Tips for Leading a StrongFamilies Class 100 DVD Series

1. Characteristics of a good small group?
   
   
2. Things you can do to help promote these characteristics?
   
   
3. Try to avoid…

1. Characteristics of a good small group?

• Focus on Christ.
• Sense of Trust.
• Honesty.
• Vulnerability.
• Partners vs spectators.
• People arrive early and stay late.
• Changed lives.
• Common desire to grow.
• Sense of commitment.
• ____________ Others.

2. Things you can do to help promote these characteristics?

• Pray for God to bring unity to the group.
• Pray for each other. (Ask for prayer requests and follow up.)
• Worship together. (Assign this to someone.)
• Be prepared to lead the study. (Watch the DVD & take notes.)
• Be authentic and transparent. (The level of your openness determines how open the rest for the group will be.)
• Be sensitive.
• Be teachable.
• Be flexible. (Things will rarely go as planned.)
• Be aware of the environment. (Seating, lighting, cozy feeling, inviting, distractions.)
• Serve together. (Do a mission’s project.)
• Play together. (Include families.)
• Start on time and end on time. (Don’t spoil the moment.)
• Have fun.
• Tell stories.
• Be clear about time, dates and expectations. (Use e-mail for this.)
• Allow people to be heard.
• Be an encourager.
• Be well informed of “sensitive” marital situations.
• Be “other-focused.”
• Assign different people to provide food and drinks.
• Talk about the importance of confidentiality.
• ____________ Others.

3. Try to avoid…

• Lecturing.
• Gossiping.
• Letting people dominate the discussions.
• Attacking. (People need to feel safe to share.)
• _____________ Others.

Getting Your Group To Open Up and Share

Every group has its own personality. Some groups will be openly verbal right from the start. Others groups will take a lot of work, and need the Coaches’ skill at getting the people to open up.

An effective way to promote sharing is through “group mixers”. Using group mixers is a basic, yet essential, small group skill. Icebreaker ideas and shared questions are designed to facilitate discussion about members’ personal lives and to help them open up more freely.

Use discretion with these questions and statements. Some will evoke deep and serious responses. Others are light and funny. In the beginning stages of your group you might want to use questions that are more information about people’s lives. As intimacy develops in a group, begin to challenge people with more in-depth questions that evoke feelings, thoughts, and insights.