I recently asked the small group leaders at 24-7 to ask six questions during their planning, and I thought I would share them with the internet world and expand on them a little bit… (almost all of them can be applied in some way to any area of ministry, so this may be applicable to everyone who is not a small group leader too!)

1. Does it bring God glory and make much of Him? If what we are doing isn’t first and foremost bringing glory to God, then it is inevitably bringing glory to something else, and is no longer leading people TO His throne, but leading them AWAY from it.  It is really easy to include God without making it about God.  Instead of looking first at our lives and then searching for how God relates to them, we ought to look at God first, and then see how our lives relate to Him.  This keeps us focused on the fact that man was made in God’s image, and not the other way around!  Too often people live lives that include God but do not require Him…the first step in changing that is to model it in our own lives, and then to make it a foundational part of our ministry!
2. Does it help people know God in a deeper and more relevant way? If we are not helping to lead people into a deeper relationship with God, we’re probably not leading them anywhere helpful at all.  A leader’s purpose is not to do things for others, but to help others get to a place in which they can do things for themselves.  If you aren’t continually encouraging and challenging people, you are actually building up glory for yourself by keeping them reliant on you to give them what they need.  Instead, we’ve got to lead in such a way that eventually makes us unnecessary because those we’ve been leading have become self-sustaining.
3. Does it challenge people to live in greater integrity? We’ve got to make it a point to have people seek God’s approval, rather than man’s.  Many churches have made it far too easy to look Godly without being Godly, and that may be because they’ve forgotten that people aren’t held accountable to the church—they’re held accountable to God, who sees their hearts and knows their motives.  The world can’t be changed by liars…which is what we’re letting people be when we let them come to church and get involved in ministry without challenging them to be filled with the Spirit and live as they are called.
4. Does it inspire people to make a heavenly impact on the world? The church isn’t a social club, it’s an army!  God gave us victory over every power and principality of the world, and yet many Christians keep that victory inside the walls of a building instead of storming the gates of hell and bringing the good news to the world in both word AND power.  Christianity can’t be allowed to settle as self-help…that’s an insult to the power of God that raised Christ from the dead (which is in you, by the way!).  Tekmito Adegemo said, “We cannot preach good news and be bad news,” and it’s bad news if the people who claim to love and serve a God of life, peace, hope, joy, and justice don’t do anything to bring those things into the world in a HUGE WAY!  Jesus said that we would make a greater impact on the world than even He did…so we’ve got to lead people into that promise and do everything we can to raise up people who are relentlessly in love with Christ and obsessed with a hope for the world.
5. Does it create opportunity for vulnerability? It was the broken, the hungry, the sick, and the rejected that Jesus went to.  And I think there’s a whole lot more people who are broken, hungry, sick, and rejected than we perceive.  But it’s sometimes hard to admit that.  There are walls that are often built really high, and really thick, in people’s hearts…and those walls keep them from moving forward.  Leaders need to create an atmosphere of forgiveness if they want others to really start growing and dealing with their issues.  Grace has got to be our greatest asset.  And we need to not only notify people of grace, but give them opportunities to experience it for themselves by encouraging honesty and openness.
6. Is it encouraging to people? JESUS IS GOOD NEWS! There is no reason anyone should be able to be around Christians and not be encouraged.  It makes sense that if we want people to grow, we ought to always be building them up!  A leader’s encouragement can act as fuel for a person’s progress.  There is always something in a person that is worth our encouragement…if there wasn’t Jesus wouldn’t have died for them!  We have to draw the purpose out of people and help them to discover and step into their gifts and talents.  And we’ve got to do everything we can to lighten their spirits, energize their minds, and inspire their hearts every time we get a chance!