King Solomon said “there is nothing new under the sun.”  I’ve been at this a long time and am convinced he had stumbled on a true truth of life.  That said, it follows that there are certain assumptions that come up over and over again and lead to a dead end every time.

Here are 5 that pop up all the time:

1. Adding members to existing groups builds group health.  This assumption refers to the practice of sending reinforcements to groups that have members drop out or can’t seem to keep people coming.  Given the choice, it’s almost always more productive to start new groups, as opposed to propping up existing groups.  Groups that need help finding new members are rarely healthy and almost never the best option for genuine connection on the part of a new member.  When dealing with this issue, I often point out that I am a Darwinist.  I believe in the survival of the fittest.
2. Apprenticing is about multiplication.  Not.  Apprenticing, in most cases, may be about leadership development but is almost never the best avenue of group multiplication.  Offering a single small group connection or launching a church-wide campaign every fall will almost always start more new groups and identify more new leaders than an apprenticing strategy.  Should every leader be working to replicate themselves?  Yes.  Should every leader be working themselves out of a job?  Yes.  Does the apprenticing strategy lead to more groups and more people in groups?  No…or at least, not as quickly as several other more effective strategies.
3. “Depth” leads to life-change.  What most Christians need is not depth or an understanding of deeper teaching.  Most of us just need to do what we already understand.  That is within the grasp of the most basic and simplest teaching in an environment of encouragement and challenge.  The eleven men to whom Jesus entrusted the Great Commandment needed an explanation of some of His most basic teachings.  They didn’t have time to long for deeper or depth.  They were too busy doing basic.
4. Rows and circles produce the same thing.  There may be a place for rows (a metaphor for instruction), but rows do not offer the same experience as circles (a metaphor for discussion and interaction).  Offering the two as interchangeable options leads to something other than the optimal environment for life-change.
5. There is a small group system that will solve all your problems.  There is no question in my mind that the pursuit of problem-free delays more ministry than any thing else.

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

I’ve mentioned previously that there are three key opportunities every year to launch new groups.  If you’re reading this on November 30th, you’re about 60 days away from the second best opportunity.  And there are several things you can do right now to optimize the impact of a late January launch.

First, pull out your calendar and take a look at the first six weeks of 2012.  You need to pencil in several action items:

• Whether you’re planning a small group connection, a GroupLink event or a small group fair, January 22nd, 29th, or February 12th are probably the optimum dates to choose from.  These dates are early enough to capture the attention of unconnected people who want to “turn over a new leaf” and start 2012 on the right foot.  Note that in the United States January 15th will be impacted by a three day weekend (Martin Luther King day) and February 5th will be impacted by the Super Bowl.
• Plan to promote your event several weeks in a row.  Once you’ve selected the date of your small group event, just back up 2 or 3 weeks and begin promoting.  In most churches promotion is arranged in advance (i.e., now is the time to meet with your senior pastor, the staff member that gives the okay for bulletin inserts, and your web-master).  You can promote the event with announcements, bulletin inserts, and on your website.  The most important way to promote it is a timely moment in your senior pastor’s sermon.  If you need help understanding how to integrate an ask into your pastor’s sermon you can take a look at How to Make the HOST Ask.
• Schedule a meeting with your coaches in early January to talk about their role in the upcoming event and make decisions about how the new groups will be coached.

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

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 biggest obstacle for most stuck small group ministries?  I think it’s what Cynthia Barton Rabe refers to as “the paradox of expertise.”  Rabe, a former strategist at Intel, points out that:

“What we know limits what we can imagine.  When it comes to innovation, the same hard-won experience, best practice, and processes that are the cornerstones of an organization’s success may be more like millstones that threaten to sink it.”  (Practically Radical, p. 72)

Think about it.  If you’re stuck at a certain level, how frequently do you find yourself or a member of your team pointing out the reasons you need to keep doing “the things that are working?”  How often do you find yourself thinking, “We have these parts figured out (leader development, coaching, placing members, etc.).  We know just about everything there is to know about “x.”

Sound familiar?  Could it be that it is actually the best practices and processes that are keeping you from discovering the mold-breaking innovation that will completely change what’s possible?  Are some of grouplife’s axiomatic beliefs actually preventing your ministry from doing what it could do?

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

Once you’ve decided what business you’re in (yesterday’s question), you need to figure out what you are going to call success.  Some people think about this question as “clarifying the win.”

This is very, very important.  Oh…it’s tempting to shoot the arrows first and then draw in the target, just like in this well-known Brother Juniper cartoon.  We’ve all done a version of that.  Like when you distribute large numbers of host packets, less than half ever have their first meeting, and you celebrate the 45% that actually start.  Or maybe, every group has an apprentice but even though there’s rarely a birth, you celebrate the occasional new group.  Or how about this one: you’re focusing on making disciples…but the work usually stops at the first generation.  Disciples rarely become disciple makers.  You celebrate when they do.

Trust me, the idea is to decide in advance what you will call success.

Why must you determine what you’ll call success before you begin?  When you choose in advance you:

• Plan your strategy with the end in mind
• Have a built in milestone or finish line
• Are brutally honest about outcomes

A Few Examples

• Our apprenticing practice is a success when 50% of our existing groups birth every 12 months.
• Our host recruitment strategy is a success when 3 out of 4 host groups report having a great experience.
• Our disciple-making strategy is a success when over 50% of the men and women in our program have identified and begun meeting with their own candidate by the time they are within 60 days of the finish line.

For more on the practice of clarifying the win for your ministry, see The 7 Practices of Effective Ministry by Andy Stanley and Reggie Joiner.

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

What do you think the first question is?  Any ideas?

I think the first the question is, “What business am I in?” And I know for some that is an almost shocking idea.  After all, are we really in a business?  If that’s you…you might want to think of it as, “What am I trying to do?”

Either way, you must think carefully about this first question and answer it with absolute clarity.  Clarity is important if you expect to ever know whether you’re succeeding…or not.

Now, you need to know that there are several viable answers to the question.  You might conclude that you are in the business of making disciples.  Sounds reasonable.  Right?

Or you might decide that you are in the business of identifying and developing disciple-makers.  After all, if you want to make disciples, you’ll need to figure out a way to find an increasing number of the sort of men and women who live and breathe to replicate themselves.  Again, sounds reasonable.  Right?

Or you might land on the conclusion that you are in the business of connecting way beyond the usual suspects.  Maybe even helping people at crowd’s edge–the least connected to the church with the strongest connections to the community–discover ways to include their friends, family, neighbors and co-workers; helping them take their first steps to connecting.

Three Issues You Must Be Aware Of:

Is there a right answer?  I can’t speak for you.  But I can tell you there are three issues you must be aware of:

1. Indecision about the business you’re in, especially the pursuit of problem-free, delays real impact.  Carefully and intentionally determining the business you are in brings clarity and measurable impact.
2. Try to be in the business of “all of the above” and you’ll end up doing nothing.  Focus is the key to impact.  Much like the difference between a laser and a table lamp.  Both bring light.
3. Waffle from one business to the next and then back (or onto a third) and you’ll end up confusing your team.  After all, much like a sport, every distinct business has its own rules, its own way of keeping score.

So how do you answer that question?  What business are you in?  Have you found your answer?

Here’s The Second Question Every Small Group Pastor Must Answer

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

Love this great line from The Innovation Killer by Cynthia Barton Rabe, a former strategist at Intel:

“What we know limits what we can imagine.” Many organizations, she argues, struggle with a ‘paradox of expertise’ in which deep knowledge of what exists in a marketplace or a product category makes it harder to consider what-if strategies that challenge long-held assumptions. “When it comes to innovation,” she writes, “the same hard-won experience, best practice, and processes that are the cornerstones of an organization’s success may be more like millstones that threaten to sink it.”

If you’ve been following the conversation here for very long you know that I am an advocate for lowering the leader bar.  In fact, I’ve found that one of the primary reasons many churches struggle to identify and recruit enough small group leaders to take care of the demand is that they’re looking for Jesus Jr. instead of Peter, Thomas or Matthew (all of whom had issues…if you recall).

Still, every church has to decide what the leader requirements will be.  In a sense, every church customizes the leader requirements to fit their culture.  There are several basic options:

1. Only members can lead a group.  And by the way, membership means very different things from one church to another.  At some churches you attend a one hour class and sign a covenant.  At others, you attend a series of four hour classes.
2. Anyone can lead a group and all leaders are given equal treatment.  Everyone can have their group listed in the catalog or on the website.
3. Anyone can lead a group but requirements and benefits are customized to fit the situation.  For example, anyone can pick up materials and fill their group with friends and neighbors they’ve personally invited.  Inclusion in the catalog or online group finder is available only to those groups that meet additional, more stringent requirements.

Full Disclosure: I am a fan of option 3.  Making it easy for everyone to reach out to friends, neighbors, family and co-workers just makes sense.  It’s not problem-free.  There is no problem-free.  But I’d rather have the messiness that come with this solution than the problems that come with a too high leader bar.

How Customized Leader Requirements Could Look

If you think about it, one of the first realizations every small group champion ought to have is that you can’t really control who leads a small group.  It’s a free country!  At least, here in the U.S. it’s a free country.  It doesn’t matter whether you fully approve of the leader of any individual group.  Once they’ve gathered a few of their friends or neighbors…they’re a group.

At the same time, you can control certain things and you can guide certain outcomes.  For example, you get to choose what requirements must be met in order to be included in the group catalog or on the online group finder.  The fact that anyone can have a group has no bearing on who can be included.  Any number of requirements could be on your list.  For example, in order to be included in the online finder you might require leaders to have a background check on file, be a member of the church, attend certain required meetings and participate in church-wide studies.

What about additional levels of control?  Although it allows significantly less leverage, it makes sense that to be recognized as “an official group” a leader might need to maintain adequate communication with their coach or the small group pastor.

Can you see how all of these stipulations could be part of the essential requirements for “official groups?”  Where you set the bar is up to you and your church’s culture.  Lowering the bar shouldn’t have to mean anything beyond who can open their home and inviting a few friends.

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

I was reminded again tonight about a key ingredient that makes it easy to connect people.  Just like In-n-Out, a simple menu makes ordering easy. There are only burgers, fries, soft drinks and shakes.

When you walk up to the counter to order, it’s obvious what to do.  There aren’t 14 value meal options.  There are three.

The streamlined menu is also strategic. Sales per square foot beats big menu chains like McDonald’s on a regular basis.

How many options are you offering?  Maybe it’s time to trim back to the essentials.

You may want to argue with me (and if you do, please use the comment section), but there are 5 easy to spot signs that your church is actually designed to underperform at connection.  What I mean by that is that whether your church is growing or not (doesn’t matter), there are several key factors that predetermine whether people are able to connect.  And very importantly, it’s been conclusively determined that people want to belong before they want to believe.

So what are the signs?  How can you tell if your church is actually designed to underperform at connection?  Here’s what I’ve found.

Top 5 Signs Your Church is Designed to Underperform at Connection:

1. Your senior pastor is a reluctant champion of grouplife.  Churches where the senior pastor only infrequently talks about the importance of being connected are rarely, if ever, easy environments for connection to happen.  Without encouragement from the most visible person in the organization, it is just too easy to remain disconnected.  Trouble is, life-change most frequently happens where there is dialogue.  Life-change most frequently happens where people are known.  See Your Senior Pastor as Small Group Champion Leads to a Church OF Groups for more.
2. Stories about the power of grouplife are rarely told.  If you want unconnected people to take a baby step and test-drive a group, there is nothing more compelling than a satisfied customer.  While we’re on the subject, stories told by satisfied customers (as opposed to stories about satisfied customers) are much more compelling.  It’s the reason marketers love testimonials.  See How to Develop Video or Live Testimony That Recruits Leaders or Members for more.
3. Your church has no clear understanding of what a win is.  To borrow the phrase from the 7 Practices of Effective Ministry, if it’s not clear to everyone that the goal is to be connected in a group where you can be known, challenged, loved, held accountable, forgiven, encouraged, etc., it will only happen for those people who instinctively gravitate toward community (You know who those people are.  They create groups and grouplife opportunities even without your help).  Everyone else will remain anonymous at their own peril…because they don’t know any better.  See Clarifying the Win in Your Small Group Ministry for more.
4. Your church thinks programs instead of steps.  Again, to borrow from the 7 Practices of Effective Ministry, there need to be easy steps that lead to connection.  If the hardest step for many people today is to walk into your auditorium for the first time, the next hardest step is to leave the auditorium to join a group in a strangers living room!  The steps that are created also need to be obvious.  They can’t be hard to find (like when you have a buffet style ministry and only one of the menu items leads to grouplife).  Finally, the steps you create need to be strategic; they need to lead in the right direction with wasted time wandering.  See Think Steps, Not Programs for more information.
5. You spend too much time propping up existing groups and not enough time forming new groups.  Although counterintuitive to many, matchmaking (helping unconnected people find a spot in an existing group) is rarely productive.  The easiest time for the largest number of unconnected people to put their toe in the water is when new groups are formed.  Strategies like the Small Group Connection and a church-wide campaign (with the HOST strategy) allow new leaders to readily be identified.

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