When you carefully examine the likely scenarios for your organization…are there some things that get ruled out right away because everybody knows that that can never happen?  Word to the wise?  Be very careful that you don’t casually exclude some things because it’s common knowledge that those things can’t happen.  Puzzled?  Here’s a little to chew on.

A look at history will show you that it’s usually something that could never happen that turns out to be the game-breaker.  A personal computer.  More households with only a cellphone than households without a cellphone.   Bottled water.  BOTTLED water.  Think about it.  Who would have guessed even 10 years ago that Americans would spend more on bottled water than on iPods or movie tickets.  Okay…if they could have guessed that then they’d be pretty smart.  Most of us would have said, “iWhat?”  But you get the point.

The point is “what everybody in the business knows can never happen should be examined carefully (Managing for Results, p. 170).”

(This post is from the archives over at my original blog, StrategyCentral, where there are over 1,100 articles on strategy, mission, vision and values, change, innovation and design.)

“I can’t find enough leaders!”

Have you ever said that?  If you have, you’re in good company.  It’s one of the most common complaints of small group ministry point people.

Here are the five most common reasons you can’t find enough small group leaders:

1. You’re asking for the wrong thing.  I think this is one of the easiest parts of the challenge to fix.  If you’re not very careful, it sounds like you’re asking for a lifetime commitment to something that requires a lot of energy, hours of preparation, and a selfless quality rarely found apart from Mother Teresa.  Remember, the best candidates are already busy.  They’re already overextended in their work and at home.  If you want to add leaders you’re going to have to make it easier for the best candidates to ease their toe into the water.  This is one of the main reasons that the HOST and Small Group Connection strategies work so well.  They’re designed to start out as test drives.  The first key is to ask for the right thing.
2. You’re not looking in the right places.  Most small group champions spend their time looking for potential leaders among people who are already in a group.  After all, a lot of small group strategies have as a core premise that in order to lead a group you first have to be a member of a group.  The truth is that in most cases the majority of potential leaders are not yet in a group.  Unless your church is already pushing beyond 60 to 70% of your adult worship attendance in groups, the likelihood that your best candidates are already connected is pretty slim.  Again, this is why the HOST and Connection strategies make so much sense.  It’s also why a well-executed church-wide campaign can jump start leader identification and irrevocably change the landscape in your congregation.  The second key is to look in the right places.
3. You’re asking the right people the wrong way.  There are obviously some great people who are already in groups who ought to be leading a group.  All of us see that.  One of the earliest assumptions I developed was that many of the best leader candidates are pre-wired to be drawn to community and they end up in groups even in churches where there’s no real emphasis in group life!  You don’t have to give them a reason to get connected.  They’re already in a group.  You need to give them an inspiring reason to leave their group for a few weeks.  This is why the idea of inviting your existing groups to take a small group vacation works so well.  It’s not permanent.  it’s a few weeks.  And it has the potential to help many of the right people experience what it’s like to move from consumer to contributor.  The third key is to ask in the right way.
4. You’ve put up barriers that are keeping the right people from saying “yes.” For example, if I’ve got to be in a group first before I can lead a group, that’s a barrier.  If I’ve got to attend a 12 session leader training course before I can lead…that’s a barrier.  If the only curriculum I can use requires 2 or 3 hours of preparation, that’s a barrier.  Think very carefully about the barriers you put up.  Eliminate all but the most essential guardrails.  Think test-drive.  Think baby-steps.  Think about making it easy to get started.  You can help new leaders get started with an easy to attend orientation.  You can build in  on-the-job coaching.  You can offer decentralized skill training huddles led by your coaches.  The fourth key is to remove every unnecessary barrier.
5. The wrong person is doing the asking.  The churches that are having the most group life success, that are building the most effective systems, are the churches where the senior pastor is the small group champion.  End of story.  If your not getting your senior pastor in the game on a full-time basis…you’re missing out on the best way to enlist more of the very best people as leaders.  This is why building in a message series with built-in host recruitment before your church-wide campaign makes so much sense.  Don’t miss this important trick!  It will make a huge difference in your situation.  The fifth key is to use the right person to make the ask.

The last time I said, “I can’t find enough leaders” was about 10 years ago.  That’s when I began discovering the strategies that started me on the boundary-free path.

Need help?  It’s easy to schedule a coaching call or set up an on-site consulting visit.  You can find out more or get started right here.

No matter the discussion, whenever I am looking for a strategy that will help meet a particular need…I begin my thinking by acknowledging that there is no problem-free solution to anything.  This is where the thought process begins.  In fact, when I begin a consulting session I often draw this diagram up in the upper right part of the flip chart and then refer to it many times during the day.

I’ve been writing about this for quite a while.  In fact, I noticed this morning that one of the first blog posts I wrote at StrategyCentral was about this assumption.  To me, stipulating that there is no problem-free is an essential first step.  Why?  I believe that the pursuit of problem-free is the number one obstacle in ministry.

What can be done?  Rather than allowing the pursuit of problem-free to delay your next step, I suggest that you:

1. acknowledge that there is no problem-free solution
2. list the possible solutions
3. underneath each solution list its problems
4. choose the set of problems you’d rather have

So much for assumption 1.  What’s number 2?  Come back tomorrow!

As I mentioned yesterday, the first step in the diagnosis of your small group ministry is a thorough examination of your existing groups. Depending on the number of groups in your system (and whether you’re new on the scene), this may be an easy job or may take you some time. It’s important though, because this part of the diagnosis forms an important baseline for future examinations.

There are several items that you will want to know about each of the groups on your list. There is also a little bit of sequence to the way you begin the diagnosis depending on your relationship with the leaders.

How To Collect Information

Let’s take a look first at how to collect the answers. I normally use an email survey. They’re inexpensive to use and easy to set up. I use surveymonkey.com but you may prefer zoomerang.com. You can also simply provide a handout at the small group table or call through your list, but I think you’ll find most of your leaders will appreciate the ability to simply take the brief survey online.

Building Your First Survey

Second, you’ll want to set up the survey to retrieve some basic information. Keep in mind that the length of the survey determines the number of responses you’ll receive. Ask too many questions and some of your leaders will not complete it. Here is what I asked on a recent census:

• Name and best contact info (email and phone)
• Is your group currently meeting (yes, no, we’re on a break but plan to resume)
• If you’re not meeting what is the reason you stopped? (You can provide a list of options or a blank for them to complete. I prefer to provide a list of options and a blank for “other.”)
• If you plan to resume, when you do plan to resume?
• When did your group begin meeting? (Again, you can provide a list of options or a blank for the leader to complete. I prefer a list of options, especially when I know some details about the history of group life in the church. For example, if the church launched groups with 40 Days of Purpose in 2006, that would be an option.)

Although there are other questions you’d like to ask, these are the basics. If I keep the survey short, I’ll develop permission to survey them again to find out other details (like “What are you studying?” or “How many of your members take a turn at facilitating?”)

Important Sequence Details

As I’ve mentioned, the length of time you’ve been on the scene plays a role in how you take this baseline survey. If you’re brand new, be sure and start with a letter or email of introduction. It’s even better if the email comes from someone like your senior pastor. Follow the introductory letter with an email that asks the leader to take two minutes to complete a “brief, 5 question survey” (or however long you’ve made it). Be sure and include a thank-you page in your survey.

If you use a tool like surveymonkey.com or zoomerang.com you’ll be able to keep track of your leaders responses. Send out a follow up request 5 to 7 days later to catch any stragglers. Call the remaining group leaders at 10 days.

Next up in the series is an important look at diagnosing the leaders in your system. You can read How To Diagnose the Leaders in Your System right here.

One of the amazing stories that came out of the development of 40 Days of Purpose was how the HOST strategy came to be.  Ever heard this one?  It’s pretty crazy.  It’s also a window into the kind of thinking that needs to happen in order to produce exponential results.  This is 1 part legend and 1 part conjecture with a twist of Brett Eastman.  Here’s what happened:

The Origin of the HOST Strategy

Just before the launch of 40 Days in the fall of 2002, Rick Warren met with Bruce Wilkinson (The Prayer of Jabez, etc.).  In the conversation, Wilkinson reportedly said that to think exponentially “you need to add a zero to whatever you’re thinking.”  Interesting…right?  It gets better.

The next day in a staff meeting Warren asked the Saddleback team (led by Brett Eastman) how many new groups they expected to launch to connect unconnected people for 40 Days.  Their answer was based on what they believed was possible using the Connection strategy.  Made sense, too.  After all, they’d grown from 70 groups to  800 groups using  Connections.

Here’s where the story gets even better.  Hearing their plans and the number of new groups it would produce, Warren said, “You need to add a zero to that number.”  They said, “This strategy won’t do that.”  Warren said, “Then you need a different strategy.”

The team went back to the drawing board and came up with the idea of recruiting people who to simply open their home, invite friends and show the video.  That is exponential.  Over 2,000 people said yes to the idea of hosting a group!  Further, so many people responded to the host invitation in the very first service that they thought people had misunderstood.  They repeated the invitation, clarified what they were asking, and got an even larger response!

Moral of the story: Had they stayed with Connection strategy, 40 Days wouldn’t have had the exponential small group response that it did.  Dreaming about a larger response required envisioning a new way of connecting people.

Update: Today Saddleback has over 4,000 groups and has more people in groups than they have attending their weekend services.

Takeaway:  It is a great story.  Wish I had been there.  Bet you do too.  But here’s the thing.  We can all take advantage of the principle of exponential thinking.  It’s not even that hard.  Just get in the habit of asking, “How can we add a zero to that number?  What would we have to do in order to have that outcome?”

Who knows!  You might come up with the next game-changing strategy!

You may already be on top of it…but just to be sure, here are five steps you can take today to make sure January is extra effective in 2010.

1. Set the date for a Small Group Connection.  There are three very good connection opportunities every year.  Fall is a great time to launch a church-wide campaign.  Easter presents some natural next steps.  And late January is a really good time to help jump-start some brand new groups.  You’ll want a minimum of three weeks to promote the event and Monday, January 18th is the MLK holiday, which makes the 10th or the 24th the best choices.
2. Choose an easy-to-use curriculum for the Small Group Connection.  DVD-driven is always a good choice.  Keep in mind that the first of the year has a natural “fresh start” theme.  It will be easier to promote getting connected if the curriculum you’ve chosen is about building a solid foundation or building some enduring friendships.
3. Prepare to promote the event three weeks in a row.  The third week can be the week of the connection, but three weeks gives you plenty of time talk it up.  Placing an insert in the bulletin each week is very helpful.  When you make the announcement (or better yet, have your pastor mention it is the sermon) have them pull out the insert while you talk about the Connection.  “Fill it out and place it in the offering (or the basket on the way out).”  In addition to the insert, I like to have a blurb in the bulletin, a sign in the lobby, even a highlighted graphic on the website all promoting the Connection.
4. Communicate in early December with all of your existing small groups.  Remind them that planning the date of their first meeting in 2010 is something to do now, not in January.  Ideally, the earlier they get started the better.  Depending on the curriculum you’ve chosen for the Connection, you may find many of them will be game to pick it up as well.
5. Plan a late January meeting to encourage group leaders.  Depending on the area you live in (weather, kid’s sports activities, etc.), Saturday mornings in January are often pretty free.  If you schedule your event on the 23rd or 30th you can even include new leaders from the Connection.  If you act now you can set the date, get your pastor involved, bring in a speaker (depending on your budget, you might even just bring in the small group pastor from a church in a nearby city…get some ideas from the Purpose Driven Small Group Network directory), start with a great breakfast, and even plan a couple skill-training breakout options.

These are just 5 quick ideas that you can use right away to get 2010 off to a great start.  The biggest key?  Don’t wait until January to think about January.  One hour spent today nailing down as much as possible will make a big difference…in the lives of the people who get connected and are never the same again.

We’ve been talking about building an exponential group system.  In my last post we wrestled with the idea that a key early step in the journey to exponential is to have brutal honesty about the present…the way things really are right now.

Once you’ve developed a clear and honest understanding of where things really are right now, it’s time to start thinking about what is possible.  And this really should be a process.  It’s probably not a one session step.  Instead, it’s probably something that you do over several sessions.  And it really should be about dreaming big about all that’s possible in group life at your church.

Here’s how to get started.  First, you ought to pull together a team of people who care about group life…and are open minded.  I think both elements are really important.  They need to care about group life because it might be out of their passion for it they’ll be able to dream about how best to make it available to everyone.  At the same time, they need to be open minded about alternative ways it might develop…because if it was already firing on all cylinders you probably wouldn’t be having this discussion.

Second, you need to set some ground rules about the creative process you’re about to engage in.  I’ve written about IDEO’s brainstorming rules right here.  The key is to have an openness to a lot of possibilities because at this stage you’re really dreaming about the possible future.  I don’t want to predetermine any of your process, but here’s an example of some of what could be on your whiteboard.

• we could begin to expect every group to identify a way to serve together (this leads to…)
• we could develop a team that finds local opportunities for service
• we could develop a team (or a connection with one) that sets up video interviews of groups serving together
• we could work with the pastor and develop a calendar for the year and plug in strategic elements for each season.
• we could begin to develop our on-campus leaders and add group life elements to more traditional classes
• etc.

When you are in the dreaming stage…you need to write everything down, you need to go for lots and lots of ideas, and you need to try and add to what it being dreamed.

Third, it’s okay to read what other people are doing as a step in the process.  In fact, I highly recommend that you read Creating Community, Sticky Church, and Activate while you’re in this process.  Not that you would simply adopt a model, but that you would see more possibilities.

Remember, this should be a multiple step process.  Maybe you have a session or two at the whiteboard, then read a book together (or each read one of the books), then come back together and hit the whiteboard again.

Don’t refine yet.  That’s what we’ll talk about next time.  If you’re not signed up to get the update, you can do that right here.

Yesterday we talked about the core philosophy that drives an exponential group system.  If you missed step one, you can read about having a crowd-to-core philosophy right here.

Today I want to talk about step two in the process: Diagnosis: Brutal Honesty About Your Present.   Sounds harsh.  Brutal even.  But without an honest evaluation of right now, you can’t possibly build an exponential system.  So how do you evaluate your present?  What are you looking for?

Here are the questions I use:

• Group life must be a life-on-life activity.  It can’t be a purely educational experience.  It’s about interaction.  Can it happen on Sunday a.m. in a classroom setting?  It can, but it will take work to create the right environment there.  At the same time, it takes work to create the right environment in a living room.
• Group life must be promoted.  By promoted I mean talked about, highlighted, mentioned, and referred to.  It needs to happen in your pastor’s messages, in announcements, in testimonies, on your website, your e-newsletter, and your bulletin or program.
• Group life must be promoted all the time, not once a season or when it’s recruiting time, and certainly not in a kind of rotating emphasis where equal time is given to every ministry or program.  This is a very important question about where you are right now.  Without year-round promotion, you can’t get to exponential.
• Group life must be seen as an essential ingredient of spiritual growth.  From a practical standpoint, it really needs to be seen as one of a very few essential ingredients.  What are the others?  Gathering for corporate worship and serving in a gift-based, passion-driven ministry.  You’ll have difficulty getting to exponential if there is much there beyond those three.

How are you doing so far?  When you evaluate the way things are right now in your ministry, is group life promoted year-round as an essential ingredient of spiritual growth?

The next diagnosis question is: How obvious is the path to connect with a group in your system?  In other words, once I begin hearing about how essential group life is, will my next step be obvious?  Can I see it prominently promoted on the website?  Can I walk out into the lobby right after service and see what to do?  Is the next step obvious?

Next, how easy is the first step?  Can I take a baby step?  Or do I have to be a world record long jumper like Carl Lewis?  An example of easy is a six week test-drive on a timely and broadly engaging topic.  An example of a difficult first step is Experiencing God or The Truth Project.  Great studies, but at 12 to 14 weeks are too long for a first step.

Last, does the first step lead to a next step?  This is a very important part of getting to exponential.  It’s not that every group must survive or every person who joins continues.  It’s that you’re doing what you must to build in the greatest possibility of survival.

Your next step is to pull together a conversation about how things really are right now in your ministry.  You’ll need the right people around the table.  It will take time.  You’ll have to be honest.  But here’s the thing.  You’re kidding yourself if you think you can get to exponential from just anywhere.  You need to rearrange the way things are today if you want to get somewhere different tomorrow.

I have a friend who recently announced that it was time for changes in their small group ministry.  They went on to say, everything except the semester system and free market model are “up in the air.” Continuing, “I think it’s healthy to re-examine everything you do regularly, but it didn’t take us long to acknowledge that these things are not broken and work well in our given environment. They are the two best things about our small group ministry.”

What do you think about that statement?  Logical?  Seems like the thing to do?  Would you do that?  Are you in the camp that says, “re-examine everything you do regularly and keep the best things?”

Here’s what the statement generated in me.  First, a three part disclaimer.

• First, it is essential that you clarify what a win is for your small group ministry.
• Second, since there is no problem-free solution to anything and every solution has a set of problems that go with it, all you can do is choose the set of problems you’d rather have.
• Last, I’m not a huge fan of either the semester system or the free market model.  Not that either concept is wrong.  Just that I personally prefer the problems that go with another solution.  Based on what I’ve determined a win is and the set of problems that accompany those ideas…I prefer a different model.

Disclaimer out of the way, my immediate thought on reading my friend’s statement was that the “assumptions that a team has held the longest or the most deeply are the most likely to be its undoing.”  This chilling line is from a really helpful article over at HBR called When Growth Stalls by Matthew S. Olson, Derek van Bever,  Seth Verry.

This line and the study were at least partially behind North Point’s decision to abandon both Kidstuff (their very cool program for kids and their parents) and 7:22 (their very well attended weeknight Singles’ worship experience).  Both programs were very good, maybe not the best things they were doing, but very good.  Well attended.  Huge fan base.  Discarded.  Why?  Because when North Point went back to examine the underlying assumptions that drove their commitment to those ideas…they realized that a change was needed.

I’ve been fascinated by their process, going back to Andy Stanley’s 2008 Drive talk called Random Thoughts on Leadership.  Think about the willingness to ditch two programs that were so effective.  Amazing.  Ditching things that were working…but not in line with their current assumptions.  I’ve written about it here, here and here.  To top it off, the idea fit neatly alongside the Peter Drucker notion of purposeful abandonment.  It’s not enough to get rid of what’s broken.  True innovation comes when everything is on the table.

What does this all have to do with us?  With you?  With me?  When we evaluate our small group ministries, what are the design elements that need to be closely examined?  Is the strategy that we’re using really the right one?  Or is it based on assumptions that are out of line with current realities?  Out of line with ‘changes in the external environment.”

What does this have to do with all of us?  For starters, we should probably all be putting everything on the table.  As Andy Grove, former CEO of Intel said to Gordon Moore, “If we got kicked out and the board brought in a new CEO, what would he do?  Why shouldn’t we walk out, come back in and do it ourselves?”

What do you need to evaluate?  What do you need to change?  What do you need to fix?  The things that aren’t working.  As Andy Stanley has said, “Your ministry is perfectly designed to produce the results you are currently experiencing.”  Like what you’re getting?  Keep it.  Want the best results?  Question the design.

Thoughts?  I’d love to hear them!

You’re reading this…so you already know that the optimum environment for life-change is a small group.  Right?  After all, that is one of the key axiomatic beliefs of small group ministry enthusiasts everywhere.

The question is, “Is it true that a group is the optimum environment for life-change?”  Or are there some factors that must be in place for that to be true?

I’ve been saying for several years that life on life is how life-change happens and small groups are the best delivery system for that.  Say what you want to about mentoring.  It doesn’t scale.  That is, once you’re beyond 75 to 100 people, you’re going to have a very hard time delivering life on life through a mentoring strategy.  It becomes much more realistic to give the opportunity to a much larger number of people through a small group strategy.  That said, there are a few essential ingredients that must be present in a group for life-change to be likely.  Here’s my list:

• Communication in the group must be two way.  Dialogue.  That means we’re not really talking about it being led by a teacher.  I don’t really change if I’m just listening.  It can be a contributing element.  But, it’s not enough.  I also need to talk.  It is much more likely that someone with gifts of shepherding, encouragement, leadership or mercy will be a more effective leader.  Or a teacher who understands how to start a conversation.
• The small group needs to be a safe place.  I’ve got to able to share what’s really going on.  Not on the first week.  But in time I have to get to the place where I can share life with someone else.
• The meetings must be frequent enough to maintain connection.  Once a month is not enough.  Twice a month is a challenge because if I miss once…it’s been a month.  There’s not a magic number, but more frequent insures better possibilities.
• There needs to be an intentionality about what happens.  A kind of plan.  This is what’s so appealing about the Spiritual Health Assessment and the Spiritual Health Plan that are part of the Purpose Driven approach.  I’ve written about these two tools right here.
• It goes without saying that time in the Bible and prayer together are essentials.  This makes what you study very important.  You’ve got to be providing study materials that are about application.  It’s not enough to learn about the Bible.

These are the essential ingredients.  If you want life-change to happen…it won’t be accidental.  And it won’t be automatic.  It will be because these ingredients are at work.

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