As I've written previously, I evaluate the effectiveness of small group strategy through a carefully developed process.  My process is based on three assumptions and the first assumption I make is that "it is what it is."  That is, what is happening in your small group ministry right now is directly related to the way it is designed.

I love the way that Andy Stanley says it: "Your ministry is perfectly designed to give you the results you are currently experiencing." 

When you think about your small group ministry (or the ministry of your church in the broader sense), do you ever stop to think that the things you are finding exciting or frustrating are the direct result of the way your ministry is designed?  In other words, if you're excited because your small group system is really producing a growing number of committed Christ-followers who are actively engaging in ministry together…it is the directly related to the way your small group ministry is designed.  And on the other hand, if you're frustrated by the way your groups never seem to stick…it is the direct result of your design.  Ever had that thought?

You need to have that thought.  You need to be able to really own the fact that there is a reason, a definite reason, that things are the way they are.  After all, the systems you are currently using, the curriculum you're currently using, the recruiting tactics, everything together…is perfectly designed to give you the results you are currently experiencing.

In some ways this is related to the practices of Good to Great companies who infused everything with the "brutal facts of reality."  Jim Collins makes the point that "You absolutely cannot make a series of good decisions without first confronting the brutal facts (p. 70, Good to Great)." 

Let me encourage you to take advantage of right now to give serious attention to the pieces that make up your design.  You may need to carve out a few hours, a day, maybe even a week or a weekend retreat to carefully evaluate all the moving parts.  Here's a short list that will get you started:

• What kind of priority are you giving small group ministry?  Is it clearly the way you're making disciples?  Or is it one of several ways?
• Are you emphasizing the importance of small groups every week in your worship service?  Or is it a seasonal highlight?
• Are you investing sufficient energy in developing a constant stream of ways that the importance of groups is being highlighted? (live testimonies, video, personal stories told by the senior pastor, announcements, special events)
• To what extent are you developing your small group leaders?  Are you proactively investing in them?  Or are you mostly doing crisis intervention?

You can see that there is a lot to talk about!  The key?  Start talking.  If you want results that you're not currently getting…you're going to have to do something different.  And the very first step is to understand the system you actually have in place.

New 4 Week Telecourse:  Launching Groups That Connect with Your Community

Looking for a way to connect with your community?  Trying to figure out how to develop a "crowd-to-core" small group strategy?  Available for limited time at $49.95, our new 4 week telecourse could be just what you need.  Packed with practical ideas and a detailed strategy…  

You will learn how to:

1. Plan for maximum impact.
2. Recruit the right team.
3. Engage your whole congregation.
4. Sustain the largest number of groups.

You will receive:

• 4 sixty minute conference calls
• Access to full recordings to share with your team
• Complete outlines

When does it begin?

• Tuesdays, March 3  to March 24, 2009
• 8:00 a.m. PT, 10:00 a.m. CT, 11:00 a.m. ET

One of the assumptions I have about strategy and strategic planning is that there is no problem-free solution.  In other words, every solution has a set of problems that accompanies it.  How do you determine which solution to use?  Most groups simply go along with the loudest voice or the most powerful voice…or the most authoritative voice.  My recommendation is to identify the solutions that seem best…actually list all the reasonable ones…and then assess the problems that accompany each with brutal honesty.  Don’t play favorites.  If you need to, bring in a nonpartisan bystander.  This is a fantastic team exercise that will help your team work through the possibilities.  Once you’ve carefully listed out the problems of each solution (they’ll all have problems) your work is half done.  Next, make your decision about what to do based on the problem set you’d rather have.

Need a for-instance?  The decision to launch groups using a Small Group Connection is often challenged by people who don’t buy the initial premise that a group of adults can reliably figure out who the relative shepherd is.  Their belief is that some other process of identifying a leader has to be preferable.  My take?  I’ve been using the Connection strategy since about 2000.  In my experience it is a better way of finding the number of leaders you need for the number of people ready to join a group.

Now, I’m always finding new nuances of the exercise.  I’ve come to the conclusion that the pursuit of problem-free is often related to the attempt to delay implementation.  I put up several posts over at StrategyCentral about Peter Block’s great book, The Answer to How Is Yes: Acting on What Matters.  He makes a very similar point when he writes about the idea that many requests for more information (how much will it cost, how long will it take, etc.) are simply an attempt to delay.  For more on the idea from Block you can check out The Speed of Implementation.

Thoughts?  Let me know how it works for you!

I'm excited about my upcoming schedule!  I've got some breakouts planned on topics that I love talking about (including GettingToThere). Really looking forward to seeing a lot of my friends around the country over the next few months!  Will you be there?  Be sure and let me know!

Here's where I'll be:

January 27-28, Dallas, TX Innovation3 (just hangin' and learnin')

January 29-30, Greensboro, NC, Anglican Mission Winter Conference

February 19-21, Lake Forest, CA Saddleback Small Group Conference

March 3, Vacaville, CA Western District Evangelical Free Church

March 26-28, Houston, TX Saddleback Small Group Conference

April 23-25, Atlanta, GA  Saddleback Small Group Conference

May 14-16, Cincinnati, OH Saddleback Small Group Conference

How are you communicating with your small group leaders and hosts?  How hard (or easy) is it for you to get the word out about upcoming events, recommended curriculum, and leader development?  How do you do it?  Still using a print newsletter?  Sending an email out to a list?  Smiling and dialing?  In this post I want to point you to four easy-to-use tools that will make communicating with your team easier and more effective.

First, give your leaders a way to get information 24/7. You may have a great website and a really cooperative webmaster…but most of us don’t.  The truth about most church websites is that finding what you’re looking for is a challenge and adding or changing content is even tougher.  What’s the answer?  Use a blog linked to your website that you and your team can update!  It’s easy to use and inexpensive to provide (less than $60 a year).  There are several web-based programs that make it so easy that even a caveman can do it!

You can see the blog I’ve created for small group leaders at Adventure right here. If you click on “life groups” in the middle of this page you can see how I’ve linked my leader’s blog from my church’s website.  If I have a training event that I want to promote or curriculum that I want to recommend it is easy to add and I can do it without waiting on our webmaster.  Even better…I can set it up so that when I add the content my leaders are notified!

Second, provide training and encouragement without scheduling an on-campus meeting. You can do this several ways.  For example, a short teleconference is a great technique that your leaders will really appreciate.  Using a service like FreeConferenceCall.com allows your leaders to take part in a training session without driving over to the church.  That is a huge idea!  For many of your leaders it will save them 30 minutes both ways by the time they get in their car and drive over.

Another idea that is being used more and more is providing a quick video teleconference.  With a free service like Tokbox.com you can do training or coaching huddles using a webcam and a computer.  Tokbox.com allows your team to click a link from wherever they are and join a video call in progress.  If they don’t have a webcam they’ll still be able to see everyone who does.  If only the leader of the call has a webcam it can still provide a way for you to communicate visually with your team.  And it’s free!  Another option is to use Mogulus.com which allows you to broadcast your training live over the internet.  Your leaders will be able to see and hear your presentation as well as type in questions on the screen.

Further, you can use Tokbox.com or Mogulus.com to record your training and post the video on your blog.  Then your leaders can watch the training on their own time.

Third, use a web-based service like Churchteams to allow unconnected people to find a group 24/7. Easy-to-use, your leaders can do the updates themselves (or you can do it for them),  It is a real advantage to be able to provide current information about available groups 24/7.  Additionally, with a web-based approach you can send out a church-wide email using a program like Constant Contact, (which is offering a FREE 60-Day Trial
),
that will provide a link to your small group finder.  This can be used in combination with verbal and print announcements to encourage maximum response to a church-wide emphasis.

Finally, take advantage of social media to stay connected with your leaders. You may be surprised to discover how many of your leaders are already on Facebook.  If you haven’t set up your page yet, there’s no time like the present.  Twitter is another social media service that should be on your to-do list.  Funny name, interesting concept…Twitter allows you to update by text message all the people who are “following” your tweets.  You can also set Twitter up to update your Facebook status.  You can see how I use Twitter in the right column of this web site.

Need a new approach? You don’t need to move from A to Z on one move.  Move to B.  Add a simple blog that you can update yourself.  Try on Constant Contact for size.  The key on all of these new ideas is to take a first step!

My friend Doug Cowburn has an interesting series going on Small Group Myths over at SkintightTranfsormation.  Check it out.  What do you think?

You say you want to be a church of small groups.  You say you want to be a church where nobody stands alone.  You say you want to connect 150% of your weekend adult worship attendance.  All good, pithy, mantras.  But what are you really doing to make that happen?  How serious are you about doing what you’re talking about?

That is a tough one, isn’t it?  After all…it’s one thing to say it.  It’s another thing to actually put it on the front burner and become preoccupied with making it happen.  But guess what.  If you want connecting 150% of your weekend adult worship attendance to actually happen, it must become a consuming preoccupation.

So…do you really want to go there?  You know that business as usual won’t do it, right?  After all, the truth is that “your ministry is perfectly designed to give you the results you’re currently getting.”  If you want different results you’re going to have to do different things.  Do you really want to connect 150%?  If you do, here are a few keys to moving onto the right trajectory:

1. Do the hard work of assessing where you really are.  Don’t guestimate.  This isn’t a time for “ministerially speaking” or optimism based on high-water marks of the last church-wide campaign.  Instead, gather accurate information about the number of active groups you have along with the number of active participants.  Be careful about who you count.  You will need to decide what you’ll count as a group and what you’ll call “active.”  My recommendation is that you set aggressive standards.  In other words, groups that meet once a month or once a quarter don’t count.  In addition, you may decide that you’re only going to count groups that meet off-campus or for something more than teaching/information-based content.  Just be consistent.
2. Next, determine the total number of adults who are part of your congregation.  The temptation is to take your average adult weekend worship attendance.  That is a place to start, but realize that the average adult in your congregation probably isn’t there every week.  That is very significant because it means if you average 200 adults every Sunday, but the average adult only attends twice a month, then you really have 400 individual adults over the course of the month.  For that reason, you’ll really need to take a number like the adult worship attendance for last Easter or Christmas Eve and use that to represent all of the adults in your congregation.
3. Can you see the equation looming?  Take the total number of adults and subtract the number already active in a group (as defined in #1).  Now you know how many unconnected adults you have.
4. Last, take the number of unconnected adults and divide by 10.  That will give you a sense of the number of new groups it will take to connect everyone.

Pretty daunting?  It should be.  It will take preoccupation to get there.  You can do it, but you won’t drift into 150% connection.  It will take a consuming preoccupation and it will take more than intent.  It will also require a path.  More on that later.

So far you’ve got the beginnings of an understanding of where your church is right now.  You know your percentage connected and that’s important, but it’s only the beginning.  What else do you need to know?  Next up is a list of diagnostic questions that will uncover a deeper layer of what’s true about where your congregation is right now.

1. Does your senior pastor own the idea of connecting 150%?  Does your staff?  Do your deacons or elders?
2. How clear is it that your aim is that adult needs to be in a group?  Are you blatant and consistent in your messaging?  Do you say the same things no matter who you are talking to?
3. How easy is the next step for an adult in your congregation?  Can they join a group without jumping through a lot of hoops?  Can they get involved without waiting for open enrollment?  Can they do it 24/7?
4. How obvious is the next step for an unconnected adult in your congregation?  Do they see “find a small group” on the home page of your website?  Or do they have to know to click on “Grow” and then “Discipleship Options” and then “Life Groups” and then finally see where they can fill in a form?
5. How well designed is your process?  When an unconnected adult takes an initial step and joins a 40 Days group, do you have a step in your process that will help them find a new group if the group doesn’t continue?

How serious are you about connecting 150%?  If you really want to go there, it will take a consuming preoccupation.  Want to go there but need help?  Take advantage of Getting To There, a free, 30 day path designed to help you take the right next steps.

Have you begun testing the waters of video conferencing yet?  Maybe you’re light years into it and have it all figured out…but if you don’t, can I steer you toward a couple things? Maybe three?

In my consulting work, I’m beginning to use video chat to make it better than a conference call.  To do that, you’ll need a camera.  I’m going with the Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000 and the Logitech ClearChat Comfort USB Headset.  You can read more (and even order your own right here.

Where am I going to use them?  How am I going to use them?  Although Skype has been around for several years, there are some other great, easy solutions for video chat.

Google’s new video chat is one that you definitely need to check out.  Free.  Easy to use.

Another great option is TokBox. Whether you’ve got a team that’s scattered (think coaches or community leaders) or you’re part of a national coaching network like the Small Group Fraternity, TokBox gives you the ability to host a Brady Bunch-like display that will allow your team to see each other.  Best part?  It’s free.

Regardless of the strategy you use to invite unconnected people to join a small group or to consider hosting a group in their home, learning how to effectively ask people to take a next step is essential.  Done poorly, you’ll get a weak response.  Done well, you’ll get a great response.  Here are the four steps to a great response:

1. Incorporate the ask into your pastor’s sermon.  This is much more effective than an announcement.  Obviously, some sermon topics will lend themselves more naturally to integrating the ask into the message itself.  This is worth a careful discussion.  Looking for a scripture passage that includes the idea of community makes it easier.  For example, Matthew 9:36 let’s us in on Jesus’ heart for unconnected people (sheep without a shepherd).
2. Use an insert in the bulletin to gather responses.  While talking about Jesus’ heart for unconnected people, ask your people to “take out the insert in your bulletin.  It looks like this.”  Hold it up and say, “While you’re taking that out, I want you to listen to the story of Bob and Jane.”
3. Using a 2 to 3 minute live or videotaped testimony about the importance of being in a group or how God used the host of a new group gives your ask a huge advantage.  I’ve written about how to develop video testimony that recruits hosts
4. Provide an easy way to respond immediately.  Asking them to go to the website to sign up or call the church office doesn’t strike while the iron is hot.  The best response opportunity is to take the offering later in the service and put the inserts in the plate as it comes by.  Next best, station ushers at the exits and collect as people leave.  Last, have people turn them in to a table in the lobby (this is much less effective).
5. Now that you have the keys, here’s how I do what I call “The Dance.”  Pay attention to the language and the sequence here: “Doing Life together is so important.  If you’re ready to put your toe in the water and try a life group, I want to invite you join us at the Small Group Connection on January 21st.  In your bulletin this morning is an insert.  It looks like this (hold one up).  While you’re taking out the sign-up form, I want you to welcome Bob and Jane Smith.  The Smith’s joined a group last year about this time and I’ve asked them to share a little bit of their story (2 to 3 minutes, answering the questions I mention in how to develop a life group testimony).”The pastor then says, “Let’s thank Bob and Jane for sharing their story.  We want to invite you to join us at the Connection on January 21st!  If you’ll fill out the sign-up form you can place it in the offering at the end of the service.”  Important Note: If you’re recruiting hosts, simply substitute the following lines: “If you have a heart for unconnected people you could be a host.  In your bulletin this morning is an insert.  It looks like this (hold one up).  While you’re taking out the sign-up form, I want you to welcome Bob and Jane Smith.  The Smith’s hosted a group last year about this time and I’ve asked them to share a little bit of their story (2 to 3 minutes, answering the questions I mention in how to develop a life group testimony).”The pastor then says, “Let’s thank Bob and Jane for sharing their story.  Is that what God is leading you to do?  If you’ll fill out the sign-up form you can place it in the offering at the end of the service.”

Does that make sense?  See how the four key ingredients are integrated right into the message?  If you’re recruiting hosts, it would just take a little tweak.  Same dance.  Like any dance, the graceful integration of several steps leads to a smooth and pleasing outcome.  I hope your dance moves become smoother and more effective.

I recently got an email from Peter that asked, “What are the essential ingredients to making a great life group and how do I get them?”

That is a great question!  Let’s take an initial stab…and then open up shop for comments (or further questions) that you might have.

The essential ingredients to making a great life group are both simple and challenging.  You’ll find most of what you’re looking for in the values listed on the Purpose Driven Group Agreement.  A group that integrates these 8 values will have the basis for a very rich experience.  Take a look:

1. Group attendance is prioritized.  Seems obvious, but this is very important.  Group members need to be committed to putting group meetings ahead of other opportunities.
2. A safe environment is one where members can be heard and feel loved.  Easy?  No.  Learning to listen and ask follow up questions without offering pat answers or snap judgments is very difficult.  Short of a safe environment you cannot expect to cultivate the kind of group experience that actually produces life-change.
3. Confidentiality is an essential ingredient.  What is shared in the group, stays in the group.  Nothing kills an experience like the knowledge that we’re not all in this together.
4. Spiritual health is made possible through a kind of shared accountability and support.  It’s not a solo operation.  I need you and you need me.  Together we can be healthy.
5. Determining in advance that your group will be a welcoming place for new people is important.  Maintaining that potential (beyond lip service) is difficult but essential.  Without this element a group can easily become stale.
6. Developing a sense of shared ownership allows each member to play a part.  It is both more work and less work.  More work in that the leader must proactively engage a contribution from everyone.  Less work in that with the help of everyone the leader can focus on leading.
7. Rotating the facilitation responsibility among group members allows for the development of confidence and the identification of additional leaders.  Brett Eastman calls it, “The crock pot of leadership development.”  Side note: This is also one of the major predictors of groups that survive when the leader moves away or otherwise stops leading.
8. Sub-grouping for spiritual growth.  Whether you take the step of accountability partners, or simply sub-group into groups of 3 or 4, this will encourage deeper sharing, more meaningful prayer and a greater sense of connection.  Having 10 to 12 regular participants is great but it is too large for everyone to share their experience in a meaningful way.

While there are other aspects that are important (for example, how often you meet, focusing on transformation as opposed to information, and how you handle conflict), I really think these are the most essential ingredients of a meaningful small group.  How do I begin to implement them?  Intentionally moving in this direction.  Starting with an agreement is a great first step.  Tracking progress and actually measuring alignment with these values is also very important.

Thoughts?  Use the comments and lets talk about it!