Creating Community: 5 Keys to Building A Small Group Culture

I picked up the book Creating Community : 5 Keys to Building a Small Group Culture with the intent to glen some advice to improve the culture of our youth ministry. I believe that community is at an all time low and youth meetings are becoming more of responsibility than an opportunity.

The book is a detailed description of the small group ministry of the North Point Community Church. Though I am not the small group director or even a leader, I identified with many of the values of this ministry…
• The need to be strategic with clear expectations and goals.
• Putting an 18 to 24 month cap on the time the group can exists thus, makeing it easier for new participates to join once a new group has been formed.
• Closing the group to new members so that the group can focus on spiritual growth rather than numeric growth.

This was not a youth ministry book but I did glen one major idea about how I lead the youth groups on Wednesday Night. When describing the goals of a ministry they believe that their “open door program” should “change people’s mind about church.” Their small group ministry should “change people’s minds about their priorities.” Without knowing it, this is the exact opposite of the way I’ve been teaching the youth.

The way I’ve been leading it was; come to youth groups so I can change your life’s priorities then we can change your mind about church. How foolish of me. Only God can change priorities; not a teacher. I need to focus more on changing kids minds about God and church rather than their life’s priorities. This will be very hard for me to change but I must.