Frank's Blog

Kem Meyer, Communications Director at Granger Community Church, is going on a blog tour for her new book - Less Clutter, Less Noise.  I recently asked her this question:

Our church seems motivated most to attend events and activities when things are announced from the platform. When there's no major push from the pulpit, using other forms of communication, how does one get the congregation excited and eager to participate in other things that are happening in the church?

Click here to learn the answer.

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There are lots of tools out there to help you manage a growing small group ministry but few combine two essential components - affordable and effective.  I recently connected with Matt Harrell over at MemberHub and it seems they have a solution that group leaders and pastors should consider.  They even have a free 30 day trial for you to testdrive, but I wanted to ask him two key questions to help us understand what they do:

1.  How does your product help the group leader and why will they love using it?

The key to MemberHub it empowers the group to connect online in a  safe, private environment and it supplements the face-to-face time. The group leader is empowering the rest of the group to continue conversation, share ideas and encourage each other throughout the week. Many times only the group leader has everyones email. Now each member will have access to the hub's mailing list and can reach everyone in the group by just knowing one email address. Likewise they can see each other's profile so they can share contact info. So it makes the group leader's job easier because they don't spend time doing admin stuff like updating a spreadsheet or sending out reminders manually. The can just set up calendar events to send out emails and text messages automatically. We have a church in Florida that uses MemberHub for all their small groups as a form of digital discipleship. They actually create a new discussion in each hub and embed a video into the discussion with a list of 5 questions. Then the group members watch the video and all reply. Then they discuss. So in this case MemberHub is being used as a small group entirely online.

2.  How does you product help the group ministry point person (groups pastor) and why will they love using it?

As far as the groups pastor, the benefits are similar but just on a higher level. With MemberHub for Organizations, a groups pastor can create a hub for each small group. So the groups pastor is empowering the group leaders and members to manage themselves. But he's also able to reach multiple groups at once with emails and text messaing, move people in and out of groups, and manage custom information about the members in those groups; for example, spiritual gifts. It centralizes the groups pastor efforts in managing the groups and keep him from having to use multiple tools (spreadsheets, mailing lists and word docs). Logistics, planning, member information AND communication is all in one, central place; thereby saving time and preventing the feeling being unconnected and/or unorganized.

Sounds like MemberHub has some great solutions for your group ministry - and it is worth checking out since they have a 30 day free trial.

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Eric Metcalf recently posted a S.W.O.T. (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis of group life in the US.  CLICK HERE to take a look, it is worth checking out.

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Miles, Senior Pastor of The Rock Church, will be one of the featured speakers wrapping up the Group life Conference this year.  And don't forget - as a reader of this website you get a discount by using this code - GLC8BLG

Click here to view a quick video from Miles.

Source: Dave Treat

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I was reading some blogs on Small Groups recently and I ran across this post that focuses on the qualities and practices of effective leaders. 

1. Leaders Model the Way

• Leadership is not about personality; it's about behavior.
• Leading means you have to be a good example, and live what you say.
• Leaders must find their own voice, then they must clearly and distinctively give voice to their values.
• Leadership is about the power of spending time with someone, of working side by side with colleagues, of telling stories that make values come alive, of being highly visible during times of uncertainty, and of asking questions to get people to think about values and priorities.

 2. Leaders Inspire a Shared Vision

• Every organization, every social movement, begins with a dream.
• Leaders have a desire to make something happen, to change the way things are, to create something that no one else has ever created before.
• In some ways, leaders live their lives backward... it is their vision of the future pulls them forward.
• Leaders cannot command commitment, only inspire it.
• Leadership is a dialogue, not a monologue. Leaders must know their constituents and speak their language.

3. Leaders Challenge the Process

• Leaders venture out. They are pioneers. They are willing to step out into the unknown.
• Leaders search for opportunities to innovate, grow, and improve. They are constantly looking outside themselves and their organizations for new and innovative products, processes, and services.
• When it comes to innovation, the leader's major contributions are in the creation of a climate for experimentation, the recognition of good ideas, the support of those ideas, and the willingness to challenge the system to get new products, processes, services, and systems adopted.
• Leaders are learners.
• Life is the leader's laboratory, and exemplary leaders use it to conduct as many experiments as possible.

 4. Leaders Enable Others to Act

• Grand dreams don't become significant realities through the actions of a single person. It requires a team effort.
• Leaders foster collaboration and build trust.
• Leaders work to make people feel strong, capable, and committed.
• Authentic leadership is founded on trust, and the more people trust their leader, and each other, the more they take risks, make changes, and keep organizations and movements alive.

5. Leaders Encourage the Heart

• It is part of the leaders job to show appreciation for people's contributions and to create a culture of celebrating values and victories.
• Encouragement is, curiously, serious business.
• Leaders make sure people see the benefit of behavior that's aligned with cherished values.
• Leadership is a relationship between those who aspire to lead and those who choose to follow. It is the quality of this relationship that matters most when we're engaged in getting extraordinary things done.

Source: The Leadership Challenge, First Groups

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