Skip to main content

Can Flock Leaders Visit Small Groups Too Often?

Why would I even pose that question? Flock leaders are expected to visit the small groups in their flock regularly and have to visit groups to know how the groups are functioning, to see the status of their flock and to be able to give encouraging and stretching feedback to the small group leaders in their flock. So should you really be concerned about visiting the small groups in your flock too often?

Yes, you should be concerned about this. Have you ever been given a new role or job and the corresponding responsibility only to have the person who used to be in that role – or your boss – not give you the leeway to grow into and function completely in the role? That is the concern with flock leaders visiting small groups too often. While the small group leader needs your support, feedback and exhortation, he also needs room to lead the group and to be seen as the leader by the small group members. That means you as the flock leader need to get out of the way.

The flock leader role is not easy. It has a different rhythm than being a small group leader. It doesn't look the same week to week. And it carries a higher level of accountability. But flock leaders need to be purposeful in letting the small group leaders be the actual leaders of their groups.

While the small group leader’s primary ministry is to their small group members, a flock leader’s primary ministry is to the small group leaders in their flock. Step in when needed. Be there to help your small group leaders with issues. And push your small group leaders to grow in their walk, in leadership and in conducting a vibrant, reproducing small group that follows the HBC model.

But give them room to be the leaders of their small groups.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Day That Changed Everything

It was a mid May Saturday morning in Madison, Wisconsin in 1980-something as Adam Goldberg would say at the beginning of an episode of "The Goldbergs." While that works well for storytelling on television and basing an episode loosely on real events, I remember exactly what day it was. This was Saturday, May 12, 1984. My girlfriend, Kim - now my wife of nearly 38 years, and I were figuring out what we might do that day. Whatever we were going to do, it would start with going out for breakfast, perhaps to Mickey's Dairy Bar, and eventually move to studying. Finals would start the next day. It was my second semester senior year, her second semester sophomore year. My younger brother, Tom, nineteen months younger than me, two years behind me in school and the youngest of five children, was also a sophomore, all of us at the University of Wisconsin (UW to its alumni) in Madison. A few days of tests were between them and summer. A few days were between me and college graduatio

The Burn: Stage 2

Today marks exactly thirteen months since an episode I still do not fully understand landed me in the ER. Since then, I have suffered nearly daily headaches. More accurately, I have battled a headache severe enough to require me to take some sort of abortive action somewhere around 60% of the days over the last thirteen months. The majority of the time that means taking a rescue medication often accompanied by an anti-nausea medication, putting an ice pack on my neck, another ice pack over my eyes and head, and sleeping for 2-3 hours in a dark room. Some days I go back to sleep again later the same day. By my rough approximation, I have slept the equivalent of nearly a full month of days of extra time over the last year trying to fight off these headaches. This journey has already taken me places I had never been and places I did not know existed. Of course there is a complicated physical aspect to these headaches. I have worked with my primary care provider, a neurologist, pain manage

One Year Later -- A Look Behind the Mask of James MacDonald

Recently, James MacDonald started a 40-day “devotional” video series leading up to a re-launch into "ministry." He started this series exactly one year to the day that the elders of Harvest Bible Chapel fired him for cause. If you know James MacDonald, you know starting his “devotional” on February 12, 2020 was intentional. If you don’t know James MacDonald, you need to know starting on that date was intentional.  The verse MacDonald used in his February 9 Facebook page teaser post caught my attention : … for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries. (1 Corinthians 16:9 ESV) By using this verse and including the second half of the verse, MacDonald hopes to position anyone opposing his return to “ministry” as adversaries. MacDonald regularly portrays himself as under attack or as the victim. He is doing his best to weaponize Scripture here. If you know MacDonald you may share my skepticism. You may share my concern as you see hi