Small Group Leaders
Vision And Essentials for Small Group Leaders
Vision: A place where men and women intentionally come together to engage with God’s Word and to experience Authentic Biblical Community.
Small Group Essentials:
1. Christ-centered and focused on the Word
2. Intentionally Invasive
3. Live Life together
Christ-centered and focused on the Word:
Just as the focus of Sunday mornings is to help the men and women of College Park engage with the Word of God and to grow in Christ-likeness, the first essential of small groups is a purposeful focus on Christ and God’s Word. Community that is focused on Christ and intentionally opening God’s Word together will be a place that is shaped by God’s Word, focused on helping one another become more Christ-like and rooted in Biblical Truth.
This is the foundational element of Small Group Community. Groups that want to form and/or continue as part of the small group ministry are committed to studying, memorizing and obeying the Word of God. Community that is not founded on God’s Word is not in a position to experience Authentic Biblical Community as God designed it to be. Thus our first essential is the foundation of everything else that we will seek to do within small group community at College Park.
Intentionally Invasive:
It’s far too easy for us to stay on the surface. Going deep is intentional and often times both messy and painful. But growth happens when we choose to engage, to ask the hard questions, to give authentic answers and to let others into our lives. This is part of true Biblical Community.
College Park small groups will commit to going deep. Anything else is just playing community. As we seek to help groups grow and connect with one another, we will seek to provide resources that help groups go deeper with God, His Word, and one another, to provide training and equipping along the way and support for groups that need help along the way.
Being intentionally invasive is a choice that every group member will have to make. We believe that this is where real growth takes place. It’s not easy and for most people it’s not “natural.” The more groups engage with each other, the more groups can grow and the more groups will need to be Christ-centered and focused on the Word; one of the beautiful realities of seeing our brokenness and our need for Jesus, both individually and collectively.
Living Life Together:
Biblical Community is about living life together. It’s not just enough to meet periodically; community is what happens between small group meetings or between Sunday mornings. Living life together is about being in it together and being committed to walk through the hard parts of life beside one another while also celebrating the high times with each other. It’s not so much about planned activities or scheduled events, although these can and should be a part of community.
Living life together is more about the intentional pursuit of one another throughout each week. Its dinner together, a group activity or outing, an email or text to connect in the middle of the week, a prompting by the Spirit to pray for a group member and the commitment to pray and then shoot a “note” of encouragement. Living life together looks different for every group; it’s more about the commitment to one another and to be in it each week together than a set plan or formula for what community needs to look like.
Community Life recommended “norms”:
In light of wanting to provide guardrails for small groups while also giving leaders room to lead as God has gifted them, we have established 3 essentials and then given recommended “norms.”
1. Made up of College Parkers
2. Use the Sermon Application Guide provided by Community Life Staff
3. Meet every other week
4. Work to create a written or verbal covenant with the group regarding SG expectations
5. Re-evaluate status of the group every 18-24 months to determine next steps:
- Add more people to the group
- Launch a new group
- Commit to continue meeting as existing group
It is amazing how God uses a living room, a plate of brownies, a cup of tea, a few thoughtful questions, and a little group of people who want to follow Jesus to make a major impact on our sanctification. When the word of God is overlaid on our lives in the context of honest, authentic relationships, we can choose to respond to truth, we can communicate our needs to others, we can identify our sin, and we are able to give and receive both grace and encouragement. Amazing!!
Small Group Evaluation Resources
Small Group Leader Evaluation Form
Interested in Becoming A Small Group Leader?
Small groups are where men and women, singles, couples and families come together to engage with the Word of God together, to live life together and to point one another towards depth with Jesus. Our mission at College Park is to ignite a passion to follow Jesus. Small groups are where people have their passion fanned into flame. We need men who are willing to step in and lead small groups that are intentionally invasive and call people to obediently follow and apply the Word of God in their lives. Small groups can be risky as people are messy; it’s in the midst of the mess and the brokenness where God can and does bring about restoration and redemption. Our next training will be April 15 and we would love to begin the process of exploring whether God would call you to this role.
Contact Gary or Mark if you want to learn more about leading within Community Life.