• Home
    • Home Page & Our Message
    • Who We Are
    • Plan for Church Revitalization
    • Contact Us
  • Biblical Relationships
    • ChristiansTogether.org
    • Sermon Helps on Biblical Relationships - free downloadable eBooklet
    • Sermon Illustrations - free downloadable eBooklet
  • Church Leader Help
    • Help for Church Leaders Contents
    • Defeat Individualism >
      • Satan's Strategy
      • Tragedy of Going It Alone
      • Crippling the Church
      • Individual Spiritual Growth Inadequate
      • Biblical Basis for Corporate Faith
    • Love Jesus as Requested >
      • How to Really Love Jesus
      • God's Bonus Love
      • Great Commandment
    • Togethers Make It Happen >
      • Christian Friendships & The Togethers >
        • Jesus in the Cereal Aisle
      • Christian Families & The Togethers
      • Christian Marriages & The Togethers
      • Organized Church & The Togethers
      • Recipes for Sticky Problems >
        • Less Judgemental
        • Witness to Disinterested Relatives
    • Leadership for Community >
      • The Togethers as Critical Worship
      • Recommendations for Pastors
      • Preparing the Saints
      • Open Letter to Pastors
      • Recommendations for Lay Leaders
      • Handling Difficult Situations >
        • NRG Groups Help in Disasters >
          • Starting Disaster Energy Group
        • Longterm Unemployed
      • Group Ldrship Style
      • Getting People into Groups
      • Sermon Helps on Biblical Relationships >
        • Sermon Helps on Biblical Relationships - free downloadable eBooklet
        • Sermon Illustrations on Biblical Relationships - free downloadable eBooklet
    • Togethers Application Booklet Downloads
  • Group & Team Leadership Training
  • Resources
    • List
    • Friendship Discipleship Kit
    • Family Discipleship Kit
    • Marriage Discipleship Kit
    • Christian Work Environment Discipleship Kit
    • Secular Work Environment Discipleship Kit
    • Church Community-Builder Grid
The Lamb's Bride Project

Empowerment Leadership Model for Small Groups, Teams, & Families
Course 2, Lesson 14
________________

 
Getting Outside Help for Members

if Necessary for the Accomplishment of the Purpose


Note:  Whenever "group" or "team" is used, it can mean "group", "team", or "family".
________________________________________________


Sometimes the group has to assist members get outside help.  Occasionally a  group member will have an assigned task and need more of something to carry out the assignment.  The successful  group helps people get what they need to carry out their  group responsibilities.  


A valuable church leader on the church board may have a failing marriage and the wise church board will help him get counseling, not only for his  marriage’s sake, but also for the sake of the church board that needs his valuable contributions.  I have met with pastors who had people who wanted to become leaders but were living in some sort of personal sin or had some dysfunctional behavior that sent up red flags.  The pastor would ask me how to handle such a situation.  I would suggest that the person be told of the church’s need for his or her leadership and be asked with a sense of importance and urgency to get help to cease the behavior so that the church could use him or her in leadership.  Many men will go to marriage counseling more readily to preserve their contribution to the church board than to repair their marriage, sad as that may be.  But be happy that the importance of church board participation can help in bringing about counseling and eventually happiness to that marriage.

Let me give a few more examples of a  group getting its members to sources of outside help.  A Sunday school class might have a member who doesn’t know how to use a concordance.  Having another  group member teach that person how to use one is mutual aid – getting the person a concordance is assisting that member to get outside help.  In other words, the concordance is the outside help.  A Bible study  group might have a member struggling with a matter of faith beyond the  group’s understanding and get that person to the pastor.  A Social Committee might give many ideas to the person in charge of the banquet as to various places to hold the feast.  The Board of Deacons might send a member to a seminar on roof repair before repairing the church roof.  

I'll never forget the public school in the middle of a huge housing project in the South Bronx in New York City where I worked with delinquent sixth graders.  One Puerto Rican boy named Manuel came into the  group one day and declared that he needed help in school.  The  group quickly discovered that he was having trouble with English.  When one youngster suggested he have his mother help him, the  group learned that his mother didn't speak English.  So the  group took on the problem to solve.  Eventually the  group decided that Manuel should go to a special class offered after school.  

But Manuel said, "No, I don't want to go to that class.  If I go to that special class, I'll be put in the 'dumbest' reading  group."  Unfortunately, the school did separate kids based on ability.  Manuel had done a lot to get out of the "dumbest classroom," and now he wanted to do even better.  The  group talked about it and decided that they all would go with Manuel to talk to the special reading teacher.  They would negotiate with the teacher so Manuel could get help and not have to go to the poorest reading  group.   


You can imagine what that teacher thought when this  group of kids, the feared  group who had maimed four teachers for life, came walking in to negotiate on Manuel's behalf. They were successful, and Manuel got the help he needed without being punished for requesting help, as had others before him.


Next, let's look at how a group needs to identify and utilize available resources that can speed the group on its way to its purpose.


click here

Copyright 2012 Dick Wulf, Colorado, USA