Some of you are just visiting the blog for the first time after hearing about it at Monday’s Leadership Gathering. If so, welcome! We also have some good news. If our site’s web address was a little long and hard to remember, we have a new one that should make it easier.
From now on, you can just type in glenkirkgroups.org and it will take you here. Same website. New address!
So let’s say you want to get together as a group to do something outside of your regular meeting – maybe help with Glenkirk’s homeless winter shelter. It’s sometimes a challenge to get people to commit on a time that would work – especially when you’re dealing with a large group. People need to check schedules, talk it out, and make sure they’re available.
Well, now there’s an easier way. Talk about it in your group. Get excited about it. Then turn to Doodle for the details.
Doodle is a free and incredibly simple website that lets you to select potential days and times for your meeting, email a link to everyone who might come, and allow them to select which options work. The beauty of this service is it’s simplicity. It takes less than a minute to set up a poll and only a matter of seconds for group members to add their information. It will even tell you which option looks most promising!
Want to create one? When you go to Doodle’s homepage, just click on “Create a new poll”.
The site will take you through a few short steps and then provide you with a link to the poll you can then email to your small group members. It’s that simple!
After members begin voting, here’s the information you end up with:
I set up a sample poll for the screen capture above. To see how easy it is to add your info, go to the poll’s page here: http://www.doodle.ch/dpqz4rK4bPpJ.
Some websites and programs are so complex they end up bogging down the process and just distracting people. But Doodle’s simplicity makes it an ideal way to keep your group connected. Hey, anything that makes planning easier is worth trying!
- JS
One exciting thing about small groups is learning from a variety of people. But what do you do when one person dominates? Do you recognize any of these personalities? (I found the list here.)
Monopolizing Mike: Mike talks from the moment he enters the room until the moment he leaves. He shares the same stories over and over whether they are relevant to the subject of group time or not. When Mike begins to talk, the group settles in for the long haul and appears bored and restless, and often the energy is drained from the discussion time.
Shy Sherry: Sherry seldom shares in small group time. She has trouble looking people in the eye when she does talk. She attends group regularly, but the group members know very little about her, because she has not opened up in group time. It is easy to forget that she is even there.
Expert Ed: Ed is an expert on every topic, especially the Bible. When the group discusses any topic, Ed always chimes in with the “right” answer. Once Ed shares his thoughts or opinions, the rest of the group is reluctant to share because Ed is clearly always right. Ed begins his sentences with statements like … “Clearly, the Bible is saying ______.”
Annie the Advice Giver: Annie knows what everyone should do, and is looking for opportunities to share her advice. Often when a group member shares a struggle, Annie will immediately say, “you SHOULD ______.” Although Annie desires to be helpful her advice is usually unsolicited and simplistic.
Put Down Patty: Patty criticizes people in group and out of group, especially her husband. As soon as he says something in group, Patty will say, “that is ridiculous!” He feels embarrassed and then it is a long time before he opens up and shares again.
Crises Chris: Chris is always in crises. He comes to group looking sad and lonely and as soon as someone reaches out to him he shares his most current crises. He gets upset when the people of the group don’t help enough or in the right way. No matter what attempts they make, the group cannot seem to do right by Chris.
What kinds of things would you do while facilitating this group? What preventative measures could you put into place that would help the facilitation of a group with a difficult personality?
This is your online reminder about our Small Group Leadership Gathering that will be held from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 27 in the Fellowship Hall. You won’t want to miss this opportunity to connect with other leaders before the year ends.
Beyond serving as a connecting point, we will also discuss how you can use technology to help lead and connect your group. From simple tools like email to leadership resources like websites and blogs, we’ll help people at every skill level see ways to connect and grow their groups. There will also be time to share your ideas and questions about this ministry.
Small groups are the heart of Glenkirk, and we want to come alongside each leader to help you encourage, support and lead your group. Our goal is not to simply schedule another meeting but to use the time in a way where both seasoned veterans and new leaders will leave encouraged and excited about the things happening at Glenkirk.
Just as we believe it’s important for people to live in community through small groups, we believe it’s also important to lead in community. Join us Nov. 27 as we learn from and challenge each other to grow as Christians and leaders!
- JS
For all of you small group leaders out there, here’s an advantage to small group involvement you can keep in the back of your mind for those times when people ask you why small groups are important.
The excerpt below is from Eat This Book: A Conversation in the Art of Spiritual Reading by Eugene Peterson (via Rhett Smith’s blog), translator of The Message. It’s well worth taking the time to read …
The participatory quality of spiritual reading struck me forcibly when i was thirty-five years old. I had taken up running again. I had run in college and seminary and enjoyed it immensely, but when I left school, I left running. It never occurred to me that running was something an adult might do just for the fun of it. Besides, I was a pastor now and I wasn’t sure how my parishoners would take to seeing their pastor running thinly clad along the back roads of our community. But I was noticing other people, doctors and lawyers and executives whom I knew, running in unexpected places without apparent loss of dignity, men and women my age and older, and realized that I could probably get by with it too.
I went out and bought running shoes–Adidas, they were–and discovered the revolution in footwear that had taken place since my student days. I began having fun, enjoying again the smooth rhythms of long-distance running, the quietness, the solitude, the heightened senses, the muscular freedom, the texture of the ground under my feet, the robust embracing immediacy of the weather–wind, sun, rain, snow…whatever.
Soon I was competing in 10K races every month or so, and then a marathon once a year. Running developed from a physical act to a ritual that gathered meditation, reflection, and prayer into the running. By this time I was subscribing to three running magazines and regularly getting books from the library on runners and running. I never tired of reading about running–diet, stretching, training methods, care of injuries, resting heart rate, endorphins, carbohydrate loading, electrolyte replacements–if it was about running I read it.
How much is there to write about running? There aren’t an infinite number of ways you can go about it–mostly it is just putting one foot before the other. None of the writing, with few exceptions, was written very well. But it didn’t matter that I had read nearly the same thing twenty times before; it didn’t matter if the prose was patched together with cliches; I was a runner and I read it all.
And then I pulled a muscle and couldn’t run for a couple of months as I waited for my thigh to heal. Read the rest of this entry ?
Need some simple, non-cheesy, and interesting questions to help people in your group get to know eachother? Here are a few from Big Ideas About Small Groups:
So what makes a good ice-breaker? I think it’s one that is both fun, but also lets reveals something about people, so the group really gets to know one another. Sometimes I pick ones that are more fun and less revealing, and other times I choose more serious ones that are also more revealing. You can gauge as the leader which ones work when. Maybe this is the newest tightrope—balancing fun with revealing!
Anyway here you go, by popular demand, the Top 10 Best Icebreakers:
10. Share one food item that best describes the last year of your life. (example: “frozen pizza” because I did a 180-degree turn this year, or “cinnamon roll” because it had lots of twists and turns but overall was pretty sweet)
9. What one item in the kitchen best describes you and your personality?
8. What’s your favorite concert you’ve ever attended?
7. What cartoon character best describes you?
6. If you could live anywhere in the world for a year, where would it be?
5. Complete the statement “I recommend…” (it can be a show, movie, book, restaurant, website, activity, etc.)
4. If you knew could you try anything and not fail (and money was no object), what dream would you attempt?
3. What super-power would you most like to have, and why?
2. If you had $5 million to spend in 5 days, but couldn’t spend any of it on yourself or your family, what would you do with it?
1. “2 Truths And a Lie” – Share 3 unique things about yourself and your life, 2 of them true, 1 false, and let the group guess which one isn’t true.
Do you have other questions that have led to interesting discussions or opened your group up a little more? Share them by posting a comment with the link below!
Take a second to read this post from Seth Godin:
Normally, people just show up. They show up at work, or at a conference. They show up on vacation or even sometimes they show up at home.
They aren’t doing anything special, they’re just doing.
Well, I spent the day with several hundred enthusiastic people.
This group, led by Jennifer Young, didn’t just show up. They arrived. They were purposeful and positive and prepared and in a hurry… but in a good way.
It didn’t cost anything. It didn’t take any more effort (in fact, it probably ended up being less of an effort.) They got more out of me, more out of each other, more out of the day.
Enthusiasm has a lot to be said for it.
Think about this. How does it apply to our small group meetings? For us as leaders? For us as participants?
It’s easy to show up to something. It takes work to engage. But isn’t it amazing how the more we put into some things, the more we get out of them? I’ve found that some of the things I feel least like doing are the things I value most once I’m doing them!
Sometimes community takes work, but the payoff is incredible.
You are currently browsing the Glenkirk Small Groups blog archives for November, 2006.
