Process

Focusing on what's going on in a group, and in how a group works is often at least as important as focusing on what the group produces. Not to get wrapped up in process, or to let it completely distract from a group mission (nothing is worse than a group spending its time in relational navel-gazing). But what a group can accomplish is magnified when they are corporately self-aware.

The task of the leader of a group is to ask the questions, sometimes difficult, of the group that triggers the questions, and to do the "naming", sometimes more difficult, of the observed behavior from which a group can grow.

This naming is vital to the willingness of a group to grow in community and in spirit. Particularly in the Spirit of God.

The Spirit of God is not dependent on the members of the group for her presence. Rather the Spirit is a constant (wherever 2 or 3 are gathered...). However, the Spirit of God's ability to become manifest in real ways are dependent on the willingess of the group to allow the Spirit to work in a corporate way.

I'll let you know how it goes.