In my last post on January 27, I wrote about the difference between sharing ownership with the whole group and sharing leadership with a Core Team. As Alyssa Dourte suggested in her comment to that post, sharing ownership is a great way to prepare some group members for eventual Core Team leadership.
I’ve shared why every group participant should have a role, but what are these roles? Here are just some of the roles we’ve come up with for groups at Northeast Christian. I’m sure there are plenty more than these, so I’m looking forward to what others suggest.
- Study Champion: Facilitates study time; helps group decide on what to study
- Serve Champion: Helps plan serving opportunities with group
- Outreach Champion: Helps group reach out to and pray for friends who do not have a relationship with Christ
- Inreach Champion: Keeps group focused on themselves rather than anyone else outside the group. Has strong belief that the group revolves around him and his needs
- Worship Champion: May lead worship in group, whether it involves singing, or other forms of worship
- Social Champion: Helps plan group social activities
- Prayer Champion: Leads prayer times, may keep prayer journal
- Doomsday Champion: Makes plans for the whole group for all end-of-the-world scenarios. Spiritual gift: prophesy (she says). Knows the book of Revelation forward and backward. Has seen 2012 twelve times.
- Host(ess)/Hospitality Champion: Hosts group or helps plan who hosts
- Food Champion: Helps plan anything dealing with food
- Timekeeper: Helps group stay on track with time
- Topper: Role is to top anyone else’s story or prayer request (reference: Dilbert)
- Information Champion: Keeps group information up-to-date. Communicates with the Small Groups Ministry Office about the group. (This person is probably administrative and enjoys using the web; i.e. Facebook)
- American Idol Champion: Keeps the group up-to-date weekly on what is happening on his or her favorite reality TV shows, sometimes interrupting worship or Bible study to do so. Does not get along well with Worship or Study Champions or Timekeeper.
- Group Communication Champion: Communicates with the group about meetings, etc. (This person may enjoy using email, texting, Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
- Coffee Champion: Makes sure coffee is brewed at each meeting. Is usually a “coffee snob.” Helps keep group awake during Study Champion’s less-exciting lessons.
OK, maybe these are not all real group roles. And maybe you have a few of you own. Please share them by commenting!
We also have a Babysitting Coordinator (Champion) who coordinates scheduling the babysitter, getting them to and from the group each week, collecting money from all the families and paying the babysitters accordingly. And, at CCV where attendance #s are important, we can't forget our Attendance Coordinators 🙂 ! Thanks for all these great (or funny)ideas! These past 2 blogs will help tremendously with upcoming training!
Thanks, Alyssa! Wow, I had totally forgot about a children's coordinator! I know in some groups this is MUCH more than just a babysitting or childcare role. This is a "leader" who works with the kids, possibly even leading a discussion and activities around the same lesson the adults are discussing.
Our next meeting I'm assigning the Coffee Champion role to someone! 😉
great idea!
But I think we will pass on the American Idol role… Hmmm.
We do have a role simlar to the Communication Champion; however she's not real good with email but she makes phone calls and reminds everyone about our next meeting.
My wife is the Coffee Champion in our group. Not sure what that says since I usually lead the studies!
BTW, I did not say this in the post, but now that our group is rather large, we subdivide some of the roles. So, for instance, we have a prayer champion and a prayer journal champion.
Perhaps we can have a Decaf Coffee Champion and a full-strength Coffee Champ!
I love my job as the Coffee Champion!!