The Crossline Community Groups Podcast

The Role of Shepherding in Small Group Leadership: Insights and Spiritual Growth Strategies

• Jordan Gash • Season 1 • Episode 11

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Step into your calling as a small group leader and uncover the profound role you play within the church community. Join me, Jordan Gash, as I explore the sacred responsibility of shepherding your group members, drawing inspiration from biblical passages such as Jeremiah 3:15 and John 21:15-17. Through personal stories and scriptural reflections, I highlight the transformative power of the spiritual gift of shepherding, emphasizing its importance in guiding, nurturing, and protecting your flock. Get ready to be inspired and equipped with practical insights from my experiences as a small group pastor, as we delve into how you can effectively lead and enrich your community’s faith journey.

Prayer isn’t just a practice; it’s a lifeline for your community. Discover how activating prayer, like prayer walks during pivotal times, can illuminate and safeguard neighborhoods. In this episode, I discuss how fostering a supportive village mentality can create meaningful connections and spiritual growth within your group. Learn how aligning with church values and maintaining open communication with pastors can advance the broader mission of the church. Through patience, shared experiences, and a commitment to prayer, you’ll become an effective extension of the church, shepherding your small group towards a deeper faith and stronger community bonds.

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Speaker 1:

Well, hey everyone, my name is Jordan Gash, I am the community life pastor at Crossline Community Church and this is the Crossline Community Group's podcast. Hope you're doing well on whatever day that you're listening to this podcast. We just got back from a mental retreat here at Crossline and I am amped up with Jesus, so I might be passionate today as I talk through the podcast. But before we begin, I just wanna say thank you for joining us, and I want to say thank you for joining us and I want to tell you a little bit about what this podcast really does and what the whole purpose of this podcast is. I created this podcast as a way to really communicate to the leaders that we have here at our church that are leading small groups but realize this may be something that may be beneficial for even larger communities. So, if you're even part of that larger community, thank you for so much for tuning in. I hope that what you find today is helpful for you in your journey, wherever you're at, whether you are a community group or small group attendee, if you're a community group or small group host or leader, or maybe you are another pastor that's out there that's trying to lead small groups Again, thank you for joining in. I want to just affirm what you're doing whether as a participant, as a host or leader, or as a pastor what you are doing truly does matter and it has great impact for the kingdom, and we're going to learn a little bit more about what that all means today, because today's episodes are really going to focus on how small group leaders are an extension of the church. They truly are an extension of the church and we're going to look at how they do that on a week-to-week basis. So let's jump right in. I do, as a small group pastor myself and engaging with many different leaders that are out there, one of the things that I constantly say with them as I do tell them you are a shepherd at this church. When you signed up to be a small group leader, you chose to be a shepherd of Crossline Community Church and really a shepherd of God's church, the Big C Church, and I think it's important for every host or leader to remember that as they step into. This is not something that, um, that you should really take casually. It's not something you should be afraid of, but it's not something you should take casually, because you are truly taking in a small portion of the flock and leading them forward.

Speaker 1:

And God's word speaks so much about the role of shepherds and the fact that God was going to provide shepherds for the people. Even in Jeremiah the Lord prophesies that shepherds will be given. It says in Jeremiah 3.15,. It says I will give you shepherds after my own heart who will lead you with knowledge and understanding. And then, when we look into even the mission of Jesus, he acts as one of the great shepherds of the people. It says that he looked at the people and he had compassion for them, like they were sheep without a shepherd. And so he came and began to shepherd them. But then, as he actually exits out of this world and up into the kingdom of heaven, right before that happens, he has a conversation with Peter on the beach in John 21. And he and it says that he was sitting there, they were finishing up breakfast.

Speaker 1:

And Jesus says to Simon Peter this is John 21, 15 through 17. It says Jesus said to Simon Peter Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? And he said to him yes, lord, you know that I love you. And then he said and hear this feed my lambs. He said to him a second time Simon, son of John, do you love me? He said, yes, lord, you know that I love you. And he said tend my sheep. He said to him a third time Simon, son of John, do you love me? Peter was grieved because he said to him a third time do you love me? And he said Lord, you know everything, you know that I love you. And Jesus said to him feed my sheep. There was this great connection between the love that Peter had for Jesus and his role as a shepherd, that Peter had for Jesus and his role as a shepherd. Now Peter went to go be one of the first great pastors of the church, of the Christian church in Jerusalem, and so we know that about Peter. But I think we all, if we have this great love for Jesus, as we step into the shepherding role, we have to be people that feed the sheep and tend the lambs, that we move things forward that way, and so that's important for you to see.

Speaker 1:

And and in Ephesians, chapter four, we talk. We're talking about the spiritual gifts. It does say specifically that there are going to be people that are designated with the spiritual gift of shepherding, as he says. He says gave some to be apostles and the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and the teacher. Now, this word, literally it's talking about herding sheep and tending sheep as a shepherd, it's talking about the one that really performs the functions of feeding and oversight and protection and leading and guiding sheep and moving people forward. And so when we understand that there are some that have been given to be shepherds, I very much see small group leaders as in that role, like that is the spiritual gift of those that have stepped into small group leadership and small group ministry, because you truly have a small flock of people that you are trying to provide leading and guiding, protection, and a flock and a community. So I think it's important for us to first understand that, that if you signed up to do this, whether you know it or not, you are now in the role of a shepherd, you are in the role of leading and feeding.

Speaker 1:

But now here's how I'm going to help you through this podcast is really the bigger question of to where and with what? To where are you leading them and with what are you feeding them? And I think the best way to for us to begin with this is to really look at what happened in the beginning, with the first church of Acts If we go back to Acts 2.42, and it talks about that they were committed to teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. So let's break up those four things as four things that we can see shepherds even assisting with and guiding towards. And I know that teaching, the apostles' teaching, comes first. But I want to begin by talking about leading the flock to fellowship, because ultimately, I think that's one of the biggest things that small group leaders can do is leading them to fellowship.

Speaker 1:

And then what does that mean? Well, fellowship, it's this sense of belonging. When you have fellowship with people and you're connected to a fellowship, you belong. You belong, you feel seen, you feel known, you feel understood, you feel heard all these different things that maybe aren't as easily granted through, maybe, the big local denominational church that you're a part of. But maybe you can feel that and sense that in a greater sense in your small group, and this small group that is connected to your church, so it's an extension of your church, you get that belonging, you are seen, you are known, you feel a part of where the church is going and it's a great community. So, being a part of this smaller small group community, you now then start to feel connected to the bigger community. So, being a part of this smaller small group community, you now then start to feel connected to the bigger community. And then there's even more things that again, you're leading them to fellowship and fellowship of all forms. So I think, as a small group leader, you also should be very much thinking about the ways that you can connect them into the other ways that they could be connected at the church, the other small extensions of fellowship at the church. So are there ways that you can help coach them and lead them towards, for instance, like this weekend, men's ministry?

Speaker 1:

As a small group host, I was telling my small group, or as a small group pastor, I was telling my small group host to, hey, make sure your men know about the men's retreat and make sure you go with them, be connected with them, come up to it together as a group. Or you think to yourself uh, maybe there's even more, um, men's offerings or women's offerings that they can get invested in. Those are things that I think you should be always thinking about as a small group host is how can I actually not feel so protective of like them being only a part of this, but expand them to make different expressions of that fellowship. So it's men's, it's women's, it's couples. If you have a couples group, you should be doing the marriage offerings that are at your church and you should be doing them together, engage with it together. That's just a part of what's happening through your small group. So, and then, finally, I think that there's another fellowship that you can experience through service encouraging your group members to serve and to be a part of serving wherever that is at the church, whether that be through being guest services or serving at the food bank, or jumping onto a mission trip and going down to Mexico or even beyond, I mean, whatever it might be. As a small group host, you actually have a lot of influence over your group to these type of things, and not only does it serve them, but it also serves the greater mission of your church and what you're trying to do. So I think leading them to that fellowship is a is super important.

Speaker 1:

Now let's go backwards. I did say that we'd go back and talk about teaching, because it you do need to lead them to the apostles teaching, but in this passage, in Acts 2, 42,. It says they were devoted to the apostles teaching. I want to make a distinction here for all you smugger posts that are out there that maybe don't feel like you are super savvy with all of the details and educational side or scholarly side, academic side of the Bible and you feel like you have to have all this knowledge to teach. I want to make a distinction here and I want to put you at ease. It says devoted to the apostles teaching. It doesn't necessarily mean that you are teaching it. The beauty of this is that we have we have the teachings of Jesus, we have the teachings of the apostles in God's word. We have that and um, and there are those that are out there that had been appointed to be teachers and maybe your pastors you are really just have that gifting of being teachers. I believe that we have some amazing teachers here at Crossline that are teaching God's word in a powerful way.

Speaker 1:

But it's your job as the shepherd to lead the sheep to the green, fertile fields where they can eat and to the fresh springs where they can drink. You don't need to shove it down their throat, you don't need to feed them specifically or make them drink. You lead them to that and allow them to then consume. And so what this means for you is you need to be looking at scouting out the resources that are out there, scouting out what fields are out there, what fresh springs are out there, and what I mean by this is what are the studies that are out there that can really help you and that are biblically founded, and what are ways that you can walk through a verse-by-verse study in a healthy way. I mean, we've done other podcasts about this, but looking into ahead of it, being ahead of your flock to look and seeing what's upcoming so that you know where you can guide them and where you can lead them so that they can receive the teachings of Jesus and they can receive God's word for themselves. And so be looking at resources, and I would I would say for you too, if you're going to be leading them towards the apostles teaching.

Speaker 1:

Another thing that you could do is definitely ask your pastors. If you're lost here, you don't know where to go, ask your pastors. They can help you in the same way that maybe a young shepherd in the same way that maybe a young shepherd that's just getting into the shepherding business might talk to those that have been around in that area for longer and know, hey, this is a field, this is where you should go, this is what you should do. In the same way, you can ask people that are maybe even further along in the journey about best ways to connect with that. So lead them to teaching.

Speaker 1:

And then there it talks about the idea of the breaking of bread. This is one of the easiest and one of the best parts of small groups. You have that, that opportunity to provide healthy friendships. Healthy friendships where people work, people can spend time together, they can enjoy each other, they can truly have, uh, the edification of one another and the things that they're sharing and the things that they're doing, and you can just laugh and enjoy and have that that nourishment of your soul in the breaking of bread and I think in the breaking of bread too.

Speaker 1:

For us in our group, we have a bunch of young families and so you know, we all started, we all had no kids to begin, and then now we all have kids and they're all starting to enter that junior high phase. Actually, one of our couples they just had a kid who just got married and I actually did the wedding. I mean, that's crazy to think that I performed a wedding for one of the kids of another small group member and to me it's that's just part of this breaking of bread, this community, this friendships that have formed and engaged in that. I think that when you have these healthy families and they're all connecting and they're growing up together and your kids are running around in the backyard and you're eating burgers and dogs and you're celebrating the Super Bowl and you're, you know, going on trips together and all these different types of things are, when you get to that level of intimacy, that's such a such a beautiful thing and I think, as shepherds, you can continue, little by little, foster this, and I think that's.

Speaker 1:

That's not something I was going to say in the podcast before, but I do want to make a little disclaimer on this. I want you to know that sometimes those things do take time. I know a lot of people want that right away, they want the friendships right away, but it does take a lot of time for these friendships to develop and that type of intimacy to develop. But, as a host, just keep moving forward, continue to champion these things, continue to host these little parties, and I think it's going to, it's going to really turn to something beautiful, because, especially with kids, it's it's this village mentality that it takes a village to raise, to raise these, these crazy little rascals that are running all around the house. And I think, um, what happens is now so many of the other families that are in my group can speak to my, into my children, and I trust them, I they could speak truth into them, they can. I would definitely allow them to in certain places to correct them if I'm not present. I mean, there's those ways that I just totally trust them, and so that's something that, as a small group leader, you can do.

Speaker 1:

And and then finally, uh, we've got to talk about prayer, and there's two different types of prayer that I want to emphasize to you as the small group hosts. As you're listening to, this is the first type of prayer, is the prayer that maybe you're a little bit more familiar with, and that's that the prayer requests. Um, as a group, you may go around and you may be sharing prayer requests, maybe at the beginning or the end, just things that are going through. You may be having a group thread that you're just, uh, talking on um and sharing prayer requests. That's such an amazing thing for you to be able to pray for people. We, we use this app. You know, not a sponsor, but it's called the echo app and it's just a prayer app. It's a simple way for us to to record prayers, even to be able to share prayers. It's a great app. It's a little blue. It's got a little circle, the arrow. Appreciate you, echo, if you're out there, really appreciate your software. It's wonderful. I use it all the time. But the Echo app is great for that.

Speaker 1:

But just ways that you can really be praying for each other and be committed to pray for one another. When you say that you're going to pray for someone and somebody offers a prayer request, do it and you, as the shepherd or as the host, you'd be the first one to really lead that and encourage others to do the same. So praying for one another is is important and something that um hosts should be really leading their group towards. And then, finally, this this is the thing where I want to talk about you should do doing some activating prayer and what is what is activating prayer? You should be doing some activating prayer and what is activating prayer?

Speaker 1:

Well, activating prayer looks a little bit like going on walks in your neighborhood or going on walks around your church or going into places that you know might be even dark places and praying for your neighborhoods and praying for families and praying over friends that you know well have uh, challenges and I'm not just talking about praying from the side. Can you, as a group, go to that family and pray together as a group? Those are things that you guys could do together. You could do prayer walks together. I know right now, you know it's just interesting, you know that's an interesting season with, as Halloween arrives and just all the ways that homes are decorated and the ways things. I just think it's you gotta be very careful with our invitation of just darkness and I think that there's importance for us to really be praying prayers of of protection over our, over our neighbors, and that the Lord's light would shine through and, um, especially in this time, as there's advertisements for horror movies and everything, it's just a kind of a darker time.

Speaker 1:

So, being able to pray, activating prayers in your neighborhood, activating prayers in your home every time you go to a small group, have you ever thought about praying prayers over the home itself? I mean, those are important things and then what I mean is that it's. It's activating the movements of God, it's activating the Holy Spirit to saying hey, come here, you're welcome here, we want you to move here, we want you to see your power here, and it's cool to see what happens after that, as you can admit to that and to doing that, and maybe that's something that's very practical for you as a smogger post is. Maybe right now you think to yourself hey, let's do a prayer walk in each of our neighborhoods and we'll just make a schedule and we'll do that and we're going to go around, we're going to see what the Lord reveals to us and we're just going to pray blessing. We're going to pray binding and loosing, loosening in our neighborhoods and do that. But that's another beautiful thing that you, as a host, can do.

Speaker 1:

So now, all these things that we just talked about and your role as a shepherd it goes back to what I again I said was the title of this podcast, and that is that you are an extension of the church. You are the shepherds of people and many of those people that you are shepherding are members of the church that you attend and most of the time, you do a small group through your church. Some of you are not. Maybe it's a little bit more community-based, and that's okay too, but most of you guys are doing things through your church, and so being able to champion the values and championing the teaching and championing the growth and the maturation of the people in your own home and in your own spaces very much is what your church is all about, and you do that on a week-to-week basis, sitting in your home, sitting on your couch, offering out appetizers and coffee and opening God's's word together or flipping on a right now media study. Those are things that you're doing, and I want to again encourage you to very much be in partnership with your pastors and your leaders at your church, and I really think that small group leaders, almost more than anybody else at the church, should be regularly communicating and talking with their pastors about where are we trying to lead the church and what are we trying to do, and how can I come alongside you in doing that, how can we come alongside and really advance the mission and the vision together, what's upcoming, so that I can know, so I can prepare my, my group for that.

Speaker 1:

I think that's it's very important and if you're one of the cross-line hosts and leaders, please come talk to me often. I want to know you and I know you well. I feel like I know you most of you pretty well, but if I, if I don't know you well, I want to talk to you. I want to know what's going on in your group and I want to help kind of partner with you as people that are on the front lines with the people. So it's important and we don't want to, we don't want our small groups and our small group leaders, you know at all, to be knowingly or unknowingly leading their groups in different directions than where the church is trying to go.

Speaker 1:

Now this all connects back to this idea of you should be very much bought into your church and the vision of your church, and I think that finding that church is important for you and important for anybody that wants to do that, because you want to be in connection, you want to be in solidarity with where they're going, if you're going to be stepping into small group leadership. So all that is so important. But these are things that, um, I want you to start digesting, I want you to start thinking about. I never want you to forget how important your role is as a small group leader, even if you're, if your group is four people, six people or if it is that 20, it doesn't matter. Each of these groups are part of the church and you are one of the closest shepherds for them in their journey of faith. So, praise the Lord, praise the Lord for you and praise the Lord for all of the hosts and leaders that are at Crossline. I'm so thankful for them, so thankful for you, if you're listening out there, because, uh, you're really doing again, truly great things for the kingdom of heaven.

Speaker 1:

So, with that, we'd love to kind of finish things out with a blessing prayer. Um, this is the way that we always like to wrap up our podcast. I hope you enjoyed listening. Hopefully you did get things that are out of this. Um, tune into us, uh, next time, as we kind of even continue on more conversation around best practices and small group leading. But let me, um, let me pray for you in this final blessing prayer. That comes from Philippians, chapter one, verses nine through 11. It just says and this is my prayer that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, and 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 and praise of God. Amen.