3 Important GroupLife Lessons from Week 5 of Saddleback’s Church-Wide Campaign

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One of the things that I talk about in most consultations is how to leverage your small group ministry as a delivery system for almost everything else.  A very frequent question is “If we’re really going to prioritize being in a small group, how can we still raise awareness of the need to serve in a ministry or be involved in a mission opportunity?”

Here is a link to last weekend’s message at Saddleback.  It was week 5 of Live Your Calling (the new version of the 40 Days of Purpose).  On the 4th purpose, God Shaped You to Serve Him, the title of the message is You Are Called to Bless.

You’ll hear lots of great ideas throughout the sermon, but when you get to 27:50 minutes there are three very important group ideas.  Do not miss what happens right here.

About to release the service a little early so everyone can walk over to the ministry fair, Rick says three important things:

  • “First, go out and collect as many ideas as you can, visit all the tables.  Then, bring your best ideas back to your group and discuss doing a group project, with your small group.  Just find one thing that you can do together as a group.”  Did you catch it?  He challenged the hosts to proactively engage their groups in a ministry or project they could do together.
  • “How many of you are hosts, can I see your hands?  I’m authorizing all of you hosts to say, ‘Okay, Rick said for all of us to pick a project that we could do together.  One thing that we could do together to get started on.  Just take a baby step.”  Can you hear it?  Rick is letting every member know that this is coming.
  • “And by the way, those of you who raised your hand (indicating that they were hosting a group), go out there on the patio afterwards and sign up because I’m having lunch with you, all the hosts, next Sunday afternoon.  Did you hear that?  Week 5.  Looking ahead to week 6 and it’s all about celebrating the commitment of the hosts and sustaining new groups.

Can I tell you something?  None of what happened was off script or invented in the moment.  All of it was carefully designed to leverage this opportunity to help thousands respond to the challenge of serving.  Guess what.  Over 2600 signed up to start serving.

What do you think?  Have a question? Want to argue?  You can click here to jump into the conversation.

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2 Comments

  1. Andrew Mason on February 20, 2013 at 12:38 pm

    I love the follow-up lunch idea with the hosts, brilliant! Thanks for sharing this Mark!



  2. markchowell on February 20, 2013 at 1:21 pm

    I agree. Definitely a brilliant idea!

    mark