7 Things You Must Do TO and FOR Your Small Group Leaders

By Mark Howell

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Can I let you in on a little corner of reality? Small group leaders are no different than the rest of us. A few of them (maybe 5 to 10%) are self-starters and have the internal wiring to take the right steps to grow on their own. The other 90-95% of all small group leaders need someone to develop and disciple them.

This is a very important concept to understand because whatever you want to happen in the lives of the members of your small groups must happen in the lives of your leaders first. No life-change in the leader, no life-change in the member.
Bottom line? If your leaders aren’t being developed and discipled, you cannot expect much to happen in the lives of the members of their groups.
Ready for another dose of reality? If you have coaches in place, this is what you need them to do. If you don’t have coaches in place…developing and discipling your small group leaders is your job.
I’ve been saying for quite a while now that the primary role of a small group coach is to do to and for (and with) your small group leaders whatever you want your leaders to do to and for (and with) their members. What I haven’t said very specifically is what must be done to and for your leaders.
Here is what I believe must be done to and for small group leaders.
Things you must do TO and FOR your small group leaders:

1. Offer encouragement and guidance, both unsolicited and upon request, from the very beginning. This is about technique and it’s what most of us would refer to as coaching. It is the tip of the iceberg, but it is where you need to begin in most cases.
2. Get to know your leaders. Ask the right questions. Proactively listen. Lean in. It takes about three months for most leaders to learn everything they’re ever going to need to know about technique. If you want to develop and disciple them, you have to know them and they have to know you.
3. Give them a sense of family. Make getting to know them and their family a priority. Remember, a small group leader cannot give away what they have not received. If you want your groups to develop a sense of family, your leaders need to have already experienced it.
4. Pray for them. First, ask them how you can pray for them. Second, stop what you are doing and pray for them right then. Third, remember to follow up and ask them about their prayer request.
5. Help them identify their spiritual next steps. A key role that must be played by someone (whether that is you or a coach) is the same one Paul played with Timothy. The “follow me as I follow Christ” role is really played by someone who is known, not a distant role model.
6. Help them take their spiritual next steps. In order for a leader to become more than a good facilitator they need to be able to help group members take spiritual next steps. To do that well, leaders need to have experienced genuine and loving accountability.
7. Model for them what they need to do TO and FOR their members. The right coach is really a role model for group leaders. You know you have the right men and women as coaches when they already have the habits you want your leaders to build.

Image by Sagar
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News from Madagascar…

Appleseed Travel Journal - News from Madagascar…

In This Issue...  News from Madagascar…  More Recent Articles

Brooks

Francis, one the of church planters that we worked with in Madagascar a few years ago, was at the conference and shared his vision:

“To see 700 simple/house churches in 7 strategic locations in the next 7 years…

“The northeast part of Madagascar is counted among the least reached places on the world’s third largest island. Due to severe isolation (very damaged roads or no roads at all – 3 days journey for only 150 km), the population is cut off from many things and very few outsiders go there.”

Traveling from the northernmost city of Madagascar first by bus, then walking for three days into the depths of the jungles of Madagascar, even using canoes at times to maneuver the rivers, Jesus-followers passionate to be the Pauls of our day go forth. There are three people groups making up a population of 900,000 living in this region. When they finally come across a cluster of homes, curious villagers sit on logs to greet and listen to their visitors’ stories…stories of a God who loves them and knows them by name. They hear for the first time about the God above all other gods who needs no appeasing to make them happy or to accept and approve of them…the God who created the heavens and the earth, and even holds eternal life for them. Before long they come to accept and want to worship this God. The disciple-makers of Jesus do not inflict their culture on these people. Instead, as the new believers want to worship Him, they respect their ways of acknowledging the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Drums are for placating demons and practicing witchcraft, they say, so no, they dance and sing a new song for the God who does not need or want these kinds of demonstrations. They know He is more powerful than all the things they have worshiped and cowed down to before. These are simple people, simply worshiping a simply Wonderful Loving God.

Neuroscience confirms LK10 Practices (#1)

Neuroscience confirms LK10 Practices (#1)
October 20, 2015  

A recent article in Time magazine about the work of UCLA neuroscience researcher, Alex Korb, confirms some of our basic LK10 Practices.  (Which we get straight from Scripture!)  (Thank you to Barb Lidfors, LK10 Coordinator for Germany, for sending this!)

Here's the first practice...  

1)  The most important question to ask when you feel down?

So what do neuroscientists say you should do? Ask yourself this question:  What am I grateful for?

Yeah, gratitude is awesome… but does it really affect your brain at the biological level? Yup.  You know what the antidepressant Wellbutrin does? Boosts the neurotransmitter dopamine. So does gratitude.
The benefits of gratitude start with the dopamine system, because feeling grateful activates the brain stem region that produces dopamine. Additionally, gratitude toward others increases activity in social dopamine circuits, which makes social interactions more enjoyable. Know what Prozac does? Boosts the neurotransmitter serotonin. So does gratitude. Trying to think of things you are grateful for forces you to focus on the positive aspects of your life. This simple act increases serotonin production in the anterior cingulate cortex.

I know, sometimes life lands a really mean punch in the gut and it feels like there’s nothing to be grateful for. Guess what? Doesn’t matter. You don’t have to find anything. It’s the searching that counts. It’s not finding gratitude that matters most; it’s remembering to look in the first place. Remembering to be grateful is a form of emotional intelligence. One study found that it actually affected neuron density in both the ventromedial and lateral prefrontal cortex. These density changes suggest that as emotional intelligence increases, the neurons in these areas become more efficient. With higher emotional intelligence, it simply takes less effort to be grateful.  And gratitude doesn’t just make your brain happy — it can also create a positive feedback loop in your relationships. So express that gratitude to the people you care about.

But what happens when bad feelings completely overtake you? When you’re really in the dumps and don’t even know how to deal with it? There’s an easy answer…

JW:  I'll share the second practice in my next Newsletter.  You will be amazed at what it is!  And, during the month of November, we will be introducing a powerful way of your deepening gratitude called "interactive gratitude".

For the whole article, go to http://time.com/4042834/neuroscience-happy-rituals