An Open Letter to Our Small Group Leaders (Part 2)

Hi Small Group Leaders,

In a series of open letters over the summer I’m focusing on several small steps we’ll be taking this fall to mature and deepen how we do small groups, so that we can more effectively make disciples who make more disciples.

In my first letter I talked about feeling stuck sometimes as a small group leader. But there have been times when I was stuck and didn’t even realize it because I was comfortable. Too comfortable. 

There’s always a danger of feeling comfortable with something that is less than what God wants for us.

God wants so much for us. Maybe much more than we are currently experiencing. 

Think about all that God wants for us as individuals, as a small group, and as his church. He wants us to connect with the body of Christ because we ARE a new community through Jesus. We are a family. We’re brothers and sisters in Christ. God is our father and Jesus is our brother.

God wants us to deepen our relationship with Christ because we ARE loved. We are redeemed. We were once enemies of God in our minds and hearts, but now we are reconciled to God by the forgiveness we have in Christ.

God wants us to impact the world for Christ because we ARE missionaries. We are ambassadors for Christ. Our lives have been repurposed in line with what he created us to do in the world. We are his representatives. 

If we are too comfortable in our competencies as leaders we will resist learning new skills or changing the way we do things. Learning new skills is really uncomfortable. And this isn’t true simply for us as leaders, it’s also true for everyone who is comfortable with their small group as it currently is. 

But if we remember that we are part of God’s family, loved and accepted by him, called to live life on mission for him in our world, can we really be comfortable with how things are, when they are not what they could be? Might it be worth it to embrace the difficulty of learning new skills and of change? 

God wants us, as leaders, to be more than facilitators of a meeting—facilitating Bible study, prayer, fellowship, and care. He wants us to actively make disciples who increasingly grasp the wonder of being part of a family of believers who are radically loved by God and called into his service in the world, making more disciple-makers.

Don’t let your comfort or your competencies as a leader keep you from examining your leadership and your group, embracing changes that need to be made, and seeking God’s best.

Blessings,
Pastor Henry