Recruiting others to help in achieving a mission is crucial in almost any sphere of leadership, but incredibly important in the role of a group leader. There are some basics to understand as we begin the vital task of recruiting leaders.

• Recruiting is not done one-time-a- year. It is a year round responsibility.  Recruiting is not just asking someone to lead. It is knowing an individual personally, seeking to understand their giftedness in God’s kingdom, and matching their uniqueness to a specific role. As leaders, we must continually be “on the lookout” for other potential leaders. By being in community with other believers, we have the opportunity of getting to know them in a myriad of experiences. The wise leader will use any means possible to truly know the potential leader and seek God’s guidance in helping them find their calling in a meaningful place of service. The time required to accomplish this is an investment in the person and the group.

• Recruiting is a process, not an event.  Once God has directed us to a potential leader, we must determine if they can catch the vision of where the group is going?  An easy mistake is to enlist someone to a position, a job description, without knowing if they can truly embrace the vision. If they commit to the vision, the appropriate role (or position) will naturally follow.

It is important to seek, and to trust, God’s leadership at this point. Don’t make the decision for people – either by assuming they will accept, or that they won’t.  There is strength in asking. The individual is valued. The process is valued. And, the sincere, personal call of God on someone’s life is lifted up.

• Our hardest work should go into the pre-enlistment process of recruiting. It has been said that the hardest position to fill is the one that already has someone in it. In other words, wrong person in the wrong job. Since Sunday School/Groups is a living, breathing organism, made up of people; then, it follows that our greatest potential for good, or harm, will be the living, breathing leaders we enlist.  The mechanics of groups – space, equipment, curriculum, schedules and the unexpected challenges that arise, become immeasurably easier to handle when we have the right leaders in the right places of service.

Volumes have been written about accurate job descriptions needed in enlisting leaders, asking with appropriate time for prayerful response, providing training to get people started off well in their new position.  All of this is very true.  However, we may be guilty of jumping ahead to these stated steps without considering laying the appropriate foundation.  In taking the time to build strong foundations, we build strong leaders who in turn build strong groups for the work of the Kingdom.

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Phil Miller is the Director of the Bible study/Discipleship team for the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

Many leaders of small groups misunderstand the real purpose of recruiting people to help them with the ministry opportunities involved in connecting people, teaching the Bible, and ministering to group needs. In fact, many leaders often take a “I don’t want to impose on anybody’s time to help me with this, and besides it’s easier if I do it myself” mentality. There are two mistakes inherent in this kind of thinking.

1. You are not imposing on anyone else’s time when you ask someone for help. Remember this essential idea. It is their group too! When someone else takes a leadership responsibility, then they have the opportunity to use their spiritual gifts for the benefit of the group. The more often that group members have the opportunity to minister within the group, the better the group becomes.
2. It is not necessarily easier to do it yourself. Putting forth some effort to enlist people to help you minister to the group may take some time on the front end, but once they begin their responsibilities it will make managing the ministry of the group easier on you.

But there is an even bigger reason to recruit people to help you minister to the group. And it is a big reason and it is a biblical reason – multiplication. When a small group leader understands the principle of multiplication, he or she understands that involving group members in ministry is not just to fill out all the spaces of the group’s leadership chart. It is about multiplying leaders to fulfill the mission of the group.

When you are recruiting someone to help you minister to the group, you are multiplying yourself. The Kingdom of God is about multiplication. One of your primary purposes as a group leader is to multiply yourself and make disciples.

The authors of the book 3 Roles for Guiding Groups suggest that when recruiting another leader, recruit that person to the vision of the group, not to a job description. This is excellent advice!

So rather than enlisting someone to a job description to “call 5 people a week and I would prefer for the calls to be made on Thursday and give a report to the group on Sunday”; instead enlist them to the vision. “We want to make sure that every member feels a part of our group, and that no person in our group feels alone or has to grapple with life’s struggles by themselves. So would you pray about contacting these five people every week so that no one in our group ever feels abandoned.”

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Bob Mayfield serves as the Sunday School and Small Group specialist for the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma. He has also served as interim minister of education in several churches and is a Sunday School/small group consultant.

Bob is married and has two adult children, Zach and Mary Kathryn. Bob also blogs at his own site, bobmayfield.com and manages an online training site for Sunday School leaders of all ages at reconnectss.com.

Ephesians 4:12 in the CEV says, “so that his people would learn to serve and his body would grow strong.”  That best summarizes our responsibility as a leader.  To help others grow and know how to serve.  As a Sunday School teacher it is your responsibility to organize your class to accomplish the mission of the Sunday School.

Ken Braddy mentions his work with a church in the related section.  He describes that the mission of the Sunday School can be communicated through the acrostic LIFE.  His is different from my list but both communicate the mission of the Sunday School.  I believe that every Sunday School class and every teacher should be leading their class to accomplish these functions…

Loving People,

Investigating God’s Word,

Fellowshipping Together and

Evangelizing Others.

Through the years I’ve led churches through a process I call “Bringing LIFE to Adult Sunday School”.  It is a 3-4 month process that begins with a rally of all adult classes on a Sunday morning during Sunday School.  At the conclusion of the rally all participants are given an assessment that will aid them in discovering their place of service so that their class can accomplish LIFE.  The classes will have 1-2 months to organize their classes and enlist the various leaders.  During this organizational phase the pastor is to preach a sermon series on LIFE.  Following the sermon series a day is set aside for training all those that have been enlisted.  Here is the calendar from one church that I worked with through the process.

Wednesday, October 17 … Presented the Bringing LIFE to Adult SS to pastor and church staff.  After approval placed all dates related to the emphasis on the church calendar.

Wednesday, January 16 … Presented the Bringing LIFE to Adult SS to SS Planning Team

Saturday, February 23 … Presented Bringing LIFE to Adult SS and announced the Rally to Adult SS Teachers and Leaders for the first time at the monthly training

Sunday, February 24 … Announce the Rally to the church for the first time and announced it every week until the rally

Saturday, March 16 … Pastor and SS Director called all adult teachers

Sunday, March 17 … Bringing LIFE to Adult Sunday School Rally

Sunday, April 14 … “Loving People” sermon

Sunday, April 21 … “Investigating God’s Word” sermon

Sunday, April 28 … “Fellowshipping Together” sermon

Sunday, May 5 … “Evangelizing Others” sermon

Sunday, May 12 … Deadline for classes to turn in their Adult Class Ministry Team Worksheet

Sunday, May 19 … Bringing LIFE to Adult SS Training Day

•”L”OVING PEOPLE – (1:00-2:15pm) – Training for Care Group Leaders

•”I”NVESTIGATING GOD’S WORD – (2:30-3:45pm) – Training for Teachers, Apprentice Teachers, Administrative Leaders and Discipleship Leaders

•”F”ELLOWSHIPPING TOGETHER- (4:00-5:15pm) – Training for Prayer Leaders, Fellowship Leaders and Secretaries

•”E”VANGELIZING OTHERS – (5:30-6:45pm) – Training for Outreach/Evangelism Leaders, Missions Leaders and Greeters

This process has been very successful but the challenge for me is that I can’t get to every church.  The process is now available to all churches through a DVD/CD resource.  Everything that is needed is included, you can either just hit play or you can make everything yours.  To get the resource go to our online store by visiting http://gabaptist.org/shop/bringing-life/.  The cost of this resource including shipping is $15.

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Dr. Smith serves as a state missionary with the Georgia Baptist Convention and is the Sunday School/Small Groups Specialist.

Visit their website at sssg.gabaptist.org for more information and other resources to aid your Sunday School.

You can also connect with Dr. Smith at gabaptistsundayschool.org, facebook.com/GABaptistSundaySchool or twitter.com/GBCSundaySchool.

Any level of leadership has certain requirements. What does it take to do this job effectively? When we consider the strategic role of group leader, there is a foundational question that should guide our thinking. What does it take to be successful as a group leader?  There are three underlying principles that help in interpreting this question.

A successful group leader, must have ownership of their role.   Accepting the role is an important beginning, but embracing must occur to make this step complete. A person may accept a position, but not experience the embracing of that role for quite some time. Written requirements will never replace that aha moment of truly understanding the reality of the role accepted.

It’s getting beyond the “rental car mentality.” I travel a good bit, and the running joke is “don’t worry about it, it’s a rental.” Do you change the oil on a rental, do you rotate the tires, do you give it a wax job? No, because you don’t own it.  It belongs to someone else.  Some people only experience church as a rental. They don’t own it. They just drive it on Sundays.  Leaders must own their leadership in God’s church by accepting and embracing their calling to serve.

A successful group leader must know their group’s mission.  What is the goal of my group?  How can I as a leader know that I’m going in the right direction?  Leaders must set the course.

In the movie, “Mr. Holland’s Opus,” the high school principal tells Mr. Holland that part of a teacher’s job is to be a compass for the students.  Helping them to find a direction. Then, she pointedly states, “Mr. Holland, as teacher, you’re compass is stuck.” This was a turning point for him.

When you are guided by a compass, the slightest discrepancy of just one degree, can make a radical difference. And, the longer you stay off course, the end result can change your destination by countless miles. As a group leader, we must understand the mission of our group as it fits into the overall mission of the church.

To be successful, it’s more about being than doing. In 3 Roles, the terms “servant mindset” and “godly character” are dealt with individually.  However, there is a real sense in which the two are inseparable.  It is hard to think of having a servant mindset and not having godly character, and vice versa. The passage in I Peter 5: 2-4 gives such wise guidance at this point.  Some of the phrases are “Be servants of God’s flock that is under your care … not because you must, but because you are willing … eager to serve … being examples to the flock.”  Every time I read this passage I am reminded of Sunday School/Group leaders who I have served alongside. The application is natural. And, the end result is not only a successful leader, but a successful group.

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Phil Miller is the director of the Bible study/Discipleship team for the Baptist General Convention of Texas.