Evaluate Your Group Effectiveness
Every now and then a leader needs to take inventory about how their group is going. For all-church group life evaluation, forms and online assessment tools are great. However, there is a need for each group leader to take a reading of where their own group is at. It's not meant for deep evaluation.
One form of evaluation comes through the power of story.
One evening at our group I started by telling the group they could choose Option #1 or Option #2. I gave them no indication what was behind ‘door #1′ or ‘door #2.’ One of the outspoken individuals picked #2 and everyone else just fell in line. I got more insight as to whom I could approach as a future apprentice.
Value Added Living
I was recently thinking about the value that group life has added to my life. I grew up in church, a pastors home even. I can remember when I was a child being sick on Sundays and having to go and spend Sunday morning in my father’s office instead of in my bed. Going to church on Sunday is so normal to me that when I’m on vacation I feel guilty if I don't find a church to go to.
That being said, there are huge benefits that I’ve gained in my life over more than a dozen years in structured group life. Benefits that exist, not because of Sunday mornings, but because I’ve chosen to live in close proximity with other believers.
1. Confession: As I have built the relationships within a small group of friends, I have found that trust grows, acceptance flows, and therefore confession is able to happen. I am able to express the things that God is putting his finger on in my life and I find the support and love of friends.
One for All!
My wife and I took our son to go see Madagascar 2 a while back. I remember that there were enough one-liners in the movie to provide enough chuckles from me that I didn’t fall asleep. There were two lines that caused me to whip out my phone and make a note to myself right away. One line was: “They’re New Yorkers, they’re just rude and angry people.” Okay, so it struck me as funny, what does that say about me? 
The other line that I wrote down was much deeper and much more deep. The zebras were running as a herd and you hear one make this comment: “It’s one for all, and all for all.” Did you read that properly? "It's one for all, and all for ALL."
Start!
As I think through my life, I can see many times where I hesitated because I wasn’t sure. I can also see times where I should have hesitated. The times I should have hesitated were marked by my own impetuousness and instead of simply counting the cost upfront, I paid the price. The times when I hesitated because I wasn’t sure, were usually because I did count the cost and wanted things to get a bit better before I proceeded.
One of the poor habits I come across as I talk with group leaders is a reluctance to continue a scheduled group meeting if one or two people are unable to attend. This is going to be a little weird: I sometimes wonder if, even in a small group setting, we can become numbers driven. The fact is that people are not going to show up on occasion… and even for good reason!
Some of the best times I’ve had a group are when most of the members didn’t make it. We’d just put the material aside and spend a drawn out time focusing on the really important part of group life: each other.
As we look forward into this new and coming year, I wish to challenge you to keep this word in mind: START. Absolutely take time to count the cost! Don’t neglect that by any stretch. But don’t let the paralysis of analysis stop you in your tracks. Solomon writes these words:
Ecclesiastes 11:4: “If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done” (NLT)
I don’t believe in the whole New Years Resolutions thing. If you don’t have the discipline to change in April, why would you have more discipline in January?? So, don’t make this a resolution… just start what you believe God wants you to do.
This Group Gets It! (repost)
I received an email from one of our group leaders this week about their plans for their summer series. It is one of the best ideas that I’ve heard a group doing for the summer!
Here’s what the leader wrote:
Our group will be doing some things differently for our next study. We all have very busy schedules and each family has a lot of stuff piling up that needs to get done at our homes. Some of the families recently had babies and you can only imagine how busy they are.
Last week we showed up at at our host home and Daniel was on a ladder trying to clean his gutters and squeeze in a project before small group meeting. He was there, by himself, on the ladder. We need to ask our friends for help and be willing to return the favor. For us to help others we can start by helping each other and then maybe continue to others in need.
In the CONNECT series, we had a study a few weeks back that we talked about PRIDE and how we don’t ask for help because we think we can handle it ourselves. This is a chance for us all to break our pride and let others help us out. We found that our small group gatherings have been getting smaller recently and the main reason is because we are all behind on our to do lists.
We came up with a plan! Each of us are going to make a list of projects that need to get done around our house. Sometimes this list is referred to as a “honey do list.” Each week, we are going to have a fellowship gathering at each family’s home and work on their list. We are at our best when we are helping other people, so why not help our own family’s with their projects. It is another activity that defines team building and brings us closer together.
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