There are far more mistakes that pastors make in small group ministry, but here's my top five in order of urgency...
5. Choosing an oversight model in advance of a launch, based on wishful thinking, not actual needs.
This mistake seems to afflict pastors in the cell church world more than the small group world, who has yet to wake up and see the need for coaches over groups and leaders (that's another blog post altogether!). You've no idea how many times I've been called by a lead pastor for consulting and he begins the conversation with, "I've just finished reading about the Groups of 12 model and we're going that direction and I need some advice about your resources for training leaders..."
Wow. So much was stated and not stated in that statement! This guy has latched onto the most difficult oversight structure to pull off in the history of the cell movement, requiring every single person involved to be a soul-winning disciple maker from day one. Plus, he should be asking about member discipleship processes, not leadership materials, but that's covered below.
Pastors, don't choose an oversight model until you have three groups under you and you can see what they need as far as support goes. This will keep your mind in the ministry and not prematurely in structural thinking that's usually lofty and theoretical in the first months or year of small group ministry if you are growing it organically and not launching dozens of groups initially.
4. Thinking that holistic small groups or cell groups will magically transform consumers into producers.
It's absurd to think that parking your Toyota Corolla at the Ferrari dealer's lot will transform it, right? Same thing goes for small groups. Herd a bunch of self and child-focused pew warmers in groups and they'll do absolutely nothing for God or one another, just like they are doing without groups. Some will rise to the occasion for sure, but don't expect most of them to turn over a new leaf just because you gave them a new environment in which to live like a selfless Christian.
People need experiences to bring them out of consumerism. Meet them where they are, not where you think they should be or you want them to be.
3. Thinking weekend attendance and small group involvement is all the discipleship you need to offer.
Small groups are a great place to facilitate relational discipleship for sure. But if you don't have a pathway to spiritual maturity in place before you start groups, don't expect group members to start it after they join a group. Discipleship must be embedded into the DNA of your church with clear personal goals for growth supplied by the disciples themselves, not your education minister or small groups guy. If this is in place and has been fully adopted by the membership of your church, small groups will really support this effort. Groups alone won't disciple anyone though. Same thing goes with your sermons. Discipleship is far more than meeting attendance. It's an intentional, life-long personal decision supported by the local church's services and groups.
2. Casting a structural vision and making public goals for numbers of groups by a certain date.
I really hate it when I see a pastor get up and pronounce that the church leadership has established a goal of having 800 groups by January, 2012 or some other lofty number. There's nothing wrong with anticipating growth and setting private goals to develop X numbers of new leaders by a certain date, but turning this into a "visioncasting moment" for the congregation is really foolish. People don't care how many groups your church has at the moment, and if they think your main priority is a number they will rail against it. Cast a vision for a lifestyle of servanthood and community involvement and report on how many groups are springing up because of the lifestyle of the members.
1. Telling people to get in a group from the pulpit instead of consistently sharing how group life is transforming you.
It seems most pastors I know have only learned one small group thing from Rick Warren, one of my personal heroes in ministry. That one thing is how often he tells his church members they need to be in a small group. While he does this every weekend and most every time he finds a microphone, this is not what makes so many people at Saddleback join a small group in my opinion.
Saddleback's lead pastor consistently shares his personal growth and ongoing small group experiences of how he has served along side other group members in the neighborhood, been served by members, and experienced Christ's presence when his group meets together. His sermon content flows out of his time with God alone AND his time with other believers in biblical community. If you focus on being a small group member as much as you focus on being a lead pastor, you too will share the powerful stuff that makes people want to follow your footsteps, not just your words.
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Showing posts with label strategic planning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label strategic planning. Show all posts
Let the group members make the plans
Yesterday, I led a church's small groups in a strategic planning session. This always has amazing results and the groups grow like crazy. It also reduces leader burnout. The more the members do, the less the leader has to do and the more fun group leadership becomes.
Do you provide a time for your group members to get together and make plans for the future? If so, how often? What kinds of things do they plan for?
Do you provide a time for your group members to get together and make plans for the future? If so, how often? What kinds of things do they plan for?
The power of strategic planning
Last weekend, I did a one-day training for the leaders and members of Calvary Church Melbourne Florida. Last September, I did a one-day workshop entitled Upward Inward Outward Forward, which helps whole small groups (members and leader) understand four areas of healthy small group life:
Upward
Connecting to Christ through consistent, daily time with God, increasing the amount of prayer in group meetings, and praying with other members of the group between meetings.
Inward
Connecting with other members outside of meeting times to become true friends. I stress serving others, asking for help and big favors, and learning to overlap their lives (shop together, hang together, eat together, exercise together, serve in a ministry that supports the Sunday gathering together, etc.)
Outward
Connecting with unchurched friends, family members, other students, neighbors, and coworkers. It seems people today have all but lost their ability to foster friendships with anyone... even people just like themselves. However, if there's any difference in opinions in politics, religious affiliation, faith, or lifestyles, wow... there's no desire to connect. I encourage relating to unchurched people socially well before any invitation to a small group is extended.
Forward
The fourth aspect I teach is that people need to "grow up and move out of the house" when it comes to small group membership. I challenge the members to abandon the "I like it here and don't want anything to change" mentality because it promotes personal stagnation... a very unattractive and smelly situation in which to find yourself.
Upward and Inward = Great Commandment
Outward and Forward = Great Commission
That's what I helped the members of Calvary's 31 groups plan to do more of last year when I taught there,
Last weekend I learned that it took the total number of groups from 31 to a whopping 52 group! While I'd never say my presence or teaching skills/talent was the key, I will say this: providing a time and place for whole small groups to come together and create a strategic plan of action works!
• It reduces leader fatigue and burnout.
• It involves the members of the group in planning and execution, increasing ownership.
• It gives potential leaders the opportunities needed to spread their wings and try leading out in a safe environment.
So what I did I train the groups to do this year?
• How to use a Blessing List (blogged about a couple of months ago... check the archives for more info).
• How to experience Christ's presence, power, and purposes when they met as a group (also blogged about a while back).
• How to form a core team and create plans for the next month of meetings and between-meeting activities (can't remember if I blogged about this or not, but you can find out about it from this article I wrote in my ministry's e-newsletter.
I have no doubt that I will go back one day soon and find well over a hundred small groups at Calvary Chapel Melbourne. This church's lead pastor places a high priority on their home group ministry, and the small groups pastor visits groups regularly to challenge them to love God, love one another, and love the lost with a time investment.
Pastor, when is the last time you visited one of your small groups to challenge them to be more and do more for God? When have you gathered your groups together for strategic planning? Do your small group members receive any sort of training and corporate encouragement, or is it all up to the leaders of the groups to do this?
Church meetings suck!
That's right, I'm just gonna go right out there and say I think church meetings suck. Meetings siphon the life out of me. Meetings draw out the energy out of a group of people who'd much rather be doing something fun together, and never seem to find the time to do it. Meetings "Hoover" every bit of free time a pastor, staff member, or lay church leader has to rest, enjoy a hobby, invest in the life of a friend, or allow a friend to invest in their life. Meetings completely drain me of energy so I can't get my own stuff done on time or sometimes at all.
To be fair, I don't hate all church meetings. Only the ones that could have been done through a "reply all" email exchange and meetings that get little to nothing truly accomplished as a result of the meeting.
To effectively battle sucky church meetings, I have found two tools that are very helpful, which I wanted to pass along to you today. I can guarantee that any small group leadership meeting you must have will be far more productive and will not suck if you employ both of them...
1. The 3 W's
Years ago, my ministry hired a business consultant who is also a Vineyard pastor in the San Diego area. Ron Ford said that all ministry meetings held at TOUCH Outreach (the ministry I oversee) should not end without 3 W's being nailed down for every single item on the agenda.
WHO will do WHAT by WHEN.
Folks, this was a huge revelation for me and my staff. Our greatest gripe was that we always had amazing ideas born out of synergy at meetings, and nothing became of them... because we never nailed down who would do what by when.
When we implemented this feature into each agenda item and agreed to meet again to discover who did what by when and what those results were, meetings became fun and no longer sucked. Whomever was facilitating the meeting wrote down who would do what by when and there was broad accountability to show up to the next meeting with the task completed successfully.
2. Topic and Time Strategy
Years ago, a mentor named Jim Egli (yet another Vineyard pastor!) taught me an organizational tool for time use that was so cool I must share it with you right now...
1. Begin the meeting by asking each person to share what they need to talk about at the meeting. Give them 1 minute to summarize it and hold them to it. As people state the topics, jot them down as the facilitator.
2. After everyone has spoken, look for overlap. Sometimes three people want to talk about various aspects of the same thing. Combine these with agreement from the meeting participants.
3. Look at your watch. Determine the total number of minutes left for your meeting and with your participants, decide how many minutes can be devoted to each topic. Write that down by each item.
4. Ask someone in the group to be the timekeeper and give you a 2 minute warning as the time deadline approaches for each item.
5. At 2 minute warning, nail down who will do what by when for whatever decisions you've made thus far, and quickly schedule another meeting to discuss it if it wasn't fully covered.
6. The more you do this, the faster things will be discussed and sometimes there's extra minutes. These can be given to other topics (rollover minutes) or given to everyone as a gift for highly productive participation.
The reason I share all this meeting stuff is that last night, the core team for my lifegroup met. We've been off for the month of August, and September's close so we wanted to make plans for the next six weeks. We meet once a month, by the way, and plan for a month and a half, which is a great overlap strategy... and I am not the leader of the group, just a core team member.
The meeting last night was excellent. Why? We nailed down what we were going to do with our Bible application time in upcoming meetings and who would do it. We determined that some members of our group could host an Alpha table in hopes of starting a new Lifegroup in January. The icing on the cake was when Dan, who is a core team member and not a formal leader or apprentice, said we needed to add 3-4 new core team members, delegate to them, and then multiply the group because it was too large.
I just sat there and smiled. This meeting didn't suck.
To be fair, I don't hate all church meetings. Only the ones that could have been done through a "reply all" email exchange and meetings that get little to nothing truly accomplished as a result of the meeting.
To effectively battle sucky church meetings, I have found two tools that are very helpful, which I wanted to pass along to you today. I can guarantee that any small group leadership meeting you must have will be far more productive and will not suck if you employ both of them...
1. The 3 W's
Years ago, my ministry hired a business consultant who is also a Vineyard pastor in the San Diego area. Ron Ford said that all ministry meetings held at TOUCH Outreach (the ministry I oversee) should not end without 3 W's being nailed down for every single item on the agenda.
WHO will do WHAT by WHEN.
Folks, this was a huge revelation for me and my staff. Our greatest gripe was that we always had amazing ideas born out of synergy at meetings, and nothing became of them... because we never nailed down who would do what by when.
When we implemented this feature into each agenda item and agreed to meet again to discover who did what by when and what those results were, meetings became fun and no longer sucked. Whomever was facilitating the meeting wrote down who would do what by when and there was broad accountability to show up to the next meeting with the task completed successfully.
2. Topic and Time Strategy
Years ago, a mentor named Jim Egli (yet another Vineyard pastor!) taught me an organizational tool for time use that was so cool I must share it with you right now...
1. Begin the meeting by asking each person to share what they need to talk about at the meeting. Give them 1 minute to summarize it and hold them to it. As people state the topics, jot them down as the facilitator.
2. After everyone has spoken, look for overlap. Sometimes three people want to talk about various aspects of the same thing. Combine these with agreement from the meeting participants.
3. Look at your watch. Determine the total number of minutes left for your meeting and with your participants, decide how many minutes can be devoted to each topic. Write that down by each item.
4. Ask someone in the group to be the timekeeper and give you a 2 minute warning as the time deadline approaches for each item.
5. At 2 minute warning, nail down who will do what by when for whatever decisions you've made thus far, and quickly schedule another meeting to discuss it if it wasn't fully covered.
6. The more you do this, the faster things will be discussed and sometimes there's extra minutes. These can be given to other topics (rollover minutes) or given to everyone as a gift for highly productive participation.
The reason I share all this meeting stuff is that last night, the core team for my lifegroup met. We've been off for the month of August, and September's close so we wanted to make plans for the next six weeks. We meet once a month, by the way, and plan for a month and a half, which is a great overlap strategy... and I am not the leader of the group, just a core team member.
The meeting last night was excellent. Why? We nailed down what we were going to do with our Bible application time in upcoming meetings and who would do it. We determined that some members of our group could host an Alpha table in hopes of starting a new Lifegroup in January. The icing on the cake was when Dan, who is a core team member and not a formal leader or apprentice, said we needed to add 3-4 new core team members, delegate to them, and then multiply the group because it was too large.
I just sat there and smiled. This meeting didn't suck.
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