Frank's Blog

New small groups start in a few different ways.  Some start as a result of a campaign that the entire church participates in, some are birthed from existing groups in your church, and others start in a more organic way as new friendships develop. 

Eric Metcalf at Community Christian Church recent shared his thoughts on the topic and how they handle it at their church:

Remember multiplication in school?  Yeah, I didn't enjoy that either. But when it comes to multiplication in small groups, I love it!

What's the best way to multiply the number of small groups in your church?

There are lots of ways to multiply small groups - we do it through apprenticeship with an existing leader, coach, staff person, turbo group, or church campaign.  After someone goes through that experience then we lead them towards multiplication.  So let's take each scenario listed above:

1. An existing leader/small group:  We multiply this group based upon leader readiness vs. group readiness.  Why?  Because a small group rarely ever ready.
2. A coach:   An apprentice leader would meet with a coach one on one to prepare him or her for leadership and then launch a new small group.
3. A staff person: An apprentice leader would meet with a staff person one on one to prepare him or her for leadership.
4. A turbo group:  This is a six week experience we provide for small group apprentices that equips them to launch new small groups.  Not everyone will step into leadership after this experience, but it's a great way to discern who is ready.  Small group coaches, staff or leaders can lead these groups.
5. A church campaign:  We utilize our Big Idea curriculum and a DVD message to launch these groups.  Ask people to host a group, play the DVD and discuss the curriculum.  Recruit coaches who will meet hosts and see if the group would like to continue after the allotted time (usually 6 weeks).  If they'd like to continue have the coach identify an apprentice and then start a turbo group for those apprentices or do one on ones to develop them.

All of these methods are quite effective in multiplying small groups.  Some will give you massive results others will help you build towards results.  We prefer to do all 5 methods throughout the year, because we believe all are effective.  Essentially everyone apprentices, and its through our apprenticeship that we prepare our leaders for 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th generation reproduction.

Click here to see Eric's original post.

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Brian Jones is the Senior Pastor of Christ's Church of the Valley, outside of Philadelphia.  He recently asked me to participate with him in an online discussion on the value of small groups in the church.  You will want to be sure to visit his website and contribute to the discussion that he started with this post: Why Churches Should Euthanize Their Small Groups

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Bill Donahue started at Willow Creek Community Church in 1992 and  helped Willow be a leader in group ministry.  But his influence has helped thousands of churches in the US and around world improve their small group experience and draw closer to Christ. 

Over the last three years Willow has had a challenging experience as they have attempted to move to a neighborhood model for group ministry and they are ready to try some new things.  That is where Donahue comes in.  Here is what he said about it in a recent blog post:

Over the last three years, after an evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the Neighborhood initiative at Willow Creek Community Church, the church decided to return group life to the core of Willow. There were some positive experiences from doing the Neighborhood initiative, but Willow decided that the model had limited success. (For an evaluation, see my previous blog postings on this).

After taking a fresh look at what really constitutes biblical community, and learning from strengths and failures of the various expressions of group life for the last 30 years, the church has plunged headlong into a fresh expression of group life that encompasses the strengths of the past while trying to avoid the mistakes. And I have been asked to help.

My primary role will be to design the leadership development and support structure for this new era. With a variety of group sizes, purposes and formats, leaders will require a broad spectrum of experiences and services to guide them along. And with leaders who have anywhere from zero to decades of group leadership experience, it is clear that the support we provide must be readily accessible, customized, decentralized and use both face time and technology.

I look forward to hearing and seeing more from Willow Creek as they continue to experiment and try new things in group ministry.  Click here to read Bill Donahue's original post.

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My latest series of posts is all about how social networking tools on the internet can enhance our small group ministry. My last post shared how our social groups use blogging as a tool but it doesn’t end there!

Another group in our church that utilizes blogging to keep enhance their group experience is one of our Young Adults Home Teams. Home teams at Christ’s Church of the Valley are traditional small groups that study the Bible and socialize together.

This group started their blog in April of 2007 and have been using it for over a year now to enhance their group life experience. They utilize blogging for the following reasons:

• To notify the group of the meeting schedule
• To inform members of cancellations
• To schedule social events
• To share pictures with group members
• To remind group members of reading assignments and homework prep for future meetings and discussions

This small group is a prime example of how to make blogging work to enhance group life. Has your small group ever taken a picture together at an event or a meeting that you wanted to share? Setting up a blog for your group can help you do that, plus it provides you with a place where you can record your memories from seeing that picture and your group members can comment and share their thoughts as well. However, while maintaining a blog is quite simple it does take a little time. So, before jumping into the blogosphere, I would recommend sitting down with your group and asking them what they would like to use a blog for so you appropriately meet the need . For example, if your group only wanted to share pictures, and nothing else, you may want to use a photo sharing website like flickr instead. This way you are not wasting your time maintaining a blog but still using Web 2.0 technology to enhance your group experience.

Photo sharing on the internet would be a great place to start for any group. Especially if using the web is a new thing for them.

UPDATE: I just talked to the group leader and they are upgrading their blog to include some other features!  I post on them again in the near future to let you know what they are up to!

Next post – task groups and the web.

Question: what kind of ways can you think of for small groups to use blogging?

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Does your small group ministry take advantage of all that the web has to offer? Are you utilizing all of the functionality of Web 2.0? In order for us to dig deeper into how the web can enhance your small group ministry experience we first should define what Web 2.0 is.  Here is how Wikipedia defines it:

Web 2.0 is a term describing a trend in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to enhance creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users. These concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities and hosted services, such as social-networking sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies.

Does all of this 2.0 stuff really enhance group ministry? ABSOLUTELY, because it is all designed to encourage relationships, networking, and social interactions in an online setting! Plus, the best part about it is that it is ALL FREE. Your ministry can take advantage of all these tools at no additional cost.

Over the next few posts I will be going over how we use these technologies in our church and specifically our small group ministry context. Then I will post a list of online resources so you can get started with your small group or your ministry.

The type of small group that blogging, in particular, is great for is our social groups. Blogging about upcoming schedules, events, locations, pictures from previous events, all can really enhance the experience for members of a social small group in your church. Plus, like I said earlier... it's all free, and free is good. Here is an example of a social group at our church that utilizes a blog to help stay connected. The group is called our "Small Wonders Play Group." Click here to view their page.

As you can see the front page is static (it doesn't change) and you can tell because it is dated 2007 when they started using it. But notice that it is password protected. Once a new mom joins the group she receives a password and can view the current schedule and other content to keep up on the group's activities. Using simple social networking tools like these will provide our groups with an easy way to stay organized and enhance a small group experience. Especially for younger generations that expect technology to be more integrated into everyday life.

Feel free to post questions in the comments section and I can answer them in future posts.

 

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