Healthy Sustainability: Rhythm, Support, Training.

Rhythm

Our Dinner Parties have run every week for over ten years. That sustainability comes from the health of our leaders and from the rhythms we’ve built into our church. We’ve found that continuous groups, not seasonal ones, have been the most impactful for our community. Relationships continue to build instead of being halted when a group ends. Leaders truly rise and flourish and are sent out from among other leaders, rather than pastors or staff raising up every new leader. With time and space, continuous groups grow their own leadership pipeline from within.

A big part of our rhythm is that we have one week off from Dinner Parties and on as a whole church. We call it ALLIN Team Night. It happens on the first Wednesday of every month. Our groups break from their individual gathering and all meet together for a night of empowerment, worship, encouragement, and equipping. This night refreshes our leaders and our whole church through worship and the Word. It sets the foundation for the month.

During ALLIN Team Night, we celebrate our leaders. We highlight new groups. New leaders who were raised up. Special moments in our Dinner Parties. It’s a rhythm of consistent celebration and recognition. It also reminds leaders that it’s only the three other weeks of the month that they lead and host. Yes, it’s a continuous model, but every three weeks there’s a break for refreshment. That rhythm is how leaders stay sustained.

Another rhythm we’ve implemented and seen fruit from is bi-annual celebrations just for leaders. These nights are only for our leaders. A time to honor them, gather for fun, and speak specifically about leadership in Dinner Parties. We’ve seen these nights become a great time for leaders to come, be served, relax, and be reminded of the why. These are integral for communicating vision to leaders in fresh and engaging ways. They build momentum for the season ahead.

Support

As we shared in the discussion section, our conversation for the night is centered around the Sunday message. That has been a great support for leaders. They aren’t adding work to their plate or preparing a new message or reading separate curriculum. They’re digesting the Sunday message, applying it to their own lives, and helping the group do the same.

Practically, we send out a message notes email to the whole church every Tuesday. It goes to the entire database. It refreshes the points and Scriptures from Sunday’s message and lists discussion questions for the Dinner Party at the bottom. We don’t just send this to leaders. We send it to everyone. That way the whole group walks in a bit more prepared for the conversation, knowing some of the questions that will come up. Leaders feel more at ease, knowing the teaching is already connected to Sunday. They can spend more time praying and preparing what is on their heart rather than learning new content.

Our support structure for leaders has also helped create sustainability for our groups. Communication is key as you grow. As the number of groups in your church increases, the pastors and staff can’t personally care for and lead every leader. A tiered leadership structure becomes necessary.

What we’ve done at FOUNT is raise up coaches. Each Dinner Party coach oversees two to four groups. They focus solely on the health of the leaders so that the leaders can care for their groups well. Each coach has a pastoral staff oversight who helps with higher-level pastoral situations and overall strategy. This structure has helped us grow wide without the full weight of pastoring hundreds of leaders landing on one or two staff pastors. Instead, we’re raising up pastoral-level roles at a volunteer level.

The coach is a shepherd and encourager of leaders. Actively seeking the Lord for strategy on how to lead their leaders. Encouraging them to grow deeper in their spiritual walk. Modeling healthy leadership and training them to become better leaders themselves. They are a resource and a point of communication between staff pastors and Dinner Party leaders. Releasing announcements, cultural points, and growth strategies weekly. Available to answer any questions leaders may have. Communicating upline to their staff pastor with updates and questions. Taking initiative to steward health and multiplication within Dinner Parties. Having eyes for leadership qualities in others and raising them up into leadership themselves. This weekly communication and care is what has helped us grow our groups and sustain health and longevity across the whole system.

Training

Training new leaders well is what sets them up for a win and what sets the whole group up for healthy sustainability. Monthly training is the best rhythm to get into. Keeping training as a consistent part of your community’s life helps the church know that raising leaders is a vital part of your culture. The opportunity is always there, every month. People start seeing it as normal to step up and be trained.

We provide a downloadable leaders guide as part of this library. You can find it in the Leaders Guide section. This is what we actually hand our leaders at FOUNT. Use it, copy it, adapt it for your context.

Whether you use our guide or build your own, we suggest doing your monthly training live. Either with a staff pastor leading or a coach-level leader facilitating the night. The training should walk through the culture, the values, and the basics of leadership in your church. The best way to set up leaders well is to be clear from the start.

When training leaders, clear expectations, clear goals, and clear outcomes set them up for a win. If you give a blurry vision but clear goals, you’re building a worker. Not a disciple maker. If you give clear vision but blurry goals, you produce a leader with stunted growth, a capped ceiling. But when you bring clear vision and clear goals, that is when you produce an empowered leader who builds disciples.

That’s the heart behind Dinner Parties. Creating safe, welcoming spaces for people to encounter Jesus, build relationships, and grow in their lives. Through the personal group, disciples are made. Not every member will become a leader. But our goal is that every member becomes a disciple. That’s the greatest call God gave to our lives. Go and make disciples. As we treat our small groups with that heart, we will see our church, our city, and our world impacted by the love of Christ.