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Discovering Your Group's Objectives



The following thoughts are from Eddie Mosely at "Simple Community". He is addressing the idea of setting objectives in a church setting:

In all of life there should be goals, objectives or targets that help you know if you are growing and going in the right direction. In business or church organizations it is also important to have clear objectives.

Various Small Group Ministries succeed because they have a clear target on what they want to accomplish. Here are a few examples of objectives from various churches:

  • The five purposes: worship, ministry, evangelism, fellowship and discipleship; Steve Gladen, SG Pastor of Saddleback Church Author of 250 Big Ideas for Small Groups
  • Connect, Change, Cultivate, Bill Search, Small Groups Pastor, Southeast Christian Church, Louisville, KY. Author of “Simple Small Groups”
  • Belong, Become, Bless, Virgil Grant, Pastor, Eastside Church in Richmond, KY.
  • Discipleship, Community and Service. LifePoint’s Small Group objectives.

At Calvary, our primary objective for our LIFEgroups is that they be:
  • FORMATIVE - everyone is being formed to look more like Christ
  • CARING - everyone is using their gifts and resources to care for one another
  • MISSIONAL - everyone is working together to impact the world around them
Beyond these keys, every group may have their own secondary objectives (or they may set specific goals to help them reach the three objectives above). Every so often, it might be healthy for your group to take some time and talk about what objectives you want to shoot for as a group. These kinds of conversations serve as a great way to reinforce shared community. Below are a couple questions you might use to get this conversation going:
  • What are your dreams for this group?
  • What is one thing you'd like to see us do together in the next six months?
  • What do you think is our group's greatest strength?
  • What is one area in which you think our group needs some growth?
  • What ideas have you heard from other groups that might work for us?

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