Make Your First Night Great
Goals of the First Meeting
- Rekindle relationships and meet new members
- Clarify your group’s direction / expectations / commitments
- Briefly discuss the sermon topic (if there is time)
- Pray for the building of relationships and spiritual growth of the group
Items Needed for the First Meeting
- Dinner / dessert plans decided
- Name-tags (host should write them out ahead of time)
Contact Your Group in Advance
- Contact all members one week before the first meeting to welcome them to the group
- You can check your roster online to see all group members and their contact information.
- Inform them of the location and time of your group, as well as any entrees to bring for dinner
3 Essential Parts of Your Meeting
#1 Welcome, mingle and talk while you eat
Leadership Tip – Studies show that the first 7 seconds a person spends in a room can make or break the remainder of their
experience in that room.
• Make sure people are greeted when they arrive
• Have drinks available when people arrive
• Upbeat music playing
• House cleaned, phone off if possible
#2 Think through the uniqueness of your first group discussion
• GOING OVER THE COMMITMENT FORM IS CRUCIAL
• Let people know your meeting is going to start in about 5 minutes
• Why it is unique – getting to know each other, setting expectations
a) Sharing
- Refer to homework – Take time to do a few of the getting to know you questions
- Sharing guidelines – Explain the purpose of sharing exercises: Getting to know one another casually in (new groups) or reacquainting with each other (continuing groups)
- Note to returning leaders – feel free to adapt the sharing exercises based on the number of new members. All groups are encouraged to do some of the getting to know me questions
b) Worship (optional)
c) THE COMMITMENT FORM – SET THE EXPECTATIONS AND VISION
- Everything rises and falls on how this is communicated
- Go over the Commitment form (see Leader’s Guide to Commitment Form)
- MAKE PLANS FOR YOUR SOCIAL
d) Prayer - for New groups… Introduce the idea of Topical Prayer
- Everyone participates
- Brief, one topic at a time
- Pray as many times as you want
- Ask your host to close in a brief prayer dedicating the next quarter to God
#3 Know that your dessert conversations are just as important as your meeting discussions
Leadership Tip – Never underestimate the significance of the time after the meeting. It is key to connect with people and find out more what people are all about.