What's up everyone.
This is the road kids ministry training where our goal is to empower leaders to disciple
a generation.
This is video two of how to lead a small group, uh, practical steps to leading a small group.
So without any further ado, let's go.
The first thing when you are preparing to lead a small group is to pray.
Obviously this is like the given one, but how often do we actually forget to pray over
the small group that we are currently going to be leading or we are leading this coming
Sunday.
And so we want you to be prepared in that way.
You're going to face challenges.
You're going to face children who don't want to be there or who are having a really bad
day and you need to be prepared for that.
And you also need to pray that God will move in specific ways in your small group, especially
if you know the lesson outline and the different things that we will, we will be pointing out
through small groups.
We want to maximize the impact that kids have in their, that you have in your small groups
and that can only be done through the power of the Holy Spirit.
So we encourage you that number one, you pray, pray over your small group, pray over it.
As soon as you receive the small group guide, pray over your group Sunday morning, especially
as you prepare for the class.
The second thing is prepare.
You receive a small group guide, you receive prompts and different details to help you
manage an effective small group.
And so make sure that you are adequately prepared.
You have read through and you understand the guide.
You understand the main message of that small group and you can allow the Holy Spirit to
lead you in that.
There's nothing worse than coming in on a Sunday and feeling like you don't know what
to do.
You are unprepared because you don't understand the activities.
You don't understand the lesson points.
So make sure that you are prepared before you step on the church campus.
So very important, but so many times overlooked.
Number three is set the tone, create a fun and happy environment right at the beginning.
I am a strong believer in this from my brief history in child education.
When children are entering your room, you have a very short timeframe to actually set
the tone.
You want to cheerfully greet the kids as they're entering their room or as they're sitting
down in the circle.
You want to have lots of smiles.
You want to have a really light and fun atmosphere opposed to walking into a classroom and then
immediately being ordered to sit down.
It just makes all of the difference.
Begin the class with the fun things that you are going to do and not the rules.
This is a personal one for me.
I always want to say, kids, we're going to have so much fun today.
We have this planned, this planned, and this planned.
In order for us to have fun and get through all of these things, I'm going to need everyone
to be listening and then I'll go through the rules that way.
When I was teaching in the school, I would have classes that I knew was going to be a
nightmare.
I had students I knew were going to give me a headache.
I had students that were going to be a disruption the entire class.
I didn't want them to identify me as the grumpy person who just yells at them with rules.
I wanted them to know that I can be fun and that I want them to have fun.
That's really important for kids because they can end up viewing people as just this
madman with a hammer ready to discipline you for doing wrong.
You want to set the tone in that way.
When I was in the class, I made sure I was in the classroom early so that as the kids
are entering the class, and I couldn't do this for every class, but the classes I could,
I would be in there early.
As the kids were entering the room, I would have fun, upbeat music going, and I would
high-five each student and call them by name and excitedly greet them to the class.
Then I would go into the fun things we were going to do and then set some parameters.
That gives you just a little bit of equity with them, and they can be like, oh, maybe
this person is actually fun.
That is something that I always like to do, set the tone in the room.
Number four is set and maintain structure.
For the creatives out there, structure sounds like a bad word, like, no, it just needs to
be ... Structure is not fun at all.
Let me assure you, kids love structure.
Some of you are going to be like, no, I disagree with you, but believe me, they love structure.
They love to understand what's coming next.
They love to understand what is expected of them through each element of your small group
or each ...
each element of your service.
And so you want to set and maintain structure.
And here are some ways that you can do that.
Your small group guide should helpfully
provide resources that help you have some structure,
whether it's an intro, activity, and then building off
of that into some questions, discussion, whatever it may be.
Use that as a resource to decide and build on your structure.
But it's up to you to decide on what works for your group.
You will know your kids the best.
You will know the hyperactivity.
You will know what they need, what they want.
You're going to know their interests.
So it's up to you to cater the small group guide to what
works for your environment.
If that means ditching all of the games and activities
and doing something that you think is going to work better,
then you have the freedom to do that.
In fact, you have the responsibility
to do that, because we want every child
to engage with the word of God and have a good time learning.
You can set structure by explaining
the outline of your small group and then discussing
what the parameters are around that.
I never expect kids to behave in a certain way
that I have not communicated expectations.
So I will explain at the beginning of my small group,
hey, guys, we're going to have so much fun today.
We're going to first play a little intro game.
Then we're going to do some discussion questions.
And then we have another fun activity at the end
if we have enough participation or if we
have enough time, whatever it may be.
And during this time, I want everyone to participate.
During the intro game, I want everyone
to participate, because we're going
to build community together, or whatever
phraseology you want to use.
During the small group time, I want, or the question time,
I want you to engage.
I want you to be thinking about the questions,
and I want you to be giving answers.
And then, so basically explaining
the expectations of each time.
And then as you move into each section,
reminding them of that.
OK, guys, now we're going to talk about the Bible.
And so I want you guys to be thinking about the questions.
I want you to be actively engaged,
not talking if you have a question
or you want to say something.
Then we raise our hands, just communicating
those classroom expectations at every point.
That way, kids are very clear on what's expected of them.
And if you have to move into discipline after that,
there is no question about, well, I didn't know.
I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do.
Everyone should know expectations.
So setting and maintaining structure.
Another way to help maintain structure
is to use parameters to coach the group
in the purpose of each segment.
So because you have explained the parameters,
you can remind them of those parameters.
And I will do it very frequently throughout a small group.
I will do it pretty regularly, reminding, especially, well,
depending on the age group.
If it's a younger age group, I will
remind them every few sentences of what the parameters are.
And that might sound extreme.
But I always say, hey, guys, I'm happy to answer questions
for anyone that has their hand raised
and expressing to them the parameters of that.
Number five of steps to lead a small group is make it fun.
Kids learn best when they're having fun.
And so you want your small group to be fun.
If you are bored in your small group,
then I can assure you your kids are bored times 10.
Because kids want to have fun.
And their attention span is much shorter than ours.
So think through it in your case.
Would you actually be having fun sitting in your small group?
Think through, how am I going to make it fun?
You can add or subtract content to provide or provide it
to fit the needs of your specific group.
Catering and activity is so important.
Maybe the activity is painting apples.
And they are just supposed to stamp the apple on the page.
Maybe for your group, that's not going to be as engaging.
Maybe you need to cut the apple into shapes.
And then they can stamp different shapes
or giving them plastic knives so that they can customize
the shapes that they do.
Whatever it is, cater the activity
to your specific age group to make
it more enjoyable for them.
And always make sure that you are leaving time for fun.
I like to tell kids, hey, we have time for fun.
We have time to engage and talk about the Bible.
And then we have time for more fun
or whatever the different structure may be.
But letting them know that you want them to have fun,
but there's a time and a place for everything.
And so making sure that you have time for the fun things.
Sometimes we can say, oh, we're going
to play this game after our discussion questions.
And then parent pickup starts happening.
And kids aren't getting able to play the activity
that you promised them.
Excuse me.
Always make sure that you are leaving time
for the fun elements.
And as much as you can, making even just the discussion.
things enjoyable or engaging and we'll talk about some different ways to do
that in the future. Lastly, going back to our values, we always want to close it in
prayer. Depending on your age group, you can ask for prayer requests of things
that kids want to be prayed for. You can have kids pray for each other, but we
always want to close and end a small group in prayer and making sure we have
time for that. You know, having time for that before parents start picking up the
children from your classroom, it's very important. So, making sure that you have
time for prayer. Well, that's everything for video two, how to lead a small group.
We're going to discuss more the structure of small groups and how to
set your unique structure in future videos. So, I will see you in the next one.