This article is derived from Ben Reed’s blog post, here.

Most people want their group to succeed.  They want to grow spiritually and help others grow as well.  They want to have vibrant meetings that challenge people’s faith and encourage them to love God and others more.  They want to help foster healthy marriages and strong, God-honoring parenting.  They don’t want the group meeting to be a drag on anyone.  Rather, they long for everyone in the group to look forward to the meeting because they’re building healthy relationships with those in the group.

These people are willing to do what it takes to craft a successful group…they’re just not always sure what they should be doing to make that happen.

Here are my thoughts about what good small groups (and good small group leaders) should be in the business of doing:

Good small groups

• Communicate with each other more than once/week.
• Are filled with admittedly broken people.
• Embrace those far from Christ.
• Don’t just talk about the Gospel.  They apply it.
• Serve their community as much as they serve one another.
• Don’t avoid difficult relational issues. They work through them.
• Look a lot like a healthy church.

Good small group leaders

• Embrace the messiness of relationships.
• Are quick to offer grace because they’ve been given so much [grace].
• Ask for help.
• Look a lot like good pastors.
• Are patient with group members who are difficult to love.

These lists gets the conversation going pretty well. What else do you think good small groups should be doing?

What else do you think good small group leaders should be doing?