This is Kerrick Thomas – Executive Pastor at The Journey Church and co-author of ”Activate” with Nelson.  Nelson asked me to address a common small group question today on the blog.

The question is “How can we minister to youth through the Small Groups System?”

When it comes to youth and semester-based Activate small groups I’ve seen it work effectively in two ways:

1 – Run the youth small groups like the adult small groups.  

Have them age-based – but let the youth sign up for them on Sundays and on-line just like the adults do.

2 – What I’ve a lot of churches do – because most suburban or rural churches do continue to have a Wednesday night or Sunday night big youth event – is still have the large event for the youth and have a beginning worship/group time.  

Then after that, break into different age specific small groups that might have different topics.

One church has a large Sunday night youth event – and then has small groups at different homes throughout the week.

So – you do have some options.

***Whatever you decide – it’s important to connect being a part of the small groups and youth events to attendance in your church.

That’s why having a Small Group Covenant is so important.  Because the semester-based groups only last 10-12 weeks – it’s important to ask those who are in the group to sign a covenant saying they will take the commitment seriously.

Part of that commitment is that they will attend services over the length of the group.  It doesn’t mean that they are there every week.  But if it helps a kid who is disconnected from church to at least check out the church over the course of the life of the group – that’s a good thing.

Then if you ask your small groups to serve at least once or twice over the course of the semester at a Sunday service, you help get those kids connected into the church instead of just the small group or the youth event.

I hope these ideas help!

God bless…

Kerrick

P.S. If you’re ready to activate your Small Groups, involve more than 100% of your church in groups, and see radical life change, check out The Small Groups Intensive.

This is Kerrick Thomas – Executive Pastor at The Journey Church and co-author of “Activate” with Nelson.

Nelson asked if I would take a moment today to address a common small groups question – the apparent “competition” between Small Groups and Ministry Teams.

Recently, I’ve received two questions about this same issue and I wanted to answer each of them:

1 – If we’re doing a “ministry” focus (like Nelson teaches in planning your preaching calendar) during the same time we’re scheduled to promote Small Groups, should we change the promotion period?

We are also doing a teaching series on Ministry during our Small Group Promotion Month at The Journey this fall.

Quick answer: No, I would not change your Small Group Promotion Month (sign up period) if you have found the time period that works best for you.  

We usually recommend starting the sign up period immediately after school begins in your community.  We begin our promotion month the Sunday of Labor Day since in NYC school usually begins the Tueday after Labor Day.  But if adjusting one or two weeks later doesn’t affect your promotion month or your Fall small groups… that is not a big deal.

We will probably actually have a Ministry Fair while we have Small Group sign ups going on during September.  It might not be ideal – but it’s definitely doable.  Especially if you have the Ministry Fair closer to the beginning of the sign up period.

Remember – when we do small group promotion we build momentum through the Small Group Promotion Month – so we start out a little softer but by the last 2 weeks before groups begin we are promoting pretty strongly.  So – if you have the Ministry Fair during your small group sign ups – be sure not to put it during the last 2 weeks of sign ups before the groups begin.

2 – Should we turn our ministry teams into Small Groups to incorporate more spiritual growth and give people one thing to sign up for?

This may seem like a good option, but I would NOT recommend turning your Sunday Service Teams into Small Groups.  The reason is three-fold:

- One, the Sunday Service Teams will never be able to focus on spiritual growth, prayer and relationships.  It’s just too fast and too hectic – and their mission during the time they are scheduled to meet is just too critical to your church.

Community Service Small Groups are different because they meet during the week and so don’t have the time pressure.  Also – they don’t have to serve every week.

- Two, if you turn your Sunday Service Teams into small groups then you will either prohibit people from just showing up to serve with the team once sign ups close or  you will have new people there every week which really isn’t a small group dynamic where you can begin to develop trust and share with one another.

- Three, people will serve AND participate in a Small Group.  Just don’t ask them to serve every week.  We ask our members to serve 1 hour a month. Those who serve on specific ministry teams usually serve every other week at the most.  So, we don’t burn them out.

Plus, don’t forget – Small Groups are a great way to introduce people to serving. We assign all of our Small Groups one Sunday service a month to come to one hour early and help serve.  Before the service begins – we talk with them about signing up to serve once a month on a different ministry team.  It’s a great way to incorporate Small Groups into Ministry and to get new people plugged in.

I hope that helps!

Kerrick

P.S. If you’re ready to activate your Small Groups, involve more than 100% of your church in groups, and see radical life change, check out The Small Groups Intensive.

Since my small groups book Activate came out, I’ve gotten lots of questions about small groups and one of the most common is about childcare:

How should we handle childcare for our small groups?

I’ve written about this several times in the past – and the short answer is… you shouldn’t handle it! You should allow parents with children to handle it.

Here’s why: it’s a question of values – if people value groups enough (and the spiritual growth they experience and observe in those groups), they’ll solve their own childcare problem.

Quick example - if one of the couples in your church who “can’t” join a group because of the lack of childcare were to win an all expense paid vacation to their favorite resort but no children were allowed, I can assure you that they would figure out a solution!

Why? Because they value the resort gift enough, they will figure out childcare.

So, rather than getting elbow-deep in trying to figure out everyone’s childcare, you have to help your people value their small group so much that they’ll figure it out.

BTW – here’s some of what I’ve written on this topic in the past:

http://www.churchleaderinsights.com/blog/?s=small+groups+childcare

P.S. For the most comprehensive resource available to build your church’s Small Groups system, check out The Small Groups Intensive.

I’m looking for just the right “A” player to fill a key pastoral position here at The Journey Church!

We’re looking for a Groups/Teaching Pastor to join our team – Don’t apply unless you love semester-based groups & my book Activate!

However, if you’re passionate about groups and willing to devote yourself to “giving the people of New York City the best opportunity to become fully developing followers of Jesus,” you may be just the right fit!

Here’s the official position description:

Growth Groups Pastor @ The Journey Church in NYC:

Are you called to serve in New York City?

The Journey is a contemporary 9 year old church with 4 campuses in New York City (Upper West Side, Village, Queens and Brooklyn). The position of full-time Growth Groups Pastor is currently available.

The Journey consistently has over 1,000 adults attending weekend services, currently has over 1,100 in groups and expects continued growth.

Are you passionate about raising up new leaders and volunteers, seeing people get connected in the church and challenging them to grow in their faith?

Are you interested in expanding an already healthy Growth Group ministry that sees over 1,100 people signed up for a group every semester?

Can you work with our team to increase the number of groups every semester (approximately 80) as well as the number of leaders that serve each semester (approximately 150)?

Are you interested in helping a growing church continue to grow?

Do you have a high view of ‘serving as part of discipleship’ and do you have a strong desire to reach unchurched young professionals?

This is not a pastoral care position, but an equipping position to make a difference with the best and the brightest from around the world that make up the Journey Church in NYC.

Responsibilities:
- Leadership, growth and innovation of The Journey’s semester-based small groups ministry of over 1,100 people each semester.
- Requires the ability to lead teams effectively and to raise up new leaders at a rapid rate.  Also, organizational and administrative skills are a must.
- The ability to teach and contribute to The Journey’s teaching team is a plus as well as the ability to work well with and lead staff.
- Must be extremely hard-working and have had leadership experience on a large or growing church staff.

Other desired characteristics include strong interpersonal skills; growing leader; team builder; sense of humor; risk-taker (seminary not required).

JOB REQUIREMENTS:
- A Solid Calling to New York City
- The ability to manage a large and growing Growth Groups system
- A passion for the Bible and innovation
- An ability to teach, lead classes and lead meetings (volunteers/staff)
- A team player
- Experience in a large/growing church
- A positive attitude
- A familiarity with The Purpose Driven Church Model
- A risk taker
- A passion for discipleship and not letting anyone fall through the cracks
- A passion and drive for evangelism and reaching the unchurched
- A high commitment to the local church
- Non-charismatic
- Must have experience in a church of 500 or more
- Must be willing to work up to 60 hours a week when necessary

Only resumes accompanied with a COVER LETTER will be considered.

The cover letter should be personalized for this position and should answer 4 questions:

(1) Why you are interested in this position?

(2) Have you read the book “Activate: An Entirely New Approach to Small Groups” by Journey pastors Nelson Searcy and Kerrick Thomas? And are you familiar with the semester-based model of small group ministry?

(3) Why you would feel comfortable relocating to New York City?

(4) And what about you makes you stand out from other candidates for this position?

*Also – if you have a recent video/audio of you teaching in front of a group (large or small) – please include that along with your resume and cover letter.

Please send cover letters and resumes to stephanie.orr@journeymetro.com.

Sorry, but emailing me or contacting the church in other ways shows that you can’t follow instructions and thus you won’t be considered – ha (but true!).

- Nelson

One of the best aspects of offering semester-based small groups like I teach in my book  Activate is that you have the opportunity to lead your people through a wide range of topics.

We have groups that study everything from prayer and spiritual leadership to honoring God with your finances.

And one of the most helpful topics for small groups to study – both for the personal discipleship of your people and for the overall health of your church – is Evangelism.

I was recently asked for some of the best books I’ve seen used in Small Groups to raise the evangelistic temperature of your church, so here are a few good ones:

• Becoming a Contagious Christian by Bill Hybels and Mark Mittelberg
• Go Fish by Andy Stanley
• The Unexpected Adventure by Lee Strobel and Mark Mittelberg
• The Conspiracy of Kindness by Steve Sjogren
• The Externally Focused Church by Rick Rusaw and Eric Swanson

What book would you add to this list?

P.S. If you’re looking to use a Big Day to help raise the Evangelistic temperature of your church, check out The Ignite Seminar.

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know that I’m a believer in measuring things.

In fact, we like to keep track of all sorts of measurements at The Journey – from Connection Card completion rates to how many first-time guest books are given away each week.

So, it seems natural that one of the questions I’m frequently asked about Small Groups is:

How do you measure the weekly attendance of your small groups?

And it comes as a shock to many when my answer is… we don’t!

(take a deep breath – it’s OK – still with me?)

Let me qualify.

The best measure of the health of your Small Groups system is Leader Retention (how many leaders come back and lead again and again).

With that in mind, we don’t add one more task to the weekly routine of our group leaders by having them count, record and send in their group attendance every week.

We check in with group leaders throughout the semester to assist and encourage them and to find out how their groups are going.

And as the semester draws to a close, we ask each group leader this question:

On a good week, what was your average attendance?

And that, combined with the feedback we’ve been collecting throughout the semester, gives us a good gauge of the health of that group.

Hope that helps!

P.S. If you’re ready to develop your semester-based Small Groups System to its maximum potential – and involve 100% of your church in groups – check out The Small Groups Intensive!

In Activate: An Entirely New Approach to Small Groups, Kerrick Thomas and I lay out a proven system of semester-based, free market small groups that you can implement to see 80, 90, or even 100% participation in small groups at your church (we regularly see well over 100% of our weekly attenders involved in groups).

However, we also employ a very different type of group at The Journey on a regular basis:

PLAY GROUPS

Play Groups are one-time events, primarily designed for new people or a particular niche in our church.

They are what it sounds like – a chance to have some fun and get to know some other people from The Journey.

These groups are low commitment – one time only, just show up and pay your own way.

Some examples could include: going bowling, meeting up at a ball game, or simply going to see a movie together (one of my personal favorites).

We use play groups mainly during times when we have a lot of new people coming into our church who can’t get connected to a regular small group immediately (ie: in the middle of group semesters, like July or after Easter).  They also serve as a pre-small group promotion strategy just before a new semester starts.

Play groups are really just fun events – anyone can attend, but we normally target our invitations to new people.

P.S. For a great primer on the Activate Small Group System and how to implement it at your church, check out The Activate Seminar.

Some of most commonly asked small group Questions come from those who are interested in (sometimes in the middle of) transitioning their existing traditional small groups to the Activate, semester-based groups system.

We’ve asked Roy Mansfield – Pastor of Spiritual Development at Northstar Church in Panama City, Florida – to share what he has learned through the process of transitioning to Semester-Based Small Groups.  Enjoy:

Top 4 Learnings in Transitioning From Traditional to Semester Based Small Groups

I’ve had the privilege of transitioning a church with traditional Sunday School to Semester Based Small Groups.

We grew from about 5% of our weekly Sunday attenders in Sunday School to 106% of our weekly Sunday attenders in Small Groups.

Here’s my top 4 learnings from the transition:

1) Make sure the Lead Pastor is fully committed to becoming a church of small groups.

If the church’s lead pastor does not see the vital importance of you becoming a church OF small groups instead of a church WITH small groups the impact of small groups in your church will never be maximized. Here’s two tests to see if your Lead Pastor is fully committed:

1. Is the Lead Pastor participating in and/or leading a small group?
2. Does the Lead Pastor regularly weave stories of his (and others) small group experiences in the weekend messages? CLICK HERE to get a copy of The book “Activate” that will further explain the benefits of becoming a church of small groups.

2) Launch semester based small groups with a church wide campaign

If your first small group semester is linked to a church wide campaign where the weekend teaching (and other ministries) are connected to your small groups it has the potential to build a great deal of extra momentum. CLICK HERE to see an example of an effective church wide campaign.

3) Launch semester based small groups as an “experiment.”

Especially if you have people who are having a good experience in traditional, ongoing (i.e. “I’m in this small group until Jesus comes back”) small groups, you will get pushback on the idea of “taking a break” for a month 3 times a year.

Let them know that you are going to try a semester of small groups during your church wide campaign.  Be prepared to make a decision about half way through your church wide campaign.

In the middle of the excitement of your campaign let people know that things have been going so well that all of the groups are going to take a break for a month after the campaign to sign people up for the next semester.

4) Every person must sign up for a group every semester

Do not allow leaders to present their group as “already full” when group sign ups begin.  Some leaders will say that all of their group members from the last semester want to stay together so they do not have any more room in their group.

Let the leaders know that you always ask everyone to sign up for a group each semester so there is always an opportunity for new people to get plugged into a group.

P.S. For everything you need to build an effective semester-based small group system check out The Small Group Intensive

Ever since Kerrick Thomas and I wrote the book Activate: An Entirely New Approach to Small Groups, we get a lot of questions from readers wondering if the Activate (semester-based) small groups system will work in their setting, whatever that setting may look like.

Perhaps the most common of these questions is “The Journey is in New York City, but will this system work in a more suburban (even rural) setting?”

So, today we have a guest blogger – Roy Mansfield, who leads small groups at a great suburban church in Panama City, Florida (Northstar Church).  He’s going to share some of what he’s learned about implementing and finding success with Activate Small Groups in a very different setting than NYC:

Top 5 “Suburban” Semester Based Small Group Learnings

I have had the privilege of living my early elementary years in a rural setting in Alaska (and by “rural” I mean shoot-a-moose-once-a-year-for-meat-walk-over-a-mile-through-the-snow-to-get-to-the-bus-stop-no-indoor-plumbing kind of “rural”).

I have also had the privilege of leading semester based small group ministries in local churches in an urban (New York City – humbly titled “The Capital of the World”) setting, as well as a suburban (Panama City. FL – affectionately titled “The Redneck Riviera”) setting.

My experience is that people in every setting are at their core, very similar.

With that being said, here are the top 5 principles that I have found to be helpful to highlight when developing semester based small groups in a suburban setting:

1) Recognize that children are an opportunity to maximize your small group’s experience.

The best group experiences are always when a group takes the opportunity to do something together that resembles real life.  You’ve probably noticed that few people spend much of their “real lives” sitting in a circle talking about The Bible. Learning God’s Word together is one of the greatest benefits of group life, but the opportunity to apply what they learn as a group will always maximize their experience.

Beginning your group’s semester by finding a way to serve one another by caring for the children is one of the best ways to help people to begin functioning as group participants.  Without a challenge like this, many group members will just be spectators looking for what they can “get out of the group.”

For some practical suggestions on how to go about handling small group childcare CLICK HERE to view an earlier CLI blog post on the subject.

2) Encourage leaders with “small homes” to host the group in someone else’s home.

I have found that the more comfortable people are, the more comfortable they think they need to be.  In New York City group leaders seemed happy to cram 15 people into their apartment’s 10 x 12 living room and suburban homeowners seem to think it impossible for 12 people to fit in their living room twice that size.

Many potential small group leaders will decline leading because “their home isn’t big enough.” We always encourage potential small group leaders with that objection to list in our small group catalogue the area their group will meet, and then give the opportunity to host the group to members who sign up for the group.

Someone is always happy to host and now there is another family or person who has ownership of the group.

3) Divide group snack responsibilities

Because our goal is always small group participants instead of spectators, snacks are another great way to get people involved. Give 3 people the opportunity for “snack service” every time your group meets.  Have someone sign up to bring “salty snacks,” someone to bring “sweet snacks” and someone to bring drinks.

You should schedule everyone for every meeting of the semester your first night.  CLICK HERE to download a sample sign up sheet.

4) Try a semester of interest-based groups

Give leaders the chance to lead a group that is centered around something that interests them.  This is a great thing to do during your summer semester.  Encourage people to center their group around something they would likely do anyway. Running, beach, movie, horseback riding, fishing and craft groups have all been successful.

You ask the group leader to take a few minutes to have someone share a 5 min. devotional, pray for one another and then begin your activity. This kind of group is far less intimidating for most new leaders and it’s a great way to build their confidence to eventually lead a book discussion group.

5) Find your community’s place on the stalker/apathy continuum

If you are signing up new people in groups you will always have some who do not attend the group consistently (or even at all). You will want to figure out how to reach out to those people so they know how much they matter to you (and to God) without become an irritation.

You will need to consider the different methods of communication (i.e. phone, email, texting, facebook, twitter and even (gasp) face to face communication).  Then decide what communication strategy will be most effective in your community.  For example, I found that people in Panama City are more comfortable with a phone call than people in New York City were.

Our general response strategy to someone who does not attend their group is:

1. Keep them on the list of people who receive the group’s weekly emails throughout the semester (unless they request to be removed).
2. Contact them with a “light hearted, we missed you” phone call within 36 hours of the group they missed.
3. Limit the “we missed you” phone calls to 2-3 for the group semester.

P.S. To learn more about how to effectively implement small groups at your church (regardless of the setting) check out The Small Group Intensive.

This is Kerrick Thomas here, Executive Pastor at The Journey and co-author of Activate: An Entirely New Approach to Small Groups.

Nelson asked me share today about another one of the questions that people ask regularly when setting up their Small Groups System – the question of whether or not to identify small groups by age, or to ask it differently, should you offer “age-graded” groups?

This is often asked by people who are transitioning from a Sunday School model or another approach that traditionally identified groups by age, and like a lot of questions when it comes to small groups the answer is… it depends.

Here at The Journey, we do identify some groups by age – but not all.

For instance, we have college-aged, recent grads, 20′s, 30′s, over 35 and over 40 groups. But many of our groups are just open, “general” groups for people of all ages.  Our average age is 29, so we’re still pretty young as a church.

My thought would be that the more diverse you are, age-wise, the more you might want to designate the groups.

We’ll also talk with the group leaders about it.  Usually, if the leaders are especially young or are older – you might think about designating by age as well.

I hope that helps!

Blessings…

Kerrick

P.S. If you’re ready to get intense with maximizing your church’s Small Groups system, check out The Small Groups Intensive.