The Crossline Community Groups Podcast

Key Things Learned as a Small Groups Pastor

• Jordan Gash • Season 1 • Episode 8

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Navigating small group ministry might seem daunting, but pastor Jordan unpacks the art of leading with a magnetic vision, sharing stories from his six-year journey that blends humor with profound insights. He doesn't shy away from the reality of managing the ebb and flow of group dynamics, offering biblical wisdom as both a compass and comfort to those leading small groups.

Jordan's approach to problem-solving within a group setting is both relatable and instructive, providing a behind-the-scenes look at the pastoral finesse required to maintain harmony and growth within the church community. Join us for a heartening conversation that's sure to resonate with anyone involved in or curious about the pivotal ministry of small groups.

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Speaker 1:

Well, hello, welcome to the Crossline Community Gurus podcast. My name is Jordan Gash, I am the Community Life Pastor at Crossline Community Church in Southern California and we're excited to have you here, and this is a podcast specifically designed to really help small group leaders or maybe those that are leading a small group ministry within the church. But maybe you're just a casual listener and you just want to participate and you are welcome here as well. But I do want to say something to those that are particularly leading within this ministry and I just want to say thank you for what you do. It's amazing the ministry you get to do on a regular basis and pouring into God's people. So I want to bless you in Jesus's name with fruitfulness and with power, with strength and peace. But we got a good one today. It's going to be a little bit different. Most of these episodes I specifically talk to small group leaders, but this one's going to be a little bit more different because I want to address really those that are leading small group ministry within the church, because here at Crossline I am the small groups pastor. That's one of the things I do here, in addition to a couple other things here, but small group ministry is really unlike any other area of ministry that I've ever done in the last 16 years of ministry. That I've done I've done community outreach, I've done youth ministry, I've done some missions work but small groups is very different than really anything I've ever done, and so we're going to talk about my experience as a small groups pastor and what are some of the things that I encounter the most as a small groups pastor, and maybe this is something that will help you to hear. Maybe this is something that will give you a little bit more perspective if you're thinking about this job or you just stepped into this job. But I want to give you a little snapshot of some of the key things that are part of what I do as a small groups pastor. Now, if you are a casual listener or if you're a small group leader just in a home, I would not tune out to this episode, because I do have an encouragement for you at the end of this that will tie everything all together. So, without further ado, here we go.

Speaker 1:

So, like I said, I took this role here at Crossline about six years ago and I stepped into small group ministry. I had done little bits and pieces of small group ministry. In the past I was a youth pastor for a long time and so, obviously, being a youth pastor, you do everything as a youth pastor for a long time and so, obviously, being a youth pastor, you do everything as a youth pastor, including a lot of things with small groups, but specifically stepping into this role to focus on building what we call community groups here at this church, it was a new experience that for me, as I learned and I grew a lot over the course of these last six years, and so I know that there's a lot of guys and gals out there that have been doing this way longer than I have been doing it. But I want to share just my experience over these last years and what I've learned. So let's jump into it. I will say as a disclaimer for just ministry in general, because I'm going to say some things and you may go back like, well, what about people? But as a disclaimer, I do want to say that all ministry, no matter if you're a men's pastor, if you're doing women's ministry, if you're the senior pastor, if you're the missions pastor or whatever it might be ministry in general just involves meeting with people and being good with connecting and encouraging people and really praying for them, and that's just foundational to ministry. So we're not going to get a whole lot into that experience, which obviously is a part of my job. But I want to kind of get to the really the specifics of this role and I'll say is the first thing that you have to understand about being in this role is you have to be somebody that can communicate a really strong, simple, compelling vision. You got to be a visionary and it's got to be easy to understand and it's got to be compelling. It's got to be something that draws people in. So as you step into this, if you are stepping into this, understand that you really want to have it concrete and understanding.

Speaker 1:

What do I want these small group leaders to know about this ministry and how do I want them to be operating on a daily basis? What vision are they going after? Because in a small group ministry, one thing that I discovered very quickly that's very different than anything else is I can't readily meet with those that are really leading within my ministry. If I was doing men's ministry, I might have a men's breakfast or I might have a discipleship meeting that happens on a regular basis, and so I could see them come to the church or whatever you guys have that I'll see them often. But with community groups or small groups, the leaders are scattered. They're scattered everywhere. It's hard to kind of find those times to draw everybody in. It's unlikely that you're going to get everybody together on a regular basis to kind of just come together for a conversation. So that vision is so important, because you need to be able to give that to them and be able to run with that on a very quick way and then you kind of check in with them along the way. And so think about a way to make it motivating, something that they can understand. And I'll give you an example, something that we've done here.

Speaker 1:

We want people to understand that community is an essential need for really humankind. It's something that God created. He exists within community as a Father, son and Holy Spirit, and so community is something that is destined for every single one of us. I think about what Solomon said in Ecclesiastes, chapter 4, when he says that two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. If either of them falls down, one can help the other up, but pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. Also, if two lie down together they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not easily broken. That's chapter 4, verses 9 through 12. And it speaks so much around the strength of community and the need for community that there's a sense of being able to be overpowered when you're on your own. But we can defend ourselves and be strong together, woven together with Christ as a cord of three strands.

Speaker 1:

And so a vision that I want all of the people here at Crossline and all my leaders to understand is that there ought to be nobody not connected. I want nobody not connected here at Crossline, and that is a vision that every single person has to take ownership of, that anybody who wants community, is seeking community, will find it here. There's a responsibility, with my leaders and those that are in those groups, to walk alongside those that you meet who are looking for a group. I know things can get awkward sometimes whether you have a full group or you're not taking new people. You don't have room in the place that you're me and somebody wants to join your group or be connected to your group and maybe you can't allow that. You can't open that up. And so it's got to be a conviction of people that even if I can't do that, I'm going to walk alongside you until you are connected.

Speaker 1:

Really, if you're entrusted with that piece of knowledge that somebody gives that they're looking to get connected, that you need to be a good steward of that and walk with them and help them get connected. That's important. It means that new groups need to be open. They need to be open to newcomers If you have the space and you have the room. I know that newcomers kind of can throw a wrench in the dynamic, but you have to be open to it, because people are always looking to be connected and if we're closed it's going to make it hard for people to get connected. So nobody not connected. And then, finally, it means that new hosts and leaders need to rise up from existing groups. We need to be sacrificially thinking of others' needs over our own needs.

Speaker 1:

So just that easy vision of just nobody not connected. Everybody can latch on to that and understand hey, I need to make a way for anybody that's seeking community to find it here at Crossline, and I am a frontline soldier for this. So just a simple vision. You don't have to use that one, there's so many other good ones that you could talk to other pastors who do it but just something that people understand, they get connected with and they understand their marching orders. The other thing that you have to have if you're going to be within this role that I've had to deal with a lot is just You've got to have recruiting and launching skills.

Speaker 1:

Putting out an announcement in a church. If you stand up in front of the stage at your church and you make an announcement about hey, come be a small group leader or come be a community group host and just expect everybody to come flocking, you're not living in reality. That's likely not going to happen. You might have the most extroverted and most outgoing people that will run to sign up. That's just. It's the ideal, it's not really reality.

Speaker 1:

And so you need to be a recruiter and you need to be aware of where are the needs within your body. You need to know the demographics in your area. You need to know where are groups meeting within cities, what age groups are meeting, and then where are the gaps, and then when you see those gaps, whether it be in a city that's close by and there's barely any groups there, or if there's an age demographic like young married couples or young adults or singles, you need to be aware, as a small group pastor, a small group ministry leader, to go and fill those needs and to go find those people within your church that could be those leaders and ask them and communicate to them what they can be a part of. So you got to be a recruiter. There's a lot of times where I'm on the patio and I'm just walking around, I'm talking to people, I'm knowing people. I think that small group pastors almost maybe more than anybody else on campus, on a church campus need to be more in touch with the people. They have to understand the people, they have to know the people and be able to be connected in a relational way with them so that you have that ability to recruit and bring them in. I was thinking about this.

Speaker 1:

This podcast actually may come out within draft week. Nfl draft is this week and so right now everybody's looking at players and they're sending scouts out to understand the different strengths and weaknesses and they look at their team and what they need, and that's a little bit of what a small group pastor needs to be like as well. You need to look at where are the needs within your church, and then you need to go out and be able to be a recruiter to fill those needs in a strong and compelling way. So there's a lot of that, and then you got to have a plan on how you're going to launch them. You can get that commitment from someone, but it's not always easy to turn that commitment into action. So you need to be able to recruit, but then you need to launch. So, once you get that commitment, what's your game plan? What are you going to do next? What's the very next step that you need to take to really make that recruit an active and equipped leader?

Speaker 1:

And so there's a lot of different ways you could do this. You could use. There could be an orientation box that has all the info that they need and they can go through that. There could be specific trainings that they go online. We have different trainings that people can participate in, whether it's a book Maybe it's a book that your church has, or maybe you guys wrote it's a curriculum and you give it to them and they go hey, go do this, and this will orient you church has, or maybe you guys wrote a curriculum and you give it to them and they go hey, go do this. Or, if it's good, old fashioned one-on-one. I think that's probably the best way to do it.

Speaker 1:

When you recruit a new community group leader or small group leader, have a one-on-one meeting and just walk them through that whole process. And maybe you're at a church that is large and huge and you can't do that with everyone and maybe you get a few kind of community group coaches, leaders that are above leaders, that kind of just kind of pour into those. Maybe that's what you need. But just have a plan. Don't recruit somebody if you don't know what you're going to do with them once they say yes. So get their yes and then have a clear understanding of what comes next. So you got to have that. If you're going to be a small group pastor and something I've got to do a lot here Then what you're going to need one thing I deal with a lot so we've talked about you have to have a strong, simple, compelling vision. You need to have recruiting and launching skills and then there just comes down. You got to have a functional infrastructure of organization.

Speaker 1:

I began this whole journey where I would get all of these people that wanted to sign up to be hosts and I'd go out and I'd recruit and I'd have all these names especially during the fall when we do this big fall launch and I'd have all these names of what they want to do. And what I was doing for really the first two, three years is I'd put every name on a sticky note and I would put it on my walls all over my office. They'd all be color coordinated and my assistant at the time would walk into the office and just laugh at me and she'd be calling in the beautiful mind that I'm trying to have and it was a sight to see. My office was very colorful, but I wouldn't say it was the best system, as I'm trying to move people and do that and I noticed people still do that it worked. It just wasn't very functional because I spent so many hours just trying to move people and place people and do people.

Speaker 1:

There's software for that now and there's things out there that could help you with that. For us we use a software called Group Vitals. It's great, but there's a lot of other great softwares out there that can help you and do this, but you have to have an infrastructure that people, once you get those leaders, how do they get into your system? You could be using Church Community Builder, you could be using Planning Center there's a lot of different things but there's different plug-ins and applications that can help you begin to organize these leaders and you need to have that. And it needs to be user-friendly, because I know that a lot of churches have databases that they use and they may understand it completely, but if it's not user-friendly, it's not going to work for small groups. They have to be able to easily access the data if they want to put their people in there. It's a way for them to communicate and then it allows you to organize it and put some tags on the people be able to see and search those different things.

Speaker 1:

I wouldn't say that we're yet an expert at this, but I have people around me. I'm probably not the greatest at this, but I have great people around me that can help me organize these things and that's okay too, but I do know that it's important. I mean, you have to have a functional infrastructure of organization for your small group leaders Because, like I said, you're not meeting with them on a regular basis. They're more scattered, they're more out there, so how are you going to be able to see who you have? So you got to have that. It's got to be in there. And then the last thing I'll say, just as the ways I spend my time with this is, there's got to be a lot of availability for problem solving. I think that's the predominant way that I kind of shepherd a lot of my leaders is it's just phone calls, that I take, it's coffees, it's lunches and I sit down with community group hosts and leaders and I just help them solve some problems that they may be experiencing.

Speaker 1:

Whether that could be along the lines of curriculum, it might be along some confusion of how to lead, but I would say probably about 75% of the time those conversations unfortunately have to do with group drama. When you live in that sense of community and this is such a foundational piece of what God desires for the church you know that the enemy is going to get in there and try to put wedges into groups, and especially these type of autonomous groups that are leading on their own. And it's within the community and it's having this outreach power. The devil wants to come in and absolutely mess that stuff up and unfortunately, when you have those friendships and you have that tight-knit group, there is that opportunity for for friction, for disagreement and really for division. And so I know that I talk with a lot of people that just they struggle with that and they don't know what to do. They come to me and they're like I was all going so good and then this happened and this happened and all of a sudden we're here and I don't know how to salvage things. Or there's a person here and they want this but none of the rest of the group wants this. And how do I engage with that? So you gotta be a problem solver.

Speaker 1:

But I think being a pastor does involve being a problem solver. I would say just have availability. I have to have margin in my schedule to be able to take those conversations because it comes at any time, any time, whether it could be. I've had late night calls that they just had their small group and something catastrophic happened. They're like we need help and so you have to have some availability within reason. Obviously. You know, prioritize your family and prioritize some of the times that you have with the Lord, but just be available for people and that means a lot because, again, they're trying to be shepherds and leaders on their own in their community.

Speaker 1:

It's kind of like the I would say it's a little bit the kids are out babysitting without supervision. It's like you're getting out there, say it's a little bit the kids, the kids are out babysitting without supervision. It's like you're getting out there and you're trying to figure it out on your own and sometimes you encounter problems and challenges that you just need to talk to somebody about, and that's really what the role of a small group pastor does is help problem solve it. So I do that a lot within, kind, of my ministry, and so there's a lot of things more that I will do, but I want to highlight really these four things that I think have been something that I've recognized has to be a huge part of what I do in ministry. These things probably take up the most of my mind power. These things probably take up the most of my mind power, most of my thinking in regards to my leadership of small group ministry here at the church.

Speaker 1:

And you may talk to other small group leaders and other churches and they may have other things, but this has been my experience, this is what I've had, and it's been fun though it's been a fun journey, I feel like I'm not a rookie anymore. I'm starting to get the hang of it, but still learning all the time. I'm always stepping on some landmines and blowing off some limbs, but healing up and getting back on the trail and getting after it, and that's okay. That's what doing ministry is about is just being committed to people, no matter what challenges you face. So seek wisdom, read books, understand things and then hey, maybe every once in a while, listen to a podcast like the Crossline Community Group podcast.

Speaker 1:

So I did say that there was going to be a message for those that aren't small group pastors out there, and I want to give this to you, because, as I talk about these really these four things I talk about really having a strong, simple, compelling vision. I talk about having recruiting and launching skills and building out a functional infrastructure, and then it's just availability for problem solving problem solving skills. My hope and my desire is that, in the process of pouring out my time and energy to doing these things, is that these leaders and these hosts would develop in these same skills, and so if you come to this church, if you come to Crosslight and you are listening in and I have a chance to talk to you in this moment. I will tell you this from your pastor to you, but even if you're just listening to this and you're not a member of Crossline, I will say this to you as well as just an encouragement is be aware of how you too can be developing as a small not just a small group leader, but a small group ministry champion and advocate at your church. See the ways that your pastor is trying to lead his or her ministry and learn from them and develop those skills and start to take on those skills yourself.

Speaker 1:

My job is to equip the saints for the work of ministry, and so I want to equip them to be able to do this ministry. I want them to be able to communicate strong, simple, compelling vision. I want them to be able to problem solve and be available for problem solving. I want them to know the infrastructure and how it works and guide people through the software, and then I want them to be also recruiters and launchers of new groups. Be multiplying. I mean, that's really the design for exponential growth within the church, and so this is not something that just I can do. I can put out a vision and I can engage with people, but I really needed my leaders to take up the call and start owning this themselves and to be really those champions. And so that goes for anybody and everybody at any church is the sense of ownership, taking ownership, and so you can do it. I really hope that one day that I can really pass this leadership, this ministry, off to somebody that maybe came up within small group ministry, understands it, has been doing it on their own and then feels empowered enough to get after it. So I would love to see that, I'd love to see that passed off one day. Maybe one day soon, who knows. But hey, that's kind of all we got today. I don't know if that was helpful, but it definitely gives you more insight into what small group pastors kind of do on a regular basis. So I want to leave you with that.

Speaker 1:

And then finally, before we go, as always, I like to bless people before they go. We always kind of close these podcasts out with a blessing, and this is what it says. So if you are, wherever you are like I said, unless you're driving I would like you to just hold out your hands and then receive this blessing. It's from Philippians, chapter 1, verses 9 through 11. It says and this is my prayer that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory. Until next time, you guys, be blessed and get after it.