All leaders will at time be in small groups, and have to communicate to small groups. If you are never in a small group, you are not a leader!

To communicate well in a small group, the first thing is to remember what you are supposed to be discussing. Lots of people in a small group will want to bring their agenda or problems or want their voice to be the dominant one, and there will be options to be distracted from what you want to do.

If you are an elder running a living church, stay with the study as much as possible, get the Word of God into people. It can be a challenge. Another challenge is that you might have something else going on and your own inner dialogue might lead the discussion another way. When I have a pastor’s meeting, I love seeing the pastors so much, I often just want to see how everyone is doing rather than help them learn a new system! Oops! To remain focused and be intentional on what the meeting is for is the number one skill necessary to be a good communicator in a small group.

How can people in the small group respond to the information if you did not give them all the information! When others are responding, you need to show that you are interested and engaged. Never be passive. I don’t mean have something to say about everything, but if you have something relevant, share it.