June 11th, 2025
by Andrew Tate
by Andrew Tate
Caring for your Community Group Leaders
Every one of our community groups is led by faithful volunteers—leaders who give their time, energy, and hearts to help others grow. They lead and facilitate discussions, coordinate logistics, check in with group members, and open up their homes week after week.
It’s a big responsibility—and a beautiful act of service.
While group leaders and hosts play a vital role, creating a healthy and thriving group is a team effort!
This resource was created to help you—as a community group member—know how to encourage, support, and serve those who lead and host each week.
When we care for those who lead, we strengthen the entire church family.
It’s a big responsibility—and a beautiful act of service.
While group leaders and hosts play a vital role, creating a healthy and thriving group is a team effort!
This resource was created to help you—as a community group member—know how to encourage, support, and serve those who lead and host each week.
When we care for those who lead, we strengthen the entire church family.
Be A Back Up
- Offer to be a back up host in case of travel, sickness or personal emergency. It can be a huge relief to know there is someone to call with short notice to be able to host.
- Offer to lead discussion occasionally. It can be a lot to prepare a discussion week in and week out and sometimes it is nice just to participate as a member of the group.
Respect the Host's Home
- Offer to help clean up each week. Often furniture gets moved around for group and food can be provided and left out, when everyone helps out it can take less than 5 minutes to clean and help get the host’s space back to normal.
- Offer to bring food or drinks! Food is a big part of hospitality and it can be costly and take time to bring snacks or make baked goods each week. Maybe groups can take turns bringing something each week or on occasion to give the hosts a break.
- Make a supplies list to help the host out. (Paper plates, napkins, tea, etc.) Always having these on hand can save a trip to the store.
Be Timely
- This one is big and a little delicate. Community group can be a fun place of fellowship where people like to visit before discussion and hang around for a bit afterwards. This is great and even healthy, but it can also be a challenge for hosts and members who have young children to get home and put to bed or who have to be up early the next day.
- Let your group know ahead of time if you’re not able to make it. This helps your leaders plan accordingly, and also honors the sacredness of meeting together
- This mainly means starting on time and ending on time. My group is NOTORIOUS for struggling with this.
Help with Logistics
- Leading a community group is about facilitating fellowship and discipleship. A major part of the job of a community group leader is administrative tasks and logistics.
- Appoint someone to remember the dates of events going on in the church and to communicate/remind everyone. (Upcoming baptisms, prayer nights, church fellowship events, etc.)
Foster Discipleship & Fellowship
- The main purpose of Community Groups are to point one another to Jesus through community, accountability and fellowship. As community group leaders, this is ultimately what we set out to do, but this can also be a group effort to.
- Having initiative for planning events outside of group is huge. Many times hosts are already having to plan regular group meetings. Planning something on top of that can be a lot on a leader’s plate and planning and event could be a good way to serve the entire group.
- Group leaders spend a lot of time thinking about all the members their group and often times meet up one on one with others. If this is something you desire, I think it is important to initiate a hang out or get together. It can be a lot to try and initiate hang outs with every single member of a group.
- If you do ask a CG leader to meet/disciple you, an important aspect of this is respecting their schedule and time. Make yourself available if this is something you desire. They may be doing this for several other people in your group.
Welcome Visitors
- It is our hope that our groups are growing and new people check out groups from time to time. A huge way to serve your leader and your group is by making a point to welcome visitors.
- Follow up with visitors after they leave. Try and get their contact information and shoot them a text inviting them next week. CG Leaders should be trying this on their own, but it can be powerful if 2-3 people from a group follow up. It can be difficult if a group is large to keep track of who is visiting each week.
- Related to the previous point, but if a member of a group has spotty attendance, take it upon yourself to check in and reach out. One of the last things we want to happen is to have someone “slip through the cracks.”
Offer Childcare
- If your hosts have children, offer to babysit! Sometimes a break or a night away can be a huge blessing.
- When you walk into group, offer to entertain young children or hold a baby while their parents are getting your group.
- NOTE: This is a delicate subject. They may take you up on it and they may not. Not everyone is going to do this role.
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