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Vision and passion for new small group leaders
By dave.stone | October 28, 2008
Making disciples. That’s the short-form of Bethel’s purpose statement (not to mention a commandment from Jesus to us). Raising up new small group leaders is a significant means of obeying the commandment and accomplishing our purpose.
Raising up new leaders is hard work. But it is also highly rewarding. Consider for a moment, why did God only create the first two humans? Why start with just two? Why not create a whole city full of people? One conclusion is this: God shares with us the pleasure of creating new life—both physical and spiritual.
Imagine for a moment…how do you envision your small group in three years? Who will be attending? How many people will be attending? Who will be leading? The answers to those questions reveal your vision for your small group. Perhaps you haven’t thought much about this…I certainly haven’t thought about it enough. But there is much at stake (souls!), and each of us as small group leaders have significant opportunity to make disciples via our small groups. Consider the benefits of seizing this opportunity.
By training new leaders, we are creating capacity for more people to connect with the body of Christ…more opportunities for people to serve, more opportunities for people to participate, more opportunities for people to lead, more opportunities for people to become disciples of Jesus. These are not merely opportunities to become busy, but, much more than that, opportunities for meaningful, everlasting spiritual connection with God and with other people.
My immediate charge is to recruit, train, and equip young adults at Bethel. So, what’s my vision and passion for young adults? Consider this: the young adult population in the TriCities is growing. And God continues to bring more young adults to Bethel. In the past six weeks, we’ve had over 40 young adults express interest in a small group. Considering that we have about 150 people in young adult small groups, it represents a potential increase of over 25%. Further, we have multiple groups with more than a dozen people. With our current leaders, we do not have capacity to accommodate a 25% increase. Bottom line: we need more small group leaders and you play a critical role in training new leaders. My vision and passion is to see small group leaders work to train up new small group leaders, all for the purpose of obeying and following Jesus.
Let’s be clear: we do not need more small group leaders to accommodate more people. Rather, we need more small group leaders in order to make disciples. As such, view “raising up new leaders” as an opportunity for growth for you and the new leaders.
As a small group leader, you have a brief window of opportunity to positively influence the people in your group to become disciples of Jesus. Why not view your group as a training center for new small group leaders? Pray and identify those whom God wants you to train. Give them opportunities to lead and set them up for success within your group.
Topics: Inspire, Instruct, Train new leaders |