How to change an established group

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Here are a couple of excerpts from a good article about change in your small group.  It is written specifically for small group leaders.  As I was reading through the article I kept thinking about how true these things are and how much I believe them.
Gospel growth EQUALS change for God's glory.
Gospel  growth DOES NOT EQUAL maintaining status quo for comfortablity.

Yet the gospel equals change even for the most established and highly functional groups.  This is because the gospel and change go hand in hand.  Paul wrote in Colossians how the gospel has gone into the whole world and "is bearing fruit and increasing" (Col. 1:6).  For the Colossians, this meant more people believing and more believers growing in maturity.  For Paul, this gospel growth meant a life of almost constant change as he traveled from place to place an sent away dear friends such as Titus and Tychicus for gospel ministry (2 Tim. 4:10-12).  The gospel and change go hand in hand. 

For us today this means that gospel-driven change will sometimes or often be necessary for our established groups.  It could be because the regular leader has gone to Bible college or on overseas mission or because new people have joined your church and new groups are needed or because a new ministry has started and people are keen to be involved.  There's all sorts of ways the gospel compels us to change our groups.

Here are four practical tips to help make changes well and overcome obstacles.  These are just the main points the full article develops each in more detail:

1. Respect and work closely with the pastor or leader who wants to change things.
2. Preach the gospel to your group.
3. Grieve the losses and celebrate the opportunities.
4. Work with your pastor to manage the change as best you can.

Click HERE for the entire article.