Raising up small group leaders is critical to support the growth of small groups within the church, replacing existing small groups, and facilitating room for new people to join the deep and meaningful fellowship within these groups. 

The word ‘leadership‘ can have a very worldly meaning and interpretation to some people. To have great small groups that are Biblically modeled and supported by people who love God, you should be intentional on how you identify and raise up the next small group leaders. Join us has we examine this time tested model on how to raise and grow small group leaders. 

Grow From Within 

Great leaders are developed from within. In the days of the early church they looked for leaders from within. 

“Every high priest is selected from among the people in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. “

Hebrews 5:1

We can, and should take this same approach when trying to find the next small group leaders.  Being a small group leader means serving people. To serve people well the motivation has to come from a response and desire to love God. This begins with the heart, and a desire. When we examine our own journey of faith and relationship with the Lord, you will find that it started with a desire to understand more about about Him. Seldom do people start their journey to love God through the pursuit of knowledge. It begins with the heart. 

Look for someone who has a heart for God. This is the most important trait of a small group leader. That heart for the Lord will promote all other development areas of leadership. It’s the love for God that drives us to get into the Word, to pray, to be obedient, to serve, to give, to sacrifice. 

It takes time to see if people have a genuine desire for the Lord. There is not perfect way to do this, but one of the better ways is to spend time with them and have authentic conversations about our faith and struggles. Does that sound familiar? The perfect place to spend time with someone and authentically get to know them is in small group. 

The best way to identify future small group leaders is from within our small groups. The next generation of small group leaders should come from within existing small groups. 

From the foundation of being in, and participating in a  small group they will have a solid vision of what small groups are all about. They will see the importance of reading the Bible, praying together, and studying material. They will see that bringing what you’ve learned and sharing it with the group is like an offering to the Lord. They will get to see first hand all the struggles and conflicts that come from having deep relationships together. 

Look for someone from within your small group that has an authentic heart for the Lord and a desire to grow. 

Get to know them personally

When you’ve identified someone from within your small group that has an authentic desire to love God, the next step in considering them as future small group leaders are getting to know them. At this point, it’s still too early to say if they want to be small group leaders, or if they’d even be any good at it. At this early point, you’re just deciding to spend extra time, outside of the small group, to get to know someone who has an authentic love for God.

Approach this time as purely building your friendship. Don’t approach this step only to qualify them for future leadership. It’s great getting to know other believers. Getting to hear their testimony, having a meal together alone without everyone else from small group is a great opportunity. One of my favorite things to do is go for a walk on a trail together and then get something to eat. 

Personal Story:

I remember when my small group leaders ask if my wife and I would like to join them for a hike at a park and get a meal afterwards at a nearby cafe. I thought that was so nice. I felt honored that these leaders, that seemed so mature, would want to hang out with us. I was a little nervous at first, as it’s my personality to wonder what they wanted. Take a hike was perfect because it provided enough time to just relax and see were just hanging out. I had the opportunity to see them hang out in a way I didn’t get to see in small group. The way they were silly, humorous, and great at conversation. I really enjoyed getting to know them more, and I was really encouraged by our time together. That initial hang out time, turned into a lifelong friendship. It’s been a long time and I still consider them one of our closest friends. And it started by them just inviting us to hang out with them. 

When you’re getting to know them to ask them questions like why they joined a small group? Was it hard for them to join a small group? What fears did they have? How have those fears been worked out since joining? Why did they choose our small group instead of another one? Are there other people they know of that would benefit from joining a small group? What are the hoping to get out of being in a small group? What one thing in their life, or faith, would they like to go in over the next year? Do they mind if you keep them accountable and ask how that is going over over the next year?

Finally, when you feel it appropriate, ask them if they’ve ever considered leading a small group. I love this question. I love asking it, but most of all I love watching people’s reaction to the question. I’ve seen everything from a hidden reveal that they know they want to lead a small group and were just waiting for someone to ask, to almost falling over that is such a crazy and foreign question to them. 

There answer to this question has absolute no impact or influence on if they will be future small group leaders. The purpose of this question is only to plant a seed. That seed will be watered, grown, and pruned through their relationship with the Lord. 

Give them plenty of time and space to answer the question. Allow them to think about it without saying anything. Even after they’ve given an answer, or part of answer, I encourage you to stay quiet and see if anything comes. 

Next, encourage them by sharing a couple things you see in them. Try to share something you’ve witnessed in the small group that they do well and could be a blessing to others. This might be their humility, or how they encourage others. It might be their diligence reading the Bible, or having a quiet time. 

Finally, ask them to pray about it. This is your way of encouraging them to go before the Lord with it. God will help them decide if leading a small group is right for them or not. He has a calling and purpose for them. By you asking them to pray about it doesn’t just have the purpose of discovering if small group leading is right, it opens up the possible of anything! And that’s truly what we want, is for them to follow God’s purpose for their life. If it’s something else other than leading small group, praise God. 

Give Them Opportunities (tiny group)

The leap towards small group leadership can be a small step. A great small step is to have them lead a tiny group. You can start having them do this before or after they’ve indicated if they want to lead small group. Sometimes they will need to take steps in that direction before it becomes clear to them if this is right or not.

Leading a  Tiny Group is like leading a small smidgen of the group for only half the time. So it’s a really great way to have a bit size flavor of what this leading small group thing is all about. You will take responsibility over getting everyone together after a social time and getting their attention. Then you’ll pray for the whole group, and after that you will cover announcements. Then you’ll announce you’re breaking down into Tiny Groups and help everyone count off to determine what group they will be in. Then you’ll instruct group one to go with you, and group two to go with them. 

During Tiny Group their role will be to facilitate questions and conversations. Help keep everyone on track and on the material, unless a personal issue comes up then that can focus on that. Try to watch the clock and be respectful of peoples time. Give them a time you’d like them to come back to the small group at. Stress that their role isn’t to do everything right, it’s just to serve the Tiny Group by helping the discussion and respecting them by watching the clock. Oftentimes, it’s nice to include a prayer time at the end of the Tiny Group. Ask them ahead of time what their comfort level including this. If not, offer to regather everyone after Tiny Group and pray. 

If leading a Tiny Group is too much, or you don’t have Tiny Groups (read more about Tiny Groups in this article: How to Tiny Group) you can offer to have them lead in other areas. If you think about the framework of what happens during a small group time together and then pick one of those pieces to hand over to them. The next time hand a different one to them. Continue to do this until they’ve individually covered each of the components that make up a small group time together. Here is a framework:

• Gathering everyone together after social time
• Praying for the group time together
• Announcements
• Facilitating questions and conversations about material
• Watching the clock, and give a five minute warning

Article: What Are Tiny Groups in Small Group

Cast vision of importance of small groups and leaders

As you get to know them more and they start to share they might have an interest in being small group leaders you should share more about what it means to be a small group leader. You need to give them the vision. They need to understand how critical small groups are, and why they exist at your church. Share with them how this is a place for fellowship that drives up closer to Christ and builds a strong foundation of our faith. Share the vision you’d like see everyone at church have this opportunity to be a part of a small group to experience this growth. 

At this point take a break and ask them what small group has done for them. How has their life changed because they have been committed to a small group? This will really help them bring this vision home and see how their own testimony has fulfilled this vision. 

Then transition to talking about what it means to be a small group leader. The fruitful vision of small groups is beautiful, but it requires leaders. Those leaders are servants. This is a serving role within the church. Don’t assume they have the correct idea of what it means, and costs, to be a small group leader. Share with them your personal story of why you did it, what it has done for you, what it has cost you. Share with them the hard times, the times you didn’t know the right answer or felt unequipped. 

Give them leadership op over whole small group

At some point in equipping them to be small group leaders make the transition from giving them bit size pieces to the whole pie. Ask them a couple weeks ahead of time if they will lead the whole small group.

One of the reason for giving them enough time is you’ll want to let the rest of the small group know ahead of time that they will be taking your place leading small group one night. I recommend that you are not present during the small group you ask them to lead. Tell the small group you will not be there and you’ve asked them to step in and lead. 

It can be scary for them to lead small group without you there, but it’s better for everyone. Even though they will probably be uncomfortable, they will be less uncomfortable with you there worrying if you are approving of the way you are doing things. 

This will be harder for you than it is for them. It will be your first taste of not having control over everything. It’s a good opportunity for you to check your heart and review your dependency on God. 

Ask and coach them through issues

Setup a time after they lead small group to review how it went. Let them talk and share about all their highlights, worries, and challenges. Don’t coach or give them any advise, just let them share. 

Often times when someone steps into leadership it will test their dependency on God. This is a healthy fear and is a catalyst for them to grow in their relationship with the Lord. Although you want to help and support them during this growth period in their life, you don’t want to be their foundation. You want to offer to pray for them and encourage them to spend time reading the Bible and spend time in prayer. Pointing them to the Lord for their foundation and strength is the absolute best thing, most loving thing, most right thing you can do for them. Great leaders help point others to Jesus. 

Personal Story:

I remember the first time I lead, and the first time I gave a class at church, and the first time I shared a message at a regional church event. I was nervous, but more than that I had a hunger for God. I had a drive to dive into the Bible and pray. I wanted as much of God as I could get! I knew that I didn’t want to attempt to be successful in this events on my own power and wisdom. 

Being asked to lead grew my hunger for the Lord, and it grew my faith every time. 

After you’ve let them shared about their time leading, thank them for it. Tell them you appreciate them for serving, but most of all you appreciate the step of faith they took. Now ask them if there is anything you can do for them. This is the time they will share if they want your help with any of those challenges or not. If they do want your help, offer to coach them on the issues. Demonstrate what great small group leaders do by opening the Bible and going to the word for wisdom on these issues.

Have them apprentice

After they’ve taken some steps of faith from leading a tiny group, or the whole small group, check their appetite for small group leadership. Are they on-board? Or are they still not sure about? 

If they lean towards the positive side, ask them if they’d be willing to apprentice. Giving this title makes the effort to learn more about small group leadership official. This does several things. 

First it gives them affirmation you believe in them and you support them. This goes a long way. It’s like a informal agreement that you will take them along and be intentional about training them. You agree to tell them all you know and give them a heads up about all the ‘ins’ and ‘outs’ of small group leadership. 

Second it gives them visibility with church leadership. It’s important that church leaders know who is being raised up within the church. 

Lastly, it puts them in a continual state of learning. Having a title, or role, makes you think about it often. It changes the way they will approach small group. They will move from more of traditional attendee to a contributor. One they see how different it is to be a leader, they tend to have desire to support the leaders more. This is another reason it’s great to approach as many people as possible because even the people who you approach, and they decide they don’t want to be small group leaders, they will start change the way they support the small group. They feel the weight of leadership more. 

Formal Training

Invite them to formal small group training if your church has it. One of our goals here at Growing Small Groups is to identify resources to help train up small group leaders through a formal curriculum. If this is something you are interested, please comment below to show how much support there is for something like this. 

If you do have a training program at the church get them signed up. Consider going to the first training with them to support them and introduce them to people. The more people they know they more supported and excited they feel. 

Personal Story:

When my wife and I go to a couples retreat, we always invite new couples to join us. We change our goal of the retreat from being all about improving our marriage to introducing new couples to others and getting them connected. This is so much fun. The new couples never know what they’re in for. It’s fun to watch for the new couple at church following a couples retreat. They are smiling and saying hello to all their new friends. They are making church their home, and these people are their new family. 

Small group leaders are special family all in their own. They understand the call, the burden, and the reward of serving people that are growing in their relationship with Jesus Christ. It’s special. 

Conclusion

To grow the church with people who love Jesus and feel connected to the body of believers, we need small groups. To grow small groups, it will take new leaders. You’re taking on an additional role as you not only lead your small group, but you’re looking for new leaders. This is a beautiful and worthy thing to do. The compounding impact will be felt by potentially hundreds of people, families, couples, and children. 

One you have see a desire to serve the Lord in someone and help them take the steps to figure out what that might look like, help them get some informal or formal training, it’s time to help them leading their own small group.

There are two ways to help them lead their own small group. The first way is to create a brand new small group and kick it off at the beginning of the small group season, or ad-hoc. 

The second way is a process of taking part of your existing small group and creating a new group under their leadership. We call this process ‘birthing a small group’. This is a unique and sensitive step in leadership. We will be creating an article called ‘How to Guide on Birthing Small Group’ so make sure you look out for that. We’ll talk about how to announce it to everyone in the right way, get support, and sending them off with people that can support them. 

FAQs

What if they decide they don’t want to lead?

That’s wonderful. Our goal is to help them by providing them opportunities on how they can serve teh Lord. Asking them to lead in this area is only one thing they can do among countless others. Encourage them and thank them for considering it. Pray for them to find their calling. 

What if someone wants to lead, but I don’t think they’d be good at it?

Start by asking them questions about their motivation. Usually when someone wants to be a small group leader, and we don’t they would be a good leader, means they have the wrong motivation. If sharing their motivation doesn’t expose that, than ask them to pray about. This is great because it will promote them to pray more, which in itself helps them mature their faith. Follow up by asking how praying is going for them, and if they feel like they’ve heard from the Lord on this. Then move on to ask them about reading their Bible. Express how important it is for small group leaders to be reading their Bible regularly. You can also follow up on this and ask to keep them accountable, or review what they’ve read on a weekly basis. They will either change their mind about leading, or these steps you coaching them on will help them grow in their understanding and faith. And that faith can change their motivation to actually become a great small group leader.