Posted by: Frank Chiapperino in Untagged on
Jan 17, 2009
Kathy Guy is runs the group ministry at Granger and they recently began a campaign to promote groups int their church. What if all the new groups you could join were on one night? Here are Kathy's comments:
This shift gives clarity to the "when" and "where" questions. If someone decides this is their next step they will have one decision left: which launch they'll attend.
Starting Point (friendship), 6 week sessions, January 12
View Point (Bible study), 6 week sessions, January 19
Turning Point (life change) and Turning Point All Stars (understanding emotions for k - 5th grade kids), 10 week sessions, January 26
Financial Peace University (money management), 13 week sessions, February 23
Monday is Group Night provides: 1) more effective communication through the web and from the platform, 2) a "night off" for those who want to participate in both a group and 1st Wednesday and Journey Classes, and 3) a volume of participants to justify opening the bookstore and cafe for even more people to come early and stay late to meet with friends.
If your ministry moved all of our new or existing groups to one night of the week how do you think it would impact your participation?
Posted by: Frank Chiapperino in life change on
Jan 12, 2009
I don't know about you but one of the things I love about my small group (we call them Home Teams at my church) is that I get to see life-change happen right before my eyes.
One of my favorite stories to share is from one of the very first groups that my wife and I started. It was a group that we started for single young adults and it filled up pretty quickly as this was a growing demographic in our church.
I remember specifically it was a Tuesday night and we had a pretty good turn out, maybe 15 or 16. I don't remember anything special about the discussion but I do remember something that happened at our prayer time that I will never forget. There was a gal who had gone back to college, to finish a degree in nursing, and she had visited the group 3 or 4 times. She was admittedly not a committed Christ follower and in a place of exploration. Well, she had come back that night and interrupted someone sharing a prayer request.
She said, "I'm sorry to interrupt but I have a question. I hear all of you asking God to help other people that you know who are sick or who have problems and it makes me feel guilty. I don't want to ask God for something for someone else. I want him to help me. Will I ever feel the way you all do and want to ask him to help someone else?"
That moment in our group took my breath away. Everyone was silent. We prayed for her that night and I looked forward to every evening she showed up because our group was experiencing something fresh.
While I think there is potential for conversion experiences to happen in a group environment, I don't think it's the norm. What I have observed that happens more often is a relationship is started in the group environment that leads to a discussion outside of a meeting. Groups have the ability to enhance relational evangelism. Hopefully, relational evangelism is already a regular part of your lifestyle. Then, when your friends who are far from God are ready, you can leverage the abilities of your group. Someone from your small group may be just the right person to help your friend cross the line of faith.
There is nothing more rewarding for me than attending a baptism service at our church and seeing that person in the water and they say, "I am here because of these people." And they are pointing to their small group.
Evangelistic Group Tips:
Don't put people on the spot and force them to answer
Encourage prayer for everyone by have each person say a one sentence prayer
Find out where each group member is on their spiritual journey
Invite group members you don't know well over for dinner before your meeting
Have more than a Bible Study - do social stuff together!
Posted by: Frank Chiapperino in group ministry on
Jan 07, 2009
Dave Treat recently posted about a video that Bill Search did with the gang at Southeast Christian Church. If your church is larger than 100 then you are already larger than 99% of churches in the US. As a church gets larger sometimes people feel missed, uncared for, or lost in the crowd. In the video linked below Bill talks about how their church wants to help "big" feel "small." Click and take a look.
