Taking a break from leading your small group may be one of the most important leadership decisions you ever make for the group. Admittedly, a leader’s personality contributes greatly to the overall dynamic of a small group. The members look to the leader to help navigate through the dynamics of the relational cycle, to cast vision, lead discussions, and facilitate conflict resolution. All these things are part of your job as a leader but the group must never get to the place where the health and fruitfulness of the group is determined solely upon the skills and personality of the small group leader.

When a group first launches the dynamic is fragile. In our training manual, we call that “chaos community”. This usually lasts about 2 or 3 months. During this time the leader is the glue. Once the relationships in the group begin to solidify, a leader’s goal should be to give enough of the responsibilities away to the members so that the group could be self-sustaining. In the next issue of Lifelines, we will make some suggestions on how to move your group to becoming self-sustaining.

Today’s take away:

1. Determine whether or not your group is self-sustaining or if the group relies solely upon your own personality and skills as a leader.
2. Think about how this break might be an opportunity to make progress towards that goal of having a self-sustaining group.

By the way, if you’ve decided to be a part of the 3-week Spring break beginning March 27th at 3:30PM:

1. Have you decided what the group will do during the break? (We gave you three options in the previous Lifelines)
2. Have you discussed this with the group?
3. If the options you’ve chosen requires planning, have you appointed a point person to handle the task(s) during the 3 week break? (If you do not already have an apprentice.)