Facilitate an After Sunday Group

Facilitating an After Sunday Group

Elsewhere on the website we have offered ideas about how best to set up an After Sunday group to strengthen the connection with faith and daily life and work.

This section offers some helpful tips about how best to facilitate an After Sunday group using the downloadable resources from the After Sunday Resources Catalogue.

The downloadable resources provide participant worksheets and offer some additional notes for facilitators.  There is also an audio guide for facilitators that summarise some of the key issues to address during each session.

It is hoped that the role of the facilitator can be picked up by different group members as appropriate.

10 Tips for Effective Facilitation

1. The facilitators role is to stay in control of the process of discussion without controlling the content of the discussion and for ensuring the environment for the discussion is respectful, fair, open, secure and affirming
2. Always make sure the group members know each other at the start and have a clear time set aside for social activity and refreshment.
3. Ensure that everyone speaks early on and that everyone has a fair and equal amount of time to talk about their views.  Invite everyone to contribute and make it clear that everyone has a turn.  People learn so much from hearing the experiences of others. 
4. Listen attentively to everyone’s input and if appropriate pull out some main points to demonstrate that they have been heard.
5. Always seek to start discussions by exploring people’s experiences of the topic under discussion. 
6. Make sure you explain what your role is to the other members of the group and that you are not a ‘teacher’ who will impart knowledge or an ‘expert’ on the subject matter.
7. Don’t feel that you have to be an expert.  Other members of the group may know much more than you so ask others with expertise for their views.
8. Follow the process outlined on the downloadable worksheet and trust that it will address the issues whilst still feeling free to adapt it as you see fit.
9. Trust that the group already has the answer to most questions so don’t feel reluctant to ask them what they think
10. Make sure there is time at the end for the final ponder and reflection which needs to be shared within the group.