Douglas Allison has a thought-provoking post on leading small groups, where he argues that there is a time not to give clear answers to people’s questions.
In particular, it is better to promote exploration than to explore answers. We do better to teach people how to think over teaching them what to think. And we can capitalize on their own questions to help them learn to ask even more and better questions.
Arriving at a conclusion but not necessarily resolution means that small group leaders can be ok leaving the students wondering at or puzzling over something. There does not always have to be a clean and clear answer to every question a student asks. In fact, it is often better for leaders to encourage further thinking and more discussion than to try to answer the question and move on.
Allison provides much helpful insight into our leadership of others in small group settings.
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