Now we want to look at the fourth facet of the effective volunteer minister. And that is actually getting yourself ready for the meeting that you're going to lead. There are basically three things that you want to keep in mind as you get ready for your own meeting. 

The first is: it takes quality quiet time to get yourself ready. If you hope to be an instrument of the Lord in touching the lives of your people, you need to set aside a block of time free from distractions where you can sit and get quiet enough that if God wants to nudge you in any particular direction, there's some possibility that you might be open to that. In a very hectic, frantic, busy life, we sometimes overlook the importance of just being quiet long enough to listen and to ask the question, "Lord, is there anything that you would like to put into this group's life through me in this coming meeting?" 

Now as you go through that period of quiet, it's a good time to start doing some of your intercessory prayer work. That is, it's a good thing to go through your group, face by face, name by name and pray for those people. What you'll often find is that as you pray for people, that's the time when the spirit of God most nudges you to toward sensitivity to their needs. Because things will occur to you. As a matter of fact, there are times when you'll have to force yourself to sit quietly during intercessory prayer and not jump up and run to the telephone and call that person immediately. And there are other times when you ought to abandon the planning time and go to the telephone immediately and call that person. Because the spirit of God becomes active in that person's life through you, urging you and prompting you to make those touches that are needed.

At the very least though, as you think about these people, you'll become sensitized to them. Because remember this - that in a small group, it is not content that we are most concerned about but whether the pupil or the participant receives the truth. 

People don't care how much you know unless they know how much you care. And so we start with regard for the people that are involved in our group. And intercessory prayer sensitizes us through the spirit of God to the needs of those people. But there's one other area that we have to be careful about if we're going to be effective members of the overall church team. And while we're sitting quietly, we need to update ourselves on what's going on in the larger body of Christ as represented by our congregation, and to some extent, the larger body of Christ is represented by other Christian works in our whole community.

In other words, the small group leader becomes one of the very important information posts for what's going on in church, what's going on in the larger arena of things. And so, as you look at the church bulletin from Sunday, or as you look at the announcement mailers and flyers that are sent out, or as you look at the material that you've picked up over the Christian communication media so that you know what's happening out there, you think about that. What you want to do is you want to inspire and encourage within your people a sense of excitement and anticipation for the kinds of things that Christians are doing together at the local church level as well as at the whole community-wide level. And you've got to be careful to balance those two things. And we'll deal with this in a later series so that you don't wind up being a person that is seen as disloyal to your local church because of your enthusiasm for outside activities. There needs to be a balance in people's lives.

But what you need to know is that you create a hunger for participating in the larger body of Christ by the personal excitement that you show, and you develop that excitement as you prepare for your whole-group meeting. Because you're going to think about places where you can share with people the things that you know are coming up in a way that seems natural to the conversation and seems natural to the flow of the meeting. 

There's always a certain amount of announcement giving that's needed in a meeting. Well, which announcements are you going to make? What are you going to keep people up-to-date on? And are you going to have the authoritative information they need - meeting start times and places and so forth? Have you refreshed yourself with that? Is there somebody you need to call to get that information before you have the meeting? Because in a small group context, people place a lot of credence in what you say. They'll take your word for it in a small group over anything else that they pick up. And so, it's important that you be an authoritative source of information and that you represent the latest word on what's going on.

And, so as you become, what we call, a time context sensitive - that is what's going on. Where are we in the year? How many weeks away are we from Easter or from Christmas or from summer vacation time or whatever? And what's the next big thing that's going on? Do we have that in mind during this time that we're praying with our people and for people? Because here's the truth that we're realizing. You can't do it all in a small group. In a small group, you've got to be a part of a much larger whole. 

Now as you know that you're going to be facing this group, there are at least two things that ought to be occupying your mind. One is, what are we going to do - in what order? How long are we going to spend on each of those things? And is there a message or a burden? Is there a bible passage that ought to be discussed or delivered?

So let's take a look at those issues for just a moment as you think about the setting of the actual agenda. See what does the agenda have to cover? Well, the agenda needs to cover all the things that you're personally going to do, and the things you're going to ask your apprentice to do, and the things you're going to ask any other people to do as you kind of warm them up to the idea of taking part in group leadership.

So you're thinking about not only the parts of the meeting, but you're also thinking about who's going to do each one of the parts of the meeting because one of your tasks is leadership development. You're always looking for opportunities to draw out the people in your group and to let them shine in the areas of their expertise. 

Now if you come and your mind is clearly focused so you know how you're going to end, and how you're going to begin, and where the various parts are, your mind will be free of the distractions of the meeting and you'll be able to focus on the individuals and the persons. So the greeting time is very important that you clear yourself from other things that might be done. And this is where the apprentice becomes important. Who's going to see to it that the refreshments are taken care of and arranged for? How are you going to handle and manage the distractions that are involved? You're going to have to think about that as actually get to the meeting time. And then, when do you think you're going to start?

Now starting times are very important. There are time-sensitive cultures and there are event-sensitive cultures. If you're of northern European extraction or you have been very much in the educational community, informal education, or you have been very much in large corporate work, you have become time sensitized. You carry a planning calendar that's broken into 15-minute sections, you have a stopwatch with seconds on your watch, you're constantly referring to your time and telling yourself how many more minutes you have before a certain meeting is going to occur. And starting on time is very, very important to you.

If you're from a southern European, African, or Latino culture, then you're event oriented. In that case, getting there and being with people is far more important than the precise moment that you'll begin. So in the more relaxed cultures that are event oriented, things start when they start and they finish when they finish. Whereas in that northern European hurry, hurry, hurry, rush, rush, rush every second counts for something culture. If you don't start and stop promptly, you're going to bend people all out of shape. There are some people who are wired in such a way that on Sunday morning at 12:00, no further input is possible. They are locked off. They shut it down and they say, "God had his chance through you, Minister. And he'll have to do his work some other way because it's 12:01. And if you don't have the foresight to understand that this thing has got to get moving,"-- and those kinds of people, since they all make up part of your group, have to be acknowledged. They have to see something happen at the time you set, and they have to see something happen to stop it at the time you said to stop even if it just means you break, shift positions and let everybody go that has babysitters to attend to. And then, hang around for the rest of the people.

See, one of the things agendas do is they help you understand there is a ministry time before the start, there is a ministry time after the stop time, there is the time of the meeting, and there's all the between stuff. So you've got a lot of opportunities to touch people, but you'll really offend people who have precise starting and stopping times if you don't acknowledge those starting and stopping times. 

The problem is that very few groups can start without a get ready, get set, and go kind of a syndrome. And you can set that up in the habits of your people. 

What you do is you say, "Let's play a certain piece of music before the meeting starts," and then, at two minutes before the meeting starts, let's put on that one that has the drums in it or whatever that piece of music is. And you can use music as moving people toward-- so you can see you have two minutes now, and you hit that piece of music and have a little background playing and it picks up the pace. And then, when that one's over, you say, "All right, folks. Let's get going." 

Now if there are children involved, that's immaterial. Children are the more important queue. In a meeting that has children milling around at the first and you're going to let them be with you for a part, then the way you get the meeting started is you signal the parents, "Okay. We've got about two minutes here, so let's kind of get the kids settled." And then, "Are the kids about all settled?" 

"The kids are settled. Go."

And you move on from there. And you may even keep the kids with you for the first 10 minutes or so, because in some cases if you don't and let them get thoroughly bored, they keep being curious. If you let them get thoroughly bored, they know they don't want to be there and then, you let them go to bed. So there are things that you do to help your meeting get started even if there are stages to it.

The idea, though, that a meeting has to start and someone has to take the initiative to start it is very important. Now if you, as a leader, have a tendency to be distracted with people in relationships, then assign the apprentice to start the meeting. And let them be the one making the noise and you hold back for the first two announcements and then, you move yourself into place with the third announcement. And that's the final formal signal for the meeting. 

You say, "What, what, what?" Yes, get ready, get set, go. And typically, it takes a two-minute countdown, a thirty-second countdown, and an actual go.

Now some people use formal prayers to start a meeting. Other people use a small prayer chorus, that they've learned, to start a meeting. There are various conventions that you'll have to experiment with, because there's no one right way to start it except that if you want to honor the northern European types, the time-sensitive types do try to make it happen very close - within five minutes - of the time that you've announced the start of the meeting, because that rewards punctuality. 

Now that doesn't mean that people are not still first. It just means that the people who have a time thing are honored by some kind of a formal starting, even if it's a rough start.

Now on the other end of the meeting, if you're going to get everything done during the meeting that you need to, you have to have a sense of how much time you're going to spend on each part of the meeting. Now you can identify five or six or seven, perhaps eight different parts of a meeting. 

You know that you need a time for acknowledging God's greatness and goodness even if it's a very brief one in a prayer, worship, or the reading of a Psalm. You know that you need a time for allowing people to share and to get acquainted with one another and to unfold their week to one another for comment. You know you need a time for bible discussion. You know you need time to make a few announcements. You know that you need a time for shared prayers so that everyone can take part in a prayer time and for prayer requests to be offered. And since you have all of these things to do, most of the time you can't just let them happen because our meetings do have some time-constraints on them, so you have to make yourself a written agenda. 

But how do you shape that agenda? We've learned that depending on the type of group you have that you're going to give more time to some things than to other things. And we can use that time shaping in a way that will help you plan your agenda. We're going to look at three different kinds of groups and the way we use time differently in those three different kinds of groups. And then, after we've explained how that time will be used differently, I'm going to explain when you violate that. So let's ask ourselves what are the things that have to do?

In the most generic sense, there are four things you're going to do every time you meet. We call it the LL, which has to do with love and learn. And then, we move ahead, and we refer to these next two parts related to tasking. And sometimes tasking is not the central feature of your meeting. Sometimes it is. Tasking is work that your group is going to do on behalf of others beyond the group. And then, finally, there's group maintenance. Now in maintenance, what I mean is the normal things that every group has to do like announcement making, and starting, and stopping, things of that type, gaining consensus and commitment, who's going to bring the coffee next time, and in whose home will we be meeting, a venue of arrangements of various kinds.

So we're going to take these four factors and I'm going to illustrate three different kinds of groups and how the time would be used in those three cases. Here's a pie chart, and I'm going to slice out a little time for maintenance, because we know we're going to have some of that go on during the group. And I'm going to say, "This group is going to be a caring group. It is meeting for the purpose of giving mutual support to persons. And what I can estimate is that more than half the time, then, in that particular group is going to be spent on the love portion, of sharing, of conversation, of letting people tell their story, of listening to people. Because this is how people know they're loved; they're listened to. We've made time for them. And then, we'll take the rest of the time and we'll divide it between learning activities, and tasking activities, or the planning for tasks as may be appropriate. So in a care group, the larger part of what's to be done is going to be loving. 

But if we take a bible study group, a group that we've called together, we're going to study the gospel of John together or we're going to study a certain topic, then the expectation is a little different. People know there is a learning focus.

Well in a learning focus group, we'll come along and we'll still allow ourselves the maintenance time that we need, and we'll still want to care for people. But the learning part is going to take the larger part of the agenda. And we're still going to have important times for caring, and we're going to have--or for loving--and we still have important time for planning for tasks because serving beyond the group is a very important part of our group's health. But the learning becomes the preoccupation of the group. 

But in the third type of group that we frequently encounter, which is not the study group. But the third type of group is the group for doing a certain job, a task group. In this particular kind of group, of course, we're going to save our announcement making and what-have-you some time. And we're going to have to regard people. But again, here, the larger focus is on the task at hand. And we're going to spend less time in love and care and less time in learning.

An example of a tasking group would be the choir. Most of their time is going to be spent in the actual rehearsal necessary to perform as a choir. But if the choir doesn't spend some time in understanding what they're singing about or if they don't spend some time in mutually encouraging one another, they won't have the morale to sing with any heart. And so, we'll have respectively less time for the loving and learning, more time for the tasking. But there'll still be health in the area of this group that is focused on work. It's a task force or it's a ministry team of sorts.

Now with those general guidelines, knowing that these four things occur in all of these groups are going to maintain high morale and people are going to feel cared for. Then we want to take another look. When would we vary from our pre-planned assignments of time?

And there are a couple of cases that are very, very important to allow for variety. One variance occurs whenever we have newcomers with us. Because newcomers need to be greeted, and put at ease, and treated with a lavish amount of time. That is, they need to have a chance to get acquainted with the group, and so we're going to spend, respectively, more time in acquaintance making when newcomers are present than when they're not.

You see, you can't bring a newcomer in and just drill them with questions. You go, "Wait a minute. That's not fair." You've got to be willing to share yourselves so they can get to know you even as you hope to get to know them. And so, that takes more time. So newcomers slow things down. And that's not harmful to the group. That's really helpful because newcomers also bring new life, new energy, and new vitality to a group. 

The other time is when people are in an overwhelmed condition. Now many people who are in your group on a regular basis encounter trauma in their lives during the week. They show up at the group time, and what do they need from you? They need your ear. And especially where some family crisis has just ascended, they're going to require more listening time than others. That's when it is that you shrink down your task time, and you shrink down your learning time, and you give more time to loving people, knowing that if you do that, and they really feel cared for, you'll have plenty of additional meetings in which you can teach them all the things you want to teach them on the learning side. 

In other words, this is participant-centered mutual care. You have to give people time to support one another. And so, you'll vary from your agenda, shaping it differently those nights when the trauma emerges. And of course, trauma doesn't come on a predictable pattern. Trauma comes on an unpredictable pattern, so you have to stay flexible in whatever agenda work you're doing.

Now there's one warning that we have to give our small group leaders about the nature of worship in a small group. If you're not careful, you'll turn a small group or a Sunday school class into a church. They're only a part of the larger experience of the church. You can worship in as large a meeting as you can assemble, but you can't listen to people in a large meeting. The uniqueness of your preparation for your small group is it lets you prepare to treat people individually and well, and you want to keep the amount of worship to a minimum, knowing that you need to acknowledge God's presence and his greatness, but you don't have to give extended periods of time to worship under normal circumstances. Because you're going to have that worship offered to you in the formal worship services of the large church. What they need from your group is how do you apply the Bible? But how will the bible passage affect my work, my life this week? That's what they're looking for.

Now let's talk about the message for just a moment. What is the message part all about? What is the burden of the Lord for that particular meeting? What does God want to see in people's lives change in that meeting because of association with other Christians and because of exposure to his Word?

How are you going to decide what you're going to actually teach? How are you going to get the topic? Now you might self-select it. Perhaps the team at your church says, "All our small group leaders, they choose their own topics." 

Well in that case, the bible's wide open, and the world is wide open, and you've got to sit down, and say, "Dear God, what am I going to do for a topic?" And generally, you'll wind up with two choices. One is you'll take the needs of your people as the front piece or two, you'll take a bible passage. Most often, you'll select the bible passage because of the known needs of your people. So if you just have one to select, you pick one. You say, "I believe this will be helpful to my people." 

Now how would you know what's helpful to them? You've been listening to them, you've been in touch with them, you've been praying for them, and you bring that bible passage forward. 

In another case, perhaps you threw it out to the group and you said to them, "Is there any particular topic or book you'd like to study?" And if they agree on a particular topic or book, then for a period of 8, or 10, or whatever meetings, then you go through this topic and take a piece of it at a time until you get through.

Or it may be that your church staff would like to give you an assignment of a topic. In some churches, for example, pastors are learning that the text of the morning sermon is an excellent place to start. And that the sermon presented and then follow it up by discussion in the small groups, reinforces the teaching and takes the teaching home for application. And that's an excellent plan as well.

But whatever it is, make sure that you're fitting the guidelines of your particular congregation and what your pastoral staff thinks are the appropriate ways to do it. Because all of the truth in the Word is God's truth. And it can be potentially helpful to your people. So a particular topic is not absolutely necessary at this moment, but the Spirit of God will nudge you toward those things that are most useful to your people.

Your teaching is not nearly as important as their accepting. Now when your people hear the truth, are they going to take it to heart, or are they going to say, "Well, thanks but no thanks." Are they going to wrestle with it and say, "I wonder what this means in terms of my life?" Or are they not? Well, a lot of their seriousness about applying the Word has to do with their feelings of acceptance within the group itself.

So as you think about and as you put together your preparation for your meeting, you'll have a certain bible content that you'll be interested in. You'll also have a sensitivity to your people's needs. You'll have a game plan you're going to follow, and you're going to have assigned parts to different people. And you're going to look forward to that meeting. You're going to have a sense of anticipation because you've prepared for that meeting. You've prepared with each person in your group in mind as a possibility. You've prepared with a bible passage in mind. You've prayed for your people.

That means then, that when the meeting actually opens, your head is clear and your personal touch and greeting for each one of those people opens them to receive whatever they're going to receive during that particular meeting.

Preparation is important. In order for you to be adequately prepared for the biblical materials part of any small group meeting, you want to have taken a series of text or a text and study it very carefully. 

Now there's a simple approach to starting to study the bible. Bible study is not terribly complicated. If you're listening during the sermons and listening during the lessons at church and taking notes as the normal teaching of the church is going on, then you're equipping yourself to be able to handle the Bible questions that are going to be coming to you. But in the particular passage that you're going to select for any particular week's work, start with reading that passage several times. 

One of the things that I especially enjoy doing is taking multiple translations and reading that particular passage in several different translations of the Bible because that brings the work of many Bible scholars to bear in a way that is not tedious. Then I like to explore passages that are beyond that particular passage. I like to know where does this bible passage fit into the overall context of God's story for dealing with people? Now the longer you're a Christian, the more you study the Bible, the better you get at that. 

But some of the mistakes that are made in bible application come from not understanding where this particular passage of scripture fits in God's overall plan of things.  And so you want to get the story of the bible. One of your goals for personal learning is to understand the story of the Bible well so you know at any time what part you're referring to. And then, reference to commentaries. Your pastor will be glad to recommend to you. And Christian bookstore people have a whole shelf of commentaries that you can refer to. And so you can get a commentary on the scriptures, perhaps even more than one, and you'll find that Christian scholars have reflected on those passages in time past and you can get many ideas from that.

Now as you think about that passage and as you go through the various translations, the various commentaries, and try to see where it fits in the overall picture of the Bible, you'll begin to gain impressions as to how this would fit into your own personal life. And sometimes you'll find the Spirit of God convicting you about attitudes and behaviors that you're involved with.

If you take advantage of that conviction and vow to it and bring your life more in obedience to that Word, you'll be modeling the kind of behaviors and attitudes that everyone in your group will need in order to be effective.

After you have digested the passage itself, then it is you need to ask yourself questions about how will I present this to my group? Sometimes you'll present it to your group by actually taking them through the passage study that you went through, reading them several versions of it, taking a paragraph out of one of the commentaries. That's a perfectly acceptable way to do things.

In another case, you'll organize that around some kind of a story or some kind of a dramatic event. And deciding how you will present it, there's a whole variety of tasks here. Now your pastoral staff are very well versed in presenting. This is what the Christian church and the theological community has become best at doing is they have become best at teaching people how to communicate truth. And so, you'll watch the modeling of your pastoral staff. You will attend classes and special studies they hold for that purpose and you can become proficient as a small lesson giver. But your proficiency will never be measured in terms of your presentation skills. Because a care group is not a class. A care group is a point of loving where truth is made real to current experience. 

So don't lose your focus as you're preparing. It's not how good you sound, but it's how well these people are changed to be open to the work of the Spirit of God as you minister it to them.



Last modified: Wednesday, July 8, 2020, 12:50 PM