As December begins, there are several things you can do to help your group survive the holidays.
Now, you might be thinking, “
That sounds pretty serious! Survive the holidays? Isn’t that being a little dramatic
?” I don’t think it’s overly dramatic at all.
Why not? It might be easy to finish a study before Thanksgiving and say to each other, “See you in January!” You wouldn’t think it, but the holidays are four or five pretty precarious weeks. In my experience, this period is second only to the summer in small group mortality.
4 Keys to Surviving the Holidays
There is a solution. And it’s not to just keep meeting! After all, people are travelling. There are family commitments and office parties. There is just a lot going on. But there are four things you can do to help your group survive. Here they are:
- Choose the study you'll do next before you break, and preview one session. Doing so could make a big difference by increasing enthusiasm toward what you'll study next.
- Plan a Christmas party for your group! Why not have a potluck dinner or a Christmas dessert night? Do an ornament exchange or a white elephant gift exchange. Whatever you do, find a fun reason to meet.
- Figure out a way to serve together in December. Whether your group sings Christmas carols at a nearby retirement home or serves as a group for a Christmas Eve service, there is something about stepping up to do something for someone else that brings a group together.
- Pull out your calendars and schedule your first meeting in January. This might seem like overkill, but if you’ll all agree on the date of your first meeting in January, your group is much more likely to survive.
