[A staff pastor in a transitioning church of about 5,000 members sent this to me and I thought I'd share it with you here.]
Recently, I have been reviewing various small group Bible studies, discussion guides, and DVD curriculum for the groups in my church. And I am troubled. Here's why:
• Supposedly, people who are very educated write this material. However, I look at it and think: "I would never do this. It is so condescending that if I actually gave this resource to a leader I would be telling the person that he or she doesn't have a brain." I'm not talking about the need for experience in leading a small group or keeping the curriculum user-friendly so that one does not have to do a lot of preparation. I just feel that the message contained in most curriculum offered today talks down to people, using examples that are moralistic and making a point that is so obvious that they make me wonder why even study these points.
• The way they are written makes me think that the writers are not actually in touch with real people. They do communicate valid biblical points, but the way it is done seems like they are speaking to people entrenched in the life of the church so much and not to people who have to deal with the realities of life in this world.
• The material is written in a very complicated way (This one confuses me the most). A publisher sent me some material they developed, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars. I opened up the lesson in one of the books they sent me and it took me ten minutes to figure out the flow of the meeting outlined in the participants guide. My immediate thought was: no one has time to figure this out.
• Then the real kicker was the 300 page book with the 250 page study guide that accompanied it. A couple of years ago, I was in a group that tried this. The requirements to study this material killed the fellowship that we had. The expectations of study that was required between the meetings, which none of us did, turned a meeting that had been joyful and fun into a dread. Again, do these authors have their heads buried in the sand? I just want to shout, "Get in the real world and write something that people will use and will be blessed by!"
What am I missing?
I am so frustrated by what seems to be pastors and curriculum writers who don't relate to real people. I know that they do, but it seems that they revert back to their seminary training and write as if they are being graded by their seminary professors.
Maybe the real problem is the publishing industry. No publisher wants to invest in a product that will really work. The fact is that the most effect leader's guide I have ever seen have all been under a page in length. I'll even go beyond that and say that two pages worth of material is more than enough. But I just reviewed some lessons that were four pages in length. Really? Is that much needed? If this is the case, a six-week study would be six pages long. It's impossible to charge $7.99 for a six page booklet. And who would actually purchase something just six pages long?
Maybe the issue is that we are so accustomed to Sunday School curriculum with all the information, explanations and commentary that we feel this is needed for small group discussions. But if the purpose is teaching, then that is the case. By contrast, I have always taught that the job of the leader is not teaching but facilitating. Are groups still caught in a teaching mode and don't see the need for life on life conversation?
What's up? Can't we keep our curriculum simple and user-friendly? I've always wondered what the early church did without publishing houses to produce Bible study material for their house churches? What does the church in India use? What about the church in Saudia Arabia? Do we really need all of this?
Randall's comments:
This pastor makes valid points. Yet as one who edited and published a six book series of small group guides, sometimes more than 2 pages are required to give the person using the material enough information to be successful without any support from others (which is the only safe assumption to make). However, I still think a single page guide with four or five questions leading the group to minister to one another is the best, and what pastors should provide for every group instead of buying curriculum year after year. What are your thoughts? Feel free to comment and rant yourself if you like!
Deep Friendship: Far too rare in the West
Most every day I visit with pastors whose members are too busy for friendships. In their world, it's all about the kids and managing a household and working a high-stress job to maintain a certain lifestyle without financial margin. It's quite evident that they think enjoying the company of others without an agenda is what the irresponsible or filthy rich do with their time.
This is jacked up. There's absolutely nothing right with the lifestyle or the mentality in which we Americans find ourselves. Plus, there's very little difference in values between those in the American church and those outside it.
Now think about your small group and how much more personally transformational it would be for the members if they valued friendship enough to actually invest in others and allow others to invest in them without an outlined agenda for their scheduled gatherings.
The western drive to attain that next level of status and personal comfort has systematically annihilated friendships, or that which God has set out to be the way the world will be reached for Christ.
At the risk of telling the cow how to eat the cabbage, I must state the obvious just in case it's not so obvious...
Small group relational evangelism will not occur if the members have no idea how to become a friend to someone (churched or unchurched), ask them for help in areas of life, help them out whenever possible, introduce them to their other friends who are far more than acquaintances, and do life together.
In fact, discipleship among believers won't happen either if deep friendships are not formed between small group members.
And I guess it goes without saying (but I will anyway) that new leaders for new groups will not be raised up if potential leaders have no relationship with their group's coach or pastor.
If you're wondering what to preach about next quarter so your members can discuss and apply it in their groups, why not go back to basics and challenge them to hold others in higher regard than themselves?
This is jacked up. There's absolutely nothing right with the lifestyle or the mentality in which we Americans find ourselves. Plus, there's very little difference in values between those in the American church and those outside it.
Now think about your small group and how much more personally transformational it would be for the members if they valued friendship enough to actually invest in others and allow others to invest in them without an outlined agenda for their scheduled gatherings.
The western drive to attain that next level of status and personal comfort has systematically annihilated friendships, or that which God has set out to be the way the world will be reached for Christ.
At the risk of telling the cow how to eat the cabbage, I must state the obvious just in case it's not so obvious...
Small group relational evangelism will not occur if the members have no idea how to become a friend to someone (churched or unchurched), ask them for help in areas of life, help them out whenever possible, introduce them to their other friends who are far more than acquaintances, and do life together.
In fact, discipleship among believers won't happen either if deep friendships are not formed between small group members.
And I guess it goes without saying (but I will anyway) that new leaders for new groups will not be raised up if potential leaders have no relationship with their group's coach or pastor.
If you're wondering what to preach about next quarter so your members can discuss and apply it in their groups, why not go back to basics and challenge them to hold others in higher regard than themselves?
Are you a "birder"?
A "birder" is someone who has devoted a lot of time to learning about birds of all kinds and how they differ from one another. While I don't own a pair of binoculars and would not consider myself to be a "birder," it occurred to me that pastors really need to learn the difference between a self-realized duck and a duck who thinks its a chicken. Confused? Stick with me. This will make sense in just a few inches of reading....
After hatching, a mother duck leads her tiny little ducklings to water to show them why they have webbed feet, how much fun it is to float on the water and how easy it will become to grab a fish snack when they get the hang of it. She lays her eggs on dry land and is fully capable of living on dry land and eating bugs. Ducks are quite happy and in their element when they have water in which to swim, and will go to great lengths to find water. For example, if you put ducks in a pen on land and put a small pail of water in that pen, each one of those ducks will climb into that tiny pail of water in hopes to float around in it.
Chickens are not designed for water. They're all about the land and only the land. Throw a chicken in a pond and, well, it will not survive (according to my good friend who is a farmer and has both on his farm).
Now transfer this important information to your church.
Pastors know their traditional, pew-warming church members are ducks deep down inside, and certainly built for water. However, they're really ducks who have been raised as chickens! In fact, they don't even see themselves as water foul. Their webbed feet have never seen water, and they really have no idea why their feet are webbed in the first place, even though the pastor reminds them about duck life and overall ducky-ness every single Sunday during the services they attend.
The pastor doesn't see that the ducks don't know about water, don't care about water, and that they view themselves as chickens. Yet he launches small groups and urges the ducks (who genuinely think they're chickens) to join groups and start swimming around and eating fish and being, well, ducky!
Small groups work well for Christians who are missional at heart and see the potential to be more successful at being missional if they were organized with others to work as a team. Small groups do not flourish when populated with people who see a duck with a beak when they look in the mirror.
This is why a slow implementation toward a group-driven church model is so important. You must take each disillusioned duck to the edge of the pond and prove to him that he is not a chicken. Show him his webbed feet. Show him his bill and how excellent it is for catching fish. Prove to him that he can float and be quite good at moving around on top of the water. And all of this must be done with a great deal of care and demonstration by you, the most duck-like person your church members know.
Pastor, it's time to become a people birder, one who really understands that small groups do not magically transform people who think they're chickens into mission-driven ducks just because you asked them to meet in homes and do good things for one another and unchurched people.
The process is slow, highly relational, and requires experiences to show people how to pray, reach friends for Christ, and disciple them as a spiritual parent. Without these areas embedded into the very DNA of your small group ministry, you'll just drown a bunch of little peckers.
After hatching, a mother duck leads her tiny little ducklings to water to show them why they have webbed feet, how much fun it is to float on the water and how easy it will become to grab a fish snack when they get the hang of it. She lays her eggs on dry land and is fully capable of living on dry land and eating bugs. Ducks are quite happy and in their element when they have water in which to swim, and will go to great lengths to find water. For example, if you put ducks in a pen on land and put a small pail of water in that pen, each one of those ducks will climb into that tiny pail of water in hopes to float around in it.
Chickens are not designed for water. They're all about the land and only the land. Throw a chicken in a pond and, well, it will not survive (according to my good friend who is a farmer and has both on his farm).
Now transfer this important information to your church.
Pastors know their traditional, pew-warming church members are ducks deep down inside, and certainly built for water. However, they're really ducks who have been raised as chickens! In fact, they don't even see themselves as water foul. Their webbed feet have never seen water, and they really have no idea why their feet are webbed in the first place, even though the pastor reminds them about duck life and overall ducky-ness every single Sunday during the services they attend.
The pastor doesn't see that the ducks don't know about water, don't care about water, and that they view themselves as chickens. Yet he launches small groups and urges the ducks (who genuinely think they're chickens) to join groups and start swimming around and eating fish and being, well, ducky!
Small groups work well for Christians who are missional at heart and see the potential to be more successful at being missional if they were organized with others to work as a team. Small groups do not flourish when populated with people who see a duck with a beak when they look in the mirror.
This is why a slow implementation toward a group-driven church model is so important. You must take each disillusioned duck to the edge of the pond and prove to him that he is not a chicken. Show him his webbed feet. Show him his bill and how excellent it is for catching fish. Prove to him that he can float and be quite good at moving around on top of the water. And all of this must be done with a great deal of care and demonstration by you, the most duck-like person your church members know.
Pastor, it's time to become a people birder, one who really understands that small groups do not magically transform people who think they're chickens into mission-driven ducks just because you asked them to meet in homes and do good things for one another and unchurched people.
The process is slow, highly relational, and requires experiences to show people how to pray, reach friends for Christ, and disciple them as a spiritual parent. Without these areas embedded into the very DNA of your small group ministry, you'll just drown a bunch of little peckers.
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