Element #4 for Successfully Leading a Small Group: FOCUS

My assumption is that the members of a healthy small group are sharing their lives outside of their normal meeting times. A healthy small group should have "extra" events that bring them together for purposes beyond studying the Bible. I call these events, the group FOCUS.

These events might be meals, parties, trips, or better yet service projects, or missional activities. Taking a small amount of time on a regular basis to focus on upcoming events will enable a group to accomplish these kind of extra life-sharing events.

One group I was once part of loved to party. Every summer we had several parties at homes, parks, and other places. Using tools like email and Facebook enabled us to focus on these events even when we weren’t meeting regularly

(Click here for 5 Ways Facebook Can ImproveYour Group).

More importantly, our group also had several missional/service focuses over the course of the year. Once every month we gathered to serve at a local soup kitchen. Each Thanksgiving, we assembled a couple "meal baskets" to give to other families. At Christmas, we adopted one or two families and showered them and their children with gifts. We facilitate all these projects by taking a few minutes out of our meeting time each week to FOCUS on the FUTURE.

Here are some simple questions you can ask during your focus time to help your group be more strategic in it's extra life-sharing activities:

·       What events or projects are coming up in the next few weeks?

·       Is there a cost? Who will collect the money?

·       Who will be participating?

·       What do we need to bring for this?

·       Who will be responsible for each aspect of this event?

·       Who will send out reminders?

If your group doesn't currently engage in missional or service projects, let me encourage you to start as soon as possible!