Dissertation

Training Small Group Leaders to Be Better Listeners for the Purpose of Caring Better for Their Small Group Members

Brown, Seth Andrew

2023

Overview

The act of one person purposefully and attentively listening to another person can positively impact both individuals. Listening helps people find common ground, develop empathy, and meet another person’s instinctive, relational needs. However, as modern society increasingly uses technology designed to create connection between people, many individuals are actually becoming more lonely and isolated. Additionally, the amount of information shared each day through social media platforms, the internet, and smart phones has caused people to be more distracted and less attentive. Many individuals struggle giving the time, focus, and concentration needed to effectively listen to others. People who yearn for someone to listen often have difficulty finding a listening ear.The project director believes that within the context of a church small group setting, small group leaders can use listening as a fruitful avenue for ministry for small group members experiencing difficulties and struggles such as stress and anxiety. When leaders comprehend the role humility plays in listening and apply strategic and purposeful listening practices within their relationships with small group members, individuals experience the concern, care, and understanding they seek. However, individuals intent on practicing quality listening behaviors must learn, develop, and consistently sharpen their listening skills.By developing a training module to help small group leaders of Faith Bible Church understand the need to listen more effectively to care better for small group members, the project director provided trainees with a biblical understanding of listening and applicable listening behaviors to learn and develop. The project director expresses the objectives for his ministry project in chapter one. In chapter two, the project director explores listening in the Bible by exegeting passages from Gen 1–3 and John 4:1–26, and he applies biblical listening principles to small group contexts. Next, within chapter three, the project director approaches listening from a cultural standpoint and explains the reasons many people fail to regularly listen to others, the role of humility plays in effective listening, and how developing certain listening habits can lead to consistent listening practices and deeper care and understanding of others. Lastly, in chapters four and five, the project director explains how he developed and implemented the listening trainings and evaluates the effectiveness of his modules on training participants.

• Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
• Subject: Biblical studies / Clergy / Educational leadership
• ISBN: 9798380852227