Leading a small group in Children’s or Student ministry is one of the most rewarding and challenging things you’ll ever do! Its rewarding because you get to pour into kids/students each week, helping them get Jesus on their level and how Jesus applies to them, where they are right now. It’s challenging because every child/student is different!
If you’ve ever led a small group, you are aware of the challenging dynamics that can arise. Although each small group is going to have multiple personalities with in it, there seems to be two traits that always seem to be the most prevalent…
- Extroverted…these are the kids/students who are more outgoing and typically toward the center of the circle each week. They have a tendency to cling to the leader or whatever is the center of attention but once you connect with them, getting them to participate isn’t too hard.
- Introverted…these are the kids/students who are more quiet and typically toward the outside of the circle each week. They keep to themselves and although they “do” what the group does, they don’t always “do” it with the group. Engaging them takes extra effort over a longer period of time to bring them to a point of natural group participation.
The challenge with leading a small group with these two traits can be group management. Many times we find ourselves facing a dynamic that lean towards a management of polarities that seem to fight against each other. Meaning…
- Focusing on pulling in the kids/students outside the circle, results in the kids inside the circle slowly getting out of control.
- Only focusing on the kids inside the circle engaged, results in the kids on the outside the circle not getting as much out of the time together, nor enjoying it as much.
- Rushing through the lesson, in at attempt to avoid dealing with the complexities of the group’s dynamics cheats everyone in the group of their time together
At the same time, I could list some “tricks of the trade” that were taught to me earlier in CM and where they really do help, I can’t help but wonder if there’s more?!
What if the long term answer to these challenges goes deeper & farther than just what we do on Sunday…?
More thoughts on that, next time… 
February 16th, 2010 at 6:19 pm
Good thoughts–always interested in hearing how people are being successful in reaching people and drawing them into the interaction that is life. Kids are just smaller people who in my opinion have a greater potential for faith greatness. Thanks for the thoughts I look forward to the next post.