Home Team Leaders

A great letter to Home Team leaders (and prospective leaders!) written by Dave Cotham, Associate Pastor of Home Teams at BAF...

Leaders,

I wanted to give a huge “Thank You” to all of you for hanging in there in leading your Home Team or other small group, even during these summer doldrums. I understand that some of you receiving this email are no longer leading a group, but, I also understand that doesn’t preclude you from starting another one in the future!

For those of you who have been leading a group for a while, you already understand all the difficult and frustrating times that go along with it:
like calling dozens of referrals, leaving messages, and not getting anyone to answer,
like calling dozens of referrals and finally getting a few to say they will attend, only to not show up,
like having people attend once and then never hearing from them again.

But, for those of you who have been leading a group for a while, you will also remember the times when you felt the Holy Spirit flowing through the group and saw lives truly transformed through the love and trust that was shared there. If you haven’t experienced that yet,,, just hang in there, it will happen, if you continue to open your home and truly open your hearts. I know from experience that the lives that will be transformed the most are the ones of the people leading the group. Christ came to serve and we experience His Love most when we emulate Him by serving.

Since Bay Area Fellowship is a church that reaches out to pagans, heathens, and scoundrels, (I know I fell into all of those categories at one time or another), we can expect some of the same qualities that surround those character types to be reflected in those considering joining a Home Team or other ministry. That means we should expect them to not answer, not show up, and then not come back again. But the great thing about it is when one of these lost soul’s heart gets touched by the love of Christ, demonstrated by you and your group, an incredible transformation can take place. (Again, I speak about this from experience).

I want to ask each of you to please just take a moment and thank God that He has poured out His Mercy, His Grace, and His Love upon your life and has found you worthy to open your home and offer to feed His flock. No one ever said it was going to be easy, most of the things that are truly worthwhile in this life are not easy. But I can assure you that if you hang in there and persevere, it will be rewarding, to you, and to those who God brings your way.

Home Teams are about relationships, and I would bet that you aren’t batting 100% on the other relationships in your life either. It takes some chemistry, some effort, and some of God’s blessings to have a relationship that is something special. Odds are you made some calls, had some no shows, and had a few that didn’t work out in your other relationships also. But I hope you didn’t give up. Because those special, God ordained relationships are out there. We just have to be determined enough to find them. Also, consider this, the enemy would like nothing more than to cause as much frustration and discouragement as possible to deter you from finding those relationships that would draw you and others closer to God. So don’t give him even one small victory, hang in there, keep trying, keep calling, and keep praying.

We will be trying to do our part here to help. We don’t try to do a lot of new things during the summer, simply because it’s SUMMER. Our efforts would not show much fruit during a time when people’s schedules are even more hectic than usual. But we are gearing up to start promoting Home Teams and other ministries again for the fall and to encourage new leaders and enlist new referrals. We will be letting everyone know what we have coming up and I will be asking a few of you out there to help me with some things, so once more, “Thank You” and I look forward to working with you to continue to grow this awesome ministry.
Please let me know if I can help you in any way.
Blessings, Dave