When researching various models of small group organization and structure, many pastors adopt a model before they have started their first group. What's wrong with this?
1. It puts the visionary's focus on a structure, not the member's values that make just about any small group structure work great. Frankly, if one's members are reaching the lost and discipling them successfully, any small group structure will work well.
2. The structure chosen in advance cannot take into account the actual and ongoing needs of the ministers (members) in the groups, making them feel as if they're a new cog in someone else's clockworks from the beginning.
3. Choosing a structure in advance promotes a false sense of security, which keeps pastors from experimenting with or prototyping various models before deciding upon one.
The smart pastor ignores the hype around the models written about or those featured in mega church conference plenary sessions. He focuses on developing a healthy biblical community that experiences the presence, power, and purposes of Christ. Out of this, he will see what leader to coach ratio will be most profitable for his church at that time in ministry.
A great illustration to drive home this point would be buying a suit out of a mail order catalog. The model looks great wearing it, but everyone knows it's gonna look horrid on you once you take it out of the box and try it on. A man's suit needs to be tailored to fit properly, doesn't it?
Don't wear other church's clothing. Develop your first groups, invest your time ensuring they're healthy and growing, and then add the support they need in the way of training leaders and inserting coaches over groups. Your model will then be your model, not another church's model you tried to replicate poorly.
If you must replicate something from another church, figure out how they disciple new believers into spiritual maturity and make it work with a handful of members. When you refine this, you'll be well on your way to a successful small group ministry.
Supply and Demand
Yesterday I visited with yet another pastor who asked for advice on how to keep up with small group ministry due to the massive influx of people each week to the congregational gatherings. They're in a new housing development area of the country and dozens of people move into the neighborhoods surrounding the church building each week. By simple geography (location of the building) and the non-denominational name the church has on the signage, three, four, or five new families visit each week.
So what's a church supposed to do to assimilate all these people into small groups?
My advice? Set the bar for church membership higher than having a pulse and a checkbook. Far too many pastors see the influx of consumer Christians and want to keep them... but if the children's ministry isn't Disney-quality and something is expected in the way of servanthood early on in the process of becoming a part of the church body, the visitors walk.
And they should. They're looking for entertainment and a feel-good message with little to no commitment. That's the polar opposite of your church's mission statement, even though I have no idea what your mission statement might be.
Missional-driven churches invite believers to join them who possess a subset of the church's mission. Consumers can find a church service to watch on TV or go to a spectator-accommodating gigachurch like the half-dozen we have here in Houston if they want to be entertained.
Take Evergreen Church in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area as a good example. They have tons of visitors each week, but require every member to work in the children's ministry on rotation. The pastor told me this requirement weeds out a lot of visitors who just want to be entertained.
Or, visit TOUCH Family, the church my dad planted with Bill Beckham here in Houston. There is no membership beyond understanding that everyone who is a part of the church is a missionary and has a person mission that requires participation with others in their small group for support, discipleship, ministry, and outreach. If you don't see yourself as a missionary, well, go find a church that encourages pew warming (and a decent tithe check to pay for the programs and the light bill).
I guess it all comes down to this: What kind of people are you attracting to your church? Consumers or producers? Cater to the consumers and you'll never have enough small groups for them to visit. The groups will swell so quickly that members will look at the prospect of leading a group of strangers and say "no thanks."
What I'd love to see is some dialog here on the comments area about where you set the bar for membership and how you work with visitors in ways that supports your small group ministry, not drain it of its purposes.
So what's a church supposed to do to assimilate all these people into small groups?
My advice? Set the bar for church membership higher than having a pulse and a checkbook. Far too many pastors see the influx of consumer Christians and want to keep them... but if the children's ministry isn't Disney-quality and something is expected in the way of servanthood early on in the process of becoming a part of the church body, the visitors walk.
And they should. They're looking for entertainment and a feel-good message with little to no commitment. That's the polar opposite of your church's mission statement, even though I have no idea what your mission statement might be.
Missional-driven churches invite believers to join them who possess a subset of the church's mission. Consumers can find a church service to watch on TV or go to a spectator-accommodating gigachurch like the half-dozen we have here in Houston if they want to be entertained.
Take Evergreen Church in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area as a good example. They have tons of visitors each week, but require every member to work in the children's ministry on rotation. The pastor told me this requirement weeds out a lot of visitors who just want to be entertained.
Or, visit TOUCH Family, the church my dad planted with Bill Beckham here in Houston. There is no membership beyond understanding that everyone who is a part of the church is a missionary and has a person mission that requires participation with others in their small group for support, discipleship, ministry, and outreach. If you don't see yourself as a missionary, well, go find a church that encourages pew warming (and a decent tithe check to pay for the programs and the light bill).
I guess it all comes down to this: What kind of people are you attracting to your church? Consumers or producers? Cater to the consumers and you'll never have enough small groups for them to visit. The groups will swell so quickly that members will look at the prospect of leading a group of strangers and say "no thanks."
What I'd love to see is some dialog here on the comments area about where you set the bar for membership and how you work with visitors in ways that supports your small group ministry, not drain it of its purposes.
Strategic Coaching
As a coach over groups in my local church, I spend a great deal of time thinking about and praying for the groups I oversee. I'm always asking the Lord what I might be able to do for the group to encourage it to keep reaching out to unchurched people and consider multiplying sooner than later.
Here's a few things I'm doing that seem to work well in my situation:
1. I pray with the leaders of the groups often, asking them to pray with me and ask God to bless them with a large group that will require a multiplication.
2. I encourage the group's core team (5-8 people who get together monthly to make plans with the leader) to meet consistently in a host home where a group might multiply, not in just one home. If people become familiar with a new host home, they're far more likely to be open to meeting as a new group in that home.
3. I ask the worship leader of the group to train someone to lead and share the worship time with them 50/50 until the group multiplies.
4. I ask the existing leader of the group to ask one of the core team members to facilitate the core team meetings in the future. This turns a core team member into a group leader naturally, and gives the leader a break.
5. I visit the group and ask them if they've achieve all God wanted them to achieve. I ask, "Are you done? Or, is there more to do as a group beyond loving one another, which you're already doing beautifully?" This forces them to think of God and others aside from themselves.
Coaching groups in this way is weak in American churches with small group ministries. The coaches make a phone call to check in with the leader once a month at best and they're typically given far too many groups to support.
I'd love to see what your church's coaches are doing that gives results (versus what you want them to do or they're supposed to be doing but not doing... which has a simple solution: modeling.)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)