Designing Your Small Group System

We had a great call today with my good friend Kent Odor, this week’s guest on the Small Group Fraternity. Definitely in the small group pioneer category, Kent has a long small group history and has had many great experiences along the way.  In today’s call there were a number of important insights.  Just wanted to share this one with all of you, because it will help you in the development of your small group system.

Kent talked about how every cell in a biological sense needs input, output and connection…and so does every soul.  He went on to explain that every soul needs input (3 types: from the front, in groups, and individual), output (serving), and connection that keeps them safe and growing.

I asked him to drill down a little further and he explained that they think of input as based on the 5 core values of the Cincinnati Vineyard.  Here are their 5 core values:  Servant Community (In community we serve together), Outward Focused (It’s all about someone else), Worship (What you were called for), Empowered Transformation (Redeemed to maturity through the Holy Spirit), Relevant (Just right for every moment).

Now here’s the cool part.  First, they’ve looked through the Serendipity Bible and identified 24 studies for each core value.  And, as Kent told us, “it gets better.”  The second thing they’re doing is, recognizing the four stages identified in Willow’s Reveal study (Exploring Christ, Growing in Christ, Close to Christ, and Christ-Centered), each of the 24 studies for each core value is tagged according to the stage it is ideally suited for.

That’s some really good systems thinking and a great example of the kind of thing we’re getting with the Small Group Fraternity.