Do You Have a W.I.G?

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Did you know that wig can mean a few different things? As you were reading this you probably thought of a head covering, but this blog isn’t about that. It can also mean to rebuke someone, but I promise you, I won’t rebuke you in this blog. Instead, I want to talk about the third meaning. Wildly. Important. Goals. What are your wildly important goals?

I’m reading a book called the 4 Disciplines of Execution by Chris McChesney. Now, I won’t give away the whole book, but I wanted to share with you what I’m personally learning about in the first discipline. The first discipline encourages you to focus on the wildly important goals. It’s called the discipline of focus.

Have you ever put on a pair of prescription lenses that aren’t your prescription? It can cause your eyesight to lose focus and you can’t see as clearly. If you can’t see as clearly, you can’t walk as straight, and you may end up stumbling around as you try to move forward. The same is true with our small groups. We have to have a clear focus. We are all moving forward, but we want a clear view so we know where we are headed and how to get there.

This quote from the book, I think, sums up the entire principle of focus, “Basically, the more you try to do, the less you actually accomplish.” We all know the phrase “less is more,” but do we really believe it? McChesney recommends you “choose one or two (at most!) extremely important goals, instead of trying to significantly improve everything all at once.” So, what are your wildly important goals for your small groups? What are one or two things that are vital to the small group ministry?

Looking at the calendar year as a whole, we have just passed the first quarter, which means, like maintenance on a car, we are due for a check-up. With that, I’ve included some helpful guiding questions below that may help you as you assess what is working well, what may be important but not vital, etc.

  1. Purpose: What is the purpose of your small groups? If we know our purpose, we can easily derive two extremely important goals from that in order to accomplish the purpose.
  2. Vision: What is the vision of your small groups? Your goals should match your vision so you know how to accomplish your goals.
  3. Responsibilities: As a Small Group Point Person, if you could boil everything you do down to two most important things in your small groups, what would it be? This will be harder than you think! Think of it as an elimination process. But, the book suggests, it doesn’t make all of the other things you do any less important. Instead, it helps you separate the whirlwind (urgent) vs. the goals (important). The urgent will always be there, but it is easy to lose sight of the important.
  4. Core Values: What are your core values? How many do you have? Are you able to live out and practice all your values?

I’m wrestling through some of these questions myself as I look at what I do and how I accomplish it. If we do everything, we won’t accomplish anything, but if we do a few things really well, they will have a ripple effect that will accomplish more than we could’ve imagined.

If you haven’t read the book, definitely check it out! In addition the book, Planning Small Groups with Purpose by Steve Gladen, has really helped me put work through these four check-up questions and several others. Start looking at your purpose, vision, responsibilities, and core values! But know that these are also just starting points for growing in the discipline of focus!

Resource:

4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX): Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals by Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, and Jim Huling

Planning Small Groups with Purpose by Steve Gladen

Author

  • Kiersten Telzerow

    Kiersten Telzerow lives in the Washington, D.C area with her husband, Matt, and their goldendoodle named Luna! Kiersten serves as the Small Group Director at one of the campuses at National Community Church and is a Master of Divinity student at Wesley Seminary through Indiana Wesleyan University. She loves being in community with people and learning about their stories. When Kiersten is not studying, her favorite thing to do is spending time with family and friends, trying new coffees, attending leadership conferences, or reading a new book. She loves all things small groups and believes that we were never meant to exist alone - community is always better!

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Daniel Thomas

Connections Director

423-534-9321

daniel@smallgroupnetwork.com

Daniel serves as Executive Pastor at Community Church of Mountain City, TN.  Daniel and his family are on a mission to establish roots within their community, fight for peace and serve well.  He serves as our Connections Director in laying the groundwork for Circles. He loves great coffee and traveling with his wife Tia and two children, Deklan and Aden

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