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Bethany Johnson heads up our junior high small group ministry and she is doing an amazing job! So good, in fact, that I really NEVER need to think about details and am freed up to write curriculum, dream about big picture things etc. Here are a few small group items on my mind today.
- Trying to set most of today aside to start work on writing “scripts” and study questions for two new sets of junior high video curriculum that I want to have in our leaders hands for next season of small groups. One set will be on the book of Proverbs and the other will be called “The Red Stuff” and will focus on Jesus’ words. If I can just chart a basic course for each today I will feel pretty good.
- Small Groups. I have felt a little (not a lot, but definitely a little) unsettled about our small group structure for a while and am really torn between the ideas that our strategy is a good one that just needs a tiny bit of tweaking and attention vs. maybe it’s time to really begin to re-think junior high small groups and open the door for a variety of groups such as affinity groups, deeper learning groups, larger groups focusing more on relationships etc. In my “gut” it feels better to allow lots of freedom and variety, but organizing such a strategy feels like a nightmare at best! I guess at the heart of my struggle is this: Is it better to design a structured program for small groups that keeps everybody heading the same direction or is it better to be organic and allow freedom, customization etc. of each group?
- What is the best way to follow up with, encourage, hold accountable etc. the leaders of each group? Currently we have a “coaching structure” that feels like it should do the trick quite well. For example, I am a coach to about 8 small group leaders. Where it breaks down (and when it breaks down, it really breaks down) is when coaches don’t coach. I know this because I am a horrible small group coach and my guys would be justified in feeling un-coached! While this approach feels right, it hasn’t ever really proven to be as effective as it could/should be.
- I love small groups! Just thinking about small groups puts a smile on my face. They are flawed, frustrating and figuring them out completely won’t happen for our ministry any time soon, but I can’t imagine leading a junior high ministry without their existence at some level.
Related posts:
A book that I want to read but haven’t yet that seems to speak to this idea of how to structure groups is “The Search to Belong,” by Joseph Myers – I wonder if some of his ideas wouldn’t help with this discussion. If anything give us a language that we can use to understand this issue better.
Wondering about Small group Structure:
Can we have it both ways? We like to mix structured unified curriculum with almost-affinity times where the small group leaders and students get to dictate the direction of the group. We’ve found that the leaders feel refreshed and excited as the students buy into the group more, which really helps when we use a curriculum. We probably use curriculum 70 percent of the time and let the leaders and students lead 30 percent of the time. (Now, 30 percent of the time I have to be on top of things a lot more to make sure everyone’s actually heading in a direction, and not just playing dodgeball every week for an hour.)