If you’re a small group leader, I’ll just bet you do a million other things, too. Small group leaders are people who get involved in life, they’re people who care for people, and they’re people who, through their habit of caring, become pretty good at doing stuff.
Stuff like organising school events, or bake sales at work, or getting their neighbours together for a coffee morning, or organising family times together, or being a parent-governer, or a trustee; perhaps you’re also a Street Pastor, involved in Healing On The Streets, busy with Food Bank or Christians Against Poverty; you might be your church’s charity representative for any number of wonderful causes. Perhaps you are organising marriage courses, parenting courses or youth and children’s work.
And that’s before considering all the individuals that you get involved with: the friends, family, neighbours and colleagues who need prayer and support, lifts to hospital appointments and supermarkets, help with homework, a listening ear and a hug, all of which you offer because you’re a people person. You might not always feel like you are – you might feel you’d be happier lying undisturbed on a desert island right now – but the evidence is all to the contrary.
You’re someone who’s switched on, plugged in, and consequently often feeling the need to be propped up. You stepped into small group leadership because of your beautiful heart of servanthood and love, but your life can feel full of commitments, and running small group can often feel like one too many.
There are times to step back and refresh yourself – Jesus does it in scripture, so we have a perfect precedent for taking a break.
And, perhaps there’s another way of easing your burden. Perhaps small group doesn’t always have to take hours of reading and research to prepare. Perhaps God wants to release you and to bless you in your leadership, along with your group.
Perhaps God is looking for opportunities to break through our carefully planned schedules and take us where he wants us to go. It’s a journey that requires faith, focus and flexibility.
“Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything ill-fitting or heavy on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” Matthew 11:28-30
If you’re last minute, unprepared, feeling unqualified, like you’d rather do anything else but lead small group tonight – these are all excellent qualifications for being a small group leader! The Old Testament is full of examples of leaders God called who ran away, avoided, put off and denied the task before them.
In your unpreparedness, lean on the Lord. Call out to Jesus:
HELP!
Now, there’s a prayer God wants to answer! He’s longing to speak into the lives of his church, but all too often we practise our speeches and plan every moment and talk and talk and talk and forget that “There are no ‘ifs’ among believers. Anything can happen.” (Jesus Christ, Mark 9:23, The Message).
It’s when we depend on God, stop making our second-by-second plans and step back and listen for his voice, look for his moving and make ourselves open and available to him that God can really get to work down deep in our hearts and change our lives, and the lives of those around us.
Small group can be so simple. Essentially, it’s just a bunch of people, who want to draw closer to God together. It’s pretty likely that nobody else is going to take you or anyone else in your group aside this week and say, Spend an hour with other Christians and listen for God’s voice and build one another up right here, right now! This is your privilege as a small group leader. You don’t have to be a theologian, a pastor, a professional; you don’t have to be on top form, or an expert, or have every answer. God can use you right now, as you are, to draw people to him.
May you experience the love of God in fresh, deep and exciting ways as you depend upon him and lead your small group this term!