The Results Are In…Women’s Connection Recap

A few weeks ago I published Taking Advantage of Special Days to Launch Groups.  Since I use the strategies I write about, I wanted to give you an update on what happened at our Women’s Small Group Connections this last weekend.  You need to know several things:

• We had a great time!  I added an impromptu question to my schtick right before I had them choose a leader at each table.  It just came to me.  It was beautiful.  And I’ll use it from now on.  I was so taken by the intensity of the conversations at all three tables that I asked, “How many of you feel more connected at Parkview right now than you ever have before?”  Literally, every hand went up.  That was awesome!
• I’ve learned to ask connection participants how long they’ve been attending (by show of hands).  It’s very common for a connection event to pull in newer attendees, so I wasn’t surprised to learn that almost all of the participants had been attending less than a year.  There were quite a few that had been coming for just a few months.  That’s a huge win in my book.  A connected person is much more likely to attend more frequently and that’s a very important variable in the growth engine equation.
• The connection process identifies leaders from the congregation that you don’t know.  This is more true the larger the congregation, but it’s still true in small to mid-size churches.  Once you’ve reached a certain size it becomes more and more difficult for the staff of a church to know all of the people attending.  A connection event with the 45 minute conversation it generates will flush out leadership potential when it’s done correctly.  We found some incredible women leaders this weekend…and I was not surprised.  It is the genius of the connection strategy.
• As I mentioned in my article a few weeks ago, I selected four studies for the women to choose from (Parenting, Bad Girls of the Bible, Surviving a Spiritual Mismatch, and The Me I Want to Be).  I looked for studies that are easy to do and don’t require a lot of leader preparation.  I also looked for four distinct topics or types of studies.   The study the women chose determined the table they ended up at and added to their sense of affinity.
• We launched 8 new women’s groups and connected over 50 women!  We also really had a great time.  We worked hard keeping them on the schedule.  All three connections ended on time (give us an hour, we’ll help you get connected!).  There were women still hanging out when I left all three.  Very cool.  And it would have been equally cool starting one group and connecting 6 women.  The numbers are not the point.  Helping people connect is the point.  And you can do it!

I hope the recap helps you see the potential of the connection strategy and maybe gives you a few ideas about how to use.  Same strategy will work for Father’s Day.  And it’s only a few weeks away!