Frank's Blog

I've always been a big fan of using all church studies to give your group ministry a shot in the arm.  While I was leading our group ministry at CCV we strategically placed them in our church calendar to initiate spiritual growth and increase group participation. 

Another group strategy that works quite well is more of a "free market" group system where you raise leaders that you lean on to provide direction for individual groups based upon God given passions.  That means that you let them choose what they study, or the types of groups that they are starting in your church based upon their intrests.

 Both strategies work great when led well, but can they be merged?  Heather Zemple from NCC plans to find out.  Here is how she describes what will be happening at NCC this summer:

For several years, we have operated primarily out of a free mark approach to small groups. Get a vision from God and run with it. Tap into your interests, passions, and gifts and look for creative ways to turn those into disciple-making opportunities. As a church, we won't tell you what to study and what to lead; rather, we will help you discover your passions and then encourage you, equip you, empower you and unleash you to go make disciples out of those passions.

This summer, we are going to try a twist on that model and launch a new experiment.

Theory #1- Free Market small group models are the best for building organic community, raising up new leaders, and pushing discipleship out of the classroom and into real life.

Theory #2- Church-wide small group campaigns are the best for mobilizing new group start-ups, encouraging people into groups, and focusing the entire church on one strategic goal.

Theory #3- Theory #1 + Theory #2 = Chaos and Confusion = The Best of Both Worlds = Potential to Learn Something New = A New Wineskin for Discipleship.

Basically, we are going to try to create a hybrid. We are going to merge our free market DNA with the energy, synergy, and momentum that happens in churches that all focus on the same study at once. We want to see if we can implement both a free market and a church-wide strategy. We want to launch both a small group campaign and focus on taking groups deeper all at the same time. Can it be done? I have no idea. But we've got to try this experiment.

Click here to read more about what Heather plans on doing.