Scheduling Community

Greetings current and future Community Group Leaders at Longleaf Church! Lindsey and I have transitioned our old Longleaf Blog to one designed to encourage and equip you! Help us by reading the posts and sharing via the comments section! My new group is certainly off to a great start this fall and I hope that yours is as well.

One thing I want to make certain I do is to meet 1 to 1 with each CG leader (Individual and Couple) over lunch, coffee or dinner this fall. My schedule works well for lunch on Wednesdays or Fridays, dinner on Thursdays or coffee just about any morning. Please email me a good time to meet with you and we'll set that up!

I have spoken to a few leaders lately about the challenge of working through scheduling conflicts and finding the right rhythm for your group in terms of a meeting plan. Here are a few tips:

• If you're having trouble developing a consistent schedule, consider meeting 2 or 3 times per month rather than each week. Developing your meeting schedule has a lot to do with the life stage of your group, but 2-3 times per month seems to be a good plan for most groups. It's good to have calendar margin for socials or to move a meeting to an off week when holidays and events come up.

• Schedule out at least two months.

• Ask one group member to manage your schedule. This involves email communication before each meeting about location and food/dessert plans. The CG scheduler will identify future date conflicts, such the week of Thanksgiving, and make adjustments. He or she will give a brief report at the end of each gathering.

• Take natural breaks. In my view, it's important for a CG to take at least 8 weeks off during the Summer and 2 weeks at the end of the year. These natural breaks mirror the pace of our lives and allows to fully retreat with family and enter a new season with more energy.

These are just a few thoughts. We realize that the scheduling component is sometimes difficult and we appreciate the effort that each of one of you demonstrates around the tactics and the spiritual nurturing that goes along with leading a Community Group. Does anyone have other thoughts or ideas on meeting plans?