Every church has a room full of people who finished a course. Fewer churches have a room full of people who went from being just a participant to a leader because of a course. Why the difference? Not because of the people, or their gifts, or the presentation of the facilitator.
Every Christian small group leadership course can give its participants pages of notes, outlines, and a ton of principles worth remembering. Or, a course designer can create a room where the participants are challenged to be something different than when they were when they walked in the door and a new level of leadership is achieved by those willing to participate fully.
Leaders confuse teaching with developing.
Teaching is transferring content; developing is changing character and competency, which is a much bigger challenge. Paul knew the difference. “The things you have heard me say… entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others” (2 Timothy 2:2). Notice the emphasis was not on information, but people, people who would carry on the teachings in their own lives and leadership effectiveness.
Any effective small group leadership course will involve a commitment to produce leaders. Therefore, the course designer must structure the curriculum around three commitments: it has to be relational, peer-led, and applied.
Relational:
No one becomes a leader by osmosis, despite what some seminars would have you believe. Leadership is taught, but even more, it is caught. Small groups are the only venues small enough to make that relational connection that is necessary for people to influence others in becoming leaders.
When six or eight people get together long enough to know each other’s stories, something happens that big lectures can never reproduce. They establish a trust that allows them to be vulnerable with each other.
This trust factor will allow the course participants to admit their struggles, failures, and self-doubts, all of which are necessary ingredients for producing leaders.
Peer-led:
As soon as the facilitator begins to do all the talking, the group’s potential for developing leaders is severely compromised. Leadership development requires that the participants wrestle with the information, challenge each other, and take ownership of the content by making it a part of who they are.
Notice how the best small group leadership development courses will rotate the facilitation, encourage participants to challenge each other, and force everyone to take ownership of the sessions through accountability. No one has effectively learned to lead by standing in the back of the room and watching someone else do it.
Applied:
James warned against merely listening to the word of God, saying, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (James 1:22). Leadership development courses are no different. If the session ends with thoughtful discussion but no applications, then the group has been ineffective in its purpose.
Every session of any leadership development course should produce a commitment, not just a conclusion. Maxwell Leadership Foundation’s Beyond Success courses are roundtables, not lectures. This is because the purpose is not simply to teach the principles of leadership effectiveness, but to cause every participant to apply them in their lives. That’s why the roundtable works so well; it forces the blending of relationships, ownership, and accountability.
These five components are necessary ingredients for courses designed to produce leaders. Now, how can these ingredients be blended into group session design?
- Discussion over monologue
Aim for questions to outnumber statements.
- Rotating voices
Allow for different people to facilitate or share as their leadership abilities are tested.
- Commitment over conclusion
End every session with a commitment rather than applause
- Stories over substance
Truth does not reside in ideas or theories but in people’s lives.
- Follow-up
Next week’s session results are a powerful motivator.
Any course that produces leaders will always be more demanding of the facilitator than one that only produces students. Leadership development can never be outsourced or mechanized. It always requires human investment.
Every movement of significant leadership has begun with the relational small group long before it has filled arenas. Jesus had twelve. Paul had Timothy. Leadership development will always begin in the relational small group as well. When we produce leaders who continue to develop others, our impact multiplies exponentially. Everything rises and falls on leadership, and every leader worth his salt began his journey deciding the place to sit in order to grow as a leader was in a small group.
Want to learn more about bringing a leadership development program like this to your church or organization? Explore the Beyond Success roundtable experience and other resources at iequip.org.
