Guidelines for group leaders

 1.    The purpose of a small group is to enable each member to be involved in the group’s activity, whether this is discussion, reflection on Scripture, reading Scripture, praying, singing or whatever else is specified as the group’s aim.  So please resist the temptation to use the evening as your opportunity to give a lecture or a talk!

2.    It is important that the church family as a whole is studying similar material at the same time, so that we all move ahead together and in the same direction.  This material will be provided for you.  Please do not substitute your own material for this.

3.    Please do not cancel a meeting or change the night on which you meet without talking to the church leaders first.  A request from the group to cancel the meeting may signify a problem that needs further exploration, and a rescheduling of a meeting may result in a clash with something else of importance to the members.  Hence the need for consultation.

4.    The church leaders are always available to give any help you need.  Please do not hesitate to ask them for this – they are not mind-readers.  It is always better to discuss a problem as it arises rather than wait until it has developed into a full-blown disaster.

5.    Encourage (urge, entreat, plead with) the members of your house group to attend whole-church gatherings for prayer and the services on Sundays.  This will help the members see themselves as part of a wider fellowship, with the house group being an important, though not exclusive, part of the whole.  Please model this by being faithful to these gatherings yourself.

6.    Encourage the church members in your group to give apologies when they cannot be present at the business meetings of the church.  This will encourage responsible membership and the treating of others with respect.

7.    Please give out to your group the notices on the sheet which the church leaders provide.  They serve to keep the fellowship informed of what is happening.

8.    Adopt a positive tone and attitude at all times with group members, but especially when the group meets.  This will make the group easier to lead and will help develop an atmosphere conducive to praise, ministry and study.

9.    Keep an upward and outward focus.  Avoid letting the group become introspective, focusing merely on its own needs.  It is easy to lose sight of the fact that we are called to minister to those who do not yet know the Lord.

10. Do your best to keep fresh spiritually.  Often a group rises to the level of its leadership – our ‘freshness’ will revitalise them.

11. Do not let the group get into a rut.  Always be thinking of creative ways to keep your house group meetings entertaining, exciting and meaningful.  Bored group members will stop coming!

12. If you have problem attenders, please talk to someone in leadership. We would like to help you in any way we can as you encourage them to attend.

13.  Please fill in the House Group Leader’s Report form after each group meeting, and give it to one of the church leaders as soon after the house group as possible.  This will keep us all up-to-date on news and will help us to help you quickly and efficiently.

14. Please make sure that the formal part of the house group evening is over by 9.30 p.m.  Some people will have babysitters to relieve and will not want to keep them waiting.  It is easier to get everything into the allotted time if you also start promptly!

15. Please do not think the above requests are for everybody else but not for you!!

 The health of the group will need to be reviewed regularly and the way leaders are coping will need to be monitored.  Without this, the guidelines will remain like an estate agent’s description of a house – stimulating and exciting but bearing only passing resemblance to the facts!

(first published in The Baptist Times September 2010)