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What Do You Expect of Your Small Group Leaders?

What do you expect of the leaders in your small group ministry?  Are your expectations in writing?  How do you communicate them?

Here’s the latest version of a form I’ve used for many years.  I call the form the Small Group Leader Purpose and Responsibilities.  I’m sure that Carl George and Brett Eastman played a part in their origin.  I’ve been using these basic ideas for so long I can’t remember exactly from where I stole them.

Primary Purpose:  To produce healthy disciples by providing care for each of the members in my small group.

Primary Responsibilities:

  1. To make my daily, living connection with Jesus Christ a priority—being in community with Him is the foundation for all community.
  2. To lead an exemplary Christian lifestyle—group members watching me will see an obedient servant of Jesus Christ growing in maturity.
  3. To convene my group regularly (2 to 4 times a month).
  4. To provide personalized care and development for each of my members, using the Spiritual Health Assessment and Spiritual Health Planner.
  5. To assist in the identification and development of potential Small Group Leaders within my group.
  6. To maintain great communication with the Communities team.
  7. To gather with the other Small Group Leaders in my coaching huddle for training and encouragement.
  8. To make attending scheduled gatherings for training and encouragement (i.e., Leadership Development 1 and the Fall Host Rally).

Important Note: Keep in mind, these are expectations for a small group leader and I’m starting almost every group using a small group connection or a church-wide campaign using the HOST strategy (i.e., like Steve Gladen and the team at Saddleback, our leaders would begin their journey with much simpler expectations and migrate to these.  See Steve Gladen on Saddleback’s Leadership Pathway for more).

These are my expectations of the leaders in our  small group ministry.  Here are our expectations for small group hosts (who commit to hosting a new group during a church-wide campaign).  Do they know these expectations and accept them?  A constant challenge.  Should they have expectations of me and my team?  Absolutely.  Watch Monday’s post for more on this important topic.  Don’t want to miss the next piece of the puzzle?  You can sign up for my updates right here.