hosts may also encourage personal reading time by all the group members using the devotional book, The Purpose Driven Life.

If I am a Host, for example, who ends up being in the six-week study?

Your small group consists of between 8 and 12 members. You are able to choose how your group gets formed—you can have people assigned to your group and/or invited by you! Here are what your options look like:

A. Friends of the Host: You may fill your group with people you know from your church or with your spiritually seeking friends who do not attend.

B. Friends of the Church: Your small group ministry team or person will automatically assign church people who sign up for your time and type of group unless you inform the team that your group is filled with those you have personally invited.

C. Friends of friends: Friends of Friends are another primary way a Host may fill their groups. One couple knows another couple and they know about ten other people, the rest is history.

Should Hosts invite people only from the church or seeker friends?

That is totally up to the Host. The point is to seek God prayerfully about who to invite. The Lifetogether curriculum is not primarily evangelistic. However, hundreds of new groups have welcomed their unbelieving neighbors and seeking friends. You may need to replace a question, skip an exercise or in some way adapt the questions or resources for your small group participants. To view the Lifetogether curriculum, click here.

What happens at the end of the six-week starter groups?

In the 4th week of your study, we recommend that the Hosts invite the members of their group to continue for another six-week study. Some groups will continue, some will join other groups & some members and/or groups will stop meeting. Make sure you have a curriculum plan for the entire year. You'll be surprised how many groups will continue.

What about Hosts that don't want to continue after the first six-week study?

We ask the Hosts, then, in this instance, to prayerfully ask God to make apparent someone among the group who can replace him or her. That is the hope—an ongoing, life-giving, healthy small group. Someone needs to be identified as the "point person" for the group, but responsibilities can be rotated, including refreshments, prayer requests, worship and keeping up with those who miss a meeting. Shared ownership in the group helps everyone grow.