Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 <silence> Early in my ministry career, I was in charge of our church's home group ministry, and a big part of that responsibility was recruiting new home group leaders. And that was always a challenge, and I'm sure it probably is for your church too. In this episode, we're gonna talk about things your church can do to see more home group leaders. Let's do this. You are listening to the Reach right? Podcast. The show dedicated to helping your church reach more people and grow. Well, hey guys, I'm Thomas.
Speaker 2 00:00:32 And I'm Ian.
Speaker 0 00:00:33 And today we're talking about how your church can recruit more home group leaders. I think it should be a good conversation. In most of my time in ministry, I know that I personally have struggled with not having enough home group leaders in my church, and from conversations I have with other pastors, that seems to be common. In fact, I've never heard a pastor come to me and say, you know, our big problem is we have too many home group leaders right now. Right. <laugh>. We need to find a way to reduce that number. Yeah. Because there's just too many of them Ever heard that before? Ian?
Speaker 2 00:01:04 Never have heard that. Nope. I don't if I ever do hear that something's wrong.
Speaker 0 00:01:08 Yeah. <laugh>. Exactly right. So, but I, I, are you like me? Have you heard the opposite?
Speaker 2 00:01:13 Of course. Of course. Yeah. And, and, and my church as, as you know, for years has struggled with that. I think most churches we consult with, uh, we do, you know, we hear about that as well through our conversations with other pastors, ministry leaders for sure.
Speaker 0 00:01:27 Yeah. Yeah. I think this stems from, uh, the fact that this is, home groups are the most common form of discipleship that we have within churches. Um, a recent report from the Unstuck Group, uh, they found that 55% of churches that is their primary discipleship method is through home groups. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, and by home groups, I'm using that as a broad term. It mean, you know, small groups, it's not just the name of it. You might call them small groups or life groups or something like that at your church here in Hawaii. They're often called ohana groups, those kinds of things. <laugh>, because ohana means family, and that's what we say here. Yeah. But, um, yeah, so I guess what it is saying is it's as opposed to things like midweek service or Bible studies, uh, on Sunday mornings or um, uh, Sunday school, those kinds of, uh, formats for discipleship.
Speaker 0 00:02:16 What we're talking about here are groups that typically meet in homes, uh, and are small, usually between, I'd say six and 20 people. And this is where discipleship Bible study, these kinds of things happen there. So, um, yeah, I've just, uh, I've been an associate pastor at a church who was in charge of our small group ministry, and I know that was always a struggle, was recruiting new people to be small group leaders and jump in on that. And, um, here's some tips I guess we're gonna be sharing today that I've picked up over the years, and I know you've done some of these kinds of roles at your church as well in Yeah. And so, uh, some of the things we've picked up over that time, huh?
Speaker 2 00:02:51 Yeah. We're excited to dig in and we believe this should be definitely helpful for pastors ministry leaders out there, maybe do, to implement some things that, you know, you traditionally haven't done. So we hope for, uh, that and to give fresh ideas with it. So, uh, yeah. You want me to, I'll kick it off here. Why don't I kick off the first one here. So first thing is spotlight your successful home group leaders. Yeah. So who in your church, you know, is doing a good job of small group leadership? Maybe some of the veterans, some of those that obviously have had, you know, success through it. Uh, they should be spotlighted and, and that it's always better when you spotlight someone else and it's not you just saying, oh, you know, Joe does a great job, uh, do like him and instead, you know, highlight Joe. Maybe Joe shares from across the pulpit a, you know, testimony. Maybe it is a, it's a video spotlight that your church can produce and put together. There's different ways of doing it, but the key, the point we're trying to make is highlight those successful small group leaders and Yeah. And give them the spotlight. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:03:51 Yeah. I think that the, this is a really great tool. I think it's great for social media. Um, so, you know, short social media videos that would highlight, uh, someone's journey from, I think maybe one of the common objections is people don't feel like they're ready for it, don't have the time for it. We'll talk about some of those as we go. But in these spotlights, you would basically make sure you help people see that just like you, this successful leader once was in the same place that you are. They were worried about if they had the skillset, if they were spiritual enough to do it. Yeah. If they had the time to do it, they had all these same concerns you have, and here's what happened to them. Here's what their group looks like now. Yeah. And here's their experience. So yeah, I think just focusing on people that have gone before you and have had great success with it.
Speaker 0 00:04:36 Yeah. I think that really, um, it helps people get over that hump in getting started on those kinds of things. So that's a good point. Um, next one is clarify the commitment level. Um, I think this is one of the big concerns that people have is they'll think that, well, I don't know that I am ready to make that kind of a commitment and the time that's involved in leading our home group. So now this is gonna be different from every church. Some churches you probably have pre-done curriculum, right? So all you really need to do as a home group leader is be a host and open up your home to people and do that, you know, every other week. Um, in other situations, it might be that you have to, as a home group leader, you might have to prepare a message to share and a bible study with people Yeah. And have food ready for people because you share a meal and there's other, so you have to just make sure this is really clear. Um, yeah. If you're not clear, you will not get anybody open to doing it. Uh, yeah. But if you are clear, I think it at least kind of defines what the expectations are for people. And, um, you know, really making that something that's well known out there, I think it helps people get over the hump with that. So, yeah, I think that's, go ahead.
Speaker 2 00:05:41 Oh, that's a great point. I just, because I think some people could think maybe it is more responsibility than it actually is. Now, not to say that some, you know, small group, you know, some small groups out there may have good, fair amount of responsibility, but if your church is a little more on, on the flexible side, or you have different options that could be, you know, a game changer for someone to be like, wait, I can do that. So I like that. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:06:03 Yeah. I, I think in general, people probably think there's more involved than there actually is, or the actual expectations are. And that may not be the case. You know, you don't want people going in with their expectations being that they do very little and you have high expectations. But I think for most churches, you have systems in place where, uh, it's not gonna take 15 hours a week of preparation and things to host a small group. Uh, and you have things to help the leaders do that. And so just getting that clear, uh, before people so they really understand what's expected of them. It will help them a lot. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:06:36 Here's another way to clarify. The next one is host interest meetings. You know, it might be time, you may have had your small group process for a while and it's just, you know, maybe just, you know, as new leaders wanna step up, uh, they let you know a certain way, but it might be time to actually have like an interest meeting for some q and a and to share the vision of your small groups, you know, recast that vision. Maybe if you did it a while back, have one of these things. And this again adds to the clarity, kind of the last point to where people can ask questions. Hey, what if I wanted to do the small group this way? What if, you know, there's gonna be obviously lots of different questions that people will have, but that might be a good way to, to break the ice with people, make 'em feel more comfortable to becoming a home group leader or a small group
Speaker 0 00:07:20 Leader. Yeah. I, I think of it, these kinds of meetings are a good way to kind of dip your toe in the water and kind of see if it's for you or not. I think just, um, for a lot of people this, uh, like the idea of going to a leader in the church and saying, Hey, I'm interested in being a home group leader. That is something that would be just beyond the pale and hard for them to muster the strength to do something like this. But I think if you host a meeting, there'll be other people that are there that are maybe just kind of, uh, home g home group leadership, curious, let's call it. Yeah. And they're open to that idea, uh, that they can come in a non-threatening way and get their questions answered and maybe do it with a few other people and see if it's for them or not. It's a less intimidating way to kind of jump in on something like that. So, yeah. That's a good one. That's good.
Speaker 2 00:08:03 Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:08:04 Next one is having a mentorship strategy. Uh, so what this typically looks like for most churches is that when you have an existing home group, that any home group leader that's doing it currently, that they would be training someone else to be a future home group leader. Now, this is always one of the biggest challenges of leading a small group ministry is how do you handle multiplication? Because generally speaking, in my experience, small groups don't like to split two. And in fact, that term is one we don't use is Right. We never say split is one thing. I was, I was taught because that like has a, a fracturing or kind of a That's right. Negative connotation. The term you're supposed to use is multiply. When our groups multiply to another, to having from one to two, that's when you really want to focus on that.
Speaker 0 00:08:50 So usually the mentorship program is that anytime a home group leader is leading, they have someone in mind that they're bringing up along alongside them to be the next home group leader. Or when the group multiplies or when we get too big for ourselves and we have to have more space and meeting a second home, there's someone else ready to go with this kind of strategy here. Yeah. So, um, yeah, that's the idea of just, uh, making sure that you encourage all of your existing leaders to be Yeah. Mentoring someone else to be going alongside them. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:09:22 We've done that at my church and we've seen a lot of success with that. And healthy multiplication not splitting, like you said, that happened actually a group that I was involved in, and it was a very positive thing, uh, that benefited everyone. So that's good. Yeah. Next one's kind of in the same vein offer leadership training. So I can actually speak to this one well, because I used to, as you probably remember, serve as a small group advisor role because I had one of the more successful small groups at my church. Pastoral leadership wanted me to be an advisor to other, it's in the same vein advisor to other small group leaders to where there were certain I can share things that I saw to be successful, offer prayer, offer different discipleship resources, those types of things. Kind of being similar to the mentorship, but the go-to guy, you know, if a leader needed training in, you know, small groups. Um, so yeah. So I think that that's definitely an excellent resource to provide for people.
Speaker 0 00:10:22 I, I think that's it is that for a lot of people, their fear and the reason that they're not jumping on into leading a small group, uh, is because they, they feel like they're not equipped enough to do it. Right. Like, they don't have the theological training, the leadership ability, whatever it is. And so helping them overcome that fear by giving them a, a clear pathway and basically a, a, a certification if you will, so that they, they know that they are now qualified to do it, and they have your full stamp of approval, I think that really helps them to get over that hump in a lot of cases. So yeah. That's, that's good stuff. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:10:57 Next one is showcase the impact. Uh, it's important with your small groups, and I imagine most churches do this to some extent already, but just showing the impact that home groups will have on individuals. So we talked already about the, uh, kind of spotlighting successful leaders. This is probably more like spotlighting the effect that home groups have on people, because that really is gonna be your best recruitment tool that you have, is when people from within your church who are already kind of natural leaders and Yeah. They're people that, that people already respect in your church when they see that, well, these home groups are making a huge impact in people's lives. Lives are being changed, people are growing, marriages are being saved. When they see this kind of evidence and these kinds of stories, that's what's gonna inspire people to say, Hey, you know what?
Speaker 0 00:11:45 I'd love to make that kind of impact on people's lives too, and they may be able to get over the hump again and, uh, say yes to becoming a small group leader that way. So I think that, um, just again, testimonies, social media is a great place for these. Yes. But even on Sunday morning, uh, people talking about what God has done in their lives and the way that their, their home group and the people that surrounded them help make that all possible, I think that really is gonna help people. Um, yeah. It'll help people answer the call.
Speaker 2 00:12:13 Yeah, it will. And because they're gonna be seeing, again, other people like them not just hearing it from pastoral leadership or the pastor that, that this home group did this. So, but when they are, again, kind of like spotlighting it, like we said in our first point, but yeah, it, my church has done this Sunday mornings put together videos from different groups, different group leaders, amazing storytelling there. We always talk about storytelling. Yeah. That's the, one of the best ways to tell a story is by showcasing the impact that that small group leader or small group's having. So, um, another one is, um, offer short, short-term leadership opportunities. So, so that, I think a lot of times people maybe are hesitant to dive into becoming a home group leader, you know, because they're thinking, oh gosh, it's something I gotta do year round. I can't do that.
Speaker 2 00:13:01 I got kids, I got, we got this commitment coming up and this season or whatever. So, and, and it could be also just, uh, it sounds silly, but you might be offering them a trial, maybe a trial mm-hmm. <affirmative> just to do it for a couple of months in the fall, you know, uh, or something like that as just one of many examples. But, you know, if it is kind of, if there's short term opportunities for someone to jump in and they're not fearful of doing this for the long haul, or if they are fearful of it, you can kind of reduce their apprehension in this way. So,
Speaker 0 00:13:33 Yeah, I think it's really good. I think that's good to think of it as a trial. You know, everything, every piece of software you look at online or anything now it all has a free trial. Yeah. So you can see what it's like. And the idea is that someone would go through the trial and like it so much that they would agree to keep paying you, uh, for a software. Yeah. But, uh, in this case, it's, I, I think we all understand that. Like we don't actually like having a home group leader that does it for six weeks. You know, that's, that's great. But it really isn't kind of meeting our needs. And we want people that are gonna be doing this for the rest of their lives. But I think the fear that people have is like agreeing to say, Hey, I'm going to be a home group leader for the rest of my life.
Speaker 0 00:14:12 Yeah. That's a pretty big commitment. And we're not asking anybody to make that commitment. Right. But I think giving them a, a short entry point. So maybe it's, Hey, we're having a big home group's push and we're gonna be doing, just during the study on the book of Ephesians It'ss six chapters, we're gonna do it for six weeks. That's a nice length for someone to say, yeah, I, I can offer six weeks. I can do the, yeah. I can say yes for a six week commitment, and chances are, if not everybody, but, but a lot of people are gonna say, you know, after the six weeks, yeah. We really built some community here going, I like these. Keep
Speaker 2 00:14:43 People,
Speaker 0 00:14:44 Keep going. Yeah. People within the group are gonna say, Hey, I really like hanging out with you too, so let's keep doing this. And people can decide whether it's for them or not at that point. So yeah. Love that idea. That's good. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:14:53 Okay. Awesome. Good stuff. So next
Speaker 0 00:14:55 One, this one is always, uh, probably the one that we dislike the most, but it's probably the most important is utilizing personal invitations. Um, if your method is always passive and you put out the opportunity and then wait for people to come to you, uh, just, I think you've probably picked this up in ministry. Anybody that's been in ministry is that, that will not work. Um, always <laugh> they'll always leave you wanting more people. Uh, so you have to get over that hump and invite people personally to do it. And the way you do that is you just go to them and say, Hey, I was thinking about you and I'd like to ask you to pray about something. We need more home group leaders. Yeah. And I'd wonder if you would consider, um, for the next week, you and I praying about this together, and let's see what God's saying with that. Yeah. And people will always say, yes, I, in my experience, to an invitation to pray about something, of course, and let God put that on their heart. Um, you know, let God take care of those things. So, um, I think that's kind of a, a tried and true method. Of course. I, but I, I know that that is probably the most effective way at the same time to invite people into leading home groups. So what do you think about that?
Speaker 2 00:16:05 I totally agree. Uh, and that's personal invitation, just like inviting someone to church, right? That's not gonna go away. That's always should be something we encourage. Same here. If, uh, again, as we've shared already in this, during this episode here, that, you know, everyone knows who the leaders are usually within a church. They know, you know, or they see the potential in, in people. And uh, you know, if you're of course paying attention to your church members and <laugh> and what they're doing Yeah. As anyone should, uh, be doing. So, yeah, I totally agree. And I'd really like this last one. I'll bring us home on this one here is diversifying your group formats. And I like that I'm concluding with this because this is something that my church has done, what I believe to be a very good job. Again, we mentioned at the very, uh, beginning of this, if you are the kind of church that you only have one kind of small group in, in a particular season or ongoing, that's fine if you feel called to that, if there's, there's one thing you feel like has worked well and you wanna stick with that.
Speaker 2 00:17:02 But I do know a lot of churches, including mine, have found a lot of success by diversifying the group format. So different kinds of groups that someone can lead. You know, it, like you mentioned earlier, might be if you're in a series of Ephesians having that option, it might be that someone just wants to have a men's prayer group, a men's prayer, uh, group at Starbucks in the morning or something like that. Yeah. I know there's different interests, uh, interest groups as they're called. Uh, I know that, uh, one of the things I loved doing at a small group, you or at a church you and I led at together here when you were in the, the Austin area was we had a, I had a tennis group 'cause I like tennis. So we, uh, me and, and the guys within this group would go, we would go play tennis and at the end, or sometimes the beginning we would have a scripture sharing and a time of prayer requests.
Speaker 2 00:17:54 But it was of the variety. And there might, you might find small group leaders because they're passionate about one thing or they feel like they can lead others, uh, one way. So I guess what we're saying is have some variety, you know? Yeah, I know. And it could be that you have, uh, know, my church for example, again, another example is there is a men's group, um, just for men at the church. Friday mornings it's breakfast. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And then it's prayer and a sharing of the word. Now that's at the church, but yet we also have home groups. So again, every church is different. They're different in size, they're different in what they can carry out. Um, but I think, uh, I'm a personal fan of having, uh, a diversifying, uh, kind of variety to things. So, yeah.
Speaker 0 00:18:39 Yeah. Couldn't agree more. I think that's, uh, giving people opportunities. 'cause not everybody's gonna feel prepared to, you know, lead a Bible study. Uh, some people, um, some people want to have worship in their groups and some people just don't have people to lead worship in their groups. And so giving some variety there, I think. Yeah. Yeah. It'll help people to be able to take the leap if they, if they know that they can cater, kind of tweak it to make it match who they are as a person and how God gifted them. So good stuff. That's it. Yeah. Well, we'd love to hear if you have any other ideas of things that your church is doing to recruit home group leaders. Um, there's probably some great ideas out there. Yeah. Also let us know, is this something that if you are that one church that is too many home group leaders and you need to give some away, I'm sure we can find some churches you can partner with and do a kind of home group, uh, leader exchange. Yeah. Something like that there. So let us know about that in the comments. Guys, thanks for being a part of the Reach. Right. Family. Hit the subscribe button and we'll talk to you later. See you.
