TWENTY TIPS FOR SUCCESSFUL SMALL GROUP LEADERSHIP The Art of Leading a Small Group Twenty Tips for Successful Small Group Leadership by Michael Zigarelli – Page 1 TWENTY TIPS FOR SUCCESSFUL SMALL GROUP LEADERSHIP By Michael Zigarelli Excerpted from pages 74-82 of the Freedom from Busyness Leader’s Guide Learn more about this study at www.lifeway.com/mikezig Every Christian is called to be a leader. Some are more gifted at …

The Art of Leading a Small Group There’s been a lot written on how to lead a group and how not to lead one. Here’s a compilation of some of the best ideas out there—twenty tips that will assist you in leading your group to a life-changing experience. Tip 1: It’s Not About You . Let’s get one thing straight from the beginning: leading a small group study is not about you. It’s about God. The more you can remain in the mindset of magnifying God and minimizing yourself, the more others will learn from the study. Take a cue from John the Baptist: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30, NAS). For some small group leaders, this humble posture is quite natural. For others, the ego has a funny way of creeping into everything they do. If you find yourself saying and doing things out of concern for what others will think of you as the leader, that’s a red flag. Instead, try not to worry about your reputation—about people- pleasing, in Paul’s words (Galatians 1:10). Your job as a small group leader is simply to co-labor with God to draw people closer to Him. So to boil it down to a sentence: to lead a small group with excellence, be the “guide on the side,” not the “sage on the stage.” This is God’s group. Keep Him at center stage and He will bless everyone in the group…. Twenty Tips for Successful Small Group Leadership by Michael Zigarelli – Page 2 Tip 2: Operate in God’s Strength . Tip 1 said that successful small group leadership happens when you make the study about God . Here’s the flip side: successful small group leadership happens when you lead the study through God . The best leader is one who’s first a follower. Ask God to empower you to lead beyond your abilities, and return to this prayer often. Additionally, make prayer the bedrock of your group time together as well, at the very least opening and closing each session by collectively talking to God. Tip 3: Operate in Joy . The disposition of the leader powerfully drives the disposition of the whole group. When you adopt a joyful and celebratory disposition throughout the study, others will follow. When you smile, when you’re upbeat, when you’re genuinely excited to be leading, when you celebrate successes, it will infect the group—and that will significantly improve the experience for everyone involved. As you know, though, joy doesn’t just happen. It’s not something you can engineer on demand, nor is it something you can fake for very long. Rather, real joy starts with seeing clearly the opportunity with which God has blessed you. You have been commissioned to help Him make people’s lives better through leading this study. Your work with this group is, in fact, a sacred ministry . This sort of perspective leads to gratitude for the opportunity, and out of gratitude flows joy, both in your preparation and in your leadership of the discussion.

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