There are some pretty challenging dilemmas in small group ministry.  And it doesn’t really matter what system or strategy you’ve chosen.  Since there are no problem-free solutions…challenging dilemmas just come with the territory.  Here’s the one I’m wrestling with:

Can you have high leader expectations when you’ve lowered the bar so that more potential leaders will get in the game?  How high can your expectations be?  What are reasonable expectations for leaders?

You get this, right?  When you use the HOST strategy, you’re perilously close to characterizing the role as just “open up your home, serve some refreshments and tell a few friends.”

Did you see that little four letter word?  ”Just.”  Ever said that?  I probably have.  You probably have, too.  And in the interest of full disclosure, I’m actually okay with saying it.  But when you use the word “just” you’re opening up the bait and switch discussion.  And I get that and so should you.

The Reason for Leader Expectations

There are reasons for having leader expectations.  The most important reasons for me?

1. I really do believe that a small group can provide the optimal environment for life-change.  Note the word “can.”
2. At the same time, I believe the quality of the group experience has less to do with curriculum than it does with the group leader.
3. In fact, I believe that whatever I want to happen in the lives of group members has to happen first in the lives of the leaders.

What Might Some Expectations Be?

While every church will have its own set of expectations, you can see that there might be some basics.  For example:

• You might require new leaders to complete a simple spiritual questionnaire that allows them to tell their story.
• An increasing number of churches require a background check.
• Agreeing to a set of shared values.
• Some churches require that their small group leaders be church members (or at least be in the process of becoming a member).
• Maintaining good communication with their small group coach or the small group pastor is something that is a little bit more qualitative but is an essential requirement.
• Attending leader development opportunities or participating in a leader development pathway.

Want do you think?  Have you established leader expectations in your ministry?  I’d love to hear your thoughts. You can click here to jump into the conversation.

Ready to work on something? Don’t just read this. Take at least 2 or 3 minutes and actually look at the links below. You can learn so much about how one of the most effective small group ministries is doing what they’re doing. But…you’ll learn a lot more if you’ll just take a closer look.

First, a little side-note: it pays to watch closely for transferable concepts; ideas that you can use to raise the bar in your own small group ministry. I love this line from Pablo Picasso:

“Good artists copy. Great artists steal.”

It reminds me of another great line that I heard from Rick Warren over 20 years ago:

“If you steal from one person, it’s plagiarism. If you steal from five, it’s research. If you steal from 10 or more, it’s sheer creativity. And I am a very creative person!”

Ready to get creative? Here are 5 (web) ideas that should be copied from Saddleback’s most recent campaign launch (40 Days of the Word):

1. Note how prominent the Small Group link is on Saddleback’s home page. “Small Groups: Join a small group to grow closer to Christ and other believers. Learn More” is easy to see right on their main page. Note: if it takes two or three or four clicks to reach the page on your website where I can find out about joining a group…I’m probably not going to make it.
2. When you click the link from Saddleback’s main page, it takes you to a page with a carefully chosen title: Experiencing Life Together. That’s very important. People are searching for experiences. One of the most important books in the last decade was The Experience Economy by B. Joseph Pine and James H. Gilmore.
3. Note how carefully the words on this page are chosen. Short sentences. It fits above the fold. The first sentence captures the essence of everyone’s longing for connection. The next two sentences frame the idea of a small group very succinctly. The 4th sentence is a call to action.
4. Note that the call to action directs you to Select a Small Group Type (Home, Work, Online). Don’t miss a key detail right at this spot. All three options allow you to select “find” or “start.” That is a very big development (i.e., it’s never too late to be looking for new leaders).
5. Take a look at what happens if you click on “start.” You may not be able to go further than this…but let me tell you, Saddleback has made it super easy to start a group.

What do you think? Can you make these changes? I’d love to hear your thoughts. You can click here to jump into the conversation.

Just finished reading Great by Choice, Jim Collin’s newest.  As much as we talk about clarifying the win, I caught something that I just needed to point out to you.

If you read Good to Great (Collins’ 2001 best-seller), you recognize the terms hedgehog concept and flywheel effect.  If you need a refresher, here’s the basic info:

“The Hedgehog Concept is a simple, crystalline concept that flows from a deep understanding about the intersection of the following three circles:

• What you are passionate about
• What can you be the best in the world at
• What drives your resource or economic engine”

Yesterday we talked about the 7 numbers that matter most in small group ministry.  As important as quantitative measurement is, today we need to talk about gathering stories, the qualitative aspect of small group ministry.  Why?  Let’s just say that while your ministry intelligence depends on the numbers we gathered yesterday, lives actually hang in the balance and depend on the stories you gather.

Lives Hang in the Balance

Really?  Lives hang in the balance?  Uh…..yeaaah!  Stories might be the single most compelling ingredient whether you’re talking about recruiting leaders or casting vision for a small group as the optimal environment for life-change.  As much as you might hope that a powerful sermon extolling the first century example of Acts 2:42 will compel a response, often overwhelming twenty-first century evidence suggests that nothing is as compelling as personal testimony.

How do lives hang in the balance?  Every opportunity to persuade and encourage an important spiritual step, might be the last opportunity.  At the risk of sounding melodramatic, there are lives in the balance every time the doors are opened or the conversation ensues.  Every time.

How to Gather the Most Compelling Stories

There are at least four ways to gather stories:

1. Coaches can be taught to ask, “What’s the best thing happening in your group?” or, “What’s the best thing that happened in your meeting last night?”  These simple questions often prompt the recounting of story unlikely to be heard by senior pastor or staff (without the question).
2. Make it your practice to provide regular opportunities for small group leaders to share stories.  This form (or your own version) completed at a small group leader gathering will often surface several compelling stories.
3. Become a story maven; a collector of stories.  Always be asking people for their story.  People generally love talking about their story.  Simply making it your practice to ask for their story often leads to a very compelling discover.
4. With permission, pass on the best stories to your senior pastor.  With a little work, these stories can become an extremely compelling live or video testimony; a powerful moment in a message or on the web.

Want do you think?  Want to add an idea?  You can click here to jump into the conversation.

Do you know what numbers matter most in small group ministry?  They might not be what you think.  And…it might be a matter of perspective.  But for my money, these are the 7 key numbers:

1. Easter adult attendance minus the number of adults connected in groups (the Easter adult attendance number is often used to reflect the number of adults in the crowd).  This will inspire reminiscing about the future, when responding to the past is the tendency.
2. The difference between average adult attendance and Easter adult attendance.  This difference is a reflection of the size of the crowd, an important statistic when you’re seeking to understand the outreach potential of your church, and an essential consideration when you’re choosing topics for church-wide campaigns.
3. The number of new groups launched in the previous year (Note: the focus here is on new groups formed, not the growth in total number of groups).  This number reflects the number of new connecting opportunities (remember, it’s easier to connect new people into new groups).
4. Year-on-year growth in the number of groups.  This number is a reflection of groups sustained.
5. Total number of people connected (Note: as your ministry grows, it becomes more challenging to track the actual number of people connected.  A census taken at regular intervals, for example, annually in mid-November, can guide your understanding of the actual number of people connected).
6. Number of people attending groups who don’t attend your church (this can be calculated at the same time the census is taken).  This is another reflection of the inclusiveness of your groups.
7. Number of people serving as facilitators.  This is a much more important number than most realize.  Since the ability to rotate facilitators predicts both group viability (it can survive the absence of the leader) and expansion capability (much easier for group members to see themselves as group leaders), this is a helpful number to track.

Want do you think?  Think I missed one?  Want to add one?  You can click here to jump into the conversation.

“Small groups just don’t work here,” they said.  When I asked them what they meant they described a history of flipping from one small group strategy to another, year after year, caught up in the enthusiasm of this conference or that new book.

Sound familiar?  Can you identify?

The looming challenge for many is that the big issue isn’t resistance to change.  Instead, the biggest issue is chronic inconsistency (flipping from one strategy to another).

“The signature of mediocrity is not an unwillingness to change; the signature of mediocrity is chronic inconsistency.”  Jim Collins, Great by Choice

When I’m asked for help in choosing a small group system or strategy, I’ve always found it important to first wrestle with three guiding questions:

1. What will success look like?
2. Is the win you’ve identified attainable given the current assumptions about things like membership requirements for leaders, attention span of senior leadership, and your congregation’s willingness to prioritize group life?
3. Who will be your customer?

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

If you’ve been along for any length of time, you know that there is no problem-free solution, system, or strategy.  Every solution, system or strategy comes with a set of problems.  Wise leaders simply choose the set of problems they’d rather have.

Equally, if you’ve been along for any length of time, you know that I’m a fan of new solutions, believing that the well-worn path never arrives at a new destination and that it will take different, not better, to connect the widening 60% who are unreachable with the attractional model.  This interest in new solutions has drawn me to the Small Group Connection strategy and the HOST strategy…because they do things that other strategies don’t.

What you may not know, regardless of the length of time that you’ve been along here, is that I’m also very much a fan of honest evaluation of results.  In fact, I want to always be sure we’re evaluating the outcomes of every strategy we run.  It’s the only way to learn.  It’s the only way to steward the opportunity we’ve been given.  It’s the only way to discover a better way to operate.

One of the quotes that I’ve got taped to a cabinet door at about eye-level is this one from Sir Winston Churchill:

“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.”

Whichever strategy or system you’re using…you need to be willing to honestly look at the results.

By the way, one of the keys to Jim Collins’ Great by Choice is a commitment to empirical creativity.

Looking for a question or two that might be game-changers?  Magazine Luiza is one of Brazil’s most admired companies, catering to the needs of the country’s poorest shoppers.  Really quite a fascinating story (as detailed by Bill Taylor in Practically Radical).

In preparation for Magazine Luiza’s biannual strategy session (referred to as the “Big Meeting”) employees at every level are asked two questions.  Their answers are collected, compiled, analyzed and create the foundation for the Big Meeting.

Want to know what the two questions are?  Here you go:

“Before they attend the meeting, though, thousands of rank-and-file workers answer two questions that drive much of the discussion: First, What are we not doing that we should start doing right away?  Second, What should we immediately stop doing in order to allow for the emergence of the new?” (p. 123, Practically Radical)

Can I tell you something?  Great questions will change the game.  These two might change yours.

Stop what you’re doing.  Just stop for a moment.  If you think about the solutions and strategies you’re currently queuing up…are they about responding to yesterday’s issues?  Or are they about solutions and strategies that solve tomorrow’s challenges?

I love this line from Bill Taylor’s Practically Radical:

“The art of starting something new…is a matter of ‘reminiscing about the future.’”  (p. 119, Practically Radical)

Insurance executive, Robert MacDonald was asked how industry upstart LifeUSA could compete with Prudential and New York Life.  ”The question is, ‘How can they compete with us?  They were responding to yesterday’s market.  We were reminiscing about the future.’” (p. 120, Practically Radical)

Need practical examples?  How about these:

• Yesterday is about how to enlist more adults into on-campus classes.  The future is about connecting across the cul-de-sac.
• Yesterday is about how to recruit more people into the 12 week leadership training course.  The future is about helping ordinary people learn to practice hospitality and open their homes to friends, neighbors, co-workers, and family.
• Yesterday is about matchmaking–matching members with pre-qualified and trained leaders.  The future is about equipping hosts to invest in their friends, neighbors, family, and co-workers–and naturally include them in the life-change process.

“The important thing is to identify “the future that has already happened“–and to develop the methodology for perceiving and analyzing these changes.”

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

There are several common misconceptions about DVD-driven small group curriculum.

But first, a little history:

In January of 2001, when Saddleback took the energy and resources that were producing their mid-week service (Side Note: averaging about 1,000 adults in attendance) and shifted that energy and those resources into producing video-driven small group curriculum, two important things happened:

1. It made it possible for ordinary people with HEARTS for unconnected people to OPEN their homes, SERVE a few refreshments, and TURN on the VCR (Note: the origin of the HOST acronym).
2. It made it possible for the most gifted communicators to launch discussions about God’s word in over 800 homes throughout the Saddleback Valley (Side Note: approximately 8,000 people).

Full Disclosure: I vividly remember the very first time our groups were provided a video based study.  My initial reaction?  Wait!  I love teaching!  I would rather teach the thing myself!  Remember that day like it was yesterday.  You know what happened?  I took a step back and thought about how many of the leaders in my small group system could do what I could do.  And there were some…but not many.  Only after gaining a sense of who I was did I reach the point where I became an advocate of DVD-driven curriculum.

And now to the misconceptions about DVD-driven small group curriculum:

Misconception #1: It limits the development and use of the teaching gift. I think the biggest misconception about DVD-driven material is that using it somehow limits the development and use of the teaching gift.  In my opinion, nothing could be further from reality.  The best DVD-driven material provides a discussion opener that presents God’s truth in a creative way and launches an engaging discussion that leads to genuine understanding and personal  application.  The best DVD-driven material averages 12 to 15 minutes in length.  At its best it is an opener.  Since most group meetings last 75 to 90 minutes…there is still plenty of time for the teaching gift to be exercised.

Misconception #2: It stunts group member’s ability to use their own Bible.  Okay…that might be even a little further from reality.  In my experience, the best DVD-driven material opens the door and points the way for group members to want to “examine the scriptures” for themselves.  Does it require a group leader willing to help less knowledgeable members find the chapter and verse?  Yes, but that’s part of the fun!

Misconception #3: DVD-driven studies can’t be used for discipleship.  Really?  I think that might just reflect a limited imagination.  I like Jim Putman’s thinking on the three keys to Jesus’ success as the “greatest disciple-maker in history:

1. Jesus was an intentional leader in every sense.
2. He did His disciple-making in a relational environment.
3. He followed a process that can be learned and repeated (p. 35, real life discipleship).”

DVD-driven material allows the disciple-maker to be very intentional.  Using a tool like the Purpose Driven Life Health Assessment allows the group leader to choose the best material for the needs of the individual group.  DVD-driven material allows the group leader to focus more energy on creating a highly relational environment and leave the creative opener and direction-setting teaching to the most gifted communicator.  Further, DVD-driven material allows the process to be easily learned and repeated.

A little more history:

If Jesus was “the greatest disciple-maker in history,” I think you can argue that the Apostle Paul was only a few steps behind.  What made Paul such an effective discipler?  What do you think has had the greatest impact on the largest number of people?  The live teaching/disciple-making he did while alive or the impact of the teaching in his letters to 1st century churches and individuals?  If Paul were here today, what medium do you think he would use to guide the discipleship efforts of believers everywhere?

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