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Thursday, December 31, 2020

Online Small Group Discussion Template


An online small group meeting is a different experience compared to a face-to-face small group meeting. Thanks to technology innovations, people can still meet despite limitations with time and space, but it should not be approached exactly the same as an in-person group meeting. While many aspects of facilitating a small group will be transferable to the online interface, I would recommend tweaking the format from a traditional small group agenda.

An online small group, via a video conference call, requires a person to be static in front of a screen. This is less dynamic than walking through a front door, walking to a kitchen for snacks, sitting down for discussion, standing up for worship or prayer, etc. As a result, I believe it’s wise to plan for half the meeting time. Instead of a 90 minute to 2 hour in-person group, build towards a 45 – 60 minute online small group meeting. This will help to eliminate screen fatigue, low energy and wandering minds.

To help with this, I would recommend a process I’ve developed for our online groups at my church that I refer to as The S.O.I.L. Read More

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