Mark Howell: Senior Pastors: Authentic Community Begins with You

Senior pastors…you need to know something. If you want authentic community to flourish in your church, it begins with you. It must begin with you.

I don’t know what has prompted your hope for authentic community to take hold in your church. Maybe you’ve listened to Rick Warren or Andy Stanley or Bill Hybels talk about their own personal small groups and how important they’ve been in their own lives. Maybe you’ve come to it through your own insight from scripture that you can’t do the one anothers in rows. See also, The Real Reason Saddleback Connects So Many in Small Groups and Andy Stanley on Creating a Culture That’s All About Circles.

I don’t know. But I do know this: If you want authentic community to flourish in your church, it begins with you. It must begin with you because the hope that your congregation will experience something different or more than your own experience…isn’t anchored in reality. If you want your congregation to experience authentic community it begins with you. See also, Your Senior Pastor as Small Group Champion Leads to a Church OF Groups and 5 Things Senior Pastor Need to Know about Small Group Ministry.

And the question might be, if you’re not in a small group now, how can it begin with you?

Here are a five ideas to help you get started.... Keep reading