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.

When you think about Heaven…what comes to mind?  For most of us, even those of us who have been walking with Christ a long time, Heaven is a only a very vague concept.  Is it a real place?  Will there be clouds?  Will we have wings, play harps and walk on streets of gold?  Will it be boring?  Will we do a lot of singing?  Sound familiar?  Ever wondered what Heaven will really be like?

God has put eternity in our hearts.  This group discussion guide will help bring eternity to light in a way that will surprise you, spark your imagination, and change how you live today.  Randy Alcorn

Based on Randy Alcorn’s best-selling book Heaven, the new Small Group Discussion Guide is designed as a companion to the Heaven DVD, which is currently available in the back of the book itself.   At seven sessions, it is long enough to provide a thorough examination of the topic and yet short enough to encourage every group member to complete it.

If you’ve used Lifetogether’s Doing Life Together or Experiencing Christ Together, you’ll find the basic format very familiar.  Each session begins with a CONNECTING with God’s Family section, designed to prime the pump of conversation and warm up the group.  After watching the DVD segment (featuring Randy Alcorn and interspersed with a steady dose of man-on-the-street comments), you’ll find a well-developed GROWING to Be Like Christ segment as well as PRAYER and SURRENDER.

A great addition to the format is the Reflection segment that provides a daily opportunity to continue to learn about and reflect on the topic.  This makes the Study Guide a really good value and more than a source for the questions.

Finally, you’ll want to take advantage of Leaders Sessions on the DVD and features like the health assessment and health plan, leader’s notes, calendar, and prayer and praise report in the Heaven Small Group Discussion Guide.

One of the challenges in this topic is its someday orientation.   Although it’s an important topic, and one that group members should find engaging, I didn’t expect it to have as much present day application as I found it to have.  In fact, this is a study that will have appeal to the believers in your groups and many of their friends.

Can it be used successfully as a church-wide study?  Absolutely.  Although this is not a great outreach topic, it still is somewhere in the middle on the Easy/Hard Continuum.  As such, it would make a great follow-up study to a more outreach oriented ministry season beginning.

What’s the best study for a new group to use?  When you’re selecting curriculum for new groups there are several keys to keep in mind.

• Easy-to-use. I often refer to great launching curriculum as “just-add-water” or “plug-and-play.”  The main idea is that when a group is new, regardless of the way it began (connection, HOST, small group vacation, etc.), preparing for the study is less important than simply making sure that everyone is connecting well.  A great launching study allows the leader to simply push “play” and enjoy the time along with everyone else.
• Not too long (and not too short). The length of the study you choose is another very important element.  I’ve found that 6 weeks is just about the perfect length.  It’s short enough for potential members to imagine putting their toe-in-the-water and testing it out.  It’s long enough to let them begin to form connective tissue and be ready to stay on for the next one.  In addition, since new groups are easier to join than long-standing groups (they’ve not yet formed that impermeable membrane) you’ll want your new groups to be free to invite based on the idea that “we’re starting a new study next week!”  If your groups are using a study with too many sessions that will come around less frequently.  In most cases it’s tough to add someone to an ongoing study after the second or third week.
• Built in “get-to-know-you” elements. These opening few weeks are great opportunities for new group members to enjoy the carbonated atmosphere of new relationships.  It can be both fun and a little nerve-wracking to share things like how you met your spouse or what was the warmest room in the house when you were 7 years old.  The best materials for new groups will have these elements because getting to know each other forms the basis of next level relationships.  People who are enjoying getting to together are more likely to form the pattern of meeting.
• A group agreement or covenant. Discussing an agreement in the first week or two is very beneficial for new groups.  Nailing down things like what time we begin and end, how refreshments work, and what we’re going to do about childcare may seem pretty mundane…but talking about it early gets those details out in the open and that’s very important.  In addition, taking a few minutes to address things like confidentiality (what gets shared here, stays here) and shared ownership (everyone contributes in some way) will set healthy expectations.

How do the studies you’ve been using stack up against these four keys?  Are you on the right track?  In tomorrow’s update I’ll be posting a list of some of my favorite “new group” studies.  Hope you come back!

If the greatest fear that people have is public speaking…it only makes sense that many people will be hesitant to pray out loud.  Here are some ideas that I’ve found very helpful:

• Distribute index cards and pens and ask each person to write out a simple one sentence prayer request.  Swap cards and read them aloud.
• Ask each person to fill in the blank and say one thing they’re thankful for:  “God, I’m thankful for my ______________,”
• Pull a chair into the middle of the room and suggest that since Jesus said, “For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them (Matthew 18:20),” in tonight’s meeting let’s speak to him as if he was right in that chair.
• Sentence prayers with no conjunctions (and).  One idea only.  For example, “God help me with __________.”  “God I’m thankful for _______________.”  “God be with Dean tonight in a way he can sense.”
• Ground rule: You can only pray for a personal concern tonight.  Nothing for your sister’s husband’s co-worker’s daughter.
• Ask your members to pair up or get in groups of three. I’ve written much more about this idea in The Power of a Spiritual Training Partner.

Have you got some ideas that have worked for you?  Use the comments to spread the word!

Q: “What is the best way to close a group meeting in prayer?”

A: Great question!  There are several parts to my answer.  First, the entire meeting structure ought to vary according to the needs of the group’s members.  After all, new groups will be much less willing to share genuine needs.  Long-term groups may spend a much longer portion of their group time praying.

Second, if the intensity of a meeting ought to change over time, it makes sense that the way your group prays together ought to change over time.  The closing prayer at the very first meeting might be more of a blessing than anything else.  As the group begins to get to know each other you may find that what used to take 5 minutes now takes 30.  You may also find that without some intentionality the authenticity of your member’s prayer requests are stuck at a fairly superficial level.  This is the point when it will benefit everyone to take advantage of the idea of a spiritual partner.

Third, if the only person that can close is the official leader…you’ve missed a great opportunity.  As early as possible you’ll want to begin to help your members learn how to pray together.

How do you know you’re succeeding at what you do?  If we were baseball players…it’d be easy.  At the end of the game we’d see who had the most runs on the scoreboard.  Would hits matter?  Yes.  Would RBIs matter?  Yes.  What about our pitcher’s ERA?  Yes.  But would they themselves be a win?  No.  At the end of the game only one thing really matters.  Do you have more runs than the other team.

How does that relate to group life? Well…unless you’ve declared what a win is, you might be measuring (or celebrating) the wrong things.  Need a for instance?  What if you’re calling a certain percentage of your weekend adult attendance a win?  For example, you’ve got 300 adults in your average weekend worship and you’ve got 200 adults in a group of some kind.  Does that feel like a win?  Is that a win?  Might be…but also might be an instance of a high LOB (Left On Base) percentage.  What makes the difference?  What you’re going to call a win.

Here’s what I mean.  If you’re only looking for a certain percentage of adults in groups (which might be where you start), then it could be that you call this a win.  At the same time, you may get to the point where a win is not the number of groups or the percentage of adults in them but is actually something a little tougher to measure.  For example, a win might become a certain percentage of groups that are finding a way to serve together in their group.  Here are some other possibilities:

• In the last 6 months 50 different people took a turn facilitating your 20 groups.
• 40% of our group members are neighbors and friends.
• 25% of our groups members are having lunch on a weekly basis with non-christian friends.
• 30% of our groups are planning to take a six-week vacation during our upcoming church-wide study and instead of meeting host new groups.
• 80% of our groups have taken the Purpose Driven Health Assessment and chosen a curriculum that will help them take a next growth step based on what they discovered.

The key to determining whether you’re winning or losing is to do the hard work of figuring out what really matters.  You may be at the place where you will be thrilled by adding reaching a higher percentage of your adults in groups.  That’s okay.  You may be at a place where you really want to begin looking for more, all in the interest of exposing your congregation to the activities and practices that are most likely to build authentic Christ followers.  Wherever you land the hard work is worth it.  Don’t miss that.  And don’t settle for high on-base percentages when scoring runs is the point.

Need more on the idea?  The 7 Practices of Effective Ministry by Andy Stanley and Reggie Joiner is fabulous on this concept.  I highly recommend this book.

As we’ve discussed previously, there is no problem-free.  Every solution comes with a set of problems.  Knowing that, wise people simply choose the problems they’d rather have and select the solution they like based on that.

Is there a problem-free way to identify and recruit small group leaders?  No.  Every method of identifying and recruiting small group leaders comes with a set of problems.  Wise small group pastors simply choose the problems they’d rather have and select their method based on that.

To demonstrate how this might work, let’s look at the problems that come with two methods of leader identification and recruitment.

New Leaders Must Apprentice First

Problem Set

• Apprentices take time to develop
• Once developed they may decline to leave and launch their own group
• Apprentice leaders may move away before they launch their own group
• The church may grow faster than apprentices can be developed

Recruited Via Pastor’s Message

Problem Set

• Unknown people may respond
• Not everyone who volunteers will follow through
• Unsuitable people may volunteer
• Some who volunteer may not be willing/capable of inviting their own group members
• Not everyone who volunteers will continue beyond 6 weeks

These lists aren’t intended to be exhaustive.  In fact, you might come up with additional problems that need to be listed.  Once you have your problem sets completed, the next step is to determine which of the problems could be controlled somehow.  For example, many churches would require new HOSTS to attend an orientation and meet some additional requirements.  That may cause you to be more open to unacceptable volunteers, knowing that there are required steps that may restrict their participation.  At the same time, you may determine that your group system is growing at a faster pace than your adult worship attendance and conclude that you’ll be able to develop apprentice leaders fast enough.

Finally, I like to say that there’s an upside and a downside to everything.  That said, I routine land on the HOSTS solution to identifying and developing leaders because I like the upside that it presents and I’m willing to accept the downside represented by the problem set.

Churches make the decision to launch a small group ministry in a church with a Sunday School culture for a variety of reasons.

• There may be a growing conviction that while an on-campus solution may work for some…it isn’t working for everyone.
• There may be a sense that we need to provide a menu that will satisfy the tastes of everyone.
• Sometimes a church will determine that an off-campus solution will make it easier for members to invite neighbors.

You can see that any of the above makes for valid motivation.  Still, whatever your motivation, I want to encourage you to execute your plan while staying alert to the feelings of people.  Since you’re launching a small group ministry in a church that already has a functioning Sunday School ministry there are some very important things to keep in mind.

First, while you may need to re-clarify the purpose of your Sunday School ministry, it is working for some.  It may only be working in their opinion and may fall very short of your hopes for their discipleship needs…but that’s almost never the doing of the participants.  Want more for your members?  You’ll have some work to do on the Sunday School ministry itself…but that’s a separate issue.

Second, when you’re launching a small group ministry you’ll most likely take advantage of several different marketing tools.  Stories inserted into your pastor’s Sunday messages, announcements during worship services, bulletin/program blurbs, website, and newsletter/e-newsletter articles all present opportunities to strategically describe what a small group offers…and do it in a way that doesn’t make your Sunday School advocates feel like chopped liver.

Third, if you do the hard work on the front end of re-clarifying the purpose of Sunday School, small groups, and any other discipleship oriented activities…it will be much easier to promote the importance of being connected.

So…your assignment before launching?  Easy.

1. Spend some time clarifying the purpose of Sunday School.  Is it just fellowship?  Is it really discipleship?  Are your Sunday School classes really just smaller versions of your Sunday service (i.e., singing, announcements, and a teaching style that doesn’t lead to discussion)?
2. What do small groups offer that isn’t being offered by your on-campus classes?  Depending on your conclusion, that may be a reason to evaluate either what your Sunday School classes offer or what your groups are designed to provide.

Looking for a way to take your small group ministry to the next level?  You’re invited!  Join Mark Howell for a workshop designed to give you the practical tools you need to build a pervasive small group ministry.

Three Essential Sessions:

• Getting to There: Building a Dynamic Small Group Ministry…Where Life Change Really Happens
• Debug Your Thinking…about what’s keeping you from becoming a Church OF Groups
• Crowd to Core…take advantage of a relational small group strategy that helps friends and neighbors become followers and leaders.

Plus: Special lunch Q&A, giving you a chance to direct the agenda!

When: Friday, April 3rd, 2009

What time: 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Where: Adventure Christian Church, 6401 Stanford Ranch Rd., Roseville, CA, 95678 (Click Here for a map)

Register by Friday, March 27, 2009 and get the Early Bird rate of $39.95 (which includes lunch and all materials).

You missed the Early Bird rate, but you can still save by registering more than one person!

Workshop Registration

Regular $49.95 Save on 2 registrations! $89.95 Save on 3 registrations! $129.95 Save on 4 registrations! $169.95

Looking for a new DVD-driven small group curriculum?  Might want to take a look at Refuel: An Uncomplicated Guide to Connecting with God, the newest resource from Saddleback.  Billed as “an uncomplicated guide for connecting with God,” REFUEL offers an easy to read book and online video and discussion materials.  Instead of purchasing the DVD, your group members will simply watch the online video before their meeting.  Simple.  Easy to use.  Less expensive.  Good stuff.  Even better?  Features Doug Fields and is very engaging.

Take a look at the site: REFUEL

Order books.