What I'm editing

Today I will continue the editing work on TOUCH's next release, which is a pocket book by Michael Mack. It's all about developing a core team to lead a small group instead of the leader doing all the planning and recruiting volunteers from the group to help him or her get the job done. It's called The Pocket Guide to Burnout-Free Small Group Leadership: Leading from the second chair and developing a core team.

This is a going to be a great little book! What I'm gleaning thus far is:

• It's not your group. It belongs to God. It's always belonged to God and it's never been yours. You must never forget that God is the first leader and you are leading from "the second chair." While Jesus was fully God while here on earth, he only did the will of the Father and the Father was in charge at all times. Jesus did nothing under his own power. This is huge. If our small group leaders can get their heads and then their hearts around this, it will revolutionize their ministry as a small group leader and eliminate burnout.

• Do not seek out the members of your small group that you think would make excellent core team members. Set your ideas aside and fast and pray and ask God to lead the right members to you vs. recruiting them. Mack explains in the book that Jesus did not interview people for the job of disciple. He waited until he heard from the Father as to whom he should ask and when he should ask them to join him. This won't be easy for anyone to do, especially the burned out small group leader with a "git-r-done" attitude. But I clearly see why it must be done this way. Very powerful.

• The goal of the small group leader who leads a core team is very different from the traditional small group leader. A core team small group leader facilitates core team strategic planning sessions and the team members and others from the group that they recruit lead the various meeting components and also lead the entire small group into ministry and mission. This is a big distinction. Once the team and the core team leader (the small group leader) grasp this, it's going to change everything. Think about it. Instead of one apprentice, the group will now have a half-dozen members who are co-leading the group and being prepared with on-the-job training for leadership.

There are some other really cool things about Mack's book that I will share in a formal book review, but I'll leave this for a future blog post. If you like what you're reading and you want to pre-order the book, you can learn more about it by clicking here.
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