Why other small groups (not yours) don't work
My contention this week has been that small groups don't work for two fundamental reasons; there is a missing link and a fatal flaw.
The missing link is a mission, a vision for how the small group is going to change the world, impact the Kingdom of God. Small groups need to exist for more than just relationship and personal growth; there has to be an outward bent.
The fatal flaw is if the mission of a group is big enough the group is too small to accomplish that mission. There has to be a way to be "small enough to care and big enough to dare."
Let's tackle one more problem with small groups before we look at a new model; why small group coaching doesn't work.
Who's your coach?
Imagine playing on a football team where the coach only shows up once every two or three months, if at all. He meets with the team coordinators once a month for leadership training and to pass out new plays and assignments, but he seldom spends time with the players. How successful do you think your team would be? How integrated would the coach be in the life of the team?
We would never run a football team that way, but that is how we often run our small groups. Coaches meet with small group leaders and may drop in occasionally on groups, but for the most part the coach is external to the life of the groups under their care.They have a relationship with the leader, but they aren't connected to the individual members in a meaningful way. Many group members don't even know who their small group coach is.
Many churches are finding this type of coaching marginally effective. Some have dropped the idea of small group coaching entirely, some have assigned all coaching to staff members, and others have set up a consultant model where you can call a staff member/coach if you have a question or problem, but for the most part you are on your own.
Coaching (or consulting) doesn't really work in the long run. We need a new way of coaching.
(I have "borrowed" this information on coaching from research my wife, Sherry Surratt, has been working on for Leadership Network. If you REALLY want to know what is next in small groups follow @sherrysurratt on Twitter and watch for new findings coming out of LN's Innovation Labs)
Time to start over
We need a new small group model;
A model where the coach is in the game, not just dropping by for an occasional quality check.
What if the coach and his leaders were all involved in the same mission?
What if they all had the same mission, the same "holy discontent", and the members of the individual groups shared this mission?
What if relationship and growth flowed out of the mission rather than the mission being just a part of the equation?
What if they worked together on the same mission and saw huge changes in the world around them.
I'll talk tomorrow about something I've seen that just might do the trick.
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Be sure to read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 for more of the story
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