Fall Confab, 2008

Confab – an informal discussion.

This is what we call our Life Group leader sharpening. A bunch of us sit around the table, we throw out a few questions we are dealing with, then see where it all goes.

Here’s what we unpacked:

What are you most looking forward to this year? (Life Group and/or personally)
What are you most dreading?
What do you think is the biggest obstacle/opportunity for your Life Group this coming year?

How do you physically grow a Life Group to critical mass?
How do you do that without completely messing up the group dynamic?

As usual, my job normally ends with the asking of the questions. There is so much collective wisdom in our leaders. The time screams by as I watch this group of leaders encourage, instruct, listen, and learn from each other.

If you had been there, this is a sample of what you would have heard.

I am the biggest obstacle in our group.
We laughed when he said it but his vulnerability humbled us all when he said that his desire to be in control and ‘get through the lesson’ was at times the biggest obstacle for his own life group. I think we all gulped at the time because it was one of those moments when God teaches through hilarity.

How do you handle people who hardly say anything when you start discussing spiritual matters?
Still waters run deep. It’s okay to ask them questions, it’s also okay to let them NOT answer them. Couple of other leaders spoke of their own spiritual journey. As new adult believers, they didn’t know any of these crazy stories that everyone else seemed to know so they just kept their mouth shut the first few years of following Jesus. Make sure they have a place to talk and engage – socially, one on one, somewhere. Don’t worry about the ‘lesson’ time if they are connecting in other places.

How do you add critical mass to your group?
“Make sure you’ve got something good going on in your group to start with.” Another nugget from one of our leaders. It’s not about adding numbers, it’s about life change. Are we connecting real people with real issues to the real Jesus? Focus on that as a leader, don’t worry about the rest.

Be available, invite people. It sounds ridiculous to say out loud but I’ve got to admit of being lazy at times…just thinking people will show up. A personal invitation is huge.

Great time with our core leaders at the church.