Ministries always have goals, but they often don’t have the margin to achieve those goals. Every pastor has an abundant list of programs he would start and a staff that’s barely keeping up with what’s on the schedule. And that tension has led to a larger number of good ideas being derailed than bad theology.
But launching a free leadership small group program need not add to that tension. EQUIP’s small group curriculum was designed specifically to cater to churches that have very few staff and little bandwidth to add more programs. How can we integrate it into your ministry without adding to the burden of the people working in your church?
If we can get that one person, if we can find one willing facilitator, no committee necessary, then we can start with that one person.
Church leaders tend to wait to launch a new initiative until they have a whole team in place to launch it. Planning is crucial, but analysis paralysis is a problem. A willing facilitator can put together a small group that a committee can spend months talking with each other about.
Find a person who already has a relational connection to your congregation. That can be a leader in the small group or a deacon or ministry volunteer who is well-known. They don’t need to have a seminary education or a lot of leadership experience with Beyond Success because they’re going to lead them through the material. We just need one person willing to invest the time.
So this week let us ask that one person. No committee necessary. And one person.
Recruit Six to Ten Participants, No More, No Fewer
The size of the small group will dictate the group dynamic. Anything smaller than that and the conversation thins out. Any bigger and you lose the intimacy and everyone becomes a number in a sea of faces.
Recruiting doesn’t have to be a huge production. The easiest is to simply let the facilitator ask. People who are already engaged, volunteers, ministry leaders, anyone who has shown interest in a leadership small group or has taken an interest in you as a leader.
You may want to give a brief description of the group and what it’s about in terms of the following: “I’m starting a free seven week leadership small group. It’s called Beyond Success, from EQUIP. Are you interested?” When recruiting six to ten people, don’t make a public plea. Instead, send a personal invitation.
Run the Seven Sessions on a Rhythm Your Church Can Sustain
There are seven sessions in the Beyond Success curriculum and you want to spread them out over the course of a church year. You don’t have to figure out a date and time until you’re further along. The general rule of thumb is to meet weekly because it’s the best place to connect and hold the group accountable. If your church calendar is very busy, every other week is still useful; the group has to meet no fewer than six times at least.
The sessions should be 60-75 minutes long and no additional materials should be provided. Small group leaders think that the longer they spend together the more detailed the conversations will be. In fact brevity and focus are more important than length and breadth.
A sample session could look like the following:
Opening (5 minutes): The group can pray for a brief prayer or devotional together.
Content Review (30-40 minutes): Facilitator reviews the materials for the week with the group.
Group Discussion (15-20 minutes): Facilitator uses the discussion questions provided in the leader’s guide from EQUIP for conversation.
Closing: The group can discuss a potential application of the session and close in prayer.
There is no curriculum to write and no materials to prepare. The facilitator guide does all the work.
Protect the Team From Scope Creep
The best way to introduce a free small group program into your church context is to start small and stay small. No big production launch, no press release, no announcements in the church newsletter. Beyond Success is a simple program that is meant for busy ministry teams. A small, contained session every week for seven weeks is a manageable commitment for a pastor and staff and that’s exactly what makes it sustainable even as a free program.
Word of mouth is more important than outward promotion because it is the small group that gives participants the power to spread the vision themselves.
Reproduce, Don’t Just Repeat
The last thing you would tell anyone to start a free leadership small group program is reproduce what you’ve started. At the end of seven weeks ask one or two of your group members if they’d be willing to help you with the next session. This is the most effective way to develop a healthy small group culture and is in line with the Apostle Paul’s advice to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:2 (“entrust it to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others”).
You don’t need more resources to add on to the first group you’ve started. You just need to recruit and equip small group leaders to multiply their time and energy. One group becomes two, two become four, and so on until your church has a reproducing leadership small group culture that didn’t require expanding your budget or staff.
Small Steps, Sustainable Growth
Your church doesn’t need more capacity to launch a leadership small group. You just need one facilitator and six additional participants. Beyond Success was created for churches like yours with little staff and little margin. The vision is still big: it just needs to be adapted to your context.
For the free Beyond Success small group curriculum and to launch your first group this month, visit iequip.org.
