5 Keys for Success in Collision Groups!

Here are 5 great thoughts about running Collision Groups! (Collision Groups are the home groups of the 210 High School Ministry of Second Baptist Church the West Campus. They meet every Wednesday (excluding 1st Wed's of each month for "Collide") from 6:30-8:00pm in homes throughout the area.)

1. Your ability to teach is secondary to your ability to LISTEN.
-Often times, we as adults, get “teacher happy”. The reality is that we have more experience than students do, and they can learn a lot from us, BUT, “students don’t care what you know, until they know you care.” You will earn the right to be heard by students when they believe that you will listen to them, then and only then will they listen to you. Collision Groups are not driven by a teaching time, they are driven by the conversation that flows from life experience and God’s Word as it relates to Christian living.

2. You are a FACILITATOR and never an orator.
-Your main function and role in your Collision Group is to “facilitate conversation and discussion.” If you get up to teach at your Collision Group for 20 minutes, you have already lost even the most dedicated student at around 3 minutes or even less. The lessons are long and contain a ton of great information that will have you well prepared to lead a phenomenal discussion about the subject matter. As you walk through the lesson you should be sharing personal experience while asking students to think of and share their own personal experiences. The more you can get students talking about their own experiences and the less you have to talk about the lesson, the more your students and you will get from your Collision Group.

3. Strike a BALANCE between deep conversation and relational time.
-There is nothing worse than going to a seminar on the ‘deity of Christ’ and finding out that you are going to play card games when you thought you were going to get challenging and in-depth teaching. At the same time, there is nothing worse than showing up at a party thinking you are going to play card games and having to sit through a 1 hour sermon the ‘deity of Christ’. You want there to be an ample amount of relational time before and after you Collision Group. You want students talking and chatting with you as well as with one another so that you can all get to know one another much better. After all, the goal of these groups is to foster relationships with students that will ultimately allow all of you to challenge one another to grow in your faith.

4. If you don’t CONTACT them, they won’t come.
-I hate to harp on this point, but I mean it! Students might just randomly show up once or twice, but they will not consistently come unless you are extremely intentional about contacting and encouraging them. Want to grow your Collision Group? Try calling your students every week and reminding them about your group, I promise you, I’m 100% sure your group will grow in number, and in consistency. Set up a schedule for contacting your students, for instance, call/facebook/email/text them at the same time every single week. You will find that if you set apart 30 mins one day each week you will consistently contact your students. Also, if you have a co-leader, or host home leaders, ask them if they will help you contact students. Work as a team.

5. Physically get into THEIR WORLD.
-It can be painful to watch some adults around high school students. Often times they will cower in the corner waiting for a student to pull them out of hiding, or make themselves so busy with the food placement that WW3 wouldn’t even interrupt them, or even worse, focus all of their energy on that one student in their Collision Group that they know well and are comfortable talking with. Listen to me friends! Students aren’t stupid (most of the time), they know what they are getting themselves into when they come to your Collision Group, and they want, no, dare I say, they need you to notice them and speak to them, and enter their world. They aren’t there for the cute boys/girls, these groups are gender specific, they are there because they want to be known and to know God. Out of all of the other things they could be doing, they have decided to show up to your group…they need you! Get into their world.