Empowerment Leadership Model for Small Groups, Teams, & Families
Course 2, Lesson 5
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Defining an Action Plan and Appropriate Activities
to Achieve the Group Purpose
what the group does to get started correctly
Note: Whenever "group" or "team" is used, it can mean "group", "team", or "family".
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Goals are nice, but they do not usually happen automatically. Sometimes the Lord will ask for nothing more than a goal and prayer. It is not necessarily wrong to decide, for example, that Jesus wants ten people to come to faith in Christ and join the church in the next 12 months and then just wait for the Lord to make that happen. However, it might be God's desire that the church begin helping families in the community communicate better in order to reduce family violence. This may be the may the Lord wants to reach ten specific people.
The group will first create a tentative action plan, defining in general terms what activities are appropriate for the group in light of its purpose and goals. How will the group make the goals happen? How will the group make sure group members know the Bible and apply it to life? Do they want to have a planned Bible study? Do they want to use a study booklet? If they do, how will they determine if a group member needs help with something not related to the book being studied? Or do they want to find out what is going on in a person’s life and then apply the Scriptures they already know? How do they want to proceed to find out if it is safe to open up with one another? Do they need more discussion about confidentiality? Do they need to open up little-by-little? How do they want to keep watch to see which of the Togethers is necessary at any particular time?
Another important concern for the group to address is identifying what group members will need to do to reach the purpose and carry out the goals. For example, if the group is going to use a study booklet, individual group members need to do the homework. Or if the group is going to respond to others with already acquired Bible knowledge, then the group will want to impress on its members the urgent need for diligent and comprehensive individual Bible study during the week. Regarding openness and honesty, again the group might tell its members that it expects strict confidentiality, decide if members can or cannot speak to spouses or best friends about what happened in the group, etc. And does the group want its members to all have the list of the 65 Togethers? Is it the expectation of the group that individual members will study this list and its accompanying Scripture references on their own, outside of group time?
This completes the work the group has to do to get started right.
In summary:
In summary:
The task of starting the group or team includes three main subtasks:
(1) establishing a clear contract with the group leader and with one another (2) defining goals that will likely lead to accomplishment of the purpose (3) defining an action plan and appropriate activities to achieve the group purpose. |
Next, let's look at how the group needs to implement its action plan, which will include deciding how to make decisions and carry them out.
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Copyright 2012 Dick Wulf, Colorado, USA