SmallGroupResources

Creating Community

Looking for a way to think about how to design your small group ministry? That might be the most helpful thing about Creating Community: Five Keys to Building a Small Group Culture. Although it's a short book (190 pages), it contains some very important keys to building a small group culture in your church. Most important? North Point's fundamental bias is to be intentional about the what and the how of everything they do. This is a huge lesson for the rest of us...one not to be missed.

Like the 7 Practices of Effective Ministry, Creating Community takes you sequentially through the process of making some challenging decisions as you begin to develop a small group ministry. Learning to ask three questions can provide a good foundation: (1) What do we want people to become?, (2) What do we want people to do?, and (3) Where do want people to go? These questions are all about "clarifying the win" and "thinking steps not programs" (two keys to the Seven Practices).

While Creating Community doesn't tackle how to take apart your existing program, it does a great job of providing a way of thinking about what a better approach might be. For all of us who are wrestling with systems that are less than effective, this is a good addition to the arsenal. At the same time, if you've got the tough work of taking apart a preexisting structure, you may want to consider John Kotter's Leading Change as a companion!

Join Me in the Journey!

This is a new day for me!  After four years as a small group consultant and coach with Lifetogether and 25 years in local church ministry...it's a new day and a new opportunity.  It's a little daunting, but at the same time I know this is what God has prepared me to do.  Helping the local church, no matter the size, tackle the challenges of creating a connecting community...that's it for me!

Ever look back at a trail and find yourself amazed at how far you've come?  That's how I feel these days.  When I first got my feet wet in ministry I didn't have very much of an idea about anything.  I remember that it just seemed like a good idea to let students lead and disciple other students and do it in small groups.  Of course, it didn't hurt that I ended up with Eric Swanson for an early mentor.

Actually, most of my ministry has been simply being in the right place at the right time...and being very curious about how things work, and might work better.  Aware of Rick Warren's beginning at Saddleback Church (primarily because I had been in a youth group with Kay Warren years earlier), I made it a point to listen in to a Focus on the Family interview with Rick and someone named Bill Hybels in 1987.  Amazing stuff.  Couple years later sat with Rick and some of his team in the balcony of the Crystal Cathedral and listened as Hybels talked about the strategy of Willow Creek Community Church.  Totally amazing stuff.

In 1991 I took my first group to Willow's Prevailing Church Conference.  Either by chance or providence, depending on your world view, I was there for Jim Dethmer's great talk on intentional focus.  When Jim was part of a two day conference in Los Angeles on leadership and vision called The Pastor's Toolbox I signed up immediately...and heard about Willow's transition to the Metachurch Model when the experiment was just beginning.  Again, it was an amazing thing to be right there.  Didn't plan it.  Just wanted to learn about leadership and vision.

Over the next few years I got to try the Meta thing out at churches like Faith Community Church and WoodsEdge Community Church.  Great places to learn about launching small groups and developing leaders.  So when I just happened to be involved in the early days of Fellowship of The Woodlands, all that I'd tried and tested up until that point came into play.  Over the next 7 years we saw the weekend attendance grow from about 1,500 to almost 10,000.  Amazing to be on the field when it happened.   The chance to develop a way of connecting people in a fast growing environment was priceless.  I've often said that I wouldn't trade those 7 years for anything.

It was also at Fellowship of The Woodlands that I had my first chance to work with Brett Eastman.  What a great opportunity!  To see up close and personal how it works when barriers are seen for what they really are...and aren't.  Another great experience.  Unplanned.  Unscripted.  Right place at the right time.

These last four years have been quite a ride.  Implementing the lessons of the 40 Days of Purpose in churches of all kinds around the country, testing new ideas about how people connect, and developing new ways to identify and encourage small group leaders...it's really been quite a ride.

And now it's time to take the next step in the journey.  My hope for SmallGroupResources.net is that it will be an encouragement to churches who are trying to build communities that are authentically connected.  Superficial is not the goal.  Life-change is the only thing worth working towards.

Should be a good ride.  Hope you'll come along.

Choosing Small Group Bible Study Material

You're ready to get your group going...or you're finishing the study you're in right now...and you're trying to figure out what to do next. We're all here eventually.  Now what?  Let me give you a few suggestions.

First, don't take a vote!  Especially when your group is new (within the first 6 months) taking a vote can lead to some unnecessary debate (and even disappointment when a nominated suggestion is not chosen). Instead, think about the members of your group and based on recent discussions choose a study that will help your group mature.

Second, taking the Purpose Driven Health Assessment can help your group determine which of the 5 Biblical purposes might need strengthening.  A great way to use this resource is to have each member of your group take the assessment and then simply add up their scores in each area.  You'll quickly see where you need help!

Third, make sure you're choosing material that is easy to use and leads to application.  Learning about the Bible is fine.  Learning how to apply what you're learning is really the point.  One thing I always look for is material that an average person can lead.  That means that it has a leader's guide (preferably built-in) and is mostly about facilitating and not teaching.  If you want an average person to be able to lead it, you'll need to focus on facilitating discussion and not teaching.  At the same time, a discussion is much more engaging than a lecture to your members.

Last, many groups find that a DVD-driven study capitalizes on a gifted teacher and allows the group leader to focus on keeping the group engaged and cared for.   Be careful that the material you choose doesn't require so much preparation that connecting with group members becomes an afterthought.

Essential Ingredients

In today's post, Craig Groeschel points us to the fact that people stay at small churches for two reasons: they feel needed and known.  Also, people leave large churches (in spite of all the reasons that attract them) for two reasons: they don't feel needed or known.

Hmmmmm.

Here's a drawing I often use to describe the situation.  The circle represents your total congregation.  The square, those who are connected in the sense that Groeschel talks about.  What needs to happen?  Figure out a way to help more people get into the square!

Exponential Outreach

Does who you invite to host a small group make a difference?  Clearly.  I've included a diagram that I hope will help you think through the question.  Take a look: 

 

Here's how to read it.  First, the circle represents your Easter or Christmas Eve attendance.  Most places that is the best attended service all year.  Even if you're not a big outreach church, you'll still have 130% of your average weekend.  If outreach is big for you, you'll have much higher.  The other thing the circle represents is all (or at least more) of the adults that might be in your auditorium over the course of an average month.  If you're like most of us, your people aren't there every Sunday.  They come 2 or 3 times a month.

Second, the square represents all the people who are connected at your church.  That is, the ones who are already in a small group, a Sunday school class, serving in a ministry, etc.

In the example, there are 2000 adults in the Easter services and there are 500 adults who are connected.  We don't know how many adults are there on average, but say lets say there are 1400.

Now, think about what happens when you invite someone from inside the square (connected) to host a small group.  If you ask them to invite their friends...who would they invite?  People from inside the square, right?  Isn't that who their friends probably are?  Other people from inside the square?

What if you invite the people who are barely connected to host a small group?  Who are they likely to invite?  Other people in the circle?  I think it actually would be people outside the circle!  Think about that!  What if everyone you asked to host a group invited 8 of their friends to join the study?  And what if those 8 came from outside the circle?  Oh, you'd have all kinds of problems.  But they'd be really good problems!

How Often Should We Meet?

I get asked this question a lot.  And it's a good question.  People ask it out of a genuine interest in doing the right thing.  Mostly it's asked by leaders or hosts of newer groups.  But it's also sometimes asked by group members who are hoping for a particular answer.

My answer is always the same.  Your goal should be "more often." That is, you should have a goal to meet more often.  Why?  Because the more often you get together, the more likely that your group will really form the kind of bond that produces life-change.  The reasons for it are fairly obvious, but let me list a few of them.

First, when you're just getting started it takes about 6 meetings for people to begin to feel like they're connected.  They've had enough exposure to each other to start to hear the real underlying truth.  And that's helpful.  But 6 meetings is still just 6 meetings, no matter how you slice it.  And that's not quite enough to really cement the connections that are beginning to develop.  It seems that it take 12 to 18 meetings for a deeper sense of familiarity to form; a commitment to each other and a willingness to make the group a priority.

A second reason for a more frequent meeting pattern is that when a person misses a meeting and their group is only meeting twice a month, it will be a full month before the group meets again.  That's too long!  They'll have to reintroduce themselves!  A sense of connection and a closeness that develops can quickly deteriorate if there are too many missed meetings.

Perhaps the most important reason for meeting more frequently is that we're designed by God for this kind of connection.  The idea that we would anonymously attend the weekend worship service and all it a week is not God's idea of the depth of commitment we ought to have with each other.  It is impossible to read the New Testament and not come away with the idea that we're to be deeply connected with each other. In fact, when the Apostle Paul wrote about it he often used words that described the way body parts were connected.

So the question might be, "how can we meet often enough to really connect in that way?"  Another might be, "how can our meetings have the kind of vitality that leaves me feeling I don't want to miss 'em!" Let's talk about that next.  For now, let's just say you need to meet frequently enough to be sure you're deeply connected.

Organic Community

Organic Community: Creating a Place Where People Naturally Connect

Looking for help in designing an environment that encourages authentic, lasting connections?  Organic Community by Joseph R. Myers could be just the ticket to help your congregation move in that direction.  In the same way I found Myers' previous book, The Search to Belong, both intriguing and irritating, there's a lot to be learned in his newest offering.  If you've ever attempted to follow someone else's master plan and found that it really didn't work in your setting, this will be a book that is both comforting and challenging.  Comforting in that it may explain some of the difficulties in porting a strategy into a new setting.  Challenging in that becoming an organizational environmentalist is not a problem-free pursuit.

This is a how-to book, "but not one with step-by-step instructions. These pages do not contain a secret master plan only now revealed. Herein is no promise of grand success.  This is a different kind of how-to book.  This is a book that discusses a transition of thought (from the introduction)."

Pointing us to the inherent problems of adopting another organization's strategy, Myers identifies nine organizational tools "that will help you discover whether you are following a master plan approach or an organic order approach."  This is a book that could easily be used to frame a very healthy discussion about vision and direction.  It may not fully persuade on every point, but it will definitely challenge your assumptions and provide a more thorough understanding of your environment.

Ready to get started?  You can order your copy RIGHT HERE.