By Kindsi Lora

First Things First

We are incredibly proud of you for stepping out in faith and taking this initial step toward launching your small group! This is huge, and we believe God has big plans to use you in your role as a small group leader. It is our sincerest hope that we can help you show up to group as your full, authentic self.

I’ve been following Jesus my entire life and have been a small group leader in various capacities through the past 11 years. The relationships I’ve built through small groups are the deepest, most powerful friendships I have. Even groups I’ve been in for a short season have been instrumental in shaping my relationship with others and the Lord. It is such an honor to prioritize investing in relationships with others who are also hungry to grow in their walk with Jesus.

Before Becoming a Small Group Leader, Pray

Wherever you are in the process of starting your small group, it is imperative that you begin with prayer.

Ask God to reveal His heart for your small group, and what He wants to do through the intentional weeks or months you will spend together.

If you feel God gives you a word, phrase, or verse to declare over your group, write it down!

Also, ask God to reveal your heart. Ask Him to show you why you feel it on your heart to start a group and for Him to confirm that this is what He has for you in this season.

This understanding of both His heart and yours will create a great foundation to co-create your small group with Jesus. This practice will make decisions clearer and easier to make as you align your heart, soul, mind and strength with Him.

We recognize that starting a small group can be challenging—we’ve been there. We hope this step-by-step guide for starting a small group helps you feel supported along the way.

6 Simple Steps to Building a Small Group

Step 1: Lead People into What You Know

Choosing content for your first small group might feel daunting, but leading with what you know can lessen the burden of being both leader and student. You’ll feel more equipped and prepared to show up as the leader your group needs if you’re confident about what you’re sharing.

A good way to do this is to pick content you feel a sense of ownership over. This might be a topic you’ve gained spiritual ground and authority over, or it might be a subject you’ve already been learning about. If you want to choose a theme you’re excited about but aren’t familiar with, be sure to study it on your own first, or go over it with a friend.

Ask yourself, “What can I share well?” This could be a favorite book of the Bible, a theme in the Bible, a study that you did and loved, or it something that relates to your testimony and personal walk with God. Follow-up this question with, “If I could pass along one impactful lesson from my own spiritual walk, it would be ________.”

Step 2: Choose Your Format

Once you’ve nailed down a general direction for the topic you’d like to cover in small group, determine the format: book, podcast, video series, sermon series, guided lesson plans, etc.

Things to consider when choosing a format:

• Who is in your small group?
• What time commitment is needed for this format?
• Is your desired format realistic with what you know about your group’s lives beyond small group time?

For example, if you’re leading a group of college students swamped with homework, choosing a book to study might not yield the results you want. Students might not have the bandwidth to first read the book, then take the time to meet for an in-person or online study. What you might end up with are many people who show up for group unprepared—or people not showing up at all because they don’t feel ready to contribute to the discussion. This also means that the brunt of the discussion will land on your shoulders. So, for a busy group like this, you may want to consider a format you can use within the allotted time you have together. You could watch a short video clip and discuss it as a group, or find a podcast and ask everyone to listen to one specific episode at some point in the week.

For any group with tight schedules, a self-contained model such as this may be a great format.

Step 3: Consider Partnering with a Co-Leader

There’s a reason almost every superhero has a right-hand man—there is power in pairs! This isn’t just a Hollywood model for success. Jesus modeled it when He commissioned His disciples to travel in pairs (Luke 9). He also sent out the seventy-two believers in pairs in Luke 10.

Even when the workers are few (Luke 10:2), “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.” Even when there were few believers, Jesus demonstrates for us the immense power of partnership.

Working with a co-leader can provide support and accountability. It can also give us the opportunity to learn a leadership style that will help us connect with different kinds of people. As Ecclesiastes 4:10 states, “If either of them falls down, one can help the other up.” One of my favorite things about co-leading is having someone else to talk through the content with before group and debrief with afterward.

As a verbal processor, co-leader chats have helped me talk less in the groups I lead, allowing me to facilitate more and listen to my group members more keenly. Hashing out my thoughts with my co-leader prior to group makes me more concise when I speak and leaves more room for others to think aloud during group time.

Having the buffer of a trusted co-leader to bounce ideas off can make your experience run much smoother! Do you have that friend in mind? If you don’t, your perfect partner might turn out to be someone in your small group. Make a plan with them to co-lead future times together.

Step 4: Decide the Details

Your foundation is laid. Now it’s time to tackle the details. Here are a few checklist items you’ll want to start with:

• Decide a time and place.
• Know how frequently you are meeting (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, etc.)?
• What is the length of the study itself? How many weeks/months will you meet? Plan for about two weeks more than the content requires so you have one week before the study begins to get to know each other, and one week at the end of the study to debrief if you’ve missed one or two.
• Communicate what resources are needed and how much they will cost. Will your small group members need to buy a specific book or study to participate? Do you want to provide snacks/tea/dinner or anything else you will need your group to help with financially? You can totally ask your group members if they’re willing to split the cost or have each member bring something to contribute once!

Step 5: Finish Preparing

• Pray: if you’ve decided to start a small group, I have no doubt this is something you’ve spent a lot of time thinking about and mentally preparing for but now it’s time to turn those thoughts over to Jesus and continue to pray and hammer out the last-minute prep steps to make your group a success! Armor up: whenever you take a new step into your calling to lead and walk in your God-given authority, Satan is quick to rise up and attack the new work God is doing in and through you! Challenges will likely accompany your decision to pursue what God is leading you into so be prepared. When I begin a new endeavor I love turning to Ephesians 6:10-18 to pray the armor of God over myself as a reminder of the spiritual covering and authority I live in as a child of God. Then when the mental and spiritual battles inevitably arise, I can remind the enemy that he doesn’t stand a chance against the God who has clothed me in His armor.
• Craft a Mission Statement: crafting a short mission statement is extremely helpful and grounding for me! A mission statement is 1-2 sentences of you expressing your deepest hope/goal for the group. You likely have SO MANY goals for your group, but try to distill them down to one, core desire. At the end of each week, even if nothing else was accomplished, you can still deem it a success because your core purpose was met! Some examples of mission statements are:“I want us to have fun together.”

Here’s an example of something that might happen that will remind you of the importance of a mission statement. Let’s say multiple people in your group are having a super rough week and the whole evening turns into extended prayer together and you don’t have enough time to do your content justice. That’s when you take a deep breath and remember your mission statement. If your goal is to make people feel seen and supported, you might hop into a couple cars and make a spontaneous ice cream run. And that, is how Jesus uses this week to make people feel known, loved and valued!

Step 6: Always Review the Content Beforehand

When I was in college studying so I could teach English as a second language, my teacher offered the class some very freeing advice, “It’s ok if you don’t know everything. You just have to re-learn it a few days before you teach it!” Hearing that has carried me through so many challenging leadership scenarios! You don’t have to know it all. Being prepared in advance, doing a little research into the context beyond what you’re studying, and preparing great questions will set you up to be a successful leader who facilitates the conversation with ease!

You Got Thisl!

We believe in you and we are confident you are going to be an amazing small group leader! We hope this guide will give you the freedom to focus on the relationship-building that only you can provide your group! You’re not limited to the methods and structures we’ve mentioned. Our hope is that you use it as a rough outline to help you find your leadership style while discovering the the specific needs of your group! We believe you are here, reading this article and feeling the pull to host a small group for a reason.