If you want to cultivate a thriving church, you must make the care and feeding of your small groups and their ministry leaders a very high priority. The leadership community meeting is a regularly scheduled meeting for this purpose. I often refer to the three components of these meetings as VHS (a memorable acronym to those of us who lived before DVDs were invented).
VHS stands for vision-casting, huddle time, and skill development, and together they form the organizing principle for leadership meetings.
However, they don’t need to be done in that order. In fact, VSH is often more helpful. Incorporating all three of these elements into your leader meetings makes for times that inspire, equip, support, and encourage your leaders.
Vision-casting
This portion of the meeting is dedicated to encouragement toward the vision of the church and how the various ministries work toward that goal. You can use stories and interviews to make the vision and values concrete. That way people can connect the vision with specific behaviors. Always be sure to process vision with the leaders before doing so with the rest of the congregation, and take time to listen to their perspectives.
Huddle time
Huddle time is breakout time into smaller groups for personal encouragement and relational connecting. That includes praying for one another, as well as encouraging and trouble-shooting. Be sure to model good group dynamics during this times and have coaches present to provide personal care for your leaders.
Skill development
This is a time to practice specific skills that you want your leaders to learn or improve. Consider what skills are needed and formulate exercises to allow your leaders the chance to practice those skills. For example, giving a short presentation on active listening, then allowing your leaders time to practice those skills can be extremely helpful.