MarkHowellLive.com » Key Terms

Making GroupLife On-Ramps Easy, Obvious, & Strategic

Mark Howell — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 11:50:59 +0000

This is a two-part concept. First, so that we’re all on the same page, let’s start with a definition:

on-ramp: noun [on-ramp, -awn] an entrance lane for traffic from a street to a turnpike or freeway

We all know what an on-ramp is when we’re driving, right? But when we’re talking about grouplife…it’s still just that basic concept of ways to go from the anonymity of the auditorium to the familiarity of the coffee table; to move from unconnected to connected.

On-ramps. Every church needs ‘em.

Now, let’s establish easy, obvious, and strategic:

One of the most important insights in the 7 Practices of Effective Ministry is the importance of thinking steps, not programs. In other words, rather than focusing on programs as solutions (home grown or off-the-shelf), we ought to be paying attention to designing steps that lead from where people are to where we want them to be.

Think steps, not programs. A very simple concept. A very powerful practice.

Within the practice of thinking steps, not programs, is the concept of making each of the steps easy, obvious, and strategic. Essentially, each step should be obvious (not hard to discover), easy (shouldn’t require a running start), and strategic (ought to lead in the right direction every time). You can read a more detailed explanation right here.

Can you see how the practice applies to grouplife? Getting connected to a group ought to be easy, obvious, and strategic.

Easy: That is, it shouldn’t take a lot of work to connect. Think about the process of connecting at your church. Start by thinking about the simple transaction of finding a group to join. Is it easy? Can a prospective member walk up to a booth after service and find a group? Or do they have to turn in a form and wait for a response? What about your website? Is it easy to find out how to join? Is it easy to find answers about what a small group is?

Obvious: In addition to being easy, how to join a group should also be obvious. In other words, it shouldn’t be a guessing game. Think about your lobby. Think about your website. Think about your bulletin. If anything requires a detailed explanation…it’s too hard.

Strategic: If you want to connect a lot of people, every thing you do needs to move people in the right direction. Steps that take people out of the way (think ongoing teaching venues where the participants “sit in rows”) are what Andy Stanley calls “sideways energy.” A strategic step might be an on-campus small group connection that leads to an off-campus small group.

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

The “Catch a Moving Train” Scenario

Mark Howell — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 10:50:27 +0000

You know the feeling. No matter how many new groups you start, an equal number of groups lose interest and drop out.

No matter how many apprentices you’ve recruited and trained, you’re not starting new groups fast enough to keep up with the number of small group sign-ups.

No matter that you even launched a record number of groups with your church-wide campaign, you’re not sustaining enough of them to keep up with your church’s attendance growth.

Know the feeling? I call it the “Catch a Moving Train” Scenario. All you know is that it feels like you’re on the train station platform watching the train roar by and disappear into the distance. And as it does, in the back of your mind you’re realizing that starting a few new groups will never catch that train. Or how about this one: birthing new groups will never catch the train at the rate you’re reproducing.

Here’s my favorite. You’ve just recalculated how many adults are actually attending your church and realized that you don’t really have 50% in groups…you’ve got 25% (read Clue #1 When Designing Your Small Group System for more on recalculating). Everything you’ve done over the last 24 months has really moved you from 18% to 25% and meanwhile average adult attendance grew by 10% over those two years.

Moving train. Roaring by. Disappearing into the distance.

How to Catch a Moving Train

It’s easier to tell you why you’ll never catch the train (see above). The reality though, is that the results you’re currently getting from the strategies you’re using are not a fluke or an anomaly. They are the result of the design. And…tweaking what you are doing will not significantly change the outcome. Better to realize that you’re either using the wrong strategies…if you want to catch the train.

Two Examples

There are two churches that have caught the train. Willow Creek and Saddleback.

Willow Creek began a decade-long attempt to catch the train in 1991. Switching to an adaptation of Carl George’s Meta Church model, they assembled a staff team that have since become many of the most recognized grouplife names (Bill Donahue, Brett Eastman, John Burke, etc.). Retooling from a intensive system that took members through a two-year process, Willow built one of the best examples of Meta Church model and in 2002 announced that they had more adults in groups than they did at their weekend services. Two important items to note: (1) it was a decade long effort and (2) it was a photo finish moment that they have not sustained.
Saddleback, much like Willow, switched strategies in 1997 with the arrival of Brett Eastman. Adopting the small group connection strategy as the primary way they added new groups, they quickly moved from 70 groups to nearly 800 groups in less than four years. Although the strategy worked well, it was clear that it wasn’t working on the scale it needed to in order to catch the train. In the fall of 2002 Saddleback innovated again and introduced the HOST strategy for launching church-wide campaigns (see Exponential Thinking: The Power of Adding a Zero for a little behind the scenes on how Saddleback made the switch). This has become their primary method for launching new groups and in the fall of 2010 they broke the 4500 group threshold with over 130% of their weekend adult attendance in groups. Notes: (1) Saddleback takes a snapshot during their fall campaign when group involvement is at its peak and again later to see where group participation settles out. (2) This model is still being implemented, but there is always the possibility of a next strategic innovation.

Want to catch a moving train? You’re going to have to do new things.

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

Who’s In and Who’s Out? (Bounded vs Centered Sets)

Mark Howell — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 15:58:41 +0000

A key concept in The Shaping of Things to Come by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch has to do with who actually belongs to the community. They illustrate the concept through the use of the diagram to the left and refer to it as the difference between a bounded set and a centered set.

Bounded Sets are when there is “a set of people clearly marked off from those who do not belong to it. Churches thus mark themselves in a variety of ways. Having a church membership roll is an obvious one. This mechanism determines who’s in and who’s out (p. 47).”

A Centered Set is “defined by its core values, and people are not seen as in or out, but closer or further away from the center. In that sense, everyone is in and no one is out. Though some people are close to the center and others are far from it, everyone is potentially part of the community in its broadest sense (p. 47).”

Fences and Wells

I love the authors use of an illustration to point out a key difference between a bounded set and a centered set. They refer to the way a farmer might use a fence in some regions to keep his livestock in and the livestock of neighboring farms out. On the other hand, in regions where the ranches are vast, there are no fences. Instead, ranchers dig a well and know that their livestock will never stray too far from life-giving water.

Takeaway

What’s the point? Why are we talking about this? It’s all about the purpose of your small group ministry, what a win will look like, and who can participate.

Alignment

Mark Howell — Mon, 26 May 2008 16:45:32 +0000

The concept of an alignment, or a church-wide campaign, (the combination of a weekend message series and a small group curriculum) is probably the most important spiritual growth development in the last hundred years. Preaching in series allows an idea to be fully developed. Adding the element of a small group study that complements the weekend teaching allows your members to be encouraged to find a group that’s using the curriculum that goes along with what we’re learning. That is a huge advantage! Why? Read on…

What most people need is a way to take a baby step in the right direction. You’re not asking them for a lifetime commitment. You’re only asking for a six-week commitment. Six weeks is short enough to encourage people to try it. It’s a reasonable commitment for most people. A month and a half. "I can do anything for six weeks." At the same time, six weeks is long enough to begin to establish connective tissue. It’s a great toe-in-the-water experience.

Secret Ingredient:

Be sure and give your new groups a study to do next in about their third or fourth week. Don’t wait until they finish the alignment. Begin to promote what’s next by week three or four because that’s when they’ll start talking about how quickly the six weeks is going by. You can begin to promote the next study two ways. First, have your senior pastor hold up a copy of the next curriculum and say something like, "Many of you have been asking what we’ll do after…" Second, be sure and put copies of the next curriculum at the small group table.

Community Building

Mark Howell — Fri, 16 May 2008 00:59:32 +0000

How hard is it to build community? What’s involved? Is it just a matter of using a strategy, unrolling a game plan? Uhhhhh…no. Peter Block says it in a very elegant way:

“What makes community building so complex is that it occurs in an infinite number of small steps, sometimes in quiet moments that we notice out of the corner of our eye. It calls for us to treat as important many things that we thought were incidental. An afterthought becomes the point; a comment made in passing defines who we are more than all that came before (Community: The Structure of Belonging, p. 9).”

HOST: What Does It Mean?

Mark Howell — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 22:22:57 +0000

You’ve probably heard of “hosting” a group. But what does it mean to be a host? Is there a difference between a host and a leader? Is it just another name for a leader? If I’m a host, will you provide the teacher? These are questions that are asked all the time. ALL the time. You may have your own answers…but let me give you some of the defining ideas of the host strategy (and what it means to host a group).

The HOST Concept: The first thing you need to know is that the idea of H.O.S.T. makes it possible for ordinary people to lead a small group. By that I mean that we’re almost always talking about using a DVD or video-based small group study, bringing the teaching into the group via the television, and allowing the Host to do just that. In fact, the HOST acrostic stands for:

Heart for your community (or your church)
Willing to Open your home for six weeks (or the length of the study)
Serve a few simple refreshments
Tell a few of your friends (in the beginning the T stood for “Turn on your VCR”)

This is very important to the idea. You’re not recruiting teachers or leaders. You really are simply inviting people to open up their homes, serve some coffee and dessert, and tell (invite) a few of their friends. That is a ground-breaking concept and allows many more people, ordinary people, the chance to include friends, family, neighbors and co-workers.

Will a “leader” or “teacher” be provided? No. Using a DVD-driven curriculum allows a group to begin without a teacher. In addition to a warm invitation and spirit of hospitality, only very basic facilitation skills are needed. Sometimes you will have the opportunity to match someone with an interest in leading with someone who has an open home, but that is not normally how the concept works.

When is HOST strategy used? The idea of hosting a group came into being as part of Saddleback’s 40 Days of Purpose campaign. The HOST strategy can be very effective when used as part of a church-wide campaign (an alignment of weekend message series and small group curriculum). As part of the build-up to the campaign, HOSTs can be recruited who will commit to opening up their home for the six weeks of the series/study and invite a few friends.

Who can be a HOST? Every church makes this decision based on a number of factors. The culture of the individual congregation, available coaching for new hosts, even the topic of study are all relevant. Some churches may decide that only members may host a group. Other churches may decide that you must attend an orientation to qualify, but will only allow members to advertise their group on the web or in the lobby. Still others will simply require that you use the provided materials and invite your own group members.

What kind of training is required? Again, this varies from one church to the next. The most effective strategy seems to be to require attendance at a brief orientation (1 to 2 hours max) combined with connection to a coach who will serve as a liaison for at least the period of the campaign. Many churches are also finding that a decentralized mid-series huddle in the home of the coach is a very effective additional opportunity to encourage the host.

What happens when the six-week commitment ends? With a good experience, many of the new groups will decide to continue. Hosts are reminded in the orientation that they’ve made a six-week commitment and that their commitment is making it possible to launch many new small groups. They’re often encouraged to be open to the possibility that the group may be such a good experience that they would choose to continue…but there’s no pressure to do that.

What is the biggest advantage of the HOST strategy? The HOST strategy is a proven method of getting the largest number of new leaders in the game and unconnected people in a small group. It is not problem-free, but it is a great solution when a church needs to connect a large percentage of their members and attendees.

Concentric Circles

Mark Howell — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 20:37:23 +0000

I’ve found Saddleback’s concentric circle idea to be very helpful in explaining a number of small group related concepts. Here’s my version.

Basic idea? The largest circle represents the community you’re in. They are who you’re trying to reach. The crowd represents the group that considers your church to be their church. They may not come all the time, but if asked where they go to church they name your church. The congregation represents the group that are actually members of your church. They attend more frequently. Committed is a step towards greater commitment. They’re serving in some way. Core is the most committed bunch you’ve got. Serving. Giving. Leading in some way.

How does this play into small group ministry? Here are a just few ideas:

Most churches are attempting a version of core to crowd small group ministry. By that I mean that in order to lead a group you’re recruited and selected for leadership training based on already being known and involved. Consequence? It severely impacts the ability of the group to reach and connect beyond the congregation.
Since the community is more likely to walk across the cul-de-sac than come into your auditorium it makes sense to find ways to help them connect in community before they attend your service.
The deeper a person’s commitment to your church (core and committed) the less likely they are to have deep friendships with people who are in the community. While there are exceptions, this is generally true. As a result, if the most likely accepted invitation to a small group is made by a friend, it makes sense to help your congregation and crowd invite the community.

The Easy/Hard Continuum

Mark Howell — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 18:40:36 +0000

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.

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Span of Care

Mark Howell — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 14:31:28 +0000

“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.”