MarkHowellLive.com » small group resources

Growing Small Group Leaders

Mark Howell — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:53:16 +0000

My copy of Growing Small Group Leaders arrived over the weekend. If you’re trying to build a coaching structure that works, I’m thinking you’re probably going to want to pick up a copy. Developed by Seacoast’s leadership development expert Mac Lake, this tool is packed with some very good plug and play training ideas, tips and an overview of a very workable structure.

I particularly like the fact that this workbook is the product of in-the-field development as opposed to a nicely worked out theory that hasn’t actually been tested. I think you’ll like the well thought out and systematic approach, knowing that you’ve got the building blocks that will help you put together a coaching structure of your own.

Covering everything from how to assess your coaching style and set a coaching schedule to how to conduct effective one-on-one meetings and lead an effective huddle, Growing Small Group Leaders is a tool that will make your job as a point leader much easier. In addition, an enhanced CD with many of the assessments and forms discussed in the workbook is included.

The one issue of concern with this resource is the price. At $69.00 it will more likely be added to the point leaders reference library and used to develop coaches (who will in turn develop leaders) as opposed to a workbook that each of your coaches will receive.

Overall, this is a resource you will get a lot of use out of. If you’re looking for ideas that will help you build a very effective coaching structure that actually develops small group leaders, this is a tool you’re going to want to add to your toolkit.

John Ortberg on “Doing Life Together”

Mark Howell — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 13:48:28 +0000

Looking for a sample message that casts vision for life in community? You can download the audio of a great example by John Ortberg right here. Here’s a link to the transcript.

Given in preparation for Menlo Park’s 40 Days of Purpose experience in 2004, this message provides a look at how Ortberg encouraged a large “join a group” response.

Keep in mind that this is a different message than the type that recruits HOSTs. In developing a launch sequence, this message would be given after you’ve already recruited and trained HOSTs for a church-wide campaign.

Life’s Healing Choices

Mark Howell — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:48:03 +0000

Have you heard about Life’s Healing Choices, Saddleback’s newest campaign? Looks like a great new resource on a topic that’s been a home run for many churches and is clearly on the easy end of the easy/hard continuum.

An 8 week church-wide study based on The Beatitudes, Life’s Healing Choices features

DVD-driven small group curriculum
sermon transcripts for the weekend messages
a complete campaign kit
and leverages John Baker’s book by the same name as a companion resource.

Mirror Image

Mark Howell — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:57:24 +0000

If you’re looking for a DVD-driven study that is provocative, easy to use, and generates great discussion, you’ll love Mirror Image. From the Liquid series, this is a study of five of Jesus’ best known parables (including The Prodigal Son and The Good Samaritan) and it is a must-have in our suggested curriculum list.

What makes it so engaging is that rather than a talking head, each session presents the truth of a parable in a dramatic and contemporary retelling. For example, The Prodigal features a drug-using runaway daughter who returns to the welcoming arms of a mother and the disapproval of an older sister. There are five sessions and they are all very compelling.

One of the things that I love about this study (and the series) is that it is on what I call “the easy end” of the easy/hard continuum. It’s not hard to invite a friend to join in, and whether they’re familiar with the parable or not they will find it engaging. I also really like this study (and the series) because it doesn’t require a teacher. Group members can take turns facilitating the session and the included questions are very good at driving a great discussion.

Want a sample? You can watch the trailer and a session right here.

Build Crowd to Core Flow in Advance

Mark Howell — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:48:45 +0000

Many effective strategies are multi-component strategies. That is, there are multiple essential components to the strategy and effectiveness and impact are a result of these components working together. HOST, often used in conjunction with launching a church-wide campaign, is an example of a multi-component strategy.

Remember that in the HOST strategy, the “T” stands for “Tell a few of your friends.”* And this is an essential component. Raising up a wave of people who have a Heart for unconnected people, willing to Open up their homes and Serve a few refreshments is great, but inviting them to”Tell a few of your friends” is what makes the HOST strategy exponential. It is also where the challenge for many churches arise. There are at least two reasons this component is a challenge:

Although you attempt to be clear in your “ask,” when you say, “Tell a few of your friends” many in your congregation hear, “We’ll provide the group members.” As much as this may happen also, it isn’t the primary intent of the strategy.
Your members may respond or want to respond but not really know any of their neighbors or co-workers. This is why building crowd-to-core flow in advance is an essential component.

How To Build Crowd-To-Core Flow

Start early. You can’t begin too early.
Regularly cast a vision for God’s heart for the community and the crowd. Passages like Matthew 9:36 and 2 Kings 6-7 are at the heart of the story.
Provide periodic opportunities for your congregation to put this vision into practice.
Use video and live testimony to tell stories about how HOSTs are helping people find their way back to God.

A Great Example from Saddleback

In the fall of 2007 Saddleback repeated the 40 Days of Purpose. They began talking about the upcoming church-wide study in mid-spring, 2007, encouraging members to “Use the summer to get to know your neighbors. Invite them over for a barbeque or dessert.” Further, they asked members to host block parties for Labor Day and ask everyone to bring their favorite dish to share along with the recipe. The block party attendees voted on which dish was the best and included the winner in a church cookbook (proceeds going to support an important community need).

Sound like fun? Can you see how a few opportunities, planned well in advance, would enable your congregation to do a better job as hosts “telling a few of their friends and neighbors?” What’s the key? Start early!

Do you have ideas you’d like to share? Use the comment section below to spread the word about the ideas you’re using.

*In the orignal version of HOST, Rick Warren used “Turn on your VCR.” Becoming even more exponential, it has become, “Tell a few of your friends.”

Learning How to Pray Together

Mark Howell — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 23:37:58 +0000

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!

What’s the Best Way to Close a Meeting in Prayer?

Mark Howell — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 23:38:55 +0000

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.

Clarifying the Win In Your Small Group Ministry

Mark Howell — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 23:36:52 +0000

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.

Problem-Free Leader Identification and Recruitment

Mark Howell — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 23:36:03 +0000

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.

How to Build a Small Group Ministry in a Sunday School Culture, Part 5

Mark Howell — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 23:34:17 +0000

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.

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)?
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.