The secret sauce of small group leading

In the past I've lead lots of small groups to discuss the bible.

Including mixed years.
As single gender groups.
For teens.
For young adults.
On camps.
At youth groups.
At after-school groups.
In cafes.
During church services.

This Friday, for the first time in a long time, I'll be leading a small group.

With my awesome youth group leaders taking over this week, leaving me relatively in the dark as to what's going on and not giving the talk, I'll be with a group of rowdy junior boys.

So, I figure I should share my secret sauce for effective small group contribution.

In short, don't give the quick, smart or loud ones a chance to always answer first.

In fact, for most questions, they should have one of two disclaimers.

Either, the kids should chat to their neighbour about the answer to the question first and share what you came up with.

Or, they should be given a set amount of time - say ten seconds - to think about their answer and write something down.

Once one of these avenues have been used, then you can open the floor to contributions.

This way, the quick, smart and loud don't dominate the discussion or swamp others thoughts with their input.