Why Last Minute Small Group?
This site came from my own experiences as a small group leader. Like most small group leaders, I am involved in lots of other aspects of church and community life, and find it no problem to fill a daily to-do list with fresh tasks.
Thursday nights come around so fast! Each week, the thought of small group buzzes like a fly against a window somewhere at the back of my brain until Thursday, when it becomes more like an angry wasp that needs dealing with.
It’s not that I don’t care, it’s not that I don’t long for my small group to be wonderful, it’s not that I take it for granted or don’t prioritise God and my Christian family. I just enjoy getting stuck into life, and am not gifted with a love for forward planning.
Each week, I would run a panic web search for last minute small group ideas – and all I ever managed to find were sites that said, “Never leave planning your small group until the last minute,” which only ever made me feel hideously guilty and never solved my problem.
Instead, I was forced to create my own last minute ideas, and through this, I discovered that God doesn’t need me to have planned every second of the evening: he’s looking for opportunities to break into our lives, and small group is a really golden moment for him to work.
With fewer plans and a greater dependence on him, I watched my small group flourish, relationships deepen, honesty increase, and the way we listened for God’s voice transform.
In John 15:9, Jesus says, “…Make yourselves at home in my love…” (The Message translation). When we feel truly at home, we relax. We kick off our shoes and don’t worry if we break wind. God’s acceptance of us is whole and unconditional, never performance-based: it’s all about him loving us first, giving himself for us on the cross and changing our lives forever as a result of his grace.
When we respond by depending on him, and trusting him to be all that he says he is, then having an evening together with a bunch of fellow Christians who want to know more of God and more of each other isn’t really a scary prospect of planning strategies, it’s a celebration of opportunities.
Nobody else this week will take your group aside and say, “Get to know each other and God more.” But as small group leaders, we have that opportunity: what a privilege! And when we remain flexible with our plans, God will guide us in ways we could never have devised by ourselves.
Enjoy your small group: it’s God’s gift to you! Thank him for it, and relax in his love as he leads you all together.
About Liz Jennings
Liz Jennings grew up in a vicarage in South London in the 1970s. She found a faith of her own in her early 20s.
She began writing as a student, and has written for a variety of publications and organisations both Christian and secular, from Tearfund to Take A Break.
Her short story collection, Short Christians: Exploring Faith through Fiction, is a small group resource that grew out of Liz’s own experience of leading a small group, and is published by Lioness. Her second title, Blank For Your Own Message, is a collection of short stories around the theme of parents and children. In 2019 Lioness published The Comfort Delusion which Liz co-wrote with Tom Shaw, who now leads Sanctuary Church in San Francisco.
Liz has a wide experience of facilitating groups through the many writing groups she has run over the years, from children to adults with learning disabilities, community groups and people living with dementia. In partnership with Alzheimer’s Society Ambassador, Keith Oliver, Liz ran the UK’s first life writing group for people with dementia who went on to publish their own work with the book Welcome To Our World.
Liz is passionate about empowering people with dementia to see themselves as all that God created them to be – valuable, vibrant, supportive and supported human beings working together for the purposes of joy.
In 2017, she was awarded the Emma Kent Award for Outstanding Individual Contribution to supporting and enabling people with dementia to live well.