I have an imaginary friend. She always knows exactly where I am. She talks to me. When I tell her where I want to go she not only gets me there, but gets me there in the shortest amount of time. If I make a wrong turn, she figures things out so that I get back on track. She even communicates with things out of this world. She’s American English Jill who speaks from my Garmin GPS.

I have a fear of getting lost. It’s a well founded fear, because it’s happened quite a bit due to the fact that I’m “directionally challenged.” I’ve collected quite a few maps over the years. They are full of an enormous amount of information—streets, highways, rivers, parks, and mountains. I love to study them. The problem is, all of this information doesn’t help me if I don’t know where I am in relationship to where I want to be. If I get lost, I don’t know where my starting point is on a map because I don’t know where I am. All of this information can’t get me anywhere.

On the other hand, my Garmin GPS always knows where I am in relationship to my destination. It guides me through left turns and right turns, all with the desired destination in mind. I trust it to get me where I need to be.

As a small group leader, I want to be more like my Garmin GPS than a map. I don’t want to merely be an information source. My role is to guide my group to the desired destination of life application. I want to be aware of my group members’ starting point so I can gently guide them through the twists and turns of our discussion and lead them toward transformation---not just fill their minds with information. My question will not be “Are people learning something?” I will ask, “Are people being lead someplace?” And I want to be lead right along with them.