How can we start some new groups?  We have 14 (or 34, 78, or 103) and we’re stuck on how to add new groups.  What’s the best way to do it?  What are some ways that we’re not thinking of?

This is a very frequent question.  And it’s a good one because it’s rooted in a concern for the right things. One of the axiomatic beliefs of many in the group life movement is that good groups grow and birth.  Ought to work.  Sounds good.  But does it work in reality?  Not always.  If you’re depending on apprenticing to provide new leaders and new groups…you’re betting on the wrong horse.

Here are the top 5 ways I’ve found to start new groups.

1. A Church-wide campaign using the HOST strategy is by far the easiest way to launch a significant number of new groups.  While there are definitely some seasons when it is more effective, this method executed with skill can recruit new leaders and new groups in big numbers.  One of the best aspects of the strategy is that it finds leaders you don’t already know.  That is very important.
2. Another way to multiply groups is to put on a Small Group Connection.  I’ve written a four-part series detailing how to do a Connection, but the essence is that you put on an event, sort people out by affinity, and help them through the process of choosing a leader from amongst themselves.  North Point’s Group Link idea has some similarities, but a Connection has one striking difference.  It identifies leaders from the group itself.  That is a huge difference.  Like the HOST strategy, this is a great way to identify leaders when you didn’t know you had them.
3. Encourage your existing groups to take a small group vacation and help start some new groups.  If your church is like most churches, you’ll notice that your earliest small groups are full of great people, many of whom could easily lead a small group…if they’d just leave the one they’re in!  What’s the best way to get them to consider leaving their group to start a new one?  Don’t make it a permanent move.  Make it a 6 week commitment and try to encourage whole groups to take the vacation.  It is amazing how many of these vacations pay off with new groups full of people who need group life and who really need what their temporary leader offers…and the fact that they are needed helps many of these temporary leaders make the decision to move from consumer to contributor.  Best part?  They make the move without pressure from you.
4. The Apprentice model is not a bad idea.  It does work, just not easily and much slower than most methods.  One of the keys is to celebrate those who actually leave their group to launch a new one.  Having the title is of little consequence.  Stepping up to lead a group is the only thing that counts.
5. Taking leader training sign-ups and/or recruiting likely candidates to a leader training process is often the least effective method.  First, people who sign up for leader training do not always have the best motivations.  Second, once through leader training there’s no guarantee they’ll be able to connect with the members you give them.

The key in each of these methods?  Keep in mind that there is no problem-free solution.  Choose your method based on the time of year and the development stage of your ministry.  I use them all…just not at the same time.

If you want to become a church of groups…what part does your senior pastor play? More to the point, does your pastor need to lead a group in order for group life to become a deeply held value in your church?

Although I’ve written a 4 part series on The Role of the Senior Pastor, I want to clarify something and then propose an alternative principle.  First, a clarification.  In my recent list of the top 10 axiomatic beliefs of group life I identified the idea that your pastor needs to lead a group, as an axiomatic belief that needs to be debugged.  Note the distinction I’m making.  In my mind, you’re never going to have real impact without the express engagement of your senior pastor…but leading a group is not a requirement.  Being part of a group…certainly.

Now to the alternative principle.  You’re never going to truly get traction on the idea that people need to take a step out of their comfort zone (rolling into their parking spot, strolling into the auditorium, sitting and listening for 75 minutes, and then rolling out of the parking lot in time for the next opportunity to consume) unless it is modeled by the most visible person in the organization.  All the announcements in the world won’t persuade the unconnected to try something that seems as risky and inconvenient as group life.  What will persuade them?  The express engagement of your senior pastor.

Admittedly, for many of us it is out of our control.  Few of us are the senior pastors of our churches.  Most of us are on a staff or we’re key volunteers charged with giving leadership to the small group ministry.  That said, let me point out a few important ideas that may serve as conversation points with your pastor:

• When you survey the church landscape you’ll discover that where there is a high percentage of group involvement there will also be a high level of senior pastor engagement.  The best example is Saddleback, where Rick Warren is a relentless advocate of the importance of group life.  Other high profile pastors to look at would be Bill Hybels, Craig Groeschel and Andy Stanley.  Listening to their messages will provide a glimpse into how engaged they are personally with the process of encouraging people to take the risky and somewhat inconvenient baby step of trying a small group for themselves.
• At the same time you can look at many other high profile pastors and find only infrequent reference to the importance of community in the process of life-change.  The gulf between the two sets of pastors and the accompanying percentage of small group participation is unmistakable.
• Back to Saddleback, another element of the prominent role that must be played by the senior pastor is as chief spokesperson.  Note that the chief spokesperson is not Steve Gladen.  Although Gladen plays the part of small group pastor at Saddleback, Rick Warren is the one doing the talking.  When they’re preparing to launch groups through a campaign (like Life’s Healing Choices) the charge is visibly led by Rick Warren.  Behind the scenes, Gladen and his team are doing the planning and preparation, but the very visible front man is Warren.  Grandstanding?  No.  Smart.  The masses do not know who Gladen is.  They know Rick Warren and the largest number will follow him.  The same is true in your church.
• Another important note concerns how frequently group life is mentioned by the senior pastor.  Again, at Saddleback is truly is a constant, every week, all-the-time part of the conversation.  While there are seasons during the year when group life references reach a fevered peak, it has been my observation that you can’t be there on the weekend without hearing about its importance.  Actually…it was my wife’s observation.  We’d been attending Saddleback for about 4 or 5 months and were moving slowly along with the crowd exiting the auditorium.  She said, “I see now why it is so different here.  I see now how Saddleback has more adults in groups than they do at their weekend services.  It is because they never stop talking about it.  Rick Warren never stops talking about it.  He never moves on.  And he’s the one doing the talking.  He’s relentless about the importance of groups.”

That’s the part that your senior pastor must play…if you want to be a church where nobody stands alone.

When you think of group life, of small group ministry, what are your axiomatic beliefs?  Remember that an axiom is an established rule or principle or self-evident truth.  We all have them stored away in our brains.  The key is that not all of them are true…and not all of them are the kind that will always be true.

Consider this line from Gary Hamel’s The Future of Management:

All of us are held hostage by our axiomatic beliefs.  We are jailbirds incarcerated within the fortress of dogma and precedent.  And yet, for the most part, we are oblivious to our own captivity (p. 126, The Future of Management).”

This got me thinking; wondering what are the axiomatic beliefs of group life?  Here’s my attempt at a top ten.  Not all of them are true.  None of these are mine.  You look them over and then use the comment section to add to the list.

1. The senior pastor needs to lead a group.
2. Good groups grow and birth.
3. The optimum environment for life-change is a small group.
4. Elders or deacons are a good source for group leaders or coaches.
5. The longer a group is together the more deeply connected the members become.
6. Good groups practice the open chair.
7. The “career path” of a leader is member, apprentice leader, leader, coach.
8. Once a group gets to about 12 members, it’s pregnant and needs to start preparing to birth.
9. The semester idea offers more “jump in” opportunities and offers the assurance that it’s only a 13 week commitment.
10. Sermon-based curriculum makes your group stickier.

Here’s the thing about axiomatic beliefs.  If you want to break through to a better way of helping people connect, grow spiritually, and impact their world…you’re going to have to debug your thinking and begin proactively developing paths that lead from where you are to where you want to be.

Over the next couple weeks I plan to unpack a few of these axiomatic beliefs, breaking them down, in the search for an underlying principle that will help all of us move to where we want to be.  If you’d like to be updated when I add to this series, you can sign up right here.

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.

What are the secret ingredients of a message that recruits HOSTs?  Maybe that begs a question.  Maybe we should start by asking this question: “Are there certain ingredients that make HOST recruitment easier or more likely?”  What do you think?  Think there are ingredients that make it easier to recruit HOSTs?

I’ve found that there are certain things you need to pay attention to when you are writing a message designed to recruit HOSTs for a church-wide campaign.  This applies to most recruiting, but it is absolutely true when you’re trying to encourage people who have a HEART for unconnected people to OPEN up their homes, SERVE a few refreshments and TELL a few friends (can you see the basis for the H.O.S.T. acronym?).  Again, there are certain things you need to pay attention to when you are writing a message designed to recruit HOSTs.  What are they?

The first ingredient is to have the right point of view when you’re teaching.  This is critical…and so helpful when you get it right.  What am I getting at?  Let me see if I can explain it.  If you look at the two examples I’ve used previously (Matthew 9:36 or 2 Kings 6-7) you’ll see that what’s highlighted is God’s heart for people who don’t have what they need.  In Matthew 9, Jesus sees the people and has compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.  Note the point of view.  Jesus has compassion for those without a shepherd.  This is not a passage where Jesus condemns the Pharisees for their lack of compassion.  The focus here is on Jesus as model and the real life experience of those without a shepherd.  Can you see how that real life experience could be explored as a way of motivating compassion on the part of your congregation?

2 Kings 6-7 highlights the condition of the inhabitants of the city under siege and makes heroes out of the lepers who chose to share what they had found.  Again, point of view is important.  If you want the members of your congregation to respond to the real world circumstances around them…they need to see it for themselves.

A third story that bears mention is found in Luke 19.  Zacchaeus climbing the sycamore tree to see Jesus is very familiar and the point of view is easy to get wrong.  The easiest way to talk about Zach is to focus on his role and the way the Jewish people felt about him.  When you’re looking for a story that helps members grapple with the real life experiences of the people around them, the better point of view is the actual experience of being an outcast.  Once you’ve fleshed out what that experience is like, asking for volunteer HOSTs who have a heart for people like that becomes easier.

Here are the other keys:

1. Guilt won’t do it.  Shame won’t either.  People step up to open their home out of a more noble motivation.
2. Vision plays an important role in recruiting.  Helping each person see the significance of his or her individual part will go a long way toward generating a response.
3. Video or live testimony from a previous HOST can play a big part in helping many respond.  See my article on how to develop testimony that recruits hosts.
4. Give everyone a way to respond immediately.  Placing an insert in the bulletin is an important component.  Refer to the insert during the message.  For more on this idea read my article how to make the small group ask.
5. There are several ways to collect the signup insert from those who say “yes” to hosting a group.  Some churches find it effective to have everyone who commits to hosting a group come forward at the end of the service.  Other churches station ushers at the doors who collect the signup form.  I’ve had the most success when I’ve positioned the offering right after the message and instructed everyone to “place their signup form in the offering basket.”
6. Provide a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) sheet at the small group table in the lobby for those not quite ready to respond.

I hope this is helpful as you sequence your small group launch.  The next article in the series is on Promoting the Launch Series.

Inspired by the Grammy Award winning song recorded by Tim McGraw, and developed by a group of incredible church-wide campaign experts, Live Like You Were Dying offers a great experience for your congregation.

Designed to help your congregation wrestle with how to live life to the fullest, this church-wide campaign has everything you need to pull off a very impactful season in your church.  Featuring sermon transcripts developed by Lance Witt, DVD-driven small group sessions with Gary Smalley, and produced by Doug Slaybaugh (formerly president of Purpose Driven during the development of the 40 Days of Purpose) this is a just-add-water campaign.

I’ve found there are a few key factors to determining whether a given church-wide campaign is a good fit for your congregation.  Production quality, presentation style, full featured, customer service, and topic are 5 distinctives that must be evaluated for fit.

1. Production Quality: Live Like You Were Dying is a professionally produced suite of materials.  DVD, study guide, available marketing materials, extras…all have a high-quality look and feel.
2. Presentation Style: The DVD features Gary Smalley, acclaimed author and speaker.
3. Full Featured: Everything you need is available in the kit.  I refer to it as a “just-add-water” campaign.  You can take a look at the kit contents right here.
4. Customer Service: You’ll appreciate the personal attention you receive from this team.
5. Topic: This church-wide study features a topic and presentation style that are cleanly on the easy end of the easy/hard continuum.  If you’re looking for a study that your members can invite friends and neighbors to attend…this study will be a great fit.

Final Word: I’ve heard great things from several churches who have used Live Like You Were Dying.  The fact that it is based on the Grammy Award winning song will be advantages in many areas.  Additionally, it is an advantage that it features Gary Smalley, a very recognizable name in many circles.  Also, it was developed by a very impressive team including several of the key players in the 40 Days of Purpose team.  You won’t find experience like this very often.  On the flipside, there will be churches that have less familiarity with Smalley and are not fans of country music.  All in all, I highly recommend this church-wide campaign.

What if you had one month to live?  Think you’d make any changes in the way you spent your time?  Would you spend more time with family?  Would you tell friends what they really mean to you?  Would you take steps to seek or give forgiveness?  What would you do differently if you found out that you had only one month to live?

One Month To Live is a church-wide campaign designed to engage the people in your church with one central question: If you knew you only had one month to live, what would you do to make what’s left of your life really matter?  Developed by Kerry and Chris Shook and based on their New York Times bestseller by the same name, One Month is available as a campaign in a box.  Much like 40 Days of Purpose, everything you need to pull off a church-wide campaign has already been developed to assist your congregation.  You can find out how to preview and order materials right here.

I’ve found there are a few key factors to determining whether a given church-wide campaign is a good fit for your congregation.  Production quality, presentation style, full featured, customer service, and topic are 5 distinctives that must be evaluated for fit.

1. Production Quality: One Month to Live is a professionally produced suite of materials.  DVD, study guide, available marketing materials, hardback book, extras…all have a high-quality look and feel.
2. Presentation Style: The DVD has a magazine feel to it.  Each session features Kerry and Chris Shook speaking from a well designed set.  In addition, rather than a “talking head” presentation, instead of telling a story to make a point the DVD cuts to a video testimonial.
3. Full Featured: Everything you need is available in the kit.  I refer to it as a “just-add-water” campaign.  You can take a look at the kit contents right here.
4. Customer Service: You’ll appreciate the fact that customer service is an inside job with OMTL.  Rather than using a fulfillment center, you’ll be working with service representatives who are very familiar with the product and believe in its purpose.
5. Topic: This church-wide study features a topic and presentation style that are cleanly on the easy end of the easy/hard continuum.  If you’re looking for a study that your members can invite friends and neighbors to attend…this study will be a great fit.

Final Word: I found this study to be really easy to promote and super easy to encourage members to invite friends to join.  We had some complaints from a very closed-minded few who wanted a “deeper” Bible study.  On the flip side, the vast majority of our groups loved the study and were very enthused about the depth of conversation and challenge that developed.  If you’re looking for a church-wide campaign that is easy to invite friends and neighbors to attend, I heartily recommend One Month to Live.

One of the most important components of the launch sequence is HOST recruitment.  Many churches make a crucial mistake right here when they overestimate the risks and underestimate the rewards of crowd-to-core recruiting.  The secret to an exponential launch is to recruit from the crowd if you want to reach the community.  I know…it sounds a little “take the pebble from my hand Grasshopper.” Stay with me.

This wasn’t an instant learning for me.  It happened over a number of years as I talked with churches that had done the 40 Days of Purpose and recruited HOSTs but had vastly different experiences.  I grasped the difference in their experience only when I realized that the churches who recruited from the core (what I call the usual suspects) were the ones with the more ho hum experience.  It was the churches who recruited from the congregation and crowd that had the exponential power of crowd-to-core.

How did I discover the difference?  I simply asked how they had recruited HOSTs?  Turns out that some churches simply made a list of the usual suspects and recruited them one by one.  Others had followed the prescription and incorporated the ask into a sermon (or better yet, a series of sermons).  Incorporating the ask into a sermon opens the door to a different HOST candidate.

Why does that makes a difference?  When a key piece of your strategy is to encourage the HOST to invite their friends, who their friends are makes a huge difference.  When you recruit a HOST from the usual suspects (the core) their friends are largely also in the core.  When you recruit a HOST from the congregation (or better…from the crowd), their friends are often not yet attending.  This is huge…don’t let it slide by.  Their friends are often not yet attending.  An invitation to join my group could be the first step in reaching their friends.  Isn’t it easier to say, “Come on over” than “Come with me to church?”

Can you see the reward side to this?  Pretty exciting!  Obviously, there are some other factors.  The church-wide campaign you’ve chosen makes a huge difference.  Choosing a topic from the easy end is a make-or-break component.  But can you see the upside to recruiting from the crowd?  Let’s talk for a moment about the risks, and more importantly, controlling the risks.

Recruiting from the core seems less risky, but only when you limit your understanding of risk.  When you broaden your understanding to include the risk that they might only invite other members of the core…you can see there are risks there as well.  On the other hand, when you recruit from the crowd…you can end up with many folks that are less well known.  You can also end up with some that may not meet what you’ve determined are your minimum standards.  For example, you may end up with some couples who are living together and not married.  Isn’t that a risk?  Sure…and it’s why you have steps in place to help confirm who can HOST.

Although I’ll be talking about the HOST Orientation in an upcoming post in this series, let’s take just a moment and flesh out the idea of minimum expectations.  A few points to consider might be:

• Church membership: many churches require a HOST to be a member in order to host a group.  I’ve found that it works both ways.
• Must be a Christian: while this may seem obvious, it’s an interesting question.  If the curriculum guides the discussion and the HOST fills their own group, could a non-Christian be a HOST?  You’ll have to make that decision.  I’ve seen it work both ways.
• Attend the orientation: I always insist on this (and at the same time reserve the right to make exceptions).
• Connect with a coach during the campaign.  This gives me a chance to impact the outcome and influence the direction of the group.

You’ll have to develop your own list of minimum expectations.  The key here is to take the time to understand both the risks and the rewards of recruiting from the crowd.  Remember, the secret to an exponential launch is to recruit from the crowd if you want to reach the community.

In my next article I take a look at Messages That Recruit Hosts.  If you’re not signed up to get my updates, you can sign up right here.

When NASA prepares for a shuttle launch, there are certain steps that are a given.  There is a sequence to what they do.  When anything unexpected happens during the launch preparation (mechanical issues, weather change, etc.) it isn’t unusual for NASA to restart the sequence.

In much the same way, when you’re preparing for a small group launch (for example, a church-wide campaign) you need to pay close attention to the sequence.  There are a number of critical steps that determine success.  Each step, each part of the sequence is important.  And a missed step can seriously damage the impact of the launch.  Here are a few that require special attention:

• HOST recruitment
• Series promotion
• HOST orientation
• HOSTs filling their own groups
• Promotion of the next curriculum

In my next few posts I’ll be taking a look at each of these critical parts of the sequence.  To begin, here’s my article on Host Recruitment and the Launch Sequence.

How dry is the cement around what’s possible in your discipleship effort?  Pretty firm?  Room to wiggle?  As we continue to think about how to help more people experience genuine life-change, I find myself drawn again to ideas in Gary Hamel’s The Future of Management.  Here are four questions he uses to maximize the chances for “precedent-breaking” innovation:

• “What’s the ‘tomorrow problem’ that you need to start working on right now?”
• “What’s the frustrating ‘ether/or’ you’d like to turn into an ‘and’?
• “What’s the espoused idea you’d like to turn into an embedded capability?”
• What the ‘can’t do’ that needs to become a ‘can do’?

Just stop for a moment and think about those four questions.  Imagine pulling together a team of folks that are really invested and engaged in the life-change process at your church and spending time on any of these questions.  Think you’d have a great discussion?  Absolutely.  Think getting some answers up on a flip chart might be a great first step?  Definitely.  Not the last step…but certainly the first step.

Hamel makes the point that “what’s lacking is not insightful analysis, but truly bold and imaginative alternatives to the management status quo (p. 40, The Future of Management).”  What’s he saying?  Simply that getting answers to these four questions is only the beginning.  Think though, about what you could do once you had the answer to any one of these questions?  Think about how you could pull your team into a great discussion about how to develop authentic capabilities!  It would give you a whole new way of looking at your ministry.