Do you know how to get from where you are to where you want to go? Have you figured out where you want to go? Some really good questions today as I worked through my talk: Getting to There: Building a dynamic small group ministry. Thanks to Randy Miller and Stephen Blandino for getting the word out! Great to see the new building too!
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Is your church ready for another all-church campaign? Maybe you saw the power of the 40 Days of Purpose or Community and you'd like to recapture that momentum. Or maybe you've only heard about the advantage of a church-wide campaign and you'd like your own congregation to experience that kind of unity. Maybe the closest thing you've experienced has been a well-designed capital campaign that energized your people and got them on the same page.
Off-the-Shelf Campaigns
No matter the motivation, if you're ready to plan and launch a church-wide campaign there are a couple ways you can go about it. You could take a look at an off-the-shelf campaign. We've written about a few of them right here.
Develop Your Own Campaign
Or maybe you've begun to think about developing your own; a home-grown effort. There are a number of ways to accomplish this goal.
Looking for a new church-wide campaign? Who isn't?!!
One of the results of campaigns like the 40 Days of Purpose is that many churches have woken up to the potential of supplying their small groups with material that accompanies their message series. Often referred to as an alignment, getting everyone in your congregation involved in the same thing provides a breakthrough opportunity for churches seeking to have impact. Although an increasing number of churches are producing their own small group material, there are some real advantages to using off-the-shelf campaigns:
Because of the tremendous potential of a campaign, there are more available now and more on the way! Some of the most interesting new campaigns are:
Have you heard about any others? Leave us a comment with the scoop!
When Carl George published Prepare Your Church for the Future in 1991 it was not the first book on small group ministry. In fact, at the time it came out there were already many books on the idea of gathering in community with a few others...for Bible study or prayer or accountability or care. If you've been around for a while, or have access to the library of someone who's been around for a while, you've seen other books that predate George's entry into the small group foray. But you really won't find many others that have been as influential.
The concept of the metachurch finds its roots in Prepare Your Church for the Future. At the time of its writing it meant the next step beyond mega, but not in the sense of size. More in the sense of organization. Although size was a factor in its necessity, the concept really unfolded on the realization that in order for churches to grow larger they must grow smaller (sound familiar?). Taking his cue from churches like the Yoido Central Full Gospel Church in Seoul, Korea, George proposed that the "organizational principles of a Meta-church allows a church to maintain quality, no matter how much numerical success it experiences (p. 53)."
What are the underlying assumptions on which the meta-church capitalizes? Take a look at these seven:
The question might be, "Why read it now?" After all, if it was published in 1991, isn't it pretty much out of date? The answer is "no". In fact, when you read Building a Church of Small Groups: A Place Where Nobody Stands Alone or Creating Community: Five Keys to Building a Small Group Culture your understanding will be enhanced because you'll be aware of some important foundational concepts that are found in the organizational structures of both Willow Creek and North Point.
Ready to add to your foundation? You can pick up your copy RIGHT HERE.
I'm frequently asked what can be done to improve the coaching in a small group ministry. Going back at least as far as Carl George's Prepare Your Church for the Future, it's been proposed that Jethro had it right and for Moses to try and take care of all of the people himself was crazy (see Exodus 18:13-25). From that key passage the important concept of "span of care" developed and with that understanding you can see why building a coaching structure is seen as crucial. So how can we improve what we have? Several ideas:
What's wrong with your coaching structure? Simple, it won't work unless you're applying the four keys of building an effective coaching structure.
"Span of care" is a term used to describe the number of people being cared for by someone. In Prepare Your Church for the Future Carl George proposed that while everyone needs to be cared for by someone, no one ought to be taking care of more than about ten. Looking at Exodus 18:13-25, George concluded that this would provide the maximum number of people any one person could realistically care for. He actually went on to say "research shows that ten people is usually too great a number for one person to nurture p. 125)."
What is the significance of span of care? There are several important elements:
"How can I take care of my small group leaders?" Ever asked that one? You're not alone!
There are at least two main schools of thought on this subject as I write. Neither solution is problem-free. But since there is no problem-free, it's simply a matter of choosing the set of problems/issues you'd rather have. Take a look:
(1) Faithful practitioners of the metachurch model of small groups would install a layer of care and coaching that would consist of a coach for every 5 small group leaders. The role of the coach would be designed to provide a frequent point of contact for each of their small group leaders. In well implemented systems the coach would serve as a mentor/discipler for each of their small group leaders. Rather than simply checking in on the leader, the coach would primarily be a kind of spiritual encourager...much as you'd hope your small group leaders would be to their members. Larger ministries would install a layer of leadership often called a Community Leader (or Division Leader) who would care for the coaches. In some cases this would be a staff person. Willow Creek's early implementation used a full-time Division Leader for every 10 coaches.
Issues: Finding the kind of person who will commit to investing their time as a coach is one part of the challenge. Even tougher? The arbitrary assignment of a small group leader to a coach is problematic. This is especially true when the assignment is attempted after the small group has been in existence for longer than about 3 months. If they've made it this long without your help...they will almost always resist the idea that they need what you're offering. Works much better when the assignment is made at the very beginning or where there is an existing relationship that has a mentoring quality.
(2) An alternative being attempted in some larger ministries is to eliminate the coaching layer and depend on Community Leaders to provide mentoring and care for small group leaders. North Point is an example of this strategy, using a full-time Community Leader for every 60 to 75 small groups. An alternative is being implemented at Saddleback where a part-time Community Leader is expected to provide a similar level of care to a smaller number of leaders.
Issues: To say nothing of the degree of difficulty of budgeting for this salary, it assumes that an ordinary person (not a vocational minister) can't have the skill sets or gift mixes necessary to serve in this capacity. The one thing they don't have is the time to care for 60 to 75. Can they take care of a smaller number? Absolutely!
Exciting day today at SmallGroupResources.net! Not every day that a new website launches. Pretty cool to see it. In addition, we've had our first sign-ups for Launching a Healthy Small Group Ministry! All in all...a great day. Thanks for coming along!
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