This week, I had the opportunity to connect with some other small group leaders in the Washington DC area, which as hosted by National Community Church. OK, I don’t live in DC, but I enjoy hanging out with other leaders who are helping other connect in community, so it’s worth the drive and three Metro trains it takes to get there. And, having the meeting at Ebeneezers makes it that much easier to endure the travel.

Of all that we discussed, two questions stood out to me:

How do you measure success in small group ministry?

To be frank, it’s hard to get away from measuring attendance and number of small groups. While number measurements don’t necessarily capture the quality of community or life change, quality community often goes hand in hand with numerical growth. Rather than the number of groups, maybe a better indicator would be the percentage of people involved in groups.

If you could magically change one thing about your small groups ministry, what would it be?

One word: Training! I’ve been to too many “leadership training” events that are fun and encouraging, but send me home no more prepared to lead than when I came. Since I find myself spearheading the small groups leadership training at my church, I want to provide training that really helps leaders lead people into community and life change.

As we discussed the second question above, we talked about resources that might be valuable in designing a leadership development program. Good resources make all the difference in the word. Here are a few to check out:

Leading Life Changing Small Groups, by Bill Donahue
Excellent small group leadership translates into more life-change in community from some of the leaders in small group ministry–Willow Creek.

Coaching Life Changing Leaders, by Bill Donahue
Ideally, small group pastors/directors are responsible for coaching leaders to lead and this book teaches leaders to do that.

Creating Community, by Andy Stanley and Bill Willits
A look at how North Point is creating a culture of community and helping people develop meaningful relationships.

I’m currently surveying small groups pastors that I know about which resources they find most helpful in training leaders. My hope is to build a leadership training system that will equip leaders to lead groups effectively–and equip other leaders to come alongside those leaders and coach them to greater success. This small group leadership pipeline will likley consume most of my reading time in the coming months. So, hopefully this list will be more extensive in the near future…