Mark's Blog

Ready to Euthanize Your Small Groups?

Brian Jones, Lead Pastor at Christ's Church of the Valley, is asking an interesting question over on his blog.  "Should the small groups in your ministry be euthanized and replaced with another something that actually makes disciples?"  Actually, he's making the case that they should be euthanized.  I'm just trying to turn it into a question.

And to be fair, he doesn't have any information in his post about what their groups are doing, only that whatever they're doing it isn't producing disciples.  Also to be fair, I've seen plenty of evidence around the country that small groups can become just about information or just about a way to get connected with a few others to escape the "face in the crowd" syndrome.  But I've also seen a growing number of places that can point clearly to real disciples being made.

Maybe it's evidence that Andy Stanley's statement is dead on in many places:

"Your ministry is perfectly designed to produce the results you are currently experiencing."

What do you think?  And while you're at it, head over to Brians's blog and jump into the conversation for yourself!

If I Was Starting Today...#7

If I knew then what I know now...I'd take advantage of the central role of the senior pastor.  This is a huge concept and absolutely explains a key difference between churches that have groups and churches that are groups.  If you are the senior pastor, you need to understand this concept.  If you aren't, you need to understand it and then make sure your senior pastor gets it.  Without this step...groups will never be pervasive.  Why?  Read on...

Senior Pastor as Champion: The Big Idea

For groups to be pervasive in your church (a church "of" as opposed to "with") your senior pastor needs to become your small group champion.  I'm not saying they need to do the the dirty work.  Organization, planning, training, etc. can all be done by other staff members or even key volunteers.  But if the senior pastor isn't the lead spokesperson...you'll have limited success.  Why?  In most churches the senior pastor is the most influential person.  When they speak, people listen.  When anyone else walks up (announcements, etc.) listening and engagement immediately decrease.

The best example right now is the way Saddleback uses Rick Warren as the key spokesperson for group life (all of their teaching pastors play the role very well).  You'll hear about groups in announcements and in the printed material as well, but it's a very rare week when you don't hear about them in the message.

How to Implement the Big Idea?

1. Champion community regularly: Every worship service is an opportunity to talk about the importance of community.  As messages are prepared, take advantage of any illustration that could refer to small groups or the power of community.  Use testimonies (live or video) whenever possible.  Most sermon topics can find application in group life (encouragement, accountability, support, challenge).
2. Cast vision broadly: In addition to the weekend message, take advantage of your website, newsletter, all church e-newsletter, scrolling slides before the service begins, Small Group Table in the lobby with a stand-up poster featuring a short blurb by your senior pastor ("I can't imagine trying to 'do life alone.'").
3. Coordinate messages and themes throughout the year: Although you can insert small group stories and testimonies in most messages, featuring the importance of community at strategic times is important.  Late September/Early October is a key time to think alignment (weekend message series combined with small group curriculum).  Another great time is end of January/early February.
4. Call to action: Using a "call to action" gives an easy way to respond.  Make it easy to find a group (use a web application like Churchteams or Groopik) or even a list of groups at the table in the lobby.  Be sure you're staffing the table or booth with friendly, knowledgeable people (especially friendly people who are looking for members in their own group!).  E-newsletter articles by your senior pastor with active links into your small group finder are another way to provide a call to action (Constant Contact is an easy-to-use tool that makes it easy to send out an all-church email).

The key to this whole concept is for your senior pastor to use every opportunity to champion group life.  Day to day leadership can be delegated.  Big picture vision and communication cannot be given away.

The Titanic, Your Lobby and Lifeboat 14

Storytelling is one of the most important aspects of building a dynamic small group culture.  Telling the right stories, choosing the right metaphors, makes all the difference in communication.  Buy-in is almost always a direct result of the spot-on selection of the stories you tell.

One of the stories I tell all the time when I'm talking with pastors and leaders is the Titanic.  There is a lesson in it that is so powerful and so memorable.  Your team will never look at the lobby in the same way.  To get the most out of this you have to see how I tell it AND how I use it.

Here's how I tell it:

There is a scene in the movie Titanic that grips me every time I watch it.  It's right after the ship has gone down and what you see from a distant camera angle looks like a debris field.  All kinds of stuff bobbing in the water.  As the camera closes in you realize that what's in the water are people.  Lots of them.  Hundreds of them.  And then you begin to hear them.  They're screaming and calling out for help.

And then the scene shifts to a group of lifeboats some distance away.  The passengers who were fortunate enough to get into a boat can hear the screams and the calls for help...but they're not rowing back.  And no one seems to care except for one passenger (Molly Brown, played by Kathy Bates in the movie).  She says, "We have to go back!"

Here's the thing...that night, in the 28° water, you really couldn't live that long.  Leonardo DiCaprio aside, if you were in the water for long...you were not going to make it.  That night, in the 28° water, 20 lifeboats were launched.  19 rowed away.  Only lifeboat 14 came back to help anyone.  The reason we know the name of Fifth Officer Harold Lowe is that he was at the tiller of the only boat that returned. Only four survivors were pulled alive from the water.  Four.  Everyone else died.

Here's how I use the story:

Here's the general idea: When you're in a small group...you're in a lifeboat.  If you're not in a lifeboat...you're not going to make it very long.

Here's the application for small group leaders and leadership: Next Sunday, as you're walking through the lobby, you need to realize that three out of every four people you bump into are in the water.  They're not in a small group.  And they can't make it very long.  They're one tough thing away from not being here anymore.  A divorce.  The loss of a job.  Problems with children.  Illness.  One tough thing is often all it takes to cause someone to stop coming.  To be in the water is not a good thing.  To be alone is not a good thing.  God didn't make us to be alone.  We need to become a "lifeboat-making factory."

Here's the application for the congregation: You need to know that we're concerned for you.  We believe that you were made for community and connection with other people.  We need each other.  We're really not made to make it on our own.  If you're ready to get out of the water...   

   

If I Was Starting Today...#6

If I knew then what I know now...I'd work harder to make heroes out of the right people.  That is, I'd carefully select the stories I'd make a big deal out of...and I'd make a big deal out of them all the time.

How does that apply to the small group scene?  Think about your church and the constant flow of people who are recognized (from the platform, on your website or newsletter, and in one-on-one conversations).  How closely do those people who are recognized match your vision?  Ever done a case by case assessment and kept score?  At first glance, you might think that'd be overkill.  But I really believe if you slow down long enough to think through the last 3 or 4 Sundays (or watch the next 3 or 4) you'll begin to see a pattern.  And you won't necessarily like the pattern.

Need an example?  Here you go: Let's say that you dream of being a church "of" groups, where nobody stands alone, and you really believe that life-change happens best in a small group context.  With me?  Beyond that, let's say that you've committed to the idea that every program ought to lead to an opportunity to move in the direction of connecting people together in life-changing relationships.  Still with me?  Two things ought to happen if that's you.  First, success in every program ought to be measured by how effectively it produced those kinds of connections.  Second, you should only be talking about the leaders of those programs that are winning on that measurement.

What would change if you committed to that idea?  When you think back for the last 3 or 4 weeks would it change who you made a big deal out of publicly or privately?  If you entered a season where you consistently determined who you held up as heroes by how effectively they were living out the specifics of your vision...do you think it would influence behavior? 

Want to act on the idea?  Get serious and go back over the last 3 or 4 weeks.  Then, begin to carefully monitor who you're talking about and how you're talking about them.  While you're at it, check out Paul's language in Romans 16.  That's what I'm talkin' about.

Want to read the first post in the series?  If I Was Starting Today #1  While you're at it, be sure and sign up to get the updates to the blog!  You can do that by CLICKING RIGHT HERE.

If I Was Starting Today...#5

If I knew then what I know now, I'd work smarter to get the right people in the right seats...on the bus. What do I mean?   One of the most important principles from Jim Collins' Good to Great is "First Who, Then Where."  What he is saying is that getting the right people on the bus (his metaphor for building a winning team) is more important than even developing a vision for where you're going.  No doubt you've heard the phrase, "getting the right people on the bus." It's become a very common expression and most people get the basic idea right away. But Collins takes it one step further, and this step is often missed in application.  He goes on to say that once you've got the right people on the bus you've got to get them in the right seat on the bus. Short of that, you're not really going to have the impact that you want to have.

Where does this have application for all of us?  The right people are often already on the bus.  They're serving in some capacity.  They're involved.  But many times they're really not serving in the area where they can have the greatest impact.  They got recruited to a ministry...that was urgently in need of a body...and no one ever repositioned them to the role where they could make the greatest difference.

This is both a glaring problem and opportunity for many, many churches.

If you want your small group ministry to have impact, you've got to have key players, the right players.   It may require repositioning some key players from one seat on the bus to another.  Is that a problem-free solution?  No.  Will it ruffle feathers?  Yes.  Will you need your Senior Pastor's help?  Probably.  Is it worth the effort?  Absolutely.  If you're convinced that small groups are the optimum environment for life-change, and if life-change is the ingredient that drives impact on the community, then getting the right people into the right seats on the bus is essential.

If I Was Starting Today: #4

If I knew then what I know now...I'd work harder to develop a sequence of spiritual next steps and I'd narrow our focus to only include the most important elements to growth.

"Narrowing the focus" and "thinking steps, not programs" are concepts that come from 7 Practices of Effective Ministry by Andy Stanley and Reggie Joiner.  What's the core concept?  Rather than developing (or buying off-the-shelf) programs that will draw a crowd, we need to design steps that lead to where we want our people to go and then we need to eliminate the options that don't lead cleanly to there.  How does that apply to the business we're all in?  Let's unpack the idea.

At the risk of oversimplifying, let's say that there are two basic approaches to the ministry (or activity) menu.  There's the cafeteria approach (think long display of options with multiple entrees, sides, breads and desserts) or there's the streamlined approach (In-n-Out Burger, the entire menu consists of hamburgers, cheeseburgers, fries, and drinks).  Thinking steps means narrowing down the menu to only those choices that move your people in the direction you want them to go.

How does this apply to small group ministry?  Well, if you're offering groups and a few other ways that a person can grow spiritually, it is a complication that many people have difficulty processing.  You might think options bring increased buy-in, but they may actually be demotivating.  Need evidence?  In a fascinating study by Sheena S. Iyengar and Mark R. Lepper (Choice is Demotivating) it was learned that more is rarely better.  Their study examined customer responses to two jam sampling opportunities on two consecutive weekends at a high-end grocery store in Menlo Park, CA.  The first weekend featured a stand with 24 selections (extensive choice).  The second weekend featured a stand with just 6 selections (limited choice).  Of the 242 customers who passed by the sampling stand with 24 choices, 60% stopped while only 40% stopped at the limited choice stand the following weekend.  Predictably, the customers seemed to prefer the more extensive choice.  Surprisingly, the checkout stand revealed a different story.  30% of the limited choice customers purchased jam while only 3% of the extensive choice customers purchased jam.

What does jam have to do with narrowing the focus?  If you've prepared a jam-packed menu that gives too many options you shouldn't be surprised when your congregation has a hard time choosing what is best.

What Does It Mean to Run the 4 Minute-Mile in Small Group Land?

One of the blogs I read is Mavericks at Work.  Always a fascinating combination of ideas and very applicable to all kinds of endeavors.  In his post today, Bill Taylor wrote about that amazing moment when after all but giving up on its possibility...Roger Bannister ran a 4 minute-mile.  Taylor notes that for over 70 years there had been a conscious effort to break the 4 minute barrier.  And then one day it happened.  And when it happened it was followed almost immediately by a slew of others.

We've got a very similar pursuit.  For so many years there has been the recognition that life-change happens in groups...and yet, the most effective churches connected about half their adult attendees.  And then in 2002 Willow Creek announced they had more people in groups than they had at their weekend services.

The 4 minute-mile was broken.

On the heels of 40 Days of Purpose Saddleback put more people in groups than they had at their weekend service.

I loved this section of Taylor's post today.

What goes for runners goes for leaders running organizations. Progress in business doesn’t move in a straight line. It’s not incremental. Whether it’s an entrepreneur, a scientist, or an athlete, someone does something that was thought to be impossible—somebody changes the game—and what was unreachable becomes merely a benchmark, something for others to shoot for and surpass.

Wharton Professor Jerry Wind, writing about the four-minute mile in his book, The Power of Impossible Thinking, offered this assessment of Bannister’s feat: “The runners of the past had been held back by a mindset that said they could not surpass the four-minute mile. When that limit was broken, the others saw that they could do something they had previously thought impossible.”

Southwest has run the four-minute mile in the disastrous airline business. Lexus has run the four-minute mile in the brutal automobile business. What does it mean to run the four-minute mile in your business—and how are you going to do it?

Don't you love this line?  "When that limit (the 4 minute-mile) was broken, the others saw that they could do something they had previously thought impossible."

Oh my...what's your 4 minute-mile?

If I Was Starting Today: #3

If I knew then what I know now...I'd have a different way of looking at a lot of things!  One thing I would definitely look at differently would be the way I defined success.   How so?  Well, for starters I wouldn't call a certain number of groups "success."  And before you even begin to get worked up, I also wouldn't call a certain number of people in groups, a certain number of apprentice leaders or coaches "success" either.  Nope, if I were starting today and knew what I know...I'd definitely define success differently.

So, what would I call "success"?  Easy.  And hard work at the same time.  I'd spend time thinking about what it is that I want to produce, identify a way of measuring it, and set up a scorecard to keep track.  Let's break those three ideas down.

• First, I'd think about what it is that I want to produce.  I'd want my product to be men and women who love extravagantly, give generously, and serve selflessly.  For me, off the cuff, that's a pretty good short list.  Of course, you can see that every church should really have its own criteria.
• Second, I'd identify a way of measuring how effectively we're producing what we're trying to produce.  I'd have to define "extravagantly," but once I had the definition then I could set up a way to quantify that trait.  Not only that, but I'd be able to measure periodically and see movement.
• Third, if I did set up a scorecard to keep track I could even adjust my weekend teaching calendar and small group curriculum to work on areas or that need to be developed.

Why would I do this differently?  Easy.  Measuring the number of groups, people in groups, apprentices, or coaches doesn't actually tell me whether I've created the optimum environment for life-change to happen.  Much as I like knowing whether I'm adding groups and connecting a higher percentage of my congregation, that's nothing more than increasing the size of my delivery system.  At the end of the day, the delivery system itself has to deliver the right things.  That's what I want to measure.  And that's what will determine what I call "success."

If I Was Starting Today: #2

If I knew then what I know now...I would have worked harder to be crystal clear on who my real customer was and designed my strategy to fit them.  I realize that to some of us that seems so obvious...but let me unpack the idea before you hit delete.

Peter Drucker, famous for asking great questions, pushed organizations to  ask themselves a few core questions.  The first question was "What business are we in?"  That was #1 in this series of posts.  The second question he would push all of us to ask is, "Who is our customer?"  But before we go any further, lets work on the word "customer."

Classic Understanding of "Customer"

If we managed a restaurant or a grocery store we'd see this right away, but it might pay off to dig around the idea a little bit.  If we thought about it we would quickly acknowledge that everyone who shops at our store or eats at our restaurant are our customers.  We would be watching them carefully, trying to really understand their needs and interests, in order to keep them eating or shopping with us.

Clear so far?  We would understand the word customer to mean the people already using our services or buying our products.  At the same time we'd have hopes of expanding our customer base, attracting more customers, winning them over to shop or eat with us.  We might understand the group going into the restaurant across the street as prospective customers...but we'd put most of our energy into catering to the group that already shops or eats with us.  (Is this thinking starting to scare you?)

The Real Customer

When I use the term, "The real customer," I'm talking about the people in the crowd who aren't yet part of a small group.  I believe understanding the crowd is the key to helping the unconnected people get connected.  Paying attention to their challenges, interests, concerns and hopes will help you design a strategy that will inspire them to put a toe in the water.

What Is the Problem?

That seems so easy!  Why aren't we doing that already?  Because we're focusing on the challenges, interests, concerns and hopes of the people who are already deep on the inside...and that is a problem.  Why?  Because they're different than the people in the crowd.  Maybe only slightly, but they are different.  If you want to help the people in the crowd move into community you will have to understand them and design your approach to appeal to them.

Why is that a problem?  Thinking like the group just outside the congregation (the crowd) is a little bit of a stretch sometimes.  The longer we've been in some kind of ministry, even the longer we've been a Christ-follower, the harder it gets to think like someone just outside and design our approach to appeal to them.

What Is the Solution?

Spend some of your energy getting to know the people in the crowd.  You know some of them already.  Some you only know by face...not by name.  Getting to know them, reaching out to learn more about them, will help you see how to help them connect.  I've found it helpful to simply ask myself if I could invite them to my small group?  Would they like what we're doing?  Would it meet a need they are aware of?  Would it help them with a challenge they know they have?

What Is the Bigger Problem?

Of course, this whole discussion leads to a different, bigger problem.  How do I help my current customers begin to see themselves as team members who are empowered to help new customers connect?  That is a discussion for a later post!  In the meantime...take some time to get to know the people in the crowd.  Think about them as you're designing your connection strategy.  They're the real customer.

If I Was Starting Today: #1

If I knew then what I know now...

That's where this series of posts finds its roots.  I've been at this a while and I'm often asked what I'd do if I was starting fresh but armed with what I know now.  And in my mind there are three questions and seven core ideas.  And it all begins with this question: "What business are we in?"

This might be a foreign concept to you.  If it is, please hang in here.  This is very important that you understand where we're going.  If it's old news to you...we're going further but we have to start here.

What business are we in?  It's an old question in the business world.  A key question in the Peter Drucker tradition.  It may seem out of place here, but it is a huge question that should be asked at the very beginning of any discussion about small group ministry.  Why?  Because your answer will determine so much about what you ought to be doing.  Follow me on this.  Seriously give some thought to the way you would describe what it is that you're trying to do.  This is the mission question and even though we're talking small groups you ought to have an understanding of your mission.  Do you?

If I were starting today (or pulling my team in for a discussion that might lead to a better direction) I'd be asking this question first.  What business are you in?  Let's take a crack at it right now.  There are several possible answers.  I think you'll see that your answer will determine some very important things.

• We're in the business of connecting people: That's a good answer, but may not be complete.  For example, if all you're trying to do is connect people it might say something about your preferred methods and also what you'll call a win.
• We're in the business of giving people an in-depth Bible study experience: I've heard this argument.  Not necessarily bad or wrong...but it will say something about method and what you'll call a win.
• We're in the business of making leaders: Again, not bad...but is that what you're trying to do?
• We're in the business of making disciples: What do you think about that one?  Closer?  Still, it might be mine but not for you.

Years ago I heard Jim Dethmer talk about the mission of the small group ministry at Willow Creek.  He described their mission this way: "To connect people relationally in groups (of 6 to 10) where they could grow in Christ, love one another, and further the work of the Kingdom."

You need to ask and answer this question for your ministry.  Don't take the mission of another organization.  Get crystal clear on your own raison d'etre.  It is the first formative step in building a successful small group ministry.

Need more on the idea?  What business are you in?

Take some time to sort through the idea and develop your own conviction.  Use the comment section here to let me know what you're thinking.  If you haven't subscribed (it's free), do it today so that you don't miss the next post in the series.  You can sign up to get the update by clicking right here.