This is Part 3 of the Fall Semester Leadership Lesson Series, Repair and Remodeling. We believe that when it comes to making disciples, creating community, and doing ministry, there is always some assembly required. In the spring, we talked about laying a solid foundation. In the summer, we talked about principles of community construction. This semester, we will talk about how to identify and respond to problem areas. Every structure comes to a place where it requires repair and remodeling.
Repair and remodeling requires careful skill. Today, we talk about the importance of evaluating your leadership and your group.
This morning at 8am, an inspector will spend 2-4 hours evaluating a house that will hopefully be our new place of residence. The home inspection process is important to protect the potential buyer from unseen problems and it allows needed repairs to be made before the house is inhabited. After we move in (fingers crossed), the inspections are not over. Through the years, we will likely give the house regular inspections- What needs to be cleaned? What needs to be repaired? What needs to be repainted? What needs updating?
Likewise, it’s good to do an occasional inspection of the spiritual houses we are building. It’s good to give ourselves and our groups regular spiritual gut checks. Our house could be falling apart in places and we don’t even know it because we don’t take the time to check. This series focuses on repair and remodeling, but you can only repair and remodel when you discover problems. It’s much better to discover problems before they become eyesores or, worse, result in serious structural decay, so today, we offer some suggestions for completing an spiritual home inspection.
Inspect Yourself
Search me , O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139:23-24)
We recommend starting your evaluation with yourself. You need to make sure that your own spiritual house is intact and that you are a leader worth following.
- Am I growing in my faith?
- Are there people that I am sharing my life with in an authentic, transparent, confessional, and mutually challenging way?
- What is my leadership style? What type of leadership does the group need?
- Why am I leading? To fill a need? Because you have a vision? Because you care about people? Because you love God? Answers will vary with each leader. There isn’t necessarily a right or wrong answer. A right answer for one leader may be a wrong answer for another.
- Am I enjoying leading the group?
- Do I look forward to group gatherings or do I dread them?
- How are you implementing the Be One, Make One, For One vision?
We’ve developed some tools that will help you with ongoing personal spiritual gut checks.
- The Discipleship Assessment- this inventory asks questions your growth in the 4 dimensions of discipleship- seeker, learner, influencer, and investor
- The Spiritual Development Plan- this template provide guidelines for setting goals in the 4 dimensions of discipleship
- Wesley Questions- these questions are designed to be asked and evaluated in a small group or accountability group setting.
Inspect Your Group
To the churches in Galatia: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. (Galatians 1:2-7)
Paul doesn’t waste any time telling the church at Galatia what needs to change. From the very beginning of the book he calls them out on a pretty big issue.
To evaluate your own group, begin by looking at your small group blueprint. If you’ve never completed a blueprint for your group, ask your team leader to give you a template. How well is your group sticking to the blueprint?
Then, consider the following questions:
- What is the purpose of your group?
- How long has the group been in existence?
- Are we growing closer to God?
- Is the group growing in number?
- Are we growing closer to one another?
- Which members are growing the most spiritually?
- How are the group members growing as seekers, learners, influencers, and investor? Is the group balanced across these four dimensions?
- Are our group discussions Biblically centered?
- What are the current group wins?
- What prayers are being answered?
- What kinds of prayer requests are typically offered in the group?
- What are the biggest needs in the group?
- Are there any current or unresolved conflicts with any members of the group?
- Is the group focused more in inward needs or outward opportunities?
- What kinds of service projects have you done together?
- List 3 adjectives to describe the community of your group.
After evaluating yourself and your group on your own, you might find it valuable to talk about some of these questions as a group.
Inspections are never easy. They might reveal cracks in the foundation, broken windows, structural instability, dangerous wiring, leaky pipes, or aesthetic problems. However, it’s better to identify them and do the hard work of repair and remodeling instead of letting the house fall completely apart. Too many groups deteriorate in a long, painful way. Keep your community construction project honest, tight, and always moving forward.
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