Tangent Fighters

One thing that plagues many small groups is the tendency to veer off from the original conversation onto what eventually becomes a topic of complete irrelevancy. In short, a tangent!

Sometimes tangents can be great! In fact, a student in your group might open up based on a conversation that stemmed from a tangent. I would go as far as to say that the Holy Spirit leads some great conversations via the human inability to stay on topic. You might want to talk about honoring parents, but God wants to steer the conversation onto a topic of purity.

Then, of course, you have negative tangents. These are the tangents that are steered by pride, selfishness, or flat out distraction. This is the most common type of tangent in small groups. Someone will be opening up about something and a key word sparks a conversation from another student. The moment is ruined for the opening student and the rest of the group dives into a maze of conversations that lead to nowhere.

So here are three ways to be a Tangent Fighter

1. Be wise and recognize! Understand when a tangent is destructive or productive. It's easy. Was someone in the middle of talking about something important? Is the tangent important? Does it feel like the Spirit is leading the group or is it just up in the air?

2. Make it known. On the first day your group meets, make the tangent issue known. Let your students understand that veering off on a conversation is inevitable, but not okay in most cases. Tell them that it's nothing personal, but if the group goes off topic, you're going to steer right back.

3. Get them involved! Our group name is "The Tangent Fighters". It is known in our group that we easily slip into tangents. They also know that anyone can call, "TANGENT!" when the conversation begins to slide. This is great because the students who are notorious for tangents are typically the first ones to get the conversation back on track. When the students are given such a responsibility, they really take to it!

Always remember to be wise! Sometimes the Holy Spirit wants to lead a conversation and it may look like a useless tangent. I once bought a car that looked like a... oh wait, TANGENT!!!!