What Is The Role of the Leader?

What Is The Role

of the Leader?

The leader of a group Bible Study acts as a facilitator to ensure the discussion runs smoothly. This is done by using a number of strategies that help facilitate effective communication and enables people to express themselves freely and fully. This is why each person who reads the text is then encouraged to comment straight after they have finished reading the text. After that person has commented, each person is then permitted to make their own contribution in turn. This is done with the leader controlling the flow of the discussion and guiding the speakers in an anticlockwise or clockwise fashion. 

When a person has read a text and has made a comment, the leader quickly makes a summarization of what the person has said and then invites the next person to make a comment. When that person has commented, the leader once more makes a summary of what the person has said and invites the next person to comment. When there are only three to six people in the group Bible Study, summarizing comment is not burdensome and encourages each person to contribute.

Sometimes people interject out of turn. When this happens, it is always best if the leader can take control and ask the other person to wait his or her turn. Bear in mind, being assertive can have its problems, so if the person leading the study feels that the person interjecting has some issue to get off his or her chest, rather than create a political situation, the leader is wise to assume control by letting the person speak, summarize what the person interjecting has said, and return to the original order once more.

In a situation where a person interjects and insists on speaking, just because the interjector is permitted to finish their heart-felt point, some people might think that the leader is losing control of the meeting. This is not the case, if the leader acknowledges what has been said and then the meeting continues as planned. In fact, this is demonstrating control, because what could have become a negative confrontation was avoided and a release valve was activated, by letting out the pent up emotional pressure within the injector. The is a very positive way of taking control and helpful in removing specks from participants eyes.

In one situation, I witnessed, a person interjecting attempted to hijack a meeting by introducing his agenda which had nothing to do with what was being discussed at the time. The leader waited for the interjector to release some pressure and at the appropriate point in the tirade, he  quickly summarized what the interjector said. The interjector who was being blatantly obnoxious could not believe he had just been outwitted so effortlessly and was left speechless. The meeting then continued from the point under discussion at the time of the interjector’s attempt to hijack the meeting. 

The leader of the meeting was acting in love, because he was courteous enough to acknowledge the interjector’s point and gracious enough to overlook the true intent of the interjector. Clearly, in this case, the person conducting the meeting was like a maestro with an orchestra. Indeed, the leader’s role in a group Bible Study is just as important as an orchestra’s conductor.