Asiana Airlines Flight 214 from Seoul, South Korea, crashed at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday, July 6th, 2013. 307 people entered the plane from ramps and exited on inflatable slides through the smoke and fire. Things like this really make me think. We place amazing trust in people we don’t know to take a 660,000lb plane, increase the speed to 165-212mph, turn down the flaps, lift off the ground, gain a cursing speed of 560mph, and reach a cruising altitude of 35,000 feet in the air. Let me remind you…we don’t know the pilot, copilot, the navigator, or the flight attendants. We trust their leadership because we trust their experience and education. We trust the integrity of the process of pilot training and hours in the air. But, in this case, Asiana Airlines lost its integrity with many passengers who will now choose other airlines for their future transportation needs. 

Small group leaders are different than airline pilots. Airline pilots have positional integrity based on their position, instruction, and experience. Small group leaders have integrity because of their spiritual consistency. If you are a small group leader, you have to earn integrity every day and every week. Once you lose that integrity, it is virtually impossible to turn the clock back. I’m not saying that you can’t regain integrity, but it will not happen overnight. 
 
Consistent weekly preparation
Small group leaders do the heavy lifting so their groups run smoothly each week. Leaders who consistently prepare have a high degree of integrity. When groups show up for a meeting, it is extremely important for the group meeting to be excellent EVERY week. This is the job of the leader. Unprepared leadership breeds unprepared groups. If a leader doesn’t prepare, why should group members prepare?
 
Consistent daily prayer life
Leaders who believe Ephesians 3:20, “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think,” should have a powerful daily prayer life with the expectation that God can and will do amazing things in and through their groups. As leaders pray, so do their groups. Leaders spend time praying privately so they can also effectively demonstrate praying publicly. Some group members may have a minimal prayer life, and a group leader’s demonstration of effective prayer can be encouraging to a group’s prayer life.  
 
Consistent weekly attendance
When a leader shows the importance of a weekly meeting, the group should follow. Leading by example is one of the best ways for a leader to develop integrity with the group. Absences are sometimes unavoidable, but a leader’s devotion to the weekly meeting will set the bar for the rest of the group. 
 
Consistent valuable advice
There will be times when a leader has to give advice to individual members of the group. In fact, this will probably happen each week. A leader’s preparation and prayer life will certainly help him/her when it comes to giving godly and practical advice. Leaders will give consistent and valuable advice when they spend time in Scripture because they will know and understand a biblical worldview more clearly.
 
Consistent spiritual walk
This is an area where many leaders struggle. One of the main reasons leaders struggle in this area is the same reason that many ministers struggle. When leaders are busy doing the work of ministry, sometimes they get so involved with the nuts and bolts preparation that you forget about the spiritual side of things. Leaders should work hard to spiritually walk consistently in private and public. A private spiritual walk apart from a public spiritual walk is suspect. Spiritually, who you are in private should be evident in your public life. When leaders have a consistent spiritual walk, they affect every member of their groups.  
As the leader goes, so goes the group. I want to challenge each small group leader to live a life of consistent excellence in your private, public, and professional lives. Building integrity is a lifetime endeavor, but losing it is a misguided decision and moment in time that you may never recover. Live your lives for the glory of God!