by Chase | Leadership, Ministry
God hasn’t called us to be mediocre spiritual leaders.
Churches around the country are filled with leaders who more closely resemble warm bodies than spiritual leaders.
Small group leaders have an incredible calling to impart practical spiritual truth with a group of people who are on various levels of spiritual maturity. This is an incredibly difficult task!
It is well known that the best leaders are self-aware to their limitations, issues, and shortcomings. The list below reflects 14 qualities of incredible small group leaders. None of us match up with every one of these. We all have gaps. However, it is important for us to recognize where we are, where we need to be, and who we can bring into the mix to help us fill the gaps of our leadership.Â
Take your time and pray through this list and see where God is leading you to grow as a leader.
14 Characteristics Of Incredible Small Group Leaders
Spiritually Mature
What right do you have leading others to Jesus if you are not following Him?
Small group leaders must be spiritually mature. Does this mean they have to be perfect? Of course not! Maturity doesn’t mean you are perfect. Maturity in Jesus means that you are being transformed into the likeness of Jesus through spiritual disciplines. Spiritually immature people are incapable of being spiritual leaders. The great news is that we can all, by the grace of Jesus and application of spiritual disciplines, grow spiritually.Â
Attentive
Great small group leaders are attentive to the needs, spiritual condition, and personalities of the people that the are serving. It isn’t enough for a small group leader to know the bible study material – they must know the people they are serving.
Transparent
Transparency is essential to build relationships. Relationship is essential for discipleship. Every person in your small group doesn’t need to know every aspect of your life. Instead, they need to know that you are a real person with real struggles. Groups that are transparent are led by leader who are transparent.
Patient
Small group leaders are not responsible to “fix” people. There are too many negative ways you can take that statement, so I will move on. Some leaders become increasingly frustrated that the students in their group aren’t maturing as quickly as others. Be patient. People are different. People come from different backgrounds. People have different stories.
Person Of Integrity
This one is a no-brainer. Leaders have integrity. Without integrity you lose influence. Integrity comes from practicing what you preach, both publicly and privately.
Encourager
People are willing to follow someone who encourages them. Everyone feels inadequate in some areas of their spiritual life. Encouraging your small group can be as simple as praying, sending text messages, or remembering to follow up with a question.
[Read: 3 Ways You Can Be A Leader Who Encourages Others]
Relational
The love for people is an essential characteristic of great small group leaders. The best small group leaders are actively participating in other’s lives.  The best small group leader’s are not the greatest Bible teachers – they are often the best relational leaders. Â
Positive
I find it hard to read the Bible and walk away with a negative attitude. God has repeatedly done the impossible for His people. Small group leaders need to approach their groups with a positive attitude. After all, God promises to provide for His people – both spiritually and relationally.Â
Servant
Jesus’ life exemplified the power present when we assume the role of a servant leader. Your small group doesn’t exist to serve you, but for you to serve them.Â
Available
The most encouraging person can still make for a bad small group leader if he is unavailable to his group. Time and energy are essential to disciple others. Small group leaders understand that at times they will sacrifice their schedule to minister to their group.
Intentional
Spiritual growth doesn’t appear magically. Growth takes intentionality. It is a small group leader’s responsibility to intentionally lead each person in his or her group.
Expectant
Do you believe that your group members can do incredible things to build the Kingdom of God? Healthy expectations can spur growth more so than wordsmithing a perfect open-ended question.
Each Jesus follower has been given spiritual gifts and talents to leverage in their mission to share the Gospel. Great leaders help their people set healthy expectations and paint a picture of what God may have for them in the near future.
Enthusiastic
Enthusiasm is contagious. It is important for you to enjoy spending time with your small group. The leader is the one who sets the pace for this. If you dread attending small group meetings your group will dread it as well. Add elements that will connect the team to one another and spark their enjoyment for life and Jesus.
Facilitator
Your small group is not a platform. Your small group is not your audience. Don’t lecture to them for an hour. Be a leader that facilitates conversation. Facilitators steer the conversation without controlling the conversation. Facilitation, when done well, incorporates strong Biblical teaching and ensures there are practical steps for each person to walk away with.
by Chase | Ministry
In my last preaching class I had to create a one-year preaching calendar.
This project was massive to say the least. We had to supply graphics, 52 Sunday morning sermons, 52 Sunday evening services, and 52 Wednesday evening devotionals. Each sermon would outline the key passages, main points, themes, and spiritual direction of the church.
Some of the students loved creating and organizing their content. Others thought it was a waste of time.
Preaching calendars are an incredible tool that pastors should utilize to map the ministry’s spiritual direction, cast vision to your team, and enable pockets of creativity in your busy day. You are able to pair small group materials with your teaching content, regardless if you are
I know that there is an argument that the Holy Spirit may prompt you to speak on another topic or cover an issue that has come up in your community. Obviously preaching calendars have some flexibility.
If your preaching calendar doesn’t have the flexibility to respond to the Holy Spirit you might be more concerned with what you have to say, not what God has to say through you.
Don’t be that guy who ignored the Holy Spirit, whether that is nine months before a sermon or nine hours before you preach.
My sermon preparation has shifted over the past ten years into a system that works for me.
I learned early on that a pastor’s day is full of distractions and unplanned meetings. I also learned that teaching 52 lessons per year for the next 40 years is a holy endeavor that requires more than a flippant “what should I talk about this week?” approach.
“That is great, but I don’t have time to create a preaching calendar. It is too much work.”
Creating a preaching calendar isn’t a difficult as you may think. Remember, this isn’t a class assignment, you can create a calendar that has as much, or as little, information that your team needs.
I prepare my preaching calendar in three simple steps. These steps enable me to organize my content, address the spiritual needs of my ministry, lead my team to reinforce the passages I use, build momentum before and after camps, and allows me to be prepared, no matter how busy my schedule may become. Â
I tend to have a detailed preaching calendar that is six to nine months long with a general calendar (like “preaching through Mark”) for nine to twelve months out.
3 Steps I Use To Prepare My Student Ministry Preaching Calendar
Prayerfully Consider The Spiritual Needs Of Our People
You can’t be a spiritual leader if you fail to prepare your spirit. While this is an ongoing discipline of prayer, I set aside one morning (8:00am-noon) to pray for our church, community, leaders, and seek what Jesus has for us.
The point of this time is to submit yourself to Jesus’ authority and leadership, not come up with five sermon series ideas.
Gather Passages And Topics We Will Cover
Throughout the year I am banking topic ideas and passages into an Evernote document and bookmarking passages as “Future Sermon” in my Bible App.
Don’t underestimate the power of capturing your ideas. You need an app, notebook, or stone tablet to capture these ideas when they pop into your head.
Remember when your students were talking about the troubles that experience when sharing the Gospel with their friends? Capture that struggle in a note so that you will are able to address that in the near future.
Ideas will come from your devotional time, the local news, conferences, or while you are eating pizza with a small group. Capture them so that you can add them into your teaching.
Map Out My Preaching Calendar
A few weeks after I schedule my morning of prayer I will schedule a morning of study. This morning is about organizing content. This is a content development session that fleshes out some of the ideas I have been banking. I lay everything out on a table, use note cards for each passage/topic, and start to map where we are heading spiritually over the next 6-9 months.
I don’t write my sermons during this time – I simply develop the sermon series name, the sermon title, lock-in the main passage, and craft the rough draft of the main point. I don’t want to become bogged down with the specifics of crafting a catchy main point and lose focus on the big picture.
Once I have a map of the passages and series I pull up our church and local school calendars and place those series on the calendar.
Once it is on my calendar I consider my preaching calendar set. From there we start to develop graphics, worship sets, and the specifics for weekly worship.
That is it.Â
I don’t write sermons months in advance, but I do have a topic, passage, and main point ready.Â
Each week I know what I’m speaking on, the direction we are heading, and the information I need to pass on to my team. Simple as that!Â
Now What?
Do you utilize a preaching calendar? What process works for you? How far ahead do you plan?
by Chase | Leadership, Ministry
Are you impacting your community for the Gospel of Jesus?
I didn’t ask if your church has ministries that serve the community.
I’m not concerned with the number of service projects you have completed.
Are you impacting your community?
It is easy for us to believe that since our church is ministering to the community that must mean that we had a part in that as well. While that is partially true, you can’t sit on Sundays and never serve but call that investing in your community.
4 Habits That Are Killing Your Ministry
You use your social medias to further your agenda instead of spread Jesus’ love
Your friends and neighbors see your social media posts long before they see you. How do I know? Because people are going to check their social media news feeds before they leave their house in the mornings. Stop filling your social medias with hate speech, pointless arguments, and posts that make you look awesome. Be real on your social medias and start to connect with your alleged “friends.”
Don’t be pushy, but be real about the love of Jesus.
You don’t serve your community
Sure, you sign up for a service project every year or so. Is that investment? Are you getting to know people? Imagine if Jesus performed one miracle per year. We would have a whopping three miracles from his ministry! There are plenty of needs in your community that must be meet more than once or twice per year. Relationships are built by spending time with others. And discipleship is impossible without relationships.
How are you, not your church, serving families and spreading the hope of Jesus?
You don’t attend a local church, you drive to another town
How far away is your church from your house? More than a 25 minute drive? Unless you live in an area without many people or churches, something might be off about this. Most people are attending church because they like certain aspects – the music, the preaching, the children’s ministry, etc. But answer this. What will happen when the church changes it’s worship style? Or if the pastor is called to another church?
If we base our decision to attend church on our likes and not where God wants us to serve, then we aren’t ministering to our community. What if God has called you to be the only young adult at a smaller church so that you can be the one who reaches young adults?
[READ: Stop Shopping For A Church]
You are only concerned with bringing people to church, not taking the Gospel to people
There isn’t anything wrong with bringing people to church. There is everything wrong with failing to taking the Gospel to people.
The difference? Jesus didn’t command His disciples to “bring” people to the temple, Jesus instructed His disciples to “go” into the world.
Sitting back and waiting for people to find your church is the equivalent to sitting back and waiting for drowning swimmer to find his way back to the shore. The time is too short and the need is too great for us to live removed from the spiritual and physical needs of our communities.
by Chase | Ministry
Today’s culture is busy and full of noise, and it seems harder than ever to eliminate distractions. Â
Even if it’s only for a short time, escaping the noise of school, work, and negative habits is essential for Jesus followers. The best ways to remove yourself from the noise are to retreat daily for prayer and Bible study, weekly for corporate worship and service, and annually for spiritual awakening. Â
I know you’ve heard pastors talk about the importance of daily spiritual disciplines and weekly corporate worship. But when was the last time you heard a sermon about the importance of going on a retreat like a camp or conference?
Jesus often retreated from the crowds to spend time in prayer. (See Mark 1:35, Luke 5:16, Matthew 14:23, and Luke 22:39-41 for examples.) If Jesus took the time to retreat, we should too.
I know, I know. You’re too busy — that’s everyone’s initial reaction to the idea of a structured retreat away from your normal routine. Everyone has too much going on to get away!
But isn’t this what a retreat is supposed to help with? Doesn’t a summer camp allow us to refocus our eyes on Jesus and realign our priorities?
[READ: How To Stay Excited About God – Even When The Retreat Is Over]
We can’t make changes unless we take a step back and see our current state. Retreats, camps, and conferences help us do exactly this.
4 Ways Summer Camp Can Transform Your Life
You Experience God Like Never Before
Removing distractions allows you to place your expectations on Jesus. There isn’t anything holy or magical about a camp or retreat facility. An individual who intentionally and purposefully sets aside his or her normal obligations and instead focuses on God will experience closeness with Him.
It’s not rocket science.
When your pastor encourages you to take time every day for Bible study and prayer, he is doing it because he knows it will change your life. You’ll experience God like never before.
When your Sunday school teacher tells you not to miss church, she is doing it because she knows it will help you in your spiritual journey. You’ll experience God like never before.
Similarly, camps, disciple now weekends, women’s and men’s conferences, and other structured retreats help you experience God like never before. Sometimes all it takes to wake you up spiritually is getting away from the distractions of your normal routine and your typical responsibilities to focus on God.
You Build Community
Feeling alone is common to all of us. Even though we know others go through hard things and struggle with sin and tough decisions just like we do, that’s difficult for us to admit or embrace.
Camps have a way of silencing the parts of us that feel so alone. When people get out of their normal day-to-day routines, they become more open, more willing to share, and more excited to bond with other people.
God’s desire for us is to be part of a body of believers working together to bring Him glory and make disciples of all nations. We can’t do that alone!
Embracing the idea of community — being part of a group that cares for each other and supports each other through all of life’s seasons — is messy. But it’s worth it. And the only proven method for creating it is simply to share life experiences with those you want to have community with. You’ve got to show up, show up again, and continuing showing up after that.
Camps and retreats act as a jumping-off point for many new friendships that will help you and those in your sphere of influence in your collective journey to follow Jesus.
[READ: 5 Reasons Your Student Should Work At A Summer Camp]
You Develop A Lifestyle of Worship
If the only time you worship God is within the walls of your church, you’re missing out!
We are called to a lifestyle of worship where we acknowledge God for who He is and thank Him for being so awesome. The more different places you encounter God’s presence, the more comfortable you will become with worshipping God constantly.
Removing yourself from all the noise and distractions of your daily life will bring clarity. You’ll start to see your schedule for both its good aspects and its bad aspects, and any choice you make to prioritize it so that it’s more focused on God is an act of worship.
You Discover Your God-Given Purpose
When you spend your whole day doing something, you become defined by it. Students spend all day at school, so they are students. They may spend the majority of their off time doing a sport or a hobby, and whatever that activity is will become integral to their identity.
Adults are no different, by the way. If you spend all day as an accountant, you see yourself as an accountant. If you spend your day as the primary caretaker of your children, your view of yourself will be as a parent.
Conversely, whatever you don’t spend your whole day doing becomes part of who you are not. If you don’t spend all day working in a church, you are not a disciplemaker.  If you aren’t serving overseas as a missionary, you are not a international missionary. If you don’t prepare lessons for a Bible study class, you are not a Bible teacher.
But God has a purpose for you that goes beyond your earthly identity. He made it super clear in the Great Commission. We are all supposed to go and make disciples. We are all responsible for evangelism. We are all responsible for our own spiritual growth.
When you take an intentional step away from your routine and surround yourself with others who are different from you, you’ll start to see yourself less as whatever you do all day and more as a member of the body of Christ.
You’ll see that even though you spend all day at school, you have the same job everyone else has — worshipping God and telling others about Him.
You’ll see that even though you aren’t employed as a pastor or missionary, you still are one.
by Chase | Discipleship, Leadership, Ministry
The past couple of months have been a little crazy around here.Â
The biggest factor contributing to the craziness?
My family is embarking on a new adventure starting this summer.
Yesterday I accepted a call to become the High School and Young Adults Pastor at First Baptist Church Loganville in Georgia and will begin serving there on June 18, 2017. Today I submitted my resignation as the Family Pastor at Valley Grove Baptist and will serve here until June 11, 2017.Â
During the entire process, God has been working in big ways. I know pastors tend to make clichĂ© statements like that, but it’s the truth. Several months ago I received a message from the Executive Pastor in Loganville. He let me know that they were searching for a man who can equip students to continue following Jesus once they are in college and had all but shut down the search after months of looking through resumes. It turns out that he asked a close pastor friend for a recommendation, and my name was passed along.
I wasn’t looking to move to the Atlanta area and honestly had never heard of Loganville before my phone conversation! But the more we talked, the more I could see their heart for ministry and how God was at work.
You all know that I have a passion for encouraging and equipping pastors, leaders, and students to serve Jesus. High school and college are critical phases in the life of a young adult. These phases of life are of the utmost importance to me because that is when students start to discover what is means to live out their faith in Jesus. Students ask hard questions because they are discovering how God wants them to live. This is when students make the jump from merely listening to applying God’s Word. My heart for equipping leaders and students aligns perfectly with FBC Loganville’s. We are excited to see what God has in store as we serve in Loganville!
While we are stoked to accept the call to serve at FBC Loganville, it is definitely a bittersweet time for our family. Anne and I will be leaving our home in East Tennessee, which is a decision we don’t take lightly. We are sad about leaving the incredible people at Valley Grove and the Knoxville area. You all are our family, friends, and co-ministers. This area has always been my home, and Anne and I are so thankful for the friendships, memories, and investment that you all have made in our lives.
(And as a side note, we will never cheer for the Georgia Bulldogs. I will have Josh Dobbs’ Hail Mary playing on a loop in my office from now till I go to Heaven!)Â
Leaving Valley Grove and the Knoxville area has been a difficult decision for us to make. You all are family. You have helped raise Tripp and Brooke. Most of you have even sung “What Does The Fox Say?” with my kids during Bible study. We have made memories, shared milestones, walked alongside one another, and consumed large amounts of coffee together.
Moving to Loganville isn’t an attempt to run from Knoxville. That isn’t the case at all.  We are faithfully following where Jesus is leading our family.Â
We are 100 percent certain that God is leading us to make the move to Loganville, Georgia. Anne and I sense God’s Spirit leading us to FBC Loganville. She and I are unified in spirit and are at peace.Â
As Christians, we understand that our lives are not our own. Our lives are hidden in Jesus and when He leads, we go. Going is always an adventure, and God has promised to provide for His plans.
One of my mentors has a quote that he says frequently:
“If I am where God wants me to be, not only will I have everything I need from God, God will also have everything He needs from me.”
This is my prayer for my ministry and my family: to be exactly where God wants me to be. I know that my life is making the biggest impact for the Kingdom of God when I’m in lockstep with Jesus.
Please be praying for Anne, Tripp, Brooke, and I as we begin the transition to Loganville, Georgia.Â
We are thankful for your prayers and support!
