What are the essential shepherding “Routines” for a health group?

When you are the group leader/facilitator/teacher you have some very important responsibilities. The primary roles you have are to give attention to the spiritual nurture and growth of those in your group. It is best when the group leader has a team of leaders around them to help with the shepherding of the group. This has been classically called care group leader, prayer leader, social leader and outreach leader. This group organization will determine your routine for the shepherding concerns of your group.

If you have an organization, a team with whom to share these responsibilities, then your “routine” will be to oversee the ministry that your team performs. If you do not have a team, then you are the one who will need a “routine” to take care of the shepherding of your group. So what is involved in this “routine?”

1. Care
2. Pray
3. Play

Each week the group leader should address these three areas.  It is essential to develop a “routine” or a way for those in your group to communicate to the group when they have a need. They need prayer. They had a death in their family. They are having surgery this week. The new baby is here. Set up a process so that the group members know how and who to contact in case there is a need.

Care – A good caring group will make regular (weekly preferred) contact with a designated group within the larger group. This “routine” acts as a way to identify needs, those who have missed attending the group recently and it helps build relationships as people talk with each other through the contacts. Create a “routine” for new people to be assimilated into the group so that they not only are accepted, but so that they make friends.

Pray – A “routine” in a healthy group will have people praying for each other. This can take place by creating a regular prayer list of group needs. Print and hand it out during the group. Email the list to each group member. Design a group web page and put prayer needs on the site (password protected).

Play – A healthy group has the ability to play together, to have fun with each other which helps them feel closer to each other. Having a “routine” group party/fellowship is an essential way for the group to learn about each other, to identify common life points and interests.

“Routine” does not mean dry and boring. It means a regular, strategic way of doing things so that you make sure the shepherding, nurturing, pastoral care, relational aspects of the group are not only being met, but that they are flourishing.

A routine is, “a customary or regular course of procedure.” For a person who leads a group, this is a good thing. Developing a “procedure” that you follow on a regular basis helps you be your best as you help people discover the great truths that are in God’s Word.

A routine is, “an unvarying and constantly repeated formula.” For some people this is an easy thing. It’s easy to come up with their formula of how they work on their Bible study each week. Developing a routine is a snap! Because that is how they are wired. Their lives are a picture of “routine.” For others who are wired differently, their routine will look very different.

If you are wired toward routines, then getting started with your study for next week will probably begin the next day after you have just led your group. You might begin by reading the text, reading it in many translations to find nuances. The next day you might begin to look at commentaries or other study materials and then you will begin to look for ways to illustrate your study. If you like to lead by discussion, then you will begin to ask questions of the text and seek to come up with good open ended discussion questions for the study.

If you are wired in such a way that routines are a struggle for you, then what I just described is foreign to you. Your study and preparation might be more spontaneous. You might begin by reading the text, and then you may find inspiration in a song or a movie or TV show. You might see the truth of the text in one of these forms and that will lead you to questions to answer and needs to meet that are in the text. You might then begin to look at commentaries and study materials that will help you understand the truth of the text.

In both cases, your routine should include the consideration of “WHO” you are leading in the study of God’s Word and “WHO” you are trying to reveal in the Word. The point is that we all need a routine, we all have a routine. Find your rhythm in how you prepare to teach the wonderful truths of God’s Word. Be true to your routine and make sure that it is a good routine and not an excuse to be lazy or to be unprepared. The person who tries to throw something together on Saturday night before the group on Sunday morning because they are “waiting on the Spirit to lead them” is probably just not willing to do the work to be an effective teacher.

Make sure that your routine is a healthy one!