Lead Pastor group visitation—Tips and Ideas for success

Lead pastors, regardless of the size of your church, the number of groups, or your current workload, you must visit your small groups regularly for people to know that you value biblical community as much as your pulpit.

You know you need to do it. The members of your groups would be thrilled to see you in their homes for a visit. Your small groups point person (if your church is large enough or you're fortunate enough to have one) will definitely be encouraged if you visit groups regularly.

Here's some good info you'll need to get started and keep visiting groups as an integral part of your ministry as the lead pastor of a growing small group-driven church:

• Calendar a weekly visit to a different group each week for the next couple of months. Then contact each leader and ask if the week you've chosen will work for them. Showing up without a leader's foreknowledge may throw them for a loop. Be sure to tell your staff and your spouse about your scheduled visits for encouragement and accountability.

• Ask your spouse or one of your kids or the group's coach to join you as often as possible, or take one of the people you're mentoring/discipling/grooming. If ministering in pairs was considered valuable to Paul, it should be valuable to you too.

• Prepare a BRIEF word of encouragement that is specific to the group. Tell them you're proud of them, love each of them, appreciate their willingness to be a part of a group, and if possible, share some good news about the group you've heard from the leader and how that makes you feel. Sharing positive specifics edify a group! Just remember that this should be no longer than five minutes in length. Seriously. If you talk more than the leader or most of the members, you're breaking a cardinal rule of visiting groups. Use your eyes and ears when you visit... God doubled up on these for a reason.

• Arrive late and leave late if time is a constraint or you are running on fumes. Showing up super-early and leaving halfway through the meeting makes members feel as if they're not important. But if you slip in during the first half hour of the meeting during worship and stay until the meeting ends and visit with people, you've hit a home run with at least one or two people in the room (if not the whole group). Just be sure to tell your leaders you won't be there before the meeting starts and that they should begin on time and end on time when you're visiting to leave time for chatting over snacks after the meeting.

Now I know that a lead pastor's presence in a group drastically changes the dynamics, so here's some tips for making the meeting less uncomfortable for the group leader, yourself, and even the members of the group.

• Tell the leader you're just sitting in on a normal group meeting and you will only want 5 minutes at the end of the meeting to encourage the members. Your desire is to be just another member of the group that night.

• If during the meeting if you notice everyone is looking at and speaking to you instead of the rest of the group (which is often the case when the lead pastor shows up), just tell the group you're feeling a bit odd because the group seems to be focused on you instead of everyone else in the group. Tell them you're going to pinch your nose when it happens again so as not to interrupt anyone. This will be a fun way to curtail this unhealthy problem.

• Ask the group to gather around you and pray over you. If you don't have anything appropriate or current to share for ministry, ask them to pray that God would protect you, your family, and your mind and heart as you serve as their lead pastor. They'll love doing this for you because you do so much for them and they rarely get the chance to bless you the way they feel you've blessed them.

• If asked to share your theological take on the passage, tell the group you'd much rather hear what God is impressing on them as a group and individuals. Whatever you do, don't be the seminary professor they expect you to be. It would be better to act like an village idiot during the meeting compared to the relational distancing caused by spouting the meaning of a word in the Greek or Hebrew. Plus, going theological on the group during the meeting makes the facilitator or group's leader look bad.

• Encourage the group to keep praying for unchurched friends and build friendships between members of the group and the unchurched people attached to the group members. Do this as part of your five minutes at the end.

If you have other tips, feel free to comment! And, look below and find the twitter/facebook link and use it. Every lead pastor needs to visit groups!

Top 5 Small Group Mistakes Made by Lead Pastors

There are far more mistakes that pastors make in small group ministry, but here's my top five in order of urgency...

5. Choosing an oversight model in advance of a launch, based on wishful thinking, not actual needs.
This mistake seems to afflict pastors in the cell church world more than the small group world, who has yet to wake up and see the need for coaches over groups and leaders (that's another blog post altogether!). You've no idea how many times I've been called by a lead pastor for consulting and he begins the conversation with, "I've just finished reading about the Groups of 12 model and we're going that direction and I need some advice about your resources for training leaders..."

Wow. So much was stated and not stated in that statement! This guy has latched onto the most difficult oversight structure to pull off in the history of the cell movement, requiring every single person involved to be a soul-winning disciple maker from day one. Plus, he should be asking about member discipleship processes, not leadership materials, but that's covered below.

Pastors, don't choose an oversight model until you have three groups under you and you can see what they need as far as support goes. This will keep your mind in the ministry and not prematurely in structural thinking that's usually lofty and theoretical in the first months or year of small group ministry if you are growing it organically and not launching dozens of groups initially.

4. Thinking that holistic small groups or cell groups will magically transform consumers into producers.
It's absurd to think that parking your Toyota Corolla at the Ferrari dealer's lot will transform it, right? Same thing goes for small groups. Herd a bunch of self and child-focused pew warmers in groups and they'll do absolutely nothing for God or one another, just like they are doing without groups. Some will rise to the occasion for sure, but don't expect most of them to turn over a new leaf just because you gave them a new environment in which to live like a selfless Christian.

People need experiences to bring them out of consumerism. Meet them where they are, not where you think they should be or you want them to be.

3. Thinking weekend attendance and small group involvement is all the discipleship you need to offer.
Small groups are a great place to facilitate relational discipleship for sure. But if you don't have a pathway to spiritual maturity in place before you start groups, don't expect group members to start it after they join a group. Discipleship must be embedded into the DNA of your church with clear personal goals for growth supplied by the disciples themselves, not your education minister or small groups guy. If this is in place and has been fully adopted by the membership of your church, small groups will really support this effort. Groups alone won't disciple anyone though. Same thing goes with your sermons. Discipleship is far more than meeting attendance. It's an intentional, life-long personal decision supported by the local church's services and groups.

2. Casting a structural vision and making public goals for numbers of groups by a certain date.
I really hate it when I see a pastor get up and pronounce that the church leadership has established a goal of having 800 groups by January, 2012 or some other lofty number. There's nothing wrong with anticipating growth and setting private goals to develop X numbers of new leaders by a certain date, but turning this into a "visioncasting moment" for the congregation is really foolish. People don't care how many groups your church has at the moment, and if they think your main priority is a number they will rail against it. Cast a vision for a lifestyle of servanthood and community involvement and report on how many groups are springing up because of the lifestyle of the members.


1. Telling people to get in a group from the pulpit instead of consistently sharing how group life is transforming you.
It seems most pastors I know have only learned one small group thing from Rick Warren, one of my personal heroes in ministry. That one thing is how often he tells his church members they need to be in a small group. While he does this every weekend and most every time he finds a microphone, this is not what makes so many people at Saddleback join a small group in my opinion.

Saddleback's lead pastor consistently shares his personal growth and ongoing small group experiences of how he has served along side other group members in the neighborhood, been served by members, and experienced Christ's presence when his group meets together. His sermon content flows out of his time with God alone AND his time with other believers in biblical community. If you focus on being a small group member as much as you focus on being a lead pastor, you too will share the powerful stuff that makes people want to follow your footsteps, not just your words.

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Is the Cell Church about Control?

Outsiders reading about the model and proponents of other small group models (those models that are far more attractional for consumer Christians) often think: "The cell model is controlling. We don't want that here."

This could not be further from the truth. Cell based churches provide the cell group environment and supportive coaches for cell leaders TO PROTECT them as they go about their missional calling. In every cell church I have researched and visited around the world, no one is forced to be a member of a group or a certain group. No group is forced to multiply either. Group closure? Groups in these churches are rarely closed by leadership because of the damage it does to the individual members and the leader.

Now when a leader is found in sin and unrepentant, they're moved out of their role until they begin to walk with Christ in that area of their life instead of run their own way and direction. But this should happen in any model of church life found on this planet (although it's rare).

NOTE: While some second generation G-12 model churches have become very controlling and even cult-like in their practices, one must not throw the cell church movement baby out with this dirty bathwater—and it is indeed dirty bathwater! I am no fan of what a few of the sons and daughters of Cesar Castellanos are doing in their own churches or modeling for others to follow.

Exoskeleton vs. Endoskeleton = Control vs. Protection
I have a marine aquarium in my office, which I've maintained myself for fifteen years. In it, I have fish and corals. The fish are all endoskeleton creatures, with their supportive structure in the middle and unprotected flesh on the outside. My hard stony corals are just the opposite. The flesh is in the inside and peeks out of bits of the outer skeleton.

Endoskeleton animals grow their bones to a certain point and stop growing. Exoskeleton creatures can continue to add the exterior protective and structural support to any size possible!

If your concept for church structures is birthed out of an endoskeleton paradigm (by first creating the structure and then inviting people to attach themselves to it) you will view the cell model as controlling. And it will be if you maintain this mindset.

However, if you think about cell groups and cell group oversight like protective exoskeletal structure for missional living that is already in existence, it becomes protective and opens up an unlimited plan of expansion.

So let me ask you a pointed question: Have you been thinking about cell groups and cell ministry like a fish or a coral?
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What does your small group org chart say about your leadership?

Lots of small group ministries struggle because everyone in the ministry views it like this standard organizational chart:



Some senior pastors view the small group ministry like a dictator. It exists to serve them and their plans for the church's growth. Other senior pastors view the small group ministry like a hierarchy. They don't see the existence of the group as serving them, but they do view the groups as an extension of themselves, doing what they are unable to do alone from the pulpit. After all, God has given the senior pastor a vision for the local church and it must be accomplished through every ministry or all the ministries working together and working hard!

On the other side, the members are challenged to do something for and with God that they didn't discover themselves or from within themselves. The leader over their group knows what they should be doing because he or she has been told repeatedly the group should be productive and not passive. The coaches over the groups are more like supervisors, checking in from time to time on the leader, making sure they know what their group is supposed to be doing and to make sure they're not doing anything wrong.

No wonder the house church movement is the hot topic right now. People are tired of being told what to do as a tiny cog in some mega church pastor's clockworks.

While the hierarchal model is far better than the dictatorship when comparing the two alone, it still isn't the way a pastor should view his small group ministry nor should it be the paradigm out of which the small group members and leaders are operating (whether it's an accurate read of the pastor or not!)

Hierarchal small group ministries always struggle. No one likes to be told what to do and why they should be doing it, even if it's the right thing to do and everyone involved knows it. The better way to diagram a healthy church's small group ministry is this way:



In the second organizational chart, the missional thrust of the church is coming from the activity within the small groups. In response to their activities, they are coached by seasoned group leaders so they achieve their goals and more. The coaches are encouraged and supported by a small groups pastor, and the lead pastor maintains the mindset that he is in place to serve the groups as they do the work of ministry.

His sermons are designed to better equip the groups, not just the individual members. The weekend services are considered a gathering of small groups for celebration, not hundreds of individuals who gather for worship and may or may not be a member of a small group.

If a hierarchy exists in a healthly small group ministry, the power belongs to the small groups, not the pastor. He gently leads them to do the right thing by example, but they often surprise him with creative ways to fulfill the mission God has given the whole church, not just the pastor.

Years ago, my boss and I took 30 pastors and their spouses to Hong Kong for a missions gathering. Over half the group had never been out of the USA before. We gave everyone instructions to gather their belongings at baggage claim and wait for everyone else so we could exit the area together and get on our bus to the hotel.

Four couples grabbed their bags and shot out a set of automatic doors. Five or six others followed them, thinking they would miss the bus. Because the baggage claim area was huge and quite noisy, no amount of running or yelling could stop our bunch from going through those doors when they saw others from our group on the move.

My boss said, "Randall, those are our people. We are their leaders. We must follow them!"

Everyone in our group knew that on the other side of those doors was an amazing world-class city with lots of things to see and people to meet. They knew the bus would eventually show up too. And they were all headed in the right direction, but the leaders weren't at the head dragging them out the doors.

When a small group ministry is healthy and growing from the activity of the group members, it's not a game of follow the leader. The leaders follow the members and run interference when necessary.

Now I know what you're thinking. "I WISH my groups were so motivated that I could spend all my time chasing after them and help them make minor course corrections instead of motivating them to do ANYTHING besides eating snacks on Thursday nights!"

You know, it all boils down to discipleship. If you reach people for Christ and teach them that a mature Christian tithes, shows up regularly, and volunteers for ministry when asked, they'll view the small groups as a hierarchy. However, if you relationally disciple new Christians to see themselves as a missionary with a big mission to accomplish with God and other believers, you'll find yourself saying...

"Those are my people. I am their leader! I must follow them!"
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The Senior Pastor

This week, I'm developing a chapter about the pastoral observations I have made when visiting world-class churches who are small group-driven.

What I've discovered is most interesting. If you were to interview any of the pastors of churches over 100,000 members around the world (and there's a good half dozen of them) they would tell you they are confident in their ability to hang on for dear life when it comes to pastoring their churches. You see, their church members, who are formed into relational teams called cells or small groups, are on fire for God and moving in all sorts of ministry directions. The pastor's role is to encourage, equip, and steer the small groups in the right direction so they don't find themselves in the wrong place. He does this through his sermons and interaction with leaders at small group leader gatherings and new leader training and one-on-ones with people throughout the calendar year.

He is the helmsman with his hand on the rudder and his church is the ship. God is moving the ship and providing the wind for the sails. In other words, theses senior pastors are not shouting to the people below deck, "Row harder or we'll never get there!" They're investing their time to make small course corrections and look at the current weather to see climate changes that might slow the boat down or cause it to hit high seas.

Therein lies the difference between many pastors I've encountered through ministry. They see small group ministry as a tool at their disposal, and a tool specifically designed to do something lacking in the big church services each week. Contrast this mentality with the senior pastor whose small group ministry is the focus of mission and ministry, and the weekend service draws the small groups together for corporate worship, instruction, and vision and mission reinforcement.

This is not a simple issue of focusing on what's most important because both the small group and the big group are indeed important. However, I firmly believe that if one must serve the other—if it has to be that way—the corporate weekend service should support the mission and ministry going on in small groups where the relational, "Christ in the midst" stuff is happening.

Here's something to chew on until next week: Is your small group ministry headed in a direction with trimmed sails that requires some course correction, or are you constantly finding yourself saying, "Row harder! There's no wind for the direction I'm trying to steer this ship!"?