How does a small group point person become a leader of leaders? Each small group point person faces the challenge of building a group of leaders who are gifted, willing and able to be part of their small group ministry. This challenge isn’t always straightforward; great small group leaders don’t always appear at your doorstep! Small group point people face a series of problems including organization, communication and accountability. How does each point person get everyone on the same page? It is essential for all small group point people to recognize that they aren’t building any structure, they are building a ministry team.
In his book, Leading with the Heart, hall of fame basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski noted “you develop a team to achieve what one person cannot accomplish alone. . . . All of us alone are weaker, by far than if all of us are together” (2000, p. 71). Coach K’s quote transcends basketball, it applies to business, education, and small group ministries. His quote is also nothing new, two thousand years before Coach K coached his first basketball game, the same principle was applied in the early church. Paul noted that “We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other” (Romans 12:5, NLT). Every member of the body was made, with specific gifts, to complement each other (Romans 6).
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Like any coach or small group point person, Paul was delivering a message of unity; in his letter to the Ephesians, a letter written to a diverse audience, he noted that Jesus “made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility. . . . His purpose was to create in Himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace (Ephesians 2:14-15, NIV).
When Jesus built His team of disciples, He did so in an unorthodox manner, instead of recruiting high achieving students, he gathered fishermen, tradesmen, and a tax collector. Jesus built the right team – a team of people that would continue His work when His earthly ministry ended. If a small group point person aspires to achieve the biblical mission to reach a diverse group of people, he or she should build their ministry like a team of people that can follow the mission left by Christ; a team that can work interdependently and can leverage the various skills of each teammate!
