What will you try this year that might change your ministry’s trajectory?

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I've written many times that I've never been more proud than when my prospective boss at Parkview was told, “If you’re okay with a mad scientist, Mark will be a good hire.”

Seriously...I want to always be trying something new; to be experimenting with ideas that might change our trajectory. I want to be open to the adjacent possible, exploring the edges of the present, searching out the ways the present can be reinvented.

I want to always be trying something new; to be experimenting with ideas that might change our trajectory. I want to be open to the adjacent possible, exploring the edges of the present, searching out the ways the present can be reinvented. Click To Tweet

I believe there almost certainly is a way to connect another 25% of our crowd. I'm positive there is a wrinkle that if we could see it and iron it out, we could connect a group of people no one else is connecting.

Bottom line, I am convinced that if we keep doing what we've always done, we'll keep getting what we've always gotten.

Or as Craig Groeschel points out, "If you want to reach people no one else is reaching, you have to do things no one else is doing."

If you want to reach people no one else is reaching, you have to do things no one else is doing. —Craig Groeschel Click To Tweet

And all of the above leads me to my conclusion that if I truly want to connect beyond the usual suspects, I must continue to try things I haven't tried yet.

What about you?

What was the last new idea you tried to connect more people than before? What was the last new twist on discipling that you tried?

What's still on our list to develop in 2019?

There are three things we're already developing here at Canyon Ridge.

First, we've been using an updated small group connection strategy for a couple years, but began innovating how leaders are selected in February 2018.

If you're familiar with the connection strategy you know that leaders are chosen at the end of the connection event by the members of the new group. That's right. The leaders of these new groups are chosen real time by the members of the new groups.

Pay attention to two important facts:

  1. We love the strategy because it makes it possible to discover new leaders from the very large group of people at Canyon Ridge that (1) aren't yet in a group and (2) we don't already know.
  2. We don't love the aspect of the connection strategy that launches new groups with leaders who don't yet see themselves as needing leadership development and have little motivation to seek it.

Enter a Possible Solution:

In February 2018 we began testing a new wrinkle in the strategy that does two important things:

  1. Helps new groups identify a launching facilitator (haven't yet decided what to call this position) that will help make the first few meetings happen and facilitate the discussion of the launching study (we've adopted North Point's new study, Circle Up, available on Anthology).
  2. Help new groups get to know each other well enough over the first 2 or 3 weeks to wisely nominate a leader candidate in week 3 or 4 (who will be considered and confirmed in a new leader approval process).

Is it working? Is it more than a step in the right direction? We think so, but we'll see. For now, we believe it will continue to allow the discovery of potential leaders from the largest group at Canyon Ridge. And, it will allow our Groups Team to consider and confirm potential leaders into a leadership development process.

See also, How to Launch New Groups with a Small Group Connection

More Tomorrow

You can read about the other two innovations right here.

Further Reading:

GroupLife Agnostics and the Adjacent Possible

5 Ideas You Ought to Be Testing This Fall

Different, Not Better, Will Connect the Widening 60%

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