Small Groups are primarily about growing in three areas: our relationship with Christ (discipleship), our relationship with one another (community), and our relationship with the world (mission). I say “primarily” because these are the three things that most small group leaders and pastors tend to agree upon. Small groups can certainly be about more than these three areas, but that’s beside the point. I almost hate labeling these three categories because of our dangerous human tendency to silo and segregate our spiritual growth, but that’s also beside the point.
So what is my point? It’s simple: we all have a bias. As leaders, all of us have a bent toward one of the three areas mentioned above, and our ministries tend to reflect our bent. If you have a bent toward study, your group(s) will tend to be more about curriculum than anything else. If you have a bent toward community, your group(s) will tend to be more about fun and getting together than anything else. If you have a bent toward mission, your groups will be more about outreach than anything else.
Your own bias can work for you or against you if you’re not careful. It can work for you because your bias will reflect your passion, and passion is contagious. People will follow passion. It can work against you in a couple of ways, too, though: first, if you come across as “fanatical,” people will think you are too extreme, and they’ll not follow. Second, as you lead from your bias, you’ll run the risk of alienating those who don’t share your bent.
In my experience (and this is by no means scientific), about 30-40% of a normal church congregation has a study bias, 50-60% has a community bias, and roughly 10% has a mission bias. So compare your own bias with those of the people you lead. Then think about how your passion for your own bias is helping and hurting your overall ministry.
True confession time: because of my own bias toward mission, I risk alienating about 90% of the people I lead if I’m not careful. I can come across as a militant crusader. I can find myself getting overly frustrated with those who don’t share my bias. Worst of all, I can find myself thinking people who don’t share my bent toward mission are somehow less spiritual than I am.
Below are three questions I have to wrestle with regularly. I challenge you to wrestle with them, too:
- What are the implications of your own bias?
- How do you manage the imbalance your bias brings to your small group ministry?
- How can you better lead those who don’t share your bias?
