FAQ

Quite often a group of people come to our meetings and do nothing but cause trouble. We don’t want to throw them out but they really spoil things. what can we do?

Lots of groups face this at some time or other. Some of these tips may help:

• Make sure your meeting is well planned and run. If it’s chaotic anyway, you’re asking for trouble from people who want to give you a hard time!
• Don’t create a them-and-us situation. Mix people up. Sit amongst them rather than in little groups.
• Try not to lose your cool, even if you feel really mad. It will only encourage some people to be worse!
• Talk individually to the people causing hassle. Building a relationship with them is important and can make a real difference
• Don’t be afraid to ask for help – it’s not an admission of defeat.

*

We know lots of Christians in our school who never come along to our meetings. What can we do?

Ask yourself why they don’t come, and ask them as well. It may be that you meet at a bad time or that they don’t know it’s happening. Those reasons are fairly easy to deal with. On the other hand, they may feel that the group is unfriendly or they’re afraid to come. You may not feel that it’s like that, but others might, so have a good think about what it would be like to come if you were new to it.

Of course, people may feel that their witness can be more effective by being with their friends, say, or being involved in some other school activity. That’s good – a Christian group isn’t the only way of witness in school. But all of you are God’s people in your school, and it’s good to know who the others are. So why not set up an occasional meeting when all the Christians can meet? It could be out of school in an evening or at a weekend – even in the holidays.

*

Our group has been going well - we’ve got a good mix of Christians and people who are ‘just looking’. We’re a bit worried that the Christians will think it’s all too basic and the others will think it’s all too spiritual. Any thoughts?

Juggling two different sets of needs is hard. One approach is to talk to the Christians separately and try to get them to see the value of the group for other people. That way they can see that the reason for them being involved might be more about giving than receiving.

Another way is to look at the possibility of two types of group or style of meeting. This doesn’t have to mean double the meetings. You could, for example, alternate them. One week a just-looking-type meeting, the next something more focused on discipleship. And who knows, people might find that they get something important out of the meeting that they didn’t think was their style.