Be patient. As you begin your group, remember that it might take six months before your group develops a good rapport. What's important here is that everyone does their best to remain committed, even as obstacles and setbacks arise. If you hang in there during this time, it will bear great fruit and help keep your group together in the long-run.
Embrace the messiness! Light of the World small groups are like families: we're asking families to eat dinner, but that can look a lot different in each family. Many families have chaotic dinners, others are more formal. Don't be afraid of the chaos if that's how your Light of the World family "eats dinner" together. The important thing is that you still do it!
Start and end on time. This is necessary in order to respect everyone's time. For instance, if your group always goes 30-45 minutes past when it was expected to end, some members might not come for fear that they will be out extra late again. Or if you consistently start late, this can contribute to ending late and members may not all be there for every part of the meeting. Starting and ending on time will help to clarify the commitment for your group members and encourage their continued attendance.
Keep to the agenda. It's important that you cover each of the four parts of the agenda. No one part is more important than the other, so they should all be kept in balance. Each of the meeting parts may "speak" to certain members of your group differently, so keeping all the parts will ensure that everyone in your group is ministered to effectively.
Change topics and formats of study regularly. Don't just stay with the same type of study topic or the same format. Explore different topics (i.e. the Bible, evangelization, God's will, etc.) and formats (i.e. books, videos, etc.). This will help to keep your group "fresh" and interested.
Rotate group facilitators and houses. We recommend switching the facilitator every six months and changing the house you meet at every month. This is a flexible guideline, but ensure that your group does continue to rotate the facilitator and houses. This ensures that all the group members share responsibility, don't get burned out, and no one person is perceived as "owning" the group.
