Mark's Blog

The 10 Worst Small Group Study Guides

Ok...Carter is crazy...but this is too good to ignore.  Looking for your next small group study?  Don't pick from the 10 Worst Small Group Study Guides.

Walking the Small Group Tightrope

One of the challenges in small group ministry is coming up with practical leader training.   There's just not a lot out there...and what is out there is not always the nuts and bolts of becoming a better small group leader.  One exception?   Walking the Small Group Tightrope by Bill Donahue and Russ Robinson.

The first thing that struck me about this little book is that in some ways it's a more detailed continuation of Leading Life-Changing Small Groups.  Taking six very important leadership tensions and breaking them down with illustrations and practical take-aways, this is a book that you could use to enhance your leader development.

The six tensions covered in Walking the Small Group Tightrope are:

• Truth vs. Life
• Care vs. Discipleship
• Friendship vs. Accountability
• Kindness vs. Confrontation
• Task vs. People
• Openness vs. Intimacy

See where this goes?  Using the metaphor of a tightrope to frame the discussion, Donahue and Robinson share personal leadership experiences that make the issues very clear and then lead to next steps.  As the authors point out,

Small groups cannot thrive by focusing on either end of the continuum.  They cannot choose friendship over accountability, kindness over confrontation, or task over community.  Rather, effective life-giving small groups must embrace both ends of the continuum, in healthy opposition, and walk the tightrope between them toward authentic community and life-change (p. 21).

One of the most helpful features of the book is that each of the six tensions is supported and enhanced by a group exercise; taking it beyond information to application.  This is an important step and makes Walking the Small Group Tightrope a resource you ought to own and incorporate into the ongoing development of small group leaders in your ministry.

4 Keys to Launching Healthy Small Groups

There are four essential ingredients to a preliminary discussion about launching healthy small groups off an event (like Easter).  They may sound oversimplified...but these are the keys:

• Begin with the end in mind
• Recruit a solid hundred-fold team to a 10 to 13 week commitment
• Choose a curriculum that is easy to use
• Give every new small group something to do next that is similar in kind...by week 4

If you're joining us for today's teleconference, here are the links I mention:

• Circle and Square
• Easy/Hard Continuum
• How to Build an Effective Coaching Structure
• Launching a Healthy Small Group Ministry

The Easy/Hard Continuum

All topics are not created equally.  Know what I mean?  Whether you're talking about a weekend message series or small group curriculum, the topic you choose determines some things right away.  If you think about it, you can see that certain topics would have great appeal to your church members but might repel their neighbors.  Other topics might be very appealing to seekers but seem too simple for long-term believers.  With me?

So the question is, "How do you determine what topic makes the most sense when you're designing an alignment?"  I've found what I call the Easy/Hard Continuum a good way to understand the challenge.

What's it mean?  A topic that  belongs on the "easy" end is one that would be easy to invite my neighbor to talk about (whether it's a weekend message series or a small group study).  Think 40 Days of Purpose.  At its peak it was easy to invite your neighbor because everyone had heard about the Purpose Driven Life.  Right?  Other topics on the easy end might be stress, relationships, marriage, etc.  You get the idea.

What about the "hard" end?  Do a six-week series on hell or judgment and see how easy it is to get your members inviting their friends.  That is why it's called the "hard" end of the continuum.

What can you learn?  If you're putting together an all-church alignment and you want your members to invite their friends...better choose from the "easy" end.  You're leaving a lot on the table if you don't.  For more on this see my post on exponential outreach.  On the other hand, if you're trying to deepen your members or lead them through a capital campaign...ok to go with a series that is a little harder.  Let's be clear though, it doesn't make sense to overlook this important understanding.

Eric and Carter

 

Had a great lunch with Eric Metcalf and Carter Moss of Community Christian Church on Friday!  They're making it happen in Chicago (at nine locations).   Lots of cool things happening there.  I've been a fan of Dave Ferguson's blog for a while now.  These guys are cut from the same cloth.  Great to learn from and be with.

Check out their their site for some great resources!

Join Us for a Free Taste of Coaching!

Looking for a way to jump-start your small group ministry?  With an early Easter this year (March 23) you can launch some new groups and give them almost 10 weeks before they get to summer.  That's big!  Don't miss this chance to launch groups and connect additional people!

Want some help taking this important step?  Join us for Take Advantage of Easter to Launch Groups, a FREE taste of one of our teleconference coaching modules.  This will be an action-packed hour...you won't want to miss it.  We'll be talking about the 4 Keys to Launching Healthy Small Groups and the Secrets of Developing an Effective Launch Timeline.  Want to come along?  Click Here to Sign Up for the Call!

 

Balancing the 5 Purposes

One of the distinctives of the purpose-driven small group strategy is that healthy groups balance the 5 purposes.  Now, you may not think of your church as purpose-driven...that's ok.  You don't have to think of your church that way to benefit from an understanding of the benefit of this idea.

So what does it mean in a group to balance the 5 purposes?  Here it is.  If you think about the experience of most of the small groups you've ever been in, you probably will remember a subtle drift toward longer times hanging out in the kitchen eating chips and salsa, possibly good discussions about the Bible around the coffee table, and not a lot else.  Oh, you may have begun with the idea that you'd like to serve together in some outreach opportunity, but in most groups the gravitational pull toward fellowship with a very small twist of discipleship is too strong to overcome.

Is there any hope?  Or are groups just doomed to settle for the fellowship and discipleship tango?  Actually, it is possible and many churches are very effectively implementing the idea of balancing the purposes.  It takes intentionality, but it can be done.  Here's how.

You may remember having a new tire balanced at the tire shop.  As the tire spins on the balancing equipment, the technician is able to see where additional weight needs to be placed in order for balance to occur.  See where this is going?  In the same way, balance comes not by giving equal time to each of the purposes, but by placing greater emphasis on the parts that need added weight.  Make sense?

So, for balance to occur in your group you may need to spend more time and energy on the purposes that don't naturally draw you attention.  Attending a worship experience together, tackling an outreach project in your community or serving in an on-campus ministry are all elements that will help "balance" the natural drift toward an over-emphasis on the purposes that come so easily to most of us.

What's your next step?  Taking the Purpose Driven Life Health Assessment allows your group members to see what their strengths and weaknesses are.   It's a free download.  You can take advantage of it RIGHT HERE.

Externally Focused Small Groups

What is a win for your small groups?  Is it a win if they simply meet regularly?  Are you hopeful that they'll do more than just eat chips and salsa together?  Maybe you're really hoping that the small group is actually a delivery system that leads your members in the direction of real spiritual growth?  Maybe in an effort to combat the natural drift toward a focus on fellowship and discipleship, you're intentionally designing the experience of your groups to include some kind of balance between the 5 purposes (fellowship, discipleship, ministry, mission and worship)?

Many churches are moving in the direction of developing an External Focus.  In order to complete the move you'll need to become much more intentional about developing Externally Focused Small Groups.  One of the best resources I've found is this article by Krista Petty.  Packed with great examples of churches that are already implementing the idea, it will help your small group ministry move with intention.

Ready to check it out?  You can download a copy of the article RIGHT HERE.
 

How Healthy Are Your Newest Groups?

New small groups are like babies.  They need certain things in order to survive.  There are also simple things you can look for to determine their level of health.

Human babies are evaluated on five simple criteria on a scale from 0 to 2 to determine health.  Appearance (skin color), Pulse (heart rate), Grimace (reflex irritability, Activity (muscle tone), and Respiration (breathing).  Often called an APGAR test for short. Every baby is given the test within minutes of birth. Why? The beginning moments in a baby’s life are fragile and every precaution is taken to ensure that they get what they need.

Your baby groups have survival needs to. Here are five simple criteria you can use to determine the health of your baby groups:

BEFORE WE GO ANY FURTHER: My recommendation is that you develop a quick way of evaluating your new groups based on each of the five criteria. Don’t make it complicated. A simple checklist will do. Then you’ll have an easy way of paying attention to vital signs.

NOW, BACK TO THE ARTICLE:

The first criterion has to do with the qualities of the leader. Many times the acronym F.A.T. is used to evaluate this essential piece. Are they faithful? As I often say, launching a new small group is not a sprint. It’s a marathon. Feels like a sprint in the first hundred yards. That’s only the start of the race. What happens 6 to 12 weeks into the life of a new group is important, but it’s only the start. Is the new leader faithful to do the minimum things that must be done?

Next, are they available? It’s one thing to commit to opening your home for six weeks. It’s another thing to actually follow through and call a hurting group member the next day. Part of what makes a healthy small group is that it is more than a 90 minute experience. It’s becoming part of a body. That requires availability.

Last, are they teachable? It will not be unusual for an expert in small group leadership to offer to lead a group. Teachability is not a nice extra thing to have. The absence of teachability should scream code blue.

Admittedly, how leaders are selected in your church will determine how much is already known. For example, when you’ve identified a new leader based on an existing relationship, such as an apprentice, you’ll already know them well. On the other hand, when you’ve taken volunteers, as in the HOST method, or the group has chosen their own leader, as in the Connection method, you may only have the beginnings of a relationship with them. Evaluating each of your leaders on this criterion, even in their first few weeks, will help you ensure the health of your newest groups.

A second very important criterion is a meaningful connection with a coach or a mentor. Meaningful is the key. An “accounting” approach is not the idea. Simply assigning a “coach” to a “leader” will not do the trick. Meaning is not immediate, but with the right approach can be developed in most cases.

A meaningful connection between coach and leader has proven to be both a very difficult thing to ensure and an essential ingredient of survival for most new groups. “Difficult to ensure” because it often requires a kind of arbitrary assignment (you have three coaches and 15 new groups so you sort of “deal out” five group leaders to each coach). That only occasionally leads to meaningful connection. “Essential ingredient” because without a coach or a mentor you’re asking the new leader to survive based only on what the group provides in a kind of mutual care format (a kind of “we all care for each” arrangement).

Can a new group survive without a meaningful connection with a coach or mentor? Some do, but it requires a much higher degree of self-reliance on the part of the leader, making it much less likely that you’ll find the leaders you need. You can recruit leaders much more broadly if you’re able to deliver this kind of coaching. Looking for help recruiting and developing a coaching team that works? Take advantage of our upcoming short-course Building An Effective Coaching Structure.

A third criterion has to do with the size of the group. While there isn’t any absolute formula (I’ve seen some great groups with 3 or 4 men and some really vital groups with as many as 16 to 20), it’s tough for many groups to survive without 8 to 10 active members. For a group to feel like a group, they need to be able to meet even if the Smiths are out of town. If you’ve got two or three couples it only takes one unforeseen circumstance to keep the group from meeting. If you’ve got eight to ten people, a couple folks can miss and the meeting goes right on as planned.

A fourth criterion for baby group survival is that their next curriculum has been chosen and that it is similar in kind. This may seem to be a trivial thing, but don’t leave it to chance. Start talking about what’s next no later than week four of the initial curriculum. Let your coaching solution get the word to your new leaders. The same week have your Senior Pastor mention the next curriculum from the pulpit if possible.

Why not let the group decide? New groups can wait a few more weeks before they add the pressure of working through which study gets chosen and which doesn’t.

It’s also very important to make sure that the next study is “similar in kind” to the launching study. Groups that attempt to go straight from a “just-add-water” DVD-driven curriculum to a study that requires more leader preparation will quickly find themselves in over their heads. Better to be more directive in the infant stage to ensure survival.

The fifth criterion is an understanding of the upcoming calendar. A fast approaching natural barrier to community (like summer vacation or the Thanksgiving/Christmas, New Year’s holidays) can be a very difficult challenge for new groups. Help your newest groups make it through these natural barriers by being proactive. A Christmas party or a summertime strategy that incorporates a fun get-together every few weeks can make a real difference in the health and viability of new groups.

 What to do now? Pull out your list of new small groups and make a few notes on each one based on these five criteria. How do they look? What might you need to do in order to help them make it through their infant stage? Not sure? Take advantage of our FREE Small Group Ministry Assessment.  Email Us or call to get started 888-438-9515, ext. 801.  Be sure and mention our FREE Small Group Ministry Assessment.

An Early Easter = Great Opportunity!

Have you taken a look at your calendar yet?  Easter is very early this year.  March 23.  That's important for two reasons.  First, it's only 5 weeks away!  But I'm sure you knew that already.  The second reason that's important is that an early Easter leaves almost 10 weeks before summer hits...and that is huge from a "launching small groups" perspective.

Quick lesson in small group theory?  The two best times to launch small groups are late September/early October and late January/early February.  Why?  That gives your new groups a longer run before they hit the perilous holiday season or the dog days of summer.  Both of those seasons are tough on newly connected small groups.  In the case of a new group, absence does not make the heart grow fonder.   On the other hand, groups that have been together longer than about 12 weeks (or two six-week series) have developed enough connective tissue to be more likely to want to get back together.

What's the moral of that story?  The longer a group's been together when they hit an extended stretch of not meeting, the more likely they are to miss their group members and to want to get started meeting again!

Enough theory.  Now back to Easter.

An early Easter gives you a chance to prepare to launch some new small groups.  You've got 5 weeks to work in planning and promotion.  It also gives you 10 weeks after Easter to get groups almost to the 12 week threshold.  A little bit of strategy in the last week or two and you can help them meet enough over the summer to stay connected.  It's a beautiful thing!

Launching Healthy Small Groups

Need a little help developing the plan?  Let us help you!  Join us on Wednesday, February 27th at 10:00 am (PST), 1:00 pm (EST) for Take Advantage of Easter, a FREE introduction to our telecoaching services.  You will learn:

• 4 Keys to Launching Healthy Small Groups
• How to develop the launch timeline

Click Here  to take advantage of this FREE offer and sign up.  Space is limited.  Don't miss out!

How to Build an Effective Coaching Structure, Part One

Building an effective coaching structure is one of the great challenges of small group ministry. Every church wrestles with it. And I mean every church. I’ve not found a church yet that really has it figured out. They may have a solution that works for them…but it’s not a problem-free solution. It’s just the best they can come up with right now.

Open the floor for questions at any small group conference and questions about coaching are always among the first to be asked.

• “Where do you find good coaching candidates?”
• “How do you introduce coaching to an existing small group ministry?”
• “What do I do if my small group leaders don’t want a coach?”
• “What does a coach do?”

Good questions. Great questions! Maybe you’ve asked them. They really are good questions. So good that I’ve decided to begin a series that will answer them one at a time. We’re also launching a new four-week coaching mini-program called Building an Effective Coaching Structure, designed to help churches take this important step.

First “What” Then “Who”
With apologies to Jim Collins, you’ve got to start with the question, “What do you want your coaches to do?” Admittedly, there is a great temptation to start with the question: “Where do you find good coaching candidates?” That is a question that many churches struggle with and it is a key question. But before you tackle it, I think you have to start with a very clear understanding of what you want your coaches to do. In other words, before you can think about the “who” question, you better spend some time thinking about the “what”. So, what do you want your coaches to do?

Let’s acknowledge right away that a few minutes with a blank sheet of paper could produce a fairly complete job description. You might already have one! Maybe it includes things like: encourage leaders, visit their groups, keep track of what’s happening in groups, help with problem-solving, train leaders, mentor leaders, serve as a link between staff and small group leaders. You could easily end up with a one or two page job description. But would that help you find good coaching candidates?

It might…but truthfully, sometimes it might make it a little harder. I actually think a one liner might get you closer to the essence. Clarifying what a win is for each of your coaches in a single sentence may seem like a minor thing. In fact, it’s a huge thing. I love what Andy Stanley says about the importance of clarifying the win in his book The 7 Practices of Effective Ministry. He says when it comes to staff expectations you ought to be able to boil down a job description to a one sentence version.

So here’s the question: “How would you summarize the role of a coach…in a single sentence?”

Single Sentence Job Description for a Coach

Here’s mine for a small group coach: “A Small Group Coach needs to do to and for their small group leaders whatever you want small group leaders to do to and for their members.”

Need a translation? If you want your small group leaders to be praying for their members…you better have someone doing that for your leaders. If you want your small group leaders to help their members grow spiritually, and you believe that people can only give away what they’ve personally experienced…then someone better be building into the individual lives of your small group leaders. If you want your small group leaders to help their members take spiritual next steps…then you better have someone helping your leaders take spiritual next steps.

“A Small Group Coach needs to do to and for their small group leaders whatever you want small group leaders to do to and for their members.”

Think about that statement. The “what” question is the essence of the job description, and “what” comes before “who”. So if we’re clear on what a coach needs to do, we can move on to where do you find good coaching candidates because that is another way of asking the “who” question.

After What, Then Who

So once you’ve developed your own one sentence way of talking about what a coach needs to do you’re ready to start thinking about “who”. And before we go any further I need to make sure that we’re on the same page about a key concept. Here the short version: Wishful thinking won’t get the job done.

Here’s the long version: Only the right people are legitimate candidates for the coaching role. Recruiting the right people will require sacrifice. You will be tempted to compromise by filling the position with warm and willing instead of hot and qualified. Wishful thinking won’t get the job done.

Let’s break that down:

Only the right people are legitimate candidates for the coaching role. Clearly they must be able to do the “to and for their leaders” part. If they don’t have that capability, you’re not talking with the right people. You need to be able to envision them actually having that kind of relationship with the small group leaders in your system. Can you see it?

Recruiting the right people will require sacrifice. Serving is a zero sum game. In other words, we all have a finite amount of time and energy. If you find a potential coach, but they’re already serving in another ministry, they may not have time to wear two hats. In fact, if you’re really serious about the importance of your small group ministry, the coaching role will need to be the biggest hat they have on. Moving to a different seat on the bus always means getting up out of the seat you’re in right now. Feel the tension?

You will be tempted to compromise by filling the position with warm and willing instead of hot and qualified. It will seem easier. The leaders of other ministries won’t feel threatened. You will feel like you’re helping more people get in the ministry game. If you want the right people you will have to resist this temptation. Warm and willing might seem good enough…but it isn’t.  Only hot and qualified delivers.

Wishful thinking won’t get the job done. You’ve been given the assignment. Build a small group system that where no one stand alone. Help us become a church of small groups. Lead us to become the kind of church where people organically connected in community. Don’t miss this point. Wishful thinking won’t get the job done. If you want to go to any of these places…you’ll need a coaching system that finds a way “to do to and for their small group leaders whatever you want small group leaders to do to and for their members.”

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Looking for a New Church-Wide Campaign?

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:

• You'll benefit from higher production values than you could develop in-house
• Your energies can be directed to implementing the campaign
• Available campaigns often feature plug-and-play marketing materials (mailers, banners, bulletin shells, invitations, etc.)
• There is often a higher level of creativity in the design and presentation

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:

• Why? (a church-wide 40-day campaign focused on evangelism and apologetics)
• Made (reveals insights about spiritual gifts, serving, and making a difference)
• Live Like You Were Dying (a 30-Day campaign based on the Grammy award winning song)
• One Month to Live (a 30-Day Campaign based on a new book by the same name)
• Nothing's Too Hard For God (built around 8 needs that people struggle with today)

Have you heard about any others?  Leave us a comment with the scoop!

Prepare Your Church for the Future

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:

1. Churches of the future will be committed to making more and better disciples.
2. Churches of the future will be more concerned with the size of the harvest than with the capacity of their facilities.
3. Churches will be known primarily as caring places rather than as teaching associations.
4. Pastors will genuinely encourage ministry by the laity, despite centuries of modeling to the contrary.
5. Lay ministry assignments will involve leadership of a group.
6. Laity, given the opportunity, will invest time, energy, and money to learn the skills required to do a competent job of pastoring.
7. Pastors and people will remain dependent on the Holy Spirit to make His gifts available for mutually edifying one-another ministry.

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.

The Four Keys of an Effective Coaching System

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:

• First, you need to have the right people in the role.  Can't be someone who simply likes the title.  Has to be someone who is a leader.  If you want them to have any chance of influencing your small group leaders there's no getting around this part of the job description.  And don't be fooled here.  Having the wrong person is worse than not having anyone.  They've also got to want to invest their time in this role.  You're looking for actual commitment.  Not words only.
• Second, try people out in the role BEFORE you give them the title!  Do this wherever possible.  Take someone you think would make a good one and ask them to invest in a new small group leader or two.  Easy to pull them in on this idea.  Give it a time limit.  "Would you help me for the next 8 weeks?  Just need you to help these new small group leaders get off to a good start."  Then you model for them what to do.  If they do it and if they're both fruitful and fulfilled doing it...then sit down with them and formally recruit them to the role.
• Third, when you recruit them, use an actual job description.  Don't minimize what you need from them.  Don't downplay how much time you think it will take.  Be honest and ask for their commitment.
• Last, add this ESSENTIAL INGREDIENT: If you want your coaches to invest in the small group leaders they're assigned to you must be giving to them what you want them to give their leaders...and nothing less.

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

"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:

• It is a reminder that one person can't possibly care for more than 10 small group leaders.
• It can help determine the number of coaches (or Community Leaders) you must have in order to adequately care for your small group leaders.
• It can force ministry leaders to be on the lookout for the next wave of "leaders of leaders."

Leadership Structure

"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!

Secrets of a Successful Small Group Launch

Want the scoop on how to launch small groups? Who doesn’t! After all, groups do more than provide the “optimal environment for life-change.” They also provide a very effective delivery system for ministry and mission.

So then the question might be, “How can you get groups going in a way that has the best chance of succeeding?”

And let’s come right out and say that there are lots of ways to get small groups going. But that’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about getting them going in a way that has the best chance of succeeding…in a big way.

So how will we do it? First, a disclaimer: In order for this strategy to work, your pastor’s commitment is absolutely essential. No getting around it. Without your senior pastor’s buy-in this plan is not effective. With that understanding, here are the five steps to a successful small group launch.

Step One: Schedule a weekend message series that passes the following tests:

• At a strategic time (late January/early February, post-Easter, late September/early October).
• On the right subject (a topic that is genuinely easy to invite friends to attend).
• For the right length (Six weeks is just right).

Step Two: Align a small group curriculum with your upcoming weekend message series that passes the following tests:

• Curriculum is a “good-enough” match to the weekend series. If 40 Days of Purpose was a “one-for-one” match, this has to be at least thematically aligned.
• Easy to use. Preferably a DVD-driven study that only requires an open home and someone to push play.

Step Three: Ask your members (and regular attendees) to consider opening their home to host a group. If you’ve met the conditions of Step 1 and 2 they should be open to the idea. When you ask them follow these guidelines.

• Ask them in the context of a sermon, NOT an announcement. 
• Put together two or three sermons that talk about God’s heart for unconnected people (Matthew    9:36, 2 Kings 7:3-9, etc.). Use these messages as an opportunity to invite your congregation to open up their homes and host a group.
• Give your congregation a way to respond to the invitation in the service (an insert to be filled      out is the best way).

Step Four: Provide an adequate level of coaching for your newest leaders and begin as soon as they respond.

• Invite them to attend an orientation where they can learn about what they volunteered to do.
• Connect them with a coach at the orientation.
• Use the coaches to establish and maintain weekly contact with every host.

Step 5: Give your new groups something to do next that is similar in kind.

• You’ve invited your congregation to “just open their home” and provided a curriculum that is      easy to use. What you give them to do next must have a very similar degree of difficulty.
• Let your new leaders know what is next by week three of their first study.
• Give any preexisting small group leaders the option to go back to their previously scheduled programming.

Ready to launch small groups in a way that has the best chance of succeeding…in a big way? Just follow the five steps.  If you need more help, you may want to check out our new coaching module: Launching a Healthy Small Group Ministry.   

Give Your Group a Great Start in 2008

Ready to think about helping your small group have a better experience in 2008? It’s that time again! Time for all good groups to get going! And get going on the right foot.

There are several important keys to getting off to a great start in the new year. First, if you didn’t already set a date to get back together, do that today!  Doesn’t mean you have to meet this week, or even next. Just means that you need to set a date and get the word out. The sooner the better!

Second, make sure your first meeting has a little bit of a party feel. Food is very important. This is an opportunity to get everyone involved in bringing something. In fact, making sure that every member is responsible for something helps ensure that they’ll all be there. Much less likely to miss the meeting if they’re bringing the guacamole! Do it however you’d like. Make it a theme night (Mexican, Italian, hamburgers or dessert) or keep it simple and make it “bring your favorite dish to share,” just make sure that you get all of your members on board to bring something.

Third, take advantage of the time around the dinner table to help your group talk about where they’ve been and what they’ve done over holidays. A few really helpful starter questions are:

• What was the most memorable thing that happened?
• What was the biggest disappointment?
• What are you looking forward to in 2008?

Don’t miss the fact that some of your members have had a tougher holiday experience than others. Be on the lookout for opportunities to stop and pray for anyone that shares something that calls for prayer. Also, if you’re ready to kick-start the conversation it will make it easier for everyone to jump in!

Fourth, as you begin 2008 it is a great time to renew your group agreement. You’ll find small group agreements (or covenants) in the appendix of many studies today. Taking some time to walk through one with your group will give everyone a chance to refresh their commitment to the group values and the simple basics that make groups healthy. Be sure and check out The Power of a Small Group Agreement for more on this idea.

Last, especially if you’re preparing to launch a new study, this can be a great chance to invite a few unconnected friends to join the group! Many people have already resolved that this is going to be the year that they work on building a few new relationships. Why not help them take the first step!

The Power of a Small Group Agreement

Ever play on a winning team?  Participate in a group that really came together and was somehow better together than any sum of the individuals ought to have been?  There's something about that, isn't there?  The whole concept of stacking hands and agreeing that in order to be the best we're going to have to do it a certain way.

Here’s the thing…in the same way that team had had a way of doing things, your group can too. In fact, you do have a way…even if you don’t know it; even if you didn’t plan it!

Why not take advantage of the beginning of a new year to get your group talking about what’s next? And there’s no better way to do that than to pull out a small group agreement or covenant and talk through your hopes for the new year.

What should you talk about? Two basic ideas:

• What are your values?
• What are your expectations?

What Are Our Values?

When you’re working through the values of your group, we suggest that you talk about the following values:

• Group Attendance: Even if my      boss offers tickets to the big game, I know the group meeting has      priority.
• Safe Environment: Our members      will feel loved and heard because there won’t be quick answers, snap judgments,      or simple fixes.
• Confidentiality: Obvious…but      necessary. What happens in the      group stays in the group.
• Spiritual Health: The goal is      not just attendance! It’s that over      time we’d become more like Christ.
• Inviting People: It’s not just      us! We’ll be on the lookout for      ways to include new people when appropriate.
• Shared Ownership: Good groups      involve the whole group in the action. Rotating facilitators, moving the meeting to different group      member’s homes, allowing everyone to play a role…these things predict a      better group.
• Spiritual Partners: No getting      a round it, if there are more than three of us the path to growth comes      through pairing up for accountability and encouragement. It may be a new practice…but it is a      healthy one.

You may arrive at additional values. There’s no magic list. The key is to spend some time working on this if you want your group to be healthy.

What Are Our Expectations?

This is simpler…but just as important. These are the basic ingredients of our small group life.

• When will we meet? Not just the day but the time that we start and stop. Agreeing on this is a big detail. It allows our group to honor the value of group attendance.
• What will we do about the kids? Figuring out a childcare solution is an important key.
• What will we eat? It may not be all about the food, but agreeing on what we’ll eat can keep us on the right track.
• Will we attend the same service? Hanging out together, outside the meeting, goes a long way.

 When Should You Have This Discussion?

When is the best time to have this discussion? If you’re a new group there’s no time like the beginning. It’ll get you off to a great start. If you’ve been around for a while without an agreement you may want to ease into it. Using a study that incorporates an agreement can provide the easiest first step.

Whether you’re brand new and want to get off to a great start or you’ve been around and need a little boost, a small group agreement can be a powerful tool for spiritual growth. Why not take advantage of the season and put one to work?

Looking for a good resource that includes a small group agreement?  Creating Community could be just the ticket.

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!

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.

Developing a Home-Grown Campaign

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.

• Find an off-the-shelf small group print curriculum that matches your weekend series theme and then produce your own DVD featuring your pastor to go along with it.  Doesn't have to be a perfect match.  Close is often good enough.  The DVD can be a very simple, fireside-chat format.  You can even film your own testimony clips to go along with your teaching.
• Find an off-the-shelf small group curriculum (print and DVD) and build your own message series around the theme.  Many churches have used Lifetogether's award winning studies in this way.  They feature some of the best known teachers in a format that is very friendly and easy to use.
• Use some in-house writers and video talent to put your own curriculum together.  Many churches have the talent already, just waiting to be included.
• Take advantage of the experience of a group like SmallGroupResources.net. Our team of seasoned professionals understand the art and the science of developing a DVD-driven curriculum.  You can find out more right here.