In a typical group, an apprentice doesn't do anything. They watch but never lead.

Instead of developing apprentices, simply rotate leadership every week. Normally, groups don't do that. But if you challenge them after the first couple of weeks you launch a new group and underscore the importance of rotating leadership, over time it will happen.

Many individuals are just waiting to be asked. The average spiritual age of people who agree to be a host is 14 years. Help your senior pastor get members out of the pews and develop leaders by giving individuals the opportunity to host.

Jesus' model was to recruit leaders-his 12 disciples-before he launched his ministry. Similarly, call for leaders before you call for members. Leaders will build the ministry for you.

From the pulpit, tell the congregation that Jesus modeled life together, he lived life together, and he called us to do life together. Emphasize that it's a commandment. Follow this simple ABC model.

1. Urge them to ASK God who to invite. Have them prayerfully consider and jot down names of people they'd like to do life together with for six weeks. After a moment, ask them if they will follow Jesus' model. People will respond out of a call to obedience.

2. Next, urge your congregation to BEGIN contacting those people within 24-48 hours. Nudge them to pick up the phone and send out invitations to an open house.

3. Have curriculum ready for members to CHECK out. Let them borrow the materials for a week and inform them they can return it if they don't use it. When they sign it, also sign them up for a host orientation.

"Recently I had the privilege of hosting a lunch for the President of my seminary. After a stimulating exchange about what God was doing around the country through the Small Group movement he went back to the campus and called all his staff together. He proceeded to inform them about a wave of spiritual renewal that was headed to the shores of the local church. He went on to say how their institution was not only miles from the beach but none of them even owned a surfboard …" The key to all of this is vision casting … almost every church wants to grow in numbers and reach out to their community. Vision casting is explaining the dream of Jesus Christ, "that every sheep would have a shepherd," meaning that every believer would be connected to one another so that the body of Christ could fulfill its purpose. It's also giving you church body easy tools through which they can accomplish this purpose. A small group ministry and a church campaign can do all of this at once and has some amazing fringe benefits like growth in church attendance and giving as well as building an effective engine through which the senior pastor and staff can communicate to their church body. These fringe benefits help the reluctant Pastors and staff and leadership to see the value and purpose of being a church of small groups not a church with small groups.

Great question! You're certainly not alone in wondering this. Many people think that because their church is "traditional," small groups won't work. So untrue!

In launching a campaign, you have a choice: either start carefully and small or do a church-wide launch—like a capital campaign.

If you want to start small, try a few Bible study classes and start by using round tables to sit at. This will divide the people up. Then you can have one person at each table facilitate the questions (mind you, this is not a table leader if you want to do this softly). Have all the classes study the same curriculum together. They will naturally become "small groups" just by sharing answers to the curriculum questions in a smaller, more intimate circle.

On the other end of the spectrum, the church-wide launch means "all hands on deck," from preschool to adult ministries. You should have them all be part of a spiritual growth campaign for the whole church.

NOW! The #1 need among people is to belong … to be in relationship with other people. (See Newsweek and Time magazines articles about this). If this is true, then small groups are the answer to this need in the context of churches as well as outside of the church. But we have found that the very best time of year to start small groups is in the fall when school has started back up and summer vacations are over. Then follow the seasons, with January and Easter as two other prime launch times for small groups. January is a good restart time, when people are open to new ideas and programs and after Easter is prime time for new believer and new attender/member groups to begin.

Probably the most important factor here is to communicate the vision from the pulpit through testimonies and stories of what and how small groups are doing in people's lives. The stories of life transforming life in the individual members of your congregation will have greater impact than any ask you can do. The Senior Pastor's own buy in, and listing the benefits of being in a small group are also key motivating factors. When the Senior Pastors says I am going to a group too" the ripple effect is contagious Everyone wants to "belong" … so jump on that band wagon and use it to draw people in.

Lifetogether's approach to finding leaders is simple: We recommend that groups have a host or hostess. A host is simply someone who has a heart for people, is willing to open his or her home, will serve a pot of coffee and turn on the VCR or DVD for the teaching part of the study.

This makes it so easy. All you're asking from a host or leader is to simply be a facilitator for the evening; this task could also be rotated among the group each week.

We encourage you to select one or more discussion leaders and one or more host/leaders/facilitators for each group. We recommend that you rotate the job of facilitating your discussions and hosting the study. This creates opportunities for everyone's gifts to develop. Several other responsibilities can be rotated, including refreshments, prayer requests, worship or keeping up with those who miss a meeting. Shared ownership in the group helps everybody grow and feel a commitment to the group.

RIGHT NOW! The number one need among people is to belong—to be in relationship with other people. If this is true, then small groups are the answer to this need in the context of churches as well as outside of the church. So it's important to get going on this if you feel led.

We have, however, found that the very best time of year to start small groups is in the fall when school has started back up and summer vacations are over. The next two best times are January and Easter. January is a good restart time, when people are open to new ideas and programs. Just after Easter is prime time for the new believer and new attender or new member groups to begin.

Recently I had the privilege of hosting a lunch for the president of my seminary. After a stimulating exchange about what God was doing around the country through the small group movement he went back to the campus and called all his staff together. He proceeded to inform them about a wave of spiritual renewal that was headed to the shores of the local church. He went on to say how their institution was not only miles from the beach but none of them even owned a surfboard.

The key to launching a small group ministry is "vision casting." Almost every church wants to grow in numbers and reach out to their community. Vision casting explains the dream of Jesus Christ, "that every sheep would have a shepherd," meaning that every believer would be connected to one another so that the body of Christ could fulfill its purpose.

It's also giving you church body easy tools through which they can accomplish this purpose. A small group ministry and a church campaign can do all of this at once and has some amazing fringe benefits like growth in church attendance and giving as well as building an effective engine through which the senior pastor and staff can communicate to their church body. These fringe benefits help the reluctant pastors and staff and leadership to see the value and purpose of being a church of small groups not a church with small groups.

Probably the most important factor here is to communicate the vision from the pulpit through testimonies and stories of what and how small groups are doing in people's lives. The stories of life transforming life in the individual members of your congregation will have greater impact than anything else you can do. The Senior Pastor's own buy in as well as listing the benefits of being in a small group are also key motivating factors. When the Senior Pastors says, "I am in a small group, too," the ripple effect is contagious Everyone wants to "belong"—so jump on that band wagon and use it to draw people in.

At Lifetogether, we have found that 90 percent of equipping and developing of leaders can be done through what we call "just-in-time training" within the curriculum we have produced.

While a large part of developing leaders is based on relationships with those leaders, giving them the tools to facilitate a small group easily tends to take away any potential fears.

Lifetogether's DVD teaching curriculum provides some of the best teachers from all over the country. It offers tips and ideas as well as teaching on a wide variety of subjects and verses.

The DVD shows how anyone can lead a group if he or she can simply plug in a video-driven curriculum and host two to 20 people in his or her home for a few weeks.

Good question. It is important to establish what differentiates a small group champion from a leader. The objective of a champion is to lead, inspire, encourage and motivate his or her leaders to lead a balanced spiritual life.

Here's a model we use at Lifetogether to remember the components of an effective champion; we suggest looking for people who have the heart of a champion and the hands of a servant.

The HEART of the champion (who the champion is):

Hands are open to God in service.

Encouragement to their leaders and members.

Available to minister and serve.

Reluctant, "real" servant spirit (Moses, Peter).

Teachable for what God has for them in this role.

The hands of a servant (what a COACH needs to do):

Cultivate the "health" of the leaders.

One step ahead, only one step at a time to keep leaders moving forward.

Ask leaders questions: What's working? What's not working? What's next? How can I support you or help you? How can I pray for you? When can we meet? When can I visit your group? When's a good time to call? Who's next?

Connect with leaders regularly in five ways: One on one (monthly/quarterly), group visits (quarterly), leader huddles, fellowship and socialize with them, email and call them.

Help them have a spiritual partner.

 

One way is to identify groups first by geography then by affinity (couples, singles, women, and men groups). Once you have assessed this, assign staff or lay leadership over the groups, preferably in their neighborhood area. If supervisors are in a group's area and are at similar life stages as their group, they will more likely take ownership. Supervisors can be staff members, volunteers, or even token paid volunteers.

• Cast the vision, and keep it fresh in front of them through the care of coaches and staff.

• Be clear on what you are asking of them. Give clear time frames and specify the commitments needed from them.

• Find enough coaches to shepherd the leaders. If you want them to remain involved and motivated, leaders need to know someone cares and that there is value in what they are doing for the kingdom.

• Celebrate every success, and help them always to keep the Harvest in mind.

• Love them in 101 ways. This may sound obvious, but it models what you want them to do and retains those you want to retain.

Do a church-wide launch, like a capital campaign. Involve everyone, from toddlers to adults, in a spiritual growth campaign.

Or you can begin by creating a small group feel to your Sunday school classes. For instance, try sitting at round tables, and have one person at each table facilitate the questions. Have all Bible classes study the same curriculum together. By sharing answers to questions in a more intimate group, people at each table will naturally become a small group.

Probably the most important factor here is to communicate the vision from the pulpit. Nothing is more compelling than small group members sharing their testimonies and stories from the pulpit. Also it's essential that the senior pastor expresses the importance of small groups and lists the benefits of being in a small group. Through this process, draw on people's sense of needing to belong—because everyone wants to belong.

One practical tip is each fall and each spring, conduct a spiritual life campaign that aligns small groups with the weekend service. That is, for example, in the fall you may wish to conduct a six-week series on, say, biblical community or another topic. Your senior pastor may preach a series of messages on that topic—and then your small groups can study the sermon in depth during the week. Some churches even videotape their pastor teaching on a segment of the sermon that can be shown in the homes.

We recommend that before the six-week (or however long you choose) campaign, you ask—publicly, during the worship service—for people who aren't in a small group to open their homes for the six-week period. Often, you'll find that many who have began attending the past six months will be willing to open their home; they simply want to connect into the church.

We suggest inviting between 15-30 people. After the first night, let the group invite some of their own friends. In our experience, about half of those who say they will come will actually come. An optimum number of people to have in a small group is 8-10. This allows for great interactive communication while still giving people a chance to talk and share. If your group gets much larger you can break into groups to share and pray after the Bible study.

At the beginning or end of the class, integrate small group discussion time. Break up into groups of 3-4 and discuss life applications from the lesson or simply share what's going on in life. Try to make it more than just another lecture from the weekend service. Small groups aren't classes, where people get spiritual content in a lecture format and sit in lines of seats. Small groups put relationships in the context of religion. Click here for more information on how to do this.

Volunteer hosts may not be trained, but the Holy Spirit may be choosing them not only to lead but also to deepen their faith in the process. A host is simply someone who has a heart for people, is willing to open their home, and is able to turn on the video for the teaching part of the study. They don't have to possess strong biblical knowledge or speak eloquently. Also, hosts don't necessarily have to lead the study. We encourage groups to select one or more discussion leaders who will rotate leadership week to week.