Serving as a guide for a group requires you be a teacher and you will also need to serve as a shepherd. To be a shepherd means that you simply care for the people in your group. The resources needed to shepherd your group really depends on how you express care and concern for those in your group.
As you visually picture a shepherd you probably see a shepherd’s crook or staff. The original purpose of this tool was to assist with the guiding of fallen or wayward animals. The role of a group shepherd is to care for the people in the group and that is the best resource you have assist them in their journey.
Whether you use a 3-ring notebook or a smart phone there is some very basic information you need to be able to care for those in your group. In order to be able to express care and concern to those in your group you need to know the following; name, mailing address, physical address on their residence, home phone, cell phone and email. You’ve got to be able to contact those in group.
The next resource is to know when to express care and concern. The regular occasions for contacting your members will be on their birthday, the birthday of their spouse, the birthday of their children that still live at home and their wedding anniversary. There are those special occasions for contact group members such as a major change in their lives or any kind of tragedy.
As a shepherd you also need to get to know your members. In order to know them you must discover some basic information. It’s important for you to know the following; hobbies/interests as well as the items in their life that causes them concern. What do they enjoy doing and what is it that has their attention? Their hobbies and interest can be a source of building better connections with the guide or other group members.
The hurts in their life is what we focus on in discussing our greatest resource for expressing care and concern for our group members. When we discover the hurts of our group members we need to pray for them. The prayers of a group guide are the best resource to shepherd the people. The group guide will shepherd the group by praying for them on their occasion of special days as well as praying for them on a regular basis.
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Dr. Smith serves as a state missionary with the Georgia Baptist Convention and is the Sunday School/Small Groups Specialist.
Visit their website at sssg.gabaptist.org for more information and other resources to aid your Sunday School.
You can also connect with Dr. Smith at gabaptistsundayschool.org, facebook.com/GABaptistSundaySchool or twitter.com/GBCSundaySchool.
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