In order to advertise your small group in our newsletter, we ask you do the following:

1. You must be a member of Fee Fee Baptist Church. You can register for CLASS 101 here.
2. You must have attended at least one of our Leadership Training Classes. You can register for Leader Training by us here. We’ll let you know the next date for Leadership Training.

If you’ve done these items, let us know. We can help advise you once you’re underway. We can also help advertise your new class, where it meets, times, and etc. We’re really looking forward to helping you get your group started!

Thank you for your inquiring about becoming a Small Group Leader at Fee Fee. These are the minimum guidelines for Leadership.

1. You must have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
2. You must be, or have been baptized by immersion.
3. You must have or be enrolled to complete CLASS 101 and joined Fee Fee as a member.
4. You must commit to completing all remaining CLASSES 201-401 in a reasonable period of time.
5. You must complete Leadership Training.
6. You must not have habitual struggles or moral issues (drugs, alcohol, cohabitation, etc.) that would bring shame on the name of Jesus Christ or on Fee Fee Baptist Church. In addition, there must not be any current marital struggles (i.e. infidelity, separation, divorce in process, etc.)

If you have completed steps 1-5 and there are no issues with step 6, then you can lead or start a group. If there are issues with step 6, we ask you to work on those issues first and later you can pursue leadership in ministry at Fee Fee. If you would like help in addressing any issues, we will be happy to provide counseling to help you on your journey in Christ. If you would like to set up an appointment to discuss matters of step 6, feel free to contact Dr. Joe Pewitt at .

Because our groups are spread over a wide area, we leave the childcare up to each small group to decide. Although, some of our small groups have become very creative in how they handle/provide for children.

1. One group got their neighbors coming, and now they use both homes, one for adults and one for the kids next door. Other groups have lessons for the kids, not just babysitting.
2. Others have rotated the parents on a schedule to provide care for the kids. The most common is to hire a babysitter and co-op the payment between all the parents. Of course, the common method is to leave the kids at home with their own babysitter.

We will be listing the families and/or groups with kids, so that seekers can know who to call if they want to have their kids at the small group.

Here are several suggestions to avoid burn-out.

1. When you try to do everything for your group, no one else will be free to do it because it’s already being done for them. You must be willing to release others to do the work of ministry of the small group NOT for you, NOT for the group only, but for each individual to GROW into maturity in Christ.
2. Establish those Purpose Helpers early in the new group. Purpose Helpers are designed to relieve the work of the ministry from the shoulders of the leader, and distribute the work to others. This will help make your group more balanced and more clearly focused on ministry. This will also allow the leader to focus on the lesson and not be worried about every aspect of the ministry within the group.

Read Acts 6:1-4
Here are some simple FIRST STEP ideas for you Purpose Helpers:
MEMBERSHIP—keep everyone connected with contact information, and loving each other.
MATURITY—keep everyone aware of their next step spiritually (CLASS 101-401, personal devotions, etc.)
MINISTRY—keep everyone challenged to use their spiritual gift regularly and creatively in other’s lives.
MISSION—keep everyone aware of the need to tell others about the Lord, and consider as a small group doing a ministry together.
MAGNIFICATION—keep everyone in the frame of mind that “My life” is worship to God. If you sing, do it! Another idea is to maintain a prayer list for your small group.

Chances are, you’ve already got someone doing most of these things in your group already. Think about it: who’s the party planner?...that’s Membership. Who’s the one who likes to study their Bible?...that’s Maturity. Who’s the one who encourages others?...Ministry. Who’s got a heart for sharing their faith?...Mission. Who’s got the sensitive spirit?...Magnification.

There is no NEED to divide when the “loss” is too great.

Here is a suggestion: Establish two sets of Apprentice Leaders (you probably already know who they could be...leadership types.) Then, instead of splitting the group in two different groups, “multiply” the group into two sub-groups that meet in the same home on the same night simultaneously!

They could gather with everyone for fellowship at first, maybe some music, etc. Then for the lesson and prayer time, the two new leaders could take the group into different sections of the same house. Thus meeting all the needs and developing new leaders above that!

NOTE: At some point down the road, if your group gets too large for the home to accommodate them, then it’s the right time to establish another home group or two.

Yes, we do. We find it very beneficial to have both the husband and wife lead; each one brings different gifts to the leadership position. They each fill in and compliment the other.

The broader question to that is how often does a group need to meet for adequate care to happen? Yes we would agree that once a week is a very good diet for a group, however, groups that meet every other week can still have the same effectiveness, as long as they use other mediums to provide that ongoing care and nurturing and leadership development of the group.

That is correct. You want to take a snapshot of your group over a 12 to 15 week period to see that there is a health and a balance of the five purposes inside their group meeting. A group would not necessarily do all five of the purposes at one particular meeting, but that is the KEY importance of the host/leader, to see the areas where the group needs to grow in specific purposes of the church.

We empower small group leaders to arrive at the curriculum that their group needs for them. We encourage this to happen through group members giving adequate input to where the group needs to go but also to the group leaders to be able to select. We are in the process of setting up a page on our website to list the top 50-100 curriculum pieces that we would recommend to their people, and those are the main aids that we use.

This starts with the vision, mission and strategy of a group being very clear to the leader. If you don’t have that mission statement or strategy statement, I encourage you to develop that, because that is what helps give them the benchmark of why their group exists. From that point, it is very important to help them understand the stages of leadership development from the open chair to helping people discover their roles, as well as taking on the responsibilities for the solidification of formal roles. Here, apprentices can be brought up to find their own purpose as you begin sub-grouping. To further this we find that groups can multiply because when championing the open chair, they numerically grow into sub-grouping. Leadership is brought about through base champions. It is from that as a sub-group they can grow as large as they want. It won’t be long before they want to multiply.

When lives are not being changed in the group, it’s time to stop meeting. The group can be small or large, but it is important to see that lives are being changed, or whatever the fundamental purpose of your group is. How you measure this is done by seeing how the purposes are developed inside the group and by your coach doing proper group visits.

Here at Fee Fee we are not so concerned about attendance of groups but of the relationships of the group members. I’m not as concerned as to how often someone in the group attends, but more important if that person has a relationship with a qualified leader and group.

Although, each group is required to send in their attendance each week to the educational office. This is done so that we can help with what was said in the paragraph above.

Groups meet at the time, place, and day of the week that best ministers to the needs of the groups. Whether that be 5 a.m. on Fridays for a men’s group, or on Sunday night for a couples group, or Tuesday night for a singles group. Let them drive the process because they know better than you or I when the group should meet.

By helping them see the value in a seeker. This starts with the fundamental premise of the group and helping them see the value of the open chair. It can also be done by helping them to see how much true seekers want to learn about God’s way.

When the need is definitely there. You can always start and advertise your group and see if people come. But, it is more effective if you find other people with a similar need and concern and want to start a group too.

By balancing the purposes of the church. It is from balancing these purposes that we have found that health, vision and mission help the group stay on track.

This really stems from where our church is at and how they cast vision and the importance of what believers need to be doing. That is one area where motivation can be coming from. Also, from the grass roots level when satisfied customers are able to give their testimonies of what they do and how they do it. Then, you are able to let them be the sales people out there in motivating people to the value of a small group.

The answer is All the above. We let groups structure themselves according to how they feel it best meets their needs. Geography doesn’t necessary make a group but it can break a group, if they have to travel long distances. But it also depends on the commitment level of the group. With an age structure, some people are looking for multigenerational groups, others are looking for ages similar to their. It’s the same thing with affinity, some people are looking for sameness, but not everyone. So we let groups structure themselves on how they would like to be set up.

There is no real set time limit on how long a group can meet. Although, on a typical night somewhere in the neighborhood of 1 1/2 hours is enough time. This should be worked out in the covenant process and is unique for each group depending of what type of group they have.

This is up to the group leader and why leaders are so important. Ideally over time, the leader should help the group balance all five purposes of fellowship, discipleship, ministry, evangelism and worship. Leaders should periodically evaluate where the group is spending their time and ask the group to help plan what can be done to increase in areas that are deficient in emphasis. Balance is something that should happen over time. It is not something that needs to be done within each meeting. Leaders and groups should take a snapshot every 12 to 15 weeks to see that there is health and balance in their group.

Raising up leaders is a process where sharing small tasks and portions of the evenings activities can give your members entry level leadership experience. Doing some of the functions of a small group in a progressive crawl, walk and run way will give them the confidence to step up to leadership when the time comes. Pay particular attention to their giftedness and ask them to assist in one of the five purpose areas. Sub-grouping is also a good leadership development strategy. Whenever you group is larger than six members, sub-grouping into groups of three to six and ask someone else to lead the smaller group. Facilitation and leadership skills can be honed through sup-grouping and later the member will be ready to be released to do their own group should they choose.

Don’t be ashamed of going after the busy people because they are the ones that can get the job done. It helps people to see the priorities. If they already have a primary ministry that they are involved in, then I would bless them and move on to other people that have the giftedness and leadership talents. But if their busyness is due to work or other extra activities, then it is going to be important for you to help them catch the vision to see what is the finer, more precious medals from the Lord. It is going to be important that this happens through vision-casting and helping them see where their heart is.

Everybody is always ignorant in some areas and gifted in others. This is the value of the body of Christ. If you are a leader, that doesn’t mean you are an expert. It means that you will use people with other giftedness to help the group and to utilize their giftedness to accentuate the goal and the mission statement of the group. This is where they can very easily fit into the role of maturity purpose champion, by having them come alongside and assisting you.

From the life change of the people around you. The Spiritual Health Assessment helps individuals and groups measure where they are growing and how their life is being changed.