It has been awhile since I posted. Today and over the next few blogs I would like to discuss small group life. About five months ago,The Lord led me to start a small group with a few of my friends/young people(especially athletes) in my city. It has been such a journey from then to now. There have been tons of laughs and even some tears, but it has been worth it. Here are some of my confessions of a small group leader:
1. I think in the back of my mind somewhere I had the idea that covenants,creeds, and icebreakers would magically create community within my group. I mean why wouldn't they? All of the books and trainings encourage these things and they are indeed essential. However,they do NOT breed community. Experience breeds community, the love of Christ breeds community, walking with people through the hell and pain that life sometimes throws at us breeds community,time breeds community.
2. I thought that structure was everything, it's not. In fact, it will drive group members crazy and even though it is hard for me to back off of having things exactly like this or that, I would much rather have less structure and a whole lot of Christ and His work within the group.
3.Anytime you have a group of people together there will be conflict, issues with making group meetings,etc. I believed that I was doing something wrong when people started to miss meetings, come late,etc. Looking back over things I realize that it wasn't my fault, things just happen that are outside of my control. It is my responsibility to seek God's heart as a leader and to give my best effort. The rest is in His hands, not mine.
4. I thought I had to be in "leader mode" in order to be taken seriously. I was caught up in all of the things I had read and heard about leading a group. For example, "Selective Sharing", which is the idea that you share selectively in order not to promote a sin or struggle. I am not bashing the concept, only suggesting that in my case it lead to me not sharing at all or feeling guilty when I did share, ask for prayer,etc. I realize now that just because I am the leader doesn't make me need Jesus or the community of my group any less. I think it makes me need him more. Furthermore, how can I expect my group members to practice things like transparency, authenticity, etc. if I don't do this myself.
5. I think the first time I heard of Ephesians 6 was in Pre-K. We made armor of God suits and such in VBS. Over a decade later, I went into leading the group seeing the battle as one against people(flesh and blood). Praise God that He changes hearts! The group is living proof that the battle is truly against the powers of the darkness and not flesh and blood. Let's just say we have had quite our share of the enemy trying to infiltrate our group.
I am going to leave my confessions here for today.My small group has a long way to go and so do I as a leader. Thankfully, we serve a God who is both faithful and full of grace.
Peace & Love,
Brittany
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