Want the scoop on how to launch small groups?  Who doesn’t!  After all, groups do more than provide the “optimal environment for life-change.” They also provide a very effective delivery system for ministry and mission.

So then the question might be, “How can you get groups going in a way that has the best chance of succeeding?”

And let’s come right out and say that there are lots of ways to get small groups going.  But that’s not what we’re talking about.  We’re talking about getting them going in a way that has the best chance of succeeding…in a big way.

So how will we do it?  First, a disclaimer: In order for this strategy to work, your pastor’s commitment is absolutely essential.  No getting around it.  Without your senior pastor’s buy-in this plan is not effective.  With that understanding, here are the five steps to a successful small group launch.

Step One: Schedule a weekend message series that passes the following tests:

• At a strategic time (late January/early February, post-Easter, late September/early October).
• On the right subject (a topic that is genuinely easy to invite friends to attend).
• For the right length (Six weeks is just right).

Step Two: Align a small group curriculum with your upcoming weekend message series that passes the following tests:

• Curriculum is a “good-enough” match to the weekend series.  If 40 Days of Purpose was a “one-for-one” match, this has to be at least thematically aligned.
• Easy to use. Preferably a DVD-driven study that only requires an open home and someone to push play.

Step Three: Ask your members (and regular attendees) to consider opening their home to host a group. If you’ve met the conditions of Step 1 and 2 they should be open to the idea. Follow these guidelines when you ask them:

• Ask them in the context of a sermon, NOT an announcement.
• Put together two or three sermons that talk about God’s heart for unconnected people (Matthew 9:36, 2 Kings 7:3-9, etc.).  Use these messages as an opportunity to invite your congregation to open up their homes and host a group.
• Give your congregation a way to respond to the invitation in the service (an insert to be filled out is the best way).

Step Four: Provide an adequate level of coaching for your newest leaders and begin as soon as they respond.

• Invite them to attend an orientation where they can learn about what they volunteered to do.
• Connect them with a coach at the orientation.
• Use the coaches to establish and maintain weekly contact with every host.

Step 5: Give your new groups something to do next that is similar in kind.

• You’ve invited your congregation to “just open their home” and provided a curriculum that is easy to use. What you give them to do next must have a very similar degree of difficulty.
• Let your new leaders know what is next by week three of their first study.
• Give any preexisting small group leaders the option to go back to their previously scheduled programming.

Ready to launch small groups in a way that has the best chance of succeeding…in a big way?  Just follow the five steps.  Need more help?   I’m always available for a coaching call that debugs individual challenges in your congregation.  You can schedule a call right here.

Ready to think about helping your small group have a better experience in 2008? It’s that time again! Time for all good groups to get going! And get going on the right foot.

There are several important keys to getting off to a great start in the new year. First, if you didn’t already set a date to get back together, do that today! Doesn’t mean you have to meet this week, or even next. Just means that you need to set a date and get the word out. The sooner the better!

Second, make sure your first meeting has a little bit of a party feel. Food is very important. This is an opportunity to get everyone involved in bringing something. In fact, making sure that every member is responsible for something helps ensure that they’ll all be there. Much less likely
to miss the meeting if they’re bringing the guacamole! Do it however you’d like. Make it a theme night (Mexican, Italian, hamburgers or dessert) or keep it simple and make it “bring your favorite dish to share,” just make sure that you get all of your members on board to bring something.

Third, take advantage of the time around the dinner table to help your group talk about where they’ve been and what they’ve done over holidays. A few really helpful starter questions are:

• What was the most memorable thing that happened?
• What was the biggest disappointment?
• What are you looking forward to in 2008?

Don’t miss the fact that some of your members have had a tougher holiday experience than others. Be on the lookout for opportunities to stop and pray for anyone that shares something that calls for prayer. Also, if you’re ready to kick-start the conversation it will make it easier for everyone to jump in!

Fourth, as you begin 2008 it is a great time to renew your group agreement. You’ll find small group agreements (or covenants) in the appendix of many studies today. Taking some time to walk through one with your group will give everyone a chance to refresh their commitment to the group values and the simple basics that make groups healthy. Be sure and check out The Power of a Small Group Agreement for more on this idea.

Last, especially if you’re preparing to launch a new study, this can be a great chance to invite a few unconnected friends to join the group! Many people have already resolved that this is going to be the year that they work on building a few new relationships. Why not help them take the first step!

Ever play on a winning team? Participate in a group that really came together and was somehow better together than any sum of the individuals ought to have been? There’s something about that, isn’t there? The whole concept of stacking hands and agreeing that in order to be the best we’re going to have to do it a certain way.

Here’s the thing…in the same way that team had had a way of doing things, your group can too. In fact, you do have a way…even if you don’t know it; even if you didn’t plan it!

Why not take advantage of the beginning of a new year to get your group talking about what’s next? And there’s no better way to do that than to pull out a small group agreement or covenant and talk through your hopes for the new year.

What should you talk about?  Two basic ideas:

• What are your values?
• What are your expectations?

What Are Our Values?

When you’re working through the values of your group, we suggest that you talk about the following values:

• Group Attendance: Even if my boss offers tickets to the big game, I know the group meeting has priority.
• Safe Environment: Our members will feel loved and heard because there won’t be quick answers, snap judgments, or simple fixes.
• Confidentiality: Obvious…but necessary. What happens in the group stays in the group.
• Spiritual Health: The goal is not just attendance! It’s that over time we’d become more like Christ.
• Inviting People: It’s not just us! We’ll be on the lookout for ways to include new people when appropriate.
• Shared Ownership: Good groups involve the whole group in the action. Rotating facilitators, moving the meeting to different group member’s homes, allowing everyone to play a role…these things predict a better group.
• Spiritual Partners: No getting a round it, if there are more than three of us the path to growth comes through pairing up for accountability and encouragement. It may be a new practice…but it is a healthy one.

You may arrive at additional values. There’s no magic list. The key is to spend some time working on this if you want your group to be healthy.

What Are Our Expectations?

This is simpler…but just as important. These are the basic ingredients of our small group life.

• When will we meet? Not just the day but the time that we start and stop. Agreeing on this is a big detail. It allows our group to honor the value of group attendance.
• What will we do about the kids? Figuring out a childcare solution is an important key.
• What will we eat? It may not be all about the food, but agreeing on what we’ll eat can keep us on the right track.
• Will we attend the same service? Hanging out together, outside the meeting, goes a long way.

When Should You Have This Discussion?

When is the best time to have this discussion? If you’re a new group there’s no time like the beginning. It’ll get you off to a great start. If you’ve been around for a while without an agreement you may want to ease into it. Using a study that incorporates an agreement can provide the easiest first step.

Whether you’re brand new and want to get off to a great start or you’ve been around and need a little boost, a small group agreement can be a powerful tool for spiritual growth. Why not take advantage of the season and put one to work?

Looking for a good resource that includes a small group agreement?  Creating Community could be just the ticket.

Looking for a way to think about how to design your small group ministry?  That might be the most helpful thing about Creating Community: Five Keys to Building a Small Group Culture. Although it’s a short book (190 pages), it contains some very important keys to building a small group culture in your church.  Most important?  North Point’s fundamental bias is to be intentional about the what and the how of everything they do.  This is a huge lesson for the rest of us…one not to be missed.

Like the 7 Practices of Effective Ministry, Creating Community takes you sequentially through the process of making some challenging decisions as you begin to develop a small group ministry. Learning to ask three questions can provide a good foundation: (1) What do we want people to become?, (2) What do we want people to do?, and (3) Where do want people to go? These questions are all about “clarifying the win” and “thinking steps not programs” (two keys to the Seven Practices).

While Creating Community doesn’t tackle how to take apart your existing program, it does a great job of providing a way of thinking about what a better approach might be.  For all of us who are wrestling with systems that are less than effective, this is a good addition to the arsenal. At the same time, if you’ve got the tough work of taking apart a preexisting structure, you may want to consider John Kotter’s Leading Change as a companion!

You’re ready to get your group going…or you’re finishing the study you’re in right now…and you’re trying to figure out what to do next. We’re all here eventually.  Now what?  Let me give you a few suggestions.

First, don’t take a vote!  Especially when your group is new (within the first 6 months) taking a vote can lead to some unnecessary debate (and even disappointment when a nominated suggestion is not chosen). Instead, think about the members of your group and based on recent discussions choose a study that will help your group mature.

Second, taking the Purpose Driven Health Assessment can help your group determine which of the 5 Biblical purposes might need strengthening.  A great way to use this resource is to have each member of your group take the assessment and then simply add up their scores in each area.  You’ll quickly see where you need help!

Third, make sure you’re choosing material that is easy to use and leads to application.  Learning about the Bible is fine.  Learning how to apply what you’re learning is really the point.  One thing I always look for is material that an average person can lead.  That means that it has a leader’s guide (preferably built-in) and is mostly about facilitating and not teaching.  If you want an average person to be able to lead it, you’ll need to focus on facilitating discussion and not teaching.  At the same time, a discussion is much more engaging than a lecture to your members.

Last, many groups find that a DVD-driven study capitalizes on a gifted teacher and allows the group leader to focus on keeping the group engaged and cared for.   Be careful that the material you choose doesn’t require so much preparation that connecting with group members becomes an afterthought.

In today’s post, Craig Groeschel points us to the fact that people stay at small churches for two reasons: they feel needed and known.  Also, people leave large churches (in spite of all the reasons that attract them) for two reasons: they don’t feel needed or known.

Hmmmmm.

Here’s a drawing I often use to describe the situation.  The circle represents your total congregation.  The square, those who are connected in the sense that Groeschel talks about.  What needs to happen?  Figure out a way to help more people get into the square!

Does who you invite to host a small group make a difference?  Clearly.  I’ve included a diagram that I hope will help you think through the question.  Take a look:

Here’s how to read it.  First, the circle represents your Easter or Christmas Eve attendance.  Most places that is the best attended service all year.  Even if you’re not a big outreach church, you’ll still have 130% of your average weekend.  If outreach is big for you, you’ll have much higher.  The other thing the circle represents is all (or at least more) of the adults that might be in your auditorium over the course of an average month.  If you’re like most of us, your people aren’t there every Sunday.  They come 2 or 3 times a month.

Second, the square represents all the people who are connected at your church.  That is, the ones who are already in a small group, a Sunday school class, serving in a ministry, etc.

In the example, there are 2000 adults in the Easter services and there are 500 adults who are connected.  We don’t know how many adults are there on average, but say lets say there are 1400.

Now, think about what happens when you invite someone from inside the square (connected) to host a small group.  If you ask them to invite their friends…who would they invite?  People from inside the square, right?  Isn’t that who their friends probably are?  Other people from inside the square?

What if you invite the people who are barely connected to host a small group?  Who are they likely to invite?  Other people in the circle?  I think it actually would be people outside the circle!  Think about that!  What if everyone you asked to host a group invited 8 of their friends to join the study?  And what if those 8 came from outside the circle?  Oh, you’d have all kinds of problems.  But they’d be really good problems!

I get asked this question a lot.  And it’s a good question.  People ask it out of a genuine interest in doing the right thing.  Mostly it’s asked by leaders or hosts of newer groups.  But it’s also sometimes asked by group members who are hoping for a particular answer.

My answer is always the same.  Your goal should be “more often.” That is, you should have a goal to meet more often.  Why?  Because the more often you get together, the more likely that your group will really form the kind of bond that produces life-change.  The reasons for it are fairly obvious, but let me list a few of them.

First, when you’re just getting started it takes about 6 meetings for people to begin to feel like they’re connected.  They’ve had enough exposure to each other to start to hear the real underlying truth.  And that’s helpful.  But 6 meetings is still just 6 meetings, no matter how you slice it.  And that’s not quite enough to really cement the connections that are beginning to develop.  It seems that it take 12 to 18 meetings for a deeper sense of familiarity to form; a commitment to each other and a willingness to make the group a priority.

A second reason for a more frequent meeting pattern is that when a person misses a meeting and their group is only meeting twice a month, it will be a full month before the group meets again.  That’s too long!  They’ll have to reintroduce themselves!  A sense of connection and a closeness that develops can quickly deteriorate if there are too many missed meetings.

Perhaps the most important reason for meeting more frequently is that we’re designed by God for this kind of connection.  The idea that we would anonymously attend the weekend worship service and all it a week is not God’s idea of the depth of commitment we ought to have with each other.  It is impossible to read the New Testament and not come away with the idea that we’re to be deeply connected with each other.  In fact, when the Apostle Paul wrote about it he often used words that described the way body parts were connected.

So the question might be, “how can we meet often enough to really connect in that way?”  Another might be, “how can our meetings have the kind of vitality that leaves me feeling I don’t want to miss ‘em!”  Let’s talk about that next.  For now, let’s just say you need to meet frequently enough to be sure you’re deeply connected.

Organic Community: Creating a Place Where People Naturally Connect

Looking for help in designing an environment that encourages authentic, lasting connections?  Organic Community by Joseph R. Myers could be just the ticket to help your congregation move in that direction.  In the same way I found Myers’ previous book, The Search to Belong, both intriguing and irritating, there’s a lot to be learned in his newest offering.  If you’ve ever attempted to follow someone else’s master plan and found that it really didn’t work in your setting, this will be a book that is both comforting and challenging.  Comforting in that it may explain some of the difficulties in porting a strategy into a new setting.  Challenging in that becoming an organizational environmentalist is not a problem-free pursuit.

This is a how-to book, “but not one with step-by-step instructions.
These pages do not contain a secret master plan only now revealed.
Herein is no promise of grand success.  This is a different kind of
how-to book.  This is a book that discusses a transition of thought
(from the introduction).”

Pointing us to the inherent problems of adopting another organization’s strategy, Myers identifies nine organizational tools “that will help you discover whether you are following a master plan approach or an organic order approach.”  This is a book that could easily be used to frame a very healthy discussion about vision and direction.  It may not fully persuade on every point, but it will definitely challenge your assumptions and provide a more thorough understanding of your environment.

Ready to get started?  You can order your copy RIGHT HERE.

Is your church ready for another all-church campaign?  Maybe you saw the power of the 40 Days of Purpose or Community and you’d like to recapture that momentum.  Or maybe you’ve only heard about the advantage of a church-wide campaign and you’d like your own congregation to experience that kind of unity.  Maybe the closest thing you’ve experienced has been a well-designed capital campaign that energized your people and got them on the same page.

Off-the-Shelf Campaigns

No matter the motivation, if you’re ready to plan and launch a church-wide campaign there are a couple ways you can go about it.  You could take a look at an off-the-shelf campaign.  We’ve written about a few of them right here.

Develop Your Own Campaign

Or maybe you’ve begun to think about developing your own; a home-grown effort.  There are a number of  ways to accomplish this goal.

• Find an off-the-shelf small group print curriculum that matches your weekend series theme and then produce your own DVD featuring your pastor to go along with it.  Doesn’t have to be a perfect match.  Close is often good enough.  The DVD can be a very simple, fireside-chat format.  You can even film your own testimony clips to go along with your teaching.
• Find an off-the-shelf small group curriculum (print and DVD) and build your own message series around the theme.  Many churches have used Lifetogether’s award winning studies in this way.  They feature some of the best known teachers in a format that is very friendly and easy to use.
• Use some in-house writers and video talent to put your own curriculum together.  Many churches have the talent already, just waiting to be included.
• Take advantage of the experience of a group like SmallGroupResources.net.  Our team of seasoned professionals understand the art and the science of developing a DVD-driven curriculum.  You can find out more right here.