I'm a small groups guy. In fact, I've led conferences on 'em, led my churches to do 'em, been a small group leader myself, and been in 'em. I believe in small groups. Whether you're a church plant or well-established church, people in small communities is essential for individual spiritual growth as well as church health.
Yesterday on Twitter I wrote:
"Most likely place transformation & missional engagement will happen is in small community-- not large"
I also linked to a video on missional small communities here where I talk about small groups and their impact.
Small groups matter, but some churches are struggling with their groups because they are unaware that there are different ways of implementing them, and that how your small groups work (or don't work) will make a difference in your church. Choosing the one that is right for your church is vital.
Rick Howerton is my guest blogger today. He's been a campus minister, small groups pastor, senior pastor, and has planted a successful church, The Bridge in Spring Hill, Tennessee. As the small group specialist for LifeWay Christian Resources, Rick spends every day talking with church leaders preparing to start a small group ministry, doing small groups, or re-strategizing their small group ministry. He is also the author of multiple small group training resources and Destination Community: Small Group Ministry Manual.
Small Groups done right are one of the sure pathways to making disciples and growing a church. Sunday School churches are doing them alongside their traditional approach, many churches do small groups exclusively, and I'm thinking 99% of church plants are laser-like focused and will do small groups without ever considering another option. But these organic microcosms of the church have become so diverse that most church leaders are not sure what they're really discussing when a conversation about them starts up. There are at least seven different systems for doing groups and each of them has more variations on that particular theme than a Paganini Concerto.
Seven of the prevailing systems are...
1) Organic Community Groups
2) Preference of two or more group types
3) Closed Small Groups
4) Open Small Groups
5) Free Market System
6) Making Extraordinary Disciples
7) Cell Groups/Holistic Small Groups.
Choosing the right system for your church is vital. There are five criterion that you may want to consider when determining which system is best for your situation.
1) The senior pastor's primary passion. Is it Theological, Relational, Restorational, or Missional? If you get this wrong, no matter how well the groups are doing numerically, there will never be a consensus that the ministry is accomplishing what it should.
2) Is the first entry way to the church the small group? If so, choose a system that has many different kinds of groups and many groups with low expectations of group members.
3) The number of leaders required for the group ministry to be effective. If your church doesn't have enough group leaders for a given system choose an approach that demands fewer leaders.
4) What will you do with children. If you don't have a large enough congregation to have childcare for groups during meetings the children will need to be equals in the group with adults or choose an approach so that husbands watch the kids while mom attends a group meeting and moms watch kids while dad attends a group meeting. Be sure to meet the needs of your single parents too.
5) Demographics. While this isn't scientific my experience has shown me that the following groups do best with the demographic noted below. These demographics do represent the flagship church for each system.
Socioeconomics as well as the amount of education in a given demographic seemed to play a significant role in the effectiveness of each group system. The ratings on ZipWho.com at the time of the research utilized the terms below average, average, and above average. In order to find out where the community your church is in ranks, go to ZipWho.com and type in your church's zip code. When you do this you will get even more specific information including median income, cost of living index, median mortgage to income ratio, average household size, median age, etc... . If your community falls in the top 10% or the bottom 10% of a category the website will designate that fact.
1) Organic Community Groups... Income: Below Average, Education: Above Average
2) Preference of two or more group types... Income: Above Average, Education: Above Average
3) Closed Small Groups... Income: Above Average, Education: Above Average
4) Open Small Groups... Income: Above Average, Education: Above Average
5) Free Market System... Income: Above Average, Education: Above Average
6) Making Extraordinary Disciples... Income: Average, Education: Above Average
7) Cell Groups/Holistic Small Groups... Income: Below Average, Education: Below Average
I am particularly interested in a conversation on the relationship between small group types and economic / educational factors. Would love to see some interaction with Rick on that subject.
Rick is gathering some of the most notable leaders of the small group movement for a free online forum. Check out the Who, What, When Where, and How of this thing.
What: The Summit: A Convergence of Small Group Experts (a live, free interactive experience/forum for church leaders)
Who: Greg Bowman, Lyman Coleman, Bill Donahue, Carl George, Eddie Mosley, Randall Neighbor, Bill Search, Reid Smith, and Rick Howerton
When: Thursday, February 18, 2010, 10:30 a.m. to Noon Central Standard Time
Where: Watch from your own office or home computer or Starbucks or anyplace with an internet connection.
How to Learn More and Register: Head over to www.lifeway.com/sgsummit
In case you need Rick's assistance, his contact info is noted below.
Rick Howerton
rick.howerton@lifeway.com
www.serendipityblog.com
twitter.com/rickhowerton
Let's talk small groups with Rick as he will be interacting in the comments today.
Posted on January 27, 2010 at 7:16 AM ~ 15 Comments
Tagged with: community, small groups
Rick and Ed, I teach composition at a Classical school, so I have to tell y'all what I tell my students: "Define your terms!" Is your average reader here supposed to know the difference between an "organic community group" and an "open small group," for instance?
Thanks for this discussion, fellas. :)
I, like Laura, appreciate this discussion but was wondering where I can read some descriptions of these different small group systems.
Also, I am not much of a statistics guy. When I look at my community's National Percentile Rank am I looking at 50 as average?
Looking forward to The Summit.
I'm grateful for the upcoming webinar. I'm part of a church that's right in the midst of reconsidering our small groups strategy, so I'm eager to learn.
Here's our situation: We're in southern California, where small groups are the norm in most churches, and new people expect them (we're in a highly mobile area, so we have a lot of new people come into our community every year). Consequently, we have a bunch of small groups that exist "out there," without a central strategy.
Here's my question: In a church where some of the people (between 25-50%) have "their group," how do we transition to a church-wide strategy without unnecessarily provoking the existing groups?
Do you see small groups working where they have the competition of Sunday School? It is pretty rare in my experience.
Josh Hunt
Good Questions Have Groups Talking
www.joshhunt.com
Do you see small groups working where they have the competition of Sunday School? It is pretty rare in my experience.
Josh Hunt
Good Questions Have Groups Talking
www.joshhunt.com
Hi Laura and Jason. Great point. For a substantial understanding of each group type that is concise go to smallgroups.com. Great stuff there.
Hi Bob, I'm guessing your problem is that the "their group" types have chosen to bond together without welcoming others into their group. If that is your issue I'd make the following suggestions:
Step 1: Ask the pastor to begin teaching on missional living and missional groups. By doing this there will be an establishing of biblical principles church-wide and new principles lead to new paradigms which lead to new practices.
Step 2: When these new principles are part of the DNA of your church mindset you can then begin discussing the changes that need to take place in your small group ministry with your small group ministry leadership team. This, so the small group ministry is living out the biblical principles that have been espoused.
Step 3: Work with your team to conclude a strategy for moving this agenda forward. I would suggest 1) personal conversations with your most influential small group leaders, get their buy-in. Then 2) Call a meeting of all of your present small group leaders and brainstorm with them how the small group ministry can embrace and live out these biblical expectations. 3) Create specific actions that each group will utilize to accomplish these expectations. 4) On an ongoing basis encourage groups to continue accomplishing these action plans.
The three steps above could take as long a six months to a year according to your situation.
A few thoughts:
1. It will be very difficult for some of your established group leaders to change. They are comfortable with what they are doing and who they are doing it with. Not only that, they agreed to different terms when they took on their leadership role. They have a valid argument if they say, "This is not what I agreed to." This is why you need to take as much time as necessary to establish the new paradigm before requiring new practices.
2. When requiring change choose wisdom. Some group leaders may just say, "No way." (they may not say it but you'll know by their actions that they're not coming on board.). Don't fight with them. Give your time and attention to the present leaders who join you and in starting new groups in the new paradigm.
Hi Josh,
I think you nailed it with the word "competition" Josh. The churches I've worked with starting small groups alongside Sunday School whose Sunday School leadership (even if it's just a few influential Sunday School teachers) perceived small groups as new "competition" seldom are able to get effective small groups up and running. Those churches who make small groups equal to Sunday School and ask individuals to attend either a Sunday School class or a small group erase the idea of it being a competition as neither are competing as both are perceived as accomplishing the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the people. One way to eradicate a competition mentality is for the church leadership to determine what biblical principles and practices are true of any group of believers who gather together and ask both the Sunday School teachers and small group leaders to allow these principles and practices to drive the way the class or group functions. This really levels the playing field and brings an ideological/biblical equality to both group types.
Thanks for the response, Rick. One of the big challenges that we have with small groups is that our senior pastor isn't in one. He's not opposed to them, and is happy to make announcements about them, but it lacks the punch of personal involvement. Most of the rest of our senior leadership are in groups or Sunday school classes (which are co-equal for us), but it seems like we're pushing uphill without the senior pastor. Any help?
Hey Guys,
Wondering if you could give this young church planter a link or description for each of those small group types.
Rick Howerton is cool! Good stuff here!
Hi Bob,
You are in one of the most difficult situations of all. It is nearly impossible for a small group ministry to flourish if the senior pastor isn't modeling the involvement in one. It's very difficult for congregants to believe it is all he says it is from the pulpit and that it is vital for spiritual growth and anyone believe it if he doesn't lead or join one. This is no different than a pastor who tells the congregation to be evangelistic but never has a story to tell of sharing Christ with anyone. When the senior pastor can speak of "my group" and tell stories of what God is doing in his life because he's in a group, then people see the need for being in a group. Keep moving forward though. See if other influencers in the church can tell their stories through video, personal testimonies, etc... This will have a meaningful impact.
I can see that you would like descriptions of each group model below you'll find these. Please know that most of this work is from smallgroups.com.
In many ways, organic small groups are a reaction against highly programmed and structured models of community. They seek to move away from such structure in favor of a more natural method of building community. Thus, instead of forcing community to happen through small groups, organic leaders try to set up an environment where community can naturally emerge on its own—much like plants and animals will naturally develop and grow in the proper environment.
The preference of two or more groups offers a number of strategically chosen types of groups. These might include disciple-making groups, support groups, missional groups, community groups, and seeker groups. These multiple options make it possible for multiple entry points into church life and meets the diverse needs of the church membership.
Closed small groups limit the number of participants in order to focus on building trust, intimacy, and accountability between group members. Once a group starts, new members and visitors are generally discouraged from attending meetings. Closed groups usually convene for a specific period of time before "opening" back up to welcome new members. This time period can last anywhere from a semester of study to several years.
Open small groups have space available for visitors and new members. Most of these groups generally remain "open" all the time, meaning there is no limit to the amount of new people who can join. Some will begin a birthing process for a new group once a specific number of regular attenders is reached. Other models "close" their groups once they reach a certain size—often between 8 and 12 regular members.
Open groups often symbolize their desire for visitors and new members by keeping an "empty chair" present in the gathering, and then praying for the person who will soon occupy that chair.
In the Free Market System groups form around specific interests, topics, or affinities. The goal is to transform an interest group into a spiritual community through relationships and spiritual practices. Groups may be large or small, and topics are developed by the leader.
A key assumption behind this model is that people don't want to be told what to do. They want choices. Another assumption is that, like businesses in a free-market economy, healthy groups will flourish while unhealthy groups will die. As a result, churches should encourage a diversity of small groups and allow things to thrive or whither naturally.
The Cell Group model views small groups as the basic unit of a church congregation, much like an organic cell is the basic unit of a human body. Thus, small groups are not treated as "one program among many," but are necessary. Four key items make up the DNA of a cell group: worship, edification, relational evangelism, and discipleship. And if operating properly, each cell group will grow and multiply on its own, transferring this DNA from group to group.
Kevin Colon... You're one of my heroes! Miss ya' friend.
Rick...What a blessing to get a "second helping" of these solid Small Group insights. Keep up the GREAT work!