What Do You Believe about Groups that Actually Isn’t True?

When you think about small groups and small group ministry, the way they work and don’t work, what they are and aren’t, what they can do and can’t do…what do you believe about groups, that actually isn’t true?

What do you believe about groups…that actually isn’t true?

Ever stop to think about that?

It could make quite a difference, you know. If you came to terms with what you believe is true about groups that actually isn’t it could be revolutionary.

If you carefully examined what you believe is true about groups and then acted to change anything based on a misbelief…it would almost certainly produce an immediate change in results.

Right?

Remember, “Your ministry is perfectly designed to produce the results you are currently experiencing (Andy Stanley).” If you don’t like the results, it may be that your design is based on a belief or two that isn’t actually true.

A personal example

In the early 90s I became aware of Meta Church Model of small groups (a largely American version of the cell model). Willow Creek embraced a version of the meta church model in the early 90s and successfully leveraged that model to connect 20,000 people in about a decade of application.

Among the most important strategic pieces of the meta church model is the value of apprenticing as both a leadership development strategy and a leader multiplication strategy. At the core of the apprenticing value was the practice that every new group had to begin with a leader and an apprentice in place and the explicit understanding that when the group grew and was ready to birth (approximately 10 to 12 members), both the mother and the daughter group would both have leaders. The expectation was that this process might take 12 to 18 months.

I embraced the model (as practiced by Willow Creek) and for 7 or 8 years not only put it to use in my own ministry but taught it to other churches that I came in contact with.

Two important notes:

1. Apprenticing as a leadership development strategy is very effective. Experienced leaders investing in new leaders is always a good thing. It is a biblical practice. It is a stewardship practice. Everyone ought to be apprenticing.
2. Apprenticing as a leader multiplication strategy is less effective.  Apprenticing as a leader multiplication strategy is often ineffective for two main reasons:

• Too often the apprentice actually functions as a type of co-leader. Perhaps stepping in when the leader is out of town or taking a turn leading the discussion, but without the intention of one day helping launch a daughter group.
• More seriously, apprenticing as a leader multiplication strategy typically takes 12 to 18 months. While they would never turn down additional leaders, most churches would not be able to close their percentage connected gap by producing a new leader every 12 to 18 months. See also, What Percentage of Your Adults Are Actually Connected?

After a careful analysis I came to the conclusion that, at least in my case and for what I was trying to accomplish, apprenticing would not be a primary tool for leadership multiplication. Valuable for leader development, yes, but multiplication, no. Other strategies are much more effective at leader multiplication.

What axiomatic beliefs do you hold about groups that actually aren’t true?

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 small groups and small group ministry?  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. (The semester model is often referred to as the Free Market model.
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.

Remember, “Your ministry is perfectly designed to produce the results you are currently experiencing (Andy Stanley).” If you don’t like the results, it may be that your design is based on a belief or two that isn’t actually true.

Image by SIV-Athens