In the early days of small group ministry, our idea of finding and developing good leaders involved a recruitment process with the belief that if we established higher hurdles for becoming a leader, we would get stronger leaders.

Over the past 10 years we’ve discovered an easier and better way to find good leaders. It’s really pretty simple. We let leaders lead small groups around the things they like to do—their interests, hobbies, strengths, goals, stage of life, and so on. The result is that our small group ministry is made up of a variety of groups around a variety of activities, studies, and topics reaching all types of people at all stages of life—all over our city. People are able to form friendships the way they normally do—around things they share in common with others. We call them free market small groups, and they have become the core of the ministry of our church—with scores of small groups doing things they have a passion to do at all different times and places throughout the week.

The key is to help leaders be intentional or purposeful in leading people through their interests. Most of the activities in free market small groups are things that people could do through some other venue in our community. However, the added value to attending a free market small group is the possibility of encountering God. Knowing the people in your group and understanding timing is everything. The right thing at the wrong time is still the wrong thing. Learning the right timing only comes from developing relationship with group members. The focus is placed on relationship more than on content. So we train our leaders to incorporate any combination of these four things into the context of their small group meeting: (1) a simple prayer, (2) reading or studying a passage of Scripture, (3) a time of worship, or (4) a short story or testimony by one of the members. Any of these activities brings a spiritual dynamic into the group and an opportunity for God to impact the hearts of the members. A simple prayer before a group of guys hits the ice to play hockey can be life-changing and much more than expected for the guy who just came to play hockey.

When you empower people to lead around the things they enjoy or do well in life, they will lead effectively out of passion instead of compliance. As pastors, we fulfill Ephesians 4:12 by equipping and strengthening the small groups leaders so they can make their God-given passion purposeful and life giving. Empowering people in our church to be actively involved in ministry through free market small groups takes the load off any one person (such as the pastor), and takes the ministry of the church into areas of our communities that we never knew existed. Many end up finding their way into the church through a small group. It’s easy, it’s fun, and it’s effective.

TED WHALEY is director of small group ministry at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado. (www.newlifechurch.org)