Once you’ve established your purpose, vision and goals you’re ready to go public. Successful ministry—in fact, much of what succeeds—must be given away. And giving it away means sharing it with others. From the smallest business venture to the largest mega-church, success happens when people become invested in what you’re doing. That doesn’t happen by accident.

The process I’ll share goes by a variety of names but I first learned of it as “The Four Phases of Ease.” As with any good idea, explaining it is simple, the incredibly difficult part is actually following the process. About midway through there’s a step that, for many in ministry, is such a gigantic leap that most never quite make it.

Before we dive in, let’s recap where my wife and I have been in our own small-group journey. We had been invited to take the lead on reinvigorating the small-group ministry for our multi-campus church. Shortly after the invitation a cone of silence settled around leadership. The paid church leadership took full responsibility for this launch with very little meaningful interaction with my wife and me.

For a couple of months we didn’t hear anything. Then we had a rather productive lunch meeting with a couple of the pastors, followed by a proposal we map out a strategy for small group ministry. The cone of silence was once again lowered.

Another month and a half later, a public announcement was made that small groups were starting as of the first of the year, in conjunction with the church’s read-the-Bible-in-a-year campaign. My hope for the success of these groups is very, very low.

The purpose of sharing our story is to be instructive. So, here’s what I hope we can learn.

First, don’t invite people into leadership, and then keep them out of the process of launching the ministry you’ve asked them to lead. It’s frustrating and counterproductive. At this point there’s absolutely no sense of ownership — or even understanding — of what the small groups are about or what leadership is hoping to accomplish. There doesn’t seem to be much excitement among the general membership and not much clue as to why small groups are important. I barely get it and I’m as close to an “insider” as has been developed during this process.

Second, don’t rush your small-group ministry into action just to meet a deadline. It feels like leadership slapped an ill-conceived small group component onto a fairly well developed read-through-the-Bible strategy. The through-the-Bible launch felt like an event with t-shirts, sermon series, resources and more. It was well planned.

The small group ministry component, on the other hand, was mentioned in announcements and launched on a weeknight attended by less than one percent of the church. Hopefully I’m wrong, but years of experience tell me that this attempt is destined for frustration and failure. Though, can you fail if you never had a clear goal to begin with? (That’s a rhetorical question.)

So, on to The Four Phases of Ease. Here they are, in all their elegant simplicity…

1. I Lead

2. I Lead, You Watch

3. You Lead, I Watch

4. You Lead, I Move On

When developing or reviving ministry, always consider following these four phases.

It’s recommended that you have all your prep work with purpose, vision and goals done first. The first phase encompasses some of that work. You, as the leader, need to be intimately involved in the process. Even if you’re not the original visionary for the ministry, you should have a firm grasp on the vision and support it completely. With a clear purpose and solid goals you now demonstrate how it all fits by taking the lead.

What does “I Lead” really mean? That depends on what you’re trying to launch. With small groups it may mean that you lead one small group that’s made up of the people who’ll eventually lead their own small groups. You prepare the materials, pick the meeting dates and location, set-up the physical space, buy the snacks, make the coffee. In phase one you do everything. By nature this should be a relatively short phase! If you’re still in phase one after a year something has gone terribly wrong.

You should be looking to accomplish at least two things in phase one. One is having a first-hand experience of implementing what you’ve planned. Being involved directly is the best way to assess if what you planned actually works. Then, you need the willingness to make changes as necessary. The other thing you accomplish in phase one is to demonstrate exactly what you envision this program to be and lay the foundational pieces upon which future success will be built.

Then you’re ready to transition into phase two: I Lead, You Watch. Truth be told, some parts of phases one and two happen simultaneously. However, the “you watch” part is more active than it sounds. Here, you begin to give away non-critical responsibilities to others — for example, setting up the room, making the coffee, or sending reminder e-mails. At the same time, you’re still sharing the core values of the program. You’re coaching or mentoring others so they come to fully embrace the vision for the ministry. This is a crucial step because it begins to hand over ownership in ways that will protect the integrity of the ministry.

Moving people into leadership too quickly can result in competing agendas and overall confusion that can unravel all the good work you’ve done. Putting someone who isn’t ready into a key role puts you at risk of having a conflict that can do major damage to your ministry. Moving people into leadership too slowly, on the other hand, can communicates a message of distrust, whether you mean to or not, that sucks the energy and enthusiasm out of volunteers.

That brings us to Phase Three…You Lead, I Watch. Which we’ll tackle in the next article.

Tim Kurth served as a Director of Christian Education in the Midwest for more than 20 years. During that time he assisted churches in starting a variety of volunteer ministries. He’s a husband, father, author and speaker. He and his wife Elizabeth live in Loveland, Colorado, where he currently serves as Camp Project Leader with Group Workcamps Foundation.