This month we added something new to our preteen ministry: a second time for small groups.
Our small groups always meet after Whatever You Do (our worship segment) and Roots (our teaching segment). They would have 25 minutes in their small groups.
A couple months ago I sat in a room where our small groups were meeting, allowing me to hear a bit of what they were talking about. One group specifically caught my ear. They spent the first fifteen of their twenty five minutes catching up on the week before, talking about school and video games and anything else that came up. Anything else but Whatever You Do and Roots. (In his defense, the small group leader did his best to direct the conversation to the day’s experience, but his boys just kept talking about music and video games that are “too legit.”)
As I sat there, I realized that this conversation was good. But how else and where else could it happen?
Starting this month we added a second time for small groups. Instead of just meeting in their small groups after Whatever You Do and Roots, we start each program with ten minutes in their small groups. (We actually start this time five minutes before the program is scheduled to begin. This way anyone who walks in “on time” walks in hallways and rooms full of smal groups already sitting and talking together.) This time comes with no questions or activities based on the day’s experience but simply serves as a space for students and their leaders to talk about their week or whatever they want to.
This doesn’t guarantee that all “off topic” conversation in the second small group time will be gone. Nor is that “off topic” conversation bad. However, we do want to create intentional space for it, knowing that it is essential for small groups to journey with one another. And by having this space earlier in the day, the second small group time (after Whatever You Do and Roots) is able to be more even focused and intentional.
