Some time ago we read Sticky Church by Larry Osborne, and one of the lessons we took away was this: that new people do best in new groups. People stick better in groups when they get into a group with other new people, rather than trying to break into existing circles. We had been trying to add people to existing groups, and felt like it wasn't working.

So we went to the idea that we would have quarterly connection events, where we would create new groups. We had resisted this for some time because we never had enough leaders ready to go. To counter this, we developed a mentor-coach, where staff, coaches or existing leaders would mentor a new group for four weeks, as a new leader for the group was identified and trained. This has been the single biggest improvement we've made in our connection method. We still raise up leaders the old fashioned way, but by using a mentor-coach we can create groups on demand.

Our connection events run like this: The room is set up with tables designated for the night of the week, and as people come in they are directed to those tables, that are pre-seeded with a new leader or a mentor-coach. The leader engages them in some ice breakers just to get people talking and become familiar with others.

After 15 or 20 minutes, we stop the discussion, and direct people to get up and go to another table, where they get to know another different group of people, using the same ice breakers. After another 15 or 20 minutes, we again stop the proceedings and direct people to go to the table that you would like to be in a small group with. By this time, people have picked out others that they want to hang out with, and those that they don't want to hang out with. We have our leaders and mentor-coaches now fill out their rosters. In many cases at this time, the event is done, and people don't want to leave!

What about people who can't make the connection event? After the event, we then get our new groups up on our group locator on our web site, where new people can join the group in the first three weeks, after that, the groups are closed on the web. Then we handle new people on the staff level, knowing what groups are really good at assimilating new members.

This one's a keeper...

Over the years whenever I've gotten together with other small group ministry leaders the conversation always seems to come back to "how do you get more leaders?"

Two years ago we began holding connection events where we would utilize mentor-coaches to launch a "leaderless" group with nothing more than a night of the week and a host.  The mentor-coach would be with the group for four weeks, the result of which would be strangers that he that had learned how to be a group.

They will have ownership of the group.

One great thing about this method is that the time that you've spent recruiting is now reusable as the mentor-coach will help another group get started.

The other great benefit I see is that leaders emerge that my myopic vision cannot see.  I say no for a lot of people who might otherwise be leaders.  "They're too busy", "they won't do it", "he or she doesn't look like a leader".  

Is it foolproof? No. Do groups fail? Yes. Do leaders fail?  Yes.

But at least they have the chance to try.

My last post talked about how the two things that groups ministry stress over, getting people into groups and finding leaders to lead groups, was not present at the Right Now Conference in Dallas last week.

What was present was two themes that I took away from Dallas:

Mission.  Our groups need to have a culture that has a bias toward action, where if our groups are not serving someone, then they feel a hole in their group and need to fill it with action.  We want our groups to be about community and discipleship, which both can be fulfilled through serving others.  In the not too distant past, we equated time at church with discipleship, but being a disciple of Jesus is found in the going and the doing, not just in the being.

The mission has to heart driven. Too much of discipleship becomes a check off sheet or a to-do list. So we have to manage the tension between giving the groups too much instruction so that the satisfaction comes from completing the task and not setting in place key components that will guide the groups to a heart change that will result in a compulsion to be on mission.

We have to create a culture that leads to heart-driven mission.

Next Post: Why I Stopped Recruiting Leaders

Last Post: What I Didn’t Hear at the Right Now Conference #RN11

 

Last week I was able to spend some time at the Right Now Conference, which is heavily littered with Group Ministry nuggets.  Over the course of three days there were a couple of themes that I didn’t hear:

How to get more people in groups.  I looked at the program really hard and didn’t see any workshops with that title.  There weren’t any workshops on connection events or whether groups should be open or closed.  There was plenty of discussion about groups having a mission.  I heard the term “Missional Communities” a bazillion times, which has always been kind of buzz-wordy to me, but now I like it.    For some churches, Missional Communities is their group ministry.  In other churches, their church’s groups are intended to move to a missional focus.

How to find leaders.  There were no workshops that were concerned with teaching you how to find leaders for your groups ministry.  There were, however, several sessions on developing a leadership culture and having a leadership strategy.  There was talk on having disciple-making disciples and empowering everyone in your groups to be about discipleship, teaching them to feed themselves and to not have to depend upon a leader to impart Biblical knowledge.

 

Next: What I Did Hear at the Right Now Conference

I had to do a little carpet repair and this is how I chose to keep it glued down.

Happy Anniversary, lauriegibson!

 

1.  Taking Sara around the lake at the Parmeley’s.  You had on the blue striped swimsuit. 

2.  Coming down to breakfast at Embassy Suites the morning after our wedding.

3.  Hiking the Palo Duro canyon in west Texas.

4.  The apartment in Bloomington.  Cheese and apple slices.

5.  The tomato in the window in the townhouse in Bloomington.

6.  Our first house in Decatur.  You handling the movers by yourself, with me going to work in the morning from the townhouse in Bloomington and going home from work that day to the house in Decatur.

7.  Our many trips to Shriner's Hospital in St. Louis with Justin. 

8.  Our family trip with your parents to North Carolina. Crab cakes, hush puppies, and Ronnie's underwear hanging out the car window.

9.  Courtney, Rachel and Emily running around in the field and falling down.

10.  My birthday gift of the Remington 870. Every guy likes to shoot stuff.

11.  Your endless labor with Meagan.  She had stubbornness even then.

12.  Summer vacations at the lake house.

13.  Being in the New Young Messiah together. Singing backup to Clay Crosse, within spittin' distance.

14.  Our trip to Mackinac Island.  You not knowing where we were going!

15.  Putting in our pool in Peotone and finishing the basement.

16.  The family trip to the cheerleading thing in Minneapolis.

17.  Going to the Paul McCartney concert with me.

18.  The trip to Las Vegas for the New Church convention. 

19.  Watching Kelsey do handsprings at the Peotone High School basketball games.

20.  Endless painting in the house in Surprise.

21.  Our anniversary dinner at Maggianos in Scottsdale.

22.  You giving me my Martin guitar for my birthday gift.

23.  Our trip to Seattle and eating at that seafood place that was out over the water.

24.  The trips to Rock Harbor and Catalyst. 

25.  Going to Huntington Beach and Sea World with the kiddos.

26.  Cindy’s wedding, playing golf with Ronnie with crappy rented clubs.

27.  Standing on the Golden Gate Bridge, looking out over the bay.

 

And one cold, snowy winter night when you said yes.