Don’t Miss The Activate Webinar – Tomorrow!

Hey – I don’t want you to miss out on The Activate Webinar that Kerrick Thomas and Adam Bishop are leading tomorrow (January 20) at 1:00 Eastern.

If you’re currently doing semester-based (Activate) small groups or are considering them, this is a great training opportunity for you.

Best of all, there are no travel plans required - you can join Kerrick and Adam in this training from your home or office – you just need a computer with internet access and a phone line.

One registration per church is required - that means you can gather around as many of your team as possible to listen in.

Here are the details:

Wednesday, January 20, 2010
1:00 pm – 3:00 pm (Eastern)
12:00 pm – 2:00 pm (Central)
11:00 am – 1:00 pm (Mountain)
10:00 am – 12:00 pm (Pacific)

Here’s what you can expect to learn:
- How do I get 100% of my church involved in small groups?
- What are the basic elements of an effective small groups system?
- How do I recruit and train enough small-group leaders?
- What are the myths that are holding back my small groups?
- What is a good structure for small-group ministry?
- How do I get small groups involved in serving and evangelism?
- How do I get started?

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER NOW!

P.S. Since Kerrick and Adam are on the front lines of the latest Activate Small Groups thinking, you may want to consider applying for their upcoming Small Groups Pastor Tele-Coaching Network.  For more info or to download an application, click here.

How to Handle Childcare in Small Groups (Free Downloads)

One regular concern that I am asked about when it comes to Activate (semester-based) Small Groups is “how do we handle childcare?”

Recently, my friend Roy Mansfield (Small Groups Pastor at Northstar Church in Panama City) shared some of his thoughts and best practices on how to best accommodate the children of Small Group participants.

He gave me permission to re-print his insights AND to share some of their documents with you:

We have a large number of children in our church. I’ve found that there are several issues that are often viewed as challenges but are really wonderful opportunities to have a much more effective small group.

We have a handout (see below) that we give to our small group leaders of different possible child care options that they can use as a tool to decide how their group will take care of the children in their group.

The first time the group meets together they see the makeup of the children and their ages. The leader leads the group to decide how they will take care of the children. I equip the leaders to look at the makeup of the physical home and children and then suggest the best way to care for the children.

This is s fantastic opportunity for the group!  The first time they meet together they have the opportunity to find a way to work together to care for one another. Leaders also have a sign up sheet (see below) that is used to give people the opportunity to take turns to watch the kids (if that’s the way they choose to care for the kids).

We also have groups do outreaches together. They all serve together at least once a semester in a Sunday service as well. As you will see from the sign up sheet we try to give as many people as possible a responsibility in the group. This transfers ownership to the group members as much as possible.

We do allow group leaders to list their group as “all children welcome” “unable to accommodate preschool children” or “unable to accommodate children” but we encourage as many groups as possible to be open to accommodate all children. See below for a sample groups list that we give to everyone to choose a group.

I hope this is a help.

Thanks.

Growing together…

Roy

Great thoughts – Here are those documents:

• Group Sign Up – Snacks, Childcare, Host Home (.doc)
• Small Group Childcare Options (.doc)
• Small Group Catalog (.pdf)

Thanks so much Roy!

P.P.S. Kerrick Thomas and Adam Bishop are hosting The Activate Webinar, all about semester-based small groups, on Wednesday, January 20.  Click here for more info and to register now.

P.S. If you want to take your church’s Small Groups System to the next level, consider applying for the brand new Small Groups Pastor Tele-Coaching Network that Kerrick Thomas and Adam Bishop are just about to begin.

Find out more and download your application by CLICKING HERE.

How to Have Enough Small Group Leaders (Part 3)

Adam Bishop again today, sharing the 3rd and final element to being sure that you always have enough small group leaders at your church.

The final, and most important element in identifying and involving new group leaders is

TRUST

- You have to trust the judgment of the group leaders who are praying for and interacting with the members of their group each week when it comes to new group leaders.

- You have to trust the recommendations that you receive from your team leaders.

- You have to trust that the system you have put into place will produce the leaders you need for the next semester.

Without trust, you will find yourself scrambling and stressing to beg, borrow and steal enough group leaders each semester.

Kerrick Thomas and I share more strategies on how to identify, ask, and raise up new leaders in our monthly Small Groups Pastor Tele-Coaching Network, as well as all other aspects of how to effectively implement a semester-based small groups system.

The next network begins on February 4 (less than 30 days away), so there’s not much time left for you to sign up!

I hope that helps!

Adam

P.S. To download your application for our upcoming Small Groups Pastor Tele-Coaching Network, CLICK HERE.

How to Have Enough Small Group Leaders (Part 2)

Adam Bishop (Small Groups Pastor at The Journey) here again.  I shared yesterday that the key to identifying and involving enough small group leaders at your church is to make that process a priority for each of your current group leaders.

The only way to get your group leaders to actively pray for new leaders, see potential leaders as Jesus sees them and ask them to lead is through… you guessed it – TRAINING.

The training of your group leaders can be broken down into three categories:

1. ONCE-A-SEMESTER SMALL GROUP LEADERS TRAINING - This training needs to take place two weeks prior to the start of each semester.  At The Journey, we have ours on a Sunday afternoon for three hours.  So if you have a spring, summer, and fall semester you will have three trainings a year.

Begin with the end goal in mind – clearly communicate to your group leaders at the training that identifying, asking, and producing new group leaders from their group is one of the goals of leading a group.

Celebrate and reward group leaders who have modeled this well.  At our last training, I gave away three gift cards for a day at the spa to the three group leaders who had produced the most new group leaders. Remember, what gets rewarded gets repeated.

2. WEEKLY TRAINING - Utilize a weekly email to your group leaders to reinforce the importance of identifying and asking new people to lead.

Around four to six weeks into the semester, ask your current group leaders to respond with the names of current group members who could potentially lead next semester.

3. MONTHLY TEAM LEADER TRAINING – I do not meet with all of our group leaders on a monthly basis, but I do meet with our Team Leaders.

Our team leaders are high capacity volunteers who provide care, communication, and coaching to the leaders of the five small groups on their team.  The number of team leaders you have will grow as your number of groups grows.

I lead a one hour a month meeting with our Team Leaders on Monday nights.  Regardless of the agenda at these meetings, I always make a point to focus on identifying and asking new people to lead in some form.

They in turn continue to communicate the importance of this to the group leaders on their team.  All of this serves to raise the value of finding new leaders in our small groups system.

Don’t miss tomorrow’s post where I’ll share the most important element in finding enough group leaders…

P.S. The new Small Groups Pastor Tele-Coaching Network that Kerrick Thomas and I are leading is beginning in less than a month and we still have a few more spots available.  For more information and to download an application, CLICK HERE

How to Have Enough Small Group Leaders (Part 1)

Good morning!  This is Adam Bishop, Pastor of Small Groups at The Journey, and Nelson asked me to share some thoughts about a struggle that many churches face when it comes to small groups – finding enough group leaders!

The first question I ask when a Small Groups Pastor shares this issue with me is “Does the system you are using to identify and ask new group leaders function ‘within’ your current groups system or ‘in addition to’ your groups system?

In other words, does your small groups system include a mechanism that naturally finds and involves future leaders?

How do you do this while not interfering with your groups as they meet each week?

Interestingly enough, the answer lies within your current group leaders.

When it comes to identifying and asking new people to lead groups, there are three things that every current group leader must do:

1.  PRAY - We want our group leaders to pray for the members of their group, specifically that some of them will lead future groups.  We pray that God will prepare in advance those who we will ask to lead for the next semester.

2.  SEE - We want our group leaders to see the members of their group as Jesus sees them – with potential to influence the lives of others.  Jesus did not expect perfection or Biblical expertise to be a leader and neither should we.

3.  ASK – We want our group leaders to boldly ask members from their group to lead.  We tell our group leaders that the best thing they could ever do for someone else is to ask them to lead a group!  It is a huge encouragement to the group member who is asked to lead.  And… even if it doesn’t work out for the next semester, he or she will more than likely eventually lead a group.

So how do you make this a part of your small groups system?  I’ll talk about that tomorrow.

P.S. Kerrick Thomas and I are making the final preparations for our brand new Small Groups Pastor Tele-Coaching Network that starts on February 4.  For more information or to download your application, CLICK HERE.

P.P.S. You can download a FREE copy of Nelson’s new Activate: Uncut E-Book by clicking here.

When to Start Small Groups in Church Planting

This is Kerrick Thomas (Executive & Teaching Pastor at The Journey and co-author of Launch and Activate.

Nelson asked me to address a key question that we are often asked by church planters: When should we begin small groups?

Our standard answer to that question is to wait until you have over 100 people attending before beginning small groups, but I thought I’d go a little further today to elaborate on the “why” behind the “when.”

So, why wait to start small groups?

Reason #1 - When you are first starting a church, you should  not expend the energy required to get small groups started in the first 6 months regardless of how big you grow.

There is just too much to do for a church planter that early in the process.  We recommend get your other systems under control at the beginning of the new church before moving on to small groups.

Systems like the Worship Planning System, the Assimilation System and the Evangelism System are foundational to a healthy start of a church, and they deserve your focus and energy before Small Groups.

Reason #2 - When you have fewer than 100 people your church basically is a  small group.  Everyone knows everyone anyway – so the importance of  small groups is minimized.

It’s okay to start small groups if you are still under 100 if you’ve been going for over a year.  Ideally you would have grown past 100, but even if you are running 50-80 people you can begin small groups and see positive spiritual fruit.

The whole idea behind holding off boils down to this:  It’s best to wait to begin small groups until you can implement and facilitate them effectively, right from the start.

I hope that helps!

Blessings…

Kerrick

P.S. Adam Bishop and I are about to begin a brand new Small Groups Pastor Tele-Coaching Network in just a few weeks.  For more information and to download an application, CLICK HERE.

You Don’t Really Put 20 People in A Small Group, Do You?

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

One of many contrarian ideas behind the Activate small groups system has to do with the number of people you allow to sign up for any one “small” group.

Nelson asked me to share some of the thinking behind that idea today.

Here’s a question we often hear:

I am struggling with your suggestion to allow 20 people to sign up for each small group. I have always heard/read/been taught/experienced that anymore than 10-12 in a group begins to diminish the discussion. Doesn’t that minimize each person’s participation? And who has a house large enough for 20 people to meet together? Can you help me understand this better?

This is one of those questions that we’ve gotten very familiar with over the last couple of years. We go further into explanation of “Why 20?” in Activate, so you can check that out if you haven’t already (to order from Amazon.com, CLICK HERE).

Here are a few thoughts:

1- 20 sign-ups doesn’t mean 20 “show ups”. 20 sign-ups means 12-15 people actually present and participating each week. Think about it. If you have 20 sign ups for a small group, 2-3 of the 20 will never show up. And with busy lives – 3-5 will miss on any given week.

So, if you allow 20 to sign up – you have the best chance of having 12-15 present in the group each and every week.

If you allow only 12 to sign up. 1-2 may never show up. And then 2-4 may miss on any given week. So instead of actually having 12 there every week – you end up with 6-8.

So – if your goal is 12-15 people present each week – let 17-20 people sign up for each group.

2- We believe that 12-15 people present is best for great discussion. If you have fewer than 8 people present in any group – the discussion suffers greatly (especially if you have fewer than 5).

Here’s why:

• In groups that are smaller (fewer than 8 ) – 1 weirdo can ruin the experience for everyone. We call this the “Weirdo Factor.” But in a group of 12-15 – one odd bird doesn’t stand out and can’t dominate.
• In a group that is smaller – one person can dominate discussion much easier than in a larger group.
• In a group that is smaller – there is less of a chance I’ll actually connect with someone in the group. I might not click with anyone. But in a group of 12-15 odds are that there is someone there I can relate to and would like to spend time with.
• In a group that is smaller – especially if you have people who are new to the church or who are not yet followers of Jesus – discussion may be non-existent. What if no one talks. Then the leader needs to be prepared to give a 45 minute lecture. They have to have the gift of teaching.

In other words – a larger group (12-15 people present) is much easier to lead for the leader, promotes more discussion, brings greater excitement, leads to the possibility of greater friendships and prevents one person from dominating the group or making it a bad experience.

3- Finally – the key issue in all this is leader retention. Will our small group leaders want to lead again next semester?

We have found that a leader has a much better experience if a group consistently has 12 – 15 people each week (makes discussion easier, better fellowship, etc.). So if you only allow 12 to sign-up and you have several nights when only 6 – 7 show up – that’s a tougher experience for the leader and it makes them less likely to lead again in the future.

Again – we say more about this in “Activate” in the Big Idea “Think Bigger, Not Smaller.”

Here’s the Amazon link again.

Right now, if you’re still not completely convinced, I challenge you to trust me.  Let your groups fill to 20 sign-ups and see how it positively impacts the groups experience.

And check out some of our other blog posts on small groups like this one:

http://www.churchleaderinsights.com/blog/2009/07/28/q-a-how-many-small-groups/

God bless…

Kerrick

P.S. – By the way – you or your small groups pastor should consider being a part of my upcoming Small Group Tele-Coaching Network. It kicks off on Thursday, November 19 and during the network me and my team will walk you through 2 semesters of small groups in the “Activate” system. The network comes with:

- Monthly 2-hour coaching phone call

- Hands-on coaching from guys going through the semester-based process ourselves

- Unlimited e-mail and phone access to me and our small group team

- Every single small group document and resource The Journey has ever used (including e-mails to leaders, leader trainings, calendars, promotion ideas and much more)

- Tons of other free resources and special guests on our phone calls

- Reading assignments every month

I’m just wrapping up a network right now with over 20 great churches in it. It has been phenomenal and each church has seen a dramatic increase in small group participation and life-change.

Here’s a link to the application and to find out more:

http://www.churchleaderinsights.com/coaching/smallgroupstelecoaching.php

Where Should Our Small Groups Meet?

We often get asked questions about where Small Groups should meet, what’s most effective and how important location is in planning for groups.

I’ve asked Adam Bishop, our Small Groups Pastor at The Journey, to share some thoughts on where groups meet:

Thanks Nelson — This is actually one of the most important topics that Kerrick and I address in the Small Groups Tele-Coaching Network that we lead. We have found through surveys of our Group Members that location is the first feature people look at when deciding what Group they will sign up for.

So at The Journey we make sure that each Group has a location listed in its description both on our website and in our catalog.

However, the location is for a general area, not a specific address.

In Manhattan we will list the location as Midtown, Upper West Side, or Upper East Side, but depending on your church’s setting it may be helpful to list by neighborhood or Elementary school zone.

We list general areas for safety reasons because we don’t want to publish our Group Leaders home addresses on our website or in the catalog.

We also do this so that our Group Leaders can supply the specific meeting place and detailed directions as a part of their follow-up after people sign up.

Now, as for where the Groups meet…  Some of our Groups meet in homes and some meet in public places like parks, restaurants, or public buildings.

We rent space for our services on Sunday so we don’t have a permanent church location for Groups to meet in, which even if we did, we would still have our Groups meet in the community in homes or public places.

Now, we do ask our leaders to choose a location and stick with it for the full 8-12 week semester as opposed to rotating week to week like some groups encourage. There are a lot of reasons for this, one of which is consistency for people who may not be able to attend every weekly meeting.

This one of the many topics that Kerrick and I go in much further detailing discussing in the upcoming Small Groups Pastor Tele-Coaching Network, which begins in November.

This new Tele-Coaching Network has proven to be helpful and encouraging, as you will interact with other Small Groups Pastors and Directors who are striving to maximize the spiritual growth in their church through small groups.

Click here for more information or to download your application now for Small Groups Pastor Tele-Coaching!

Q & A – How many Small Groups?

Here’s a recent small groups question that I received.  I asked Adam Bishop, Small Groups Pastor at The Journey, to share his answer here:

Q: Hey, our church has decided to move to the semester-based small groups system that you guys use.

It really has us excited about small groups again and we’re trying to get ahead on our planning right now. That’s why I’m writing, because I have a question.  Based on the Activate idea of small and large attendance numbers, we’re hoping for about 200 people to sign up for groups.

So, how do I determine how many groups I need each semester?

A: Thanks for your question.  Setting your Groups Goal each semester is a responsibility that must be thought through with plenty of prayer and planning!

I want you to know that Kerrick Thomas and I spend time each month in our Small Group Tele-Coaching Network addressing questions like this along with other strategies for implementing and leading the Activate Small Groups System at the local church level.

Our next 8 month network kicks off in November! Just let me know if you are interested and I will send you the link for the application.

In response to your question… Here is the flow that we follow at The Journey:

1) Make sure your Sign Ups Goal surpasses your average Sunday attendance goal.

This is because the number of people who will attend your church over the course of your Small Group Semester will be much larger than the number of people who attend your church on any given Sunday.

You want everyone who comes through the doors during your promotion or sign-up month to sign up for a group.

2) Calculate the range for the number of Groups needed for the semester

We choose 12-15 to calculate the range of how many groups we need because we believe that 12 to 15 people is the ideal size for a Group.

So to your example…

Sign-up Goal: 200

Range of Groups Needed: 13 to 17

Median Goal: 15 Groups

3) Allow 20 sign-ups per Group.

This is vitally important to the health of your Groups. Remember, not everyone who signs up for the group will be able to attend due to changes in schedules and unforeseen circumstances. Allowing 20 sign-ups per group will ensure that 12 to 15 show up each week for the Group.

Allowing 20 sign-ups per group also fits well with your Groups Goal in 3 ways:

· First, it keeps you from committing the cardinal sin of groups which is to never have too few groups!

So if you confirm 13 groups on the low end of your range you will still have enough room to meet your Sign-up Goal of 200.

13 x 20 = 260

· Second, it allows you to be prepared if God moves and brings more people to your church and your groups than you had anticipated

Let’s say you confirm 17 groups on the high end of your range and God moves and brings more people to your church than you had anticipated. Your range has allowed you to be prepared for this!

17 x 20 = 340

· Third, knowing that you are covered on the low end and high end, most of the time the middle number of the range is where you will need to be.

15 x 20 = 300

Rarely does it work out where all of your groups will receive the same sign-ups so with 15 Groups that cover a good range of days and topics your sign-ups should break down evenly anywhere from 15 to 20 sign-ups per group which will allow you to meet your Sign-Ups Goal of 200!

4) Minimum Sign-Ups per Group

Once the semester begins, if a group has less than 5 sign-ups it is best to combine this group with another one. You must exhibit care and encouragement when you do this. If this happens remind the leader that people sign up for location, topic, and day….not the leader. Encourage them so they will want to lead again.

If the Group is between 6-9 sign-ups I will contact the leaders and ask how the group is going. Most of the time the leaders will want to continue and feel that they can get at least 5 more people to join the group through the invites of those who are attending. This usually happens and the group goes well.

We also continue to run sign-ups 2 to 3 weeks into the semester. We will only list the groups online and in our catalog that are lower in sign-ups to help them fill up within the first 2 to 3 weeks of the semester.

Great job with your groups and continue to plan ahead!

Thanks,

Adam

P.S. For more information or to Apply Now for Small Groups Pastor Tele-Coaching, CLICK HERE.

Q & A – Pastor’s Newcomer Small Group?

This is Kerrick Thomas – I’m the Executive Pastor at The Journey Church and the co-author of “Activate” with Nelson. Just a while back, Nelson asked me to answer the following question and then to share my answer with you:

Q: Our leadership team has asked me to have a “pastor’s small group” with new people.

We are seeing new people at church every week now and we’re really trying to do a better job of connecting them.

Any suggestions on what to do or how many to have? We think that after this, I may be able to direct them into other small groups.

A: Thanks for your question. Let me first say this: having new people attending your church is a good “problem” to have.

As far as having a “Pastor’s Small Group” for new people, of course you can do that – and you might have some success with early sign-ups. But that has not been our strategy or philosophy at The Journey.

Our goal is to get new people into a small group where they can develop relationships within the church as quickly as possible.

We really believe that a regular small group with regular people from your church has the potential to connect a new person to your church just as effectively if not more effectively than a group led by the lead pastor.

We have faith that our Sunday service is the front door of the church and that our small groups close the back door.

If there is a reason why a regular small group wouldn’t be effective in connecting a new person to the church, introducing them to the church culture and assimilating them, that might be an indication that something is not quite right in your current small groups system.

The only advantage I can think of to the lead pastor leading such a group is that it might draw a crowd of people to it. But that purpose is served just as effectively by having a monthly or every two month Newcomers Reception for those new to the church hosted by the lead pastor after a Sunday service. Then you can encourage the newcomers at that event to sign up for a small group.

Another question to consider is this – is that where your energies are best served? As lead pastor are there other groups that you could lead that no one else could lead? Is this really where you want to spend your energies every semester? And is it really a scalable model as your church grows if it’s built on you leading it?

Yes – you could lead the small group for newcomers – and it might work. But we believe that it’s better to get newcomers integrated into our regular small groups immediately with our members and regular attenders so that they can naturally get involved in the life of the church.

Those are just my initial thoughts – I hope they are helpful!

God bless…

Kerrick

P.S. For an all-inclusive look at how to implement an effective Small Groups System at your church, check out The Small Groups Intensive.

Q & A – Transitioning Small Groups

This is Kerrick Thomas (Executive Pastor at The Journey and co-author of Activate). I recently received these questions and Nelson asked me to share my responses with all of you.

Q: We’re in the process of creating and launching a new small groups system at our church and I’ve found the Activate system to have great potential for us. Our church is 150+ years old and we’ve hit a critical point in our history where we need some significant change if we want to be relevant for people in this current/future culture.

We have had small groups in our church for some 20 years (some that have been together almost that long) and we have no formal, regular system for creating new groups; they have just formed when a person said they’d like to start one.

With that in mind, here are my questions:

1) How do we transition from being a church “with” small groups to a church “of” small groups?

We have many “ministries” (as you can imagine with a church that’s been around this long) and I strongly agree with the idea in Activate that these ministries are actually competing with each other and therefore diluting our church’s impact.

I know we need to start making some tough calls, but is there a general strategy for transitioning from a church “with” to a church “of”?

2) How do we handle all the groups that have been together for years?

Any insight you could provide here would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance for your help!

A: First of all – know of my prayers for you this morning as you guys make this big transition in your church. It’s not easy I know – but I pray that it will bear much fruit.

1) To transition to a church “of” small groups I recommend patience. Many of the ministries you have right now will probably transition quite smoothly into a semester-based small groups system.

For instance, you can run women’s and men’s ministries as well as community service through groups by offering those types of small groups specifically. If there are ministries that don’t fit in – you might have to gradually phase them out by not advertising or pushing new people toward them.

I have a book recommendation for you. It isn’t perfect for what you are doing – but it’s called “Transitioning” and talks about steps you take people through as you transition them from one system to another.

http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/0310242681/thejouchu-20

2) As far as moving from the old system to the new semester-based system with your old groups – remember, the key is “leader multiplication” not “group multiplication.” So, I would pull all of your group leaders together and share the new vision in a compelling way. Then I’d follow-up with each individually and ask them to lead a new semester-based small group for the upcoming semester.

Then I would find 2-3 people in each of the existing groups and just go directly to them to ask them to lead a group. Don’t try to split up the groups. Just tell them you are starting a new groups system and describe all of the benefits and tell them you want them to be the first leaders. The current groups will be wrapping up but everyone in them can sign up for a new group.

You might even have the one on one meetings before the big meeting and get as much buy in as possible. Maybe even get a few key leaders committed ahead of time to lead a new group.

If a few groups insist on staying together – and the group isn’t poisonous (if the group is poisonous and is hurting the church you have to shut it down) that’s okay. Let them meet – but just stop moving people toward them and let them exist isolated.

In the meantime, go ahead and identify individuals within those groups who you would like to lead and go and ask them individually if they would leave the group and lead a semester-based group. I really don’t think those groups will last too long when you get the semester-based groups up and running well.

The last thing to think about is that we might be starting a Small Groups Coaching Network in the fall. We have one going on right now with about 20 small group leaders from around the country that will be wrapping up in September. Keep your eyes open – if we kick off another one this fall we’d love for you to join us.

Also – keep your eyes on this blog – we often have helpful posts related to small groups.

http://www.churchleaderinsights.com/blog/category/small-groups/

Hope this helps!

God bless…

Kerrick

P.S.  Looking to learn everything about the Activate small groups system? Check out The Small Groups Intensive.

Q & A: CLASS Compatible with Activate Groups?

Q: I read in Activate how you should be a church OF small groups, not a church WITH small groups. And I agree. Here’s my question. Don’t classes 101-401 create drag on your small groups system? Or are your classes offered AS small groups?

A: Great question! We do, indeed, use the Purpose Driven C.L.A.S.S. series (101, 201, 301 & 401) to help our members grow and take next steps on their spiritual journey.

However, The Journey remains solidly a church OF small groups by strategically incorporating these classes and coordinating the timing of it into our overall calendar.

Here’s how: We offer CLASS 101 – 401 between group semesters. Since you only attend each class one time, it doesn’t compete with our semester-based growth groups. We offer each class from 1-4 on Sunday afternoon.

This allows us to be very intentional about helping people take specific next steps through the C.L.A.S.S. series AND to avoid creating drag on our two main activities (Weekend Services and Small Groups).

Hope that helps!

Nelson

P.S. Do your church members know the benefits of membership? Do your church members know exactly what is expected of them? Do you have an effective, realistic plan to hold your members accountable for their commitments?

We have put together a practical, proven resource package that provides everything you need to plan, implement, follow up, evaluate, and improve your own 3 hour maximized membership class in THE MAXIMIZING MEMBERSHIP PACKAGE.

Q & A – Support/Recovery Groups in SG System

It’s Kerrick Thomas here again, Executive Pastor at The Journey and co-author of Activate with Nelson. He asked me to share my answer to this Small Groups question for you today:

Q:Thanks for taking the time to put your process on paper. Much appreciated. Quick question: How do your support and recovery groups look within the semester system. We too operate on the semester system, but many of our recovery groups have a look and feel of their own due to the nature of the group.

Your thoughts?

A: Thanks for your question. I’m glad that our small groups system has been beneficial to you. That’s the entire reason we wrote Activate in the first place.

To answer your question we do and have had support/recovery groups at The Journey in our semester-based small groups system. However – we run these groups through our semester based small groups system and not separately (not outside the system on an on-going basis as many other churches do).

This can work in two ways:

1) You have a group that meets for 10-12 weeks to support those dealing with a difficult topic that just ends after that semester. An example that we have seen in the past is a group that met for women with eating disorders. We had a couple of leaders who wanted to lead a group on that topic and found a great study. So, they led the group. It filled up. And though they didn’t lead on that topic every semester – those who attended that group were helped and some great life-long friendships and accountability relationships were formed out of the group.

2) You could also have leaders who really feel called to lead groups on specific support/recovery issues. And they lead on that topic semester after semester (with different studies/books). Some people might sign up for that group for muliple semesters. Some might just attend once and not again. But the mix in the group is different from semester to semester. An example of that might be a men’s group meeting on purity/lust issues or a group for those who have struggled with alcohol.

Again – we do have these kinds of groups – but we haven’t formed a separate ministry out of them – but instead operate them within the context of our semester-based small group ministry.

I hope that helps!

God bless…

Kerrick

P.S. For answers to all of your small groups questions, check out The Small Groups Intensive:
https://nelsonsearcy.infusionsoft.com/cart/store.jsp?view=4&i=p285&navicat=39

Q & A – Small Group Curriculum

Q: I had a question regarding small group stuff. We observed that most of the subject matter of your small groups were book studies. There were a few actual studies on books of the Bible. What was it that guided your decision to lean in this direction?

A: We always use a book for our growth groups – you can do a Bible book but you need a book to help you approach the Bible and control the interpretation.

With the rate at which our small groups system raises up new group leaders, this provides a way to insure sound doctrine and helps to lighten the preparation load for the leader.

In case you missed it, I gave away our approved curriculum list a few months ago here on the blog:

http://www.churchleaderinsights.com/blog/2008/11/19/small-group-curriculum-free-download/

P.S. For everything that we know about small groups, check out The Small Groups Intensive, for the CD Set click here:
https://nelsonsearcy.infusionsoft.com/cart/store.jsp?view=4&i=p159&navicat=39

or you can save $50.00 on the downloadable version:
https://nelsonsearcy.infusionsoft.com/cart/store.jsp?view=4&i=p285&navicat=39

Q & A: How Big is Too Big for Small Group System?

This is Kerrick Thomas once again – Executive Pastor at The Journey and co-author of Activate: An Entirely New Approach to Small Groups with Nelson.  Nelson asked me to follow-up on the following question regarding the semester-based small groups that we use and recommend:

We have been using one type of model for small groups (ongoing) and one type for some on-campus studies (semester based).  We have definitely seen the most growth in the semester based system and have decided to merge the 2 models under one umbrella.  Your book has been a great resource as we are processing through how that would look.

My question is this…In listening to your online seminar you mentioned that some experts have said that when you reach the 4,000 to 5,000 range of participants that your model will begin to break down.  Have you given any thought to the adjustments you will have to make?

We currently have about 1500 people in groups, but an average weekly attendance of about 4500 adults and students (another 1000 kids).  I expect we could bump that upper “limit” in the next year to year  and a half.  Any thoughts?

This is a great question.  However, we don’t see why there would be any problems with the Activate semester-based small group system past 5,000 people.  It just hasn’t been attempted yet.  The people who said they weren’t sure if the system would work at a larger church were not using the system (they were doing on-going small groups).  And honestly I think they said that as an excuse not to put in the work to give it a shot.

If a college can effectively enroll 30,000 students for a semester of classes – I don’t see why a church couldn’t get 5,000-10,000 people in small groups each semester.

The key is to have a scalable structure in two areas:

1) You must have total staff involvement.  You aren’t just hiring people to do groups – but every staff person has a small group responsibility (that’s only a small part of their job description).  So, as your staff grows to reflect the size of the church – the number of staff who are helping run the system grows as well.  And each staff can effectively manage and help set up 15-25 small groups each semester each.

2) You must be constantly raising up new small group leaders.  And that’s the best part of the semester-based system.  With every new group you add the potential for raising up new future leaders is multiplied.

These are two issues we are going to cover in-depth in the upcoming Small Groups Tele-Coaching Network that Nelson and I will be leading. I would encourage you to consider being a part of it if you guys are implementing this model – I think it will be helpful.

You can read more about the Coaching Network and get an application at this link:

http://www.churchleaderinsights.com/coaching/smallgroupstelecoaching.php

It is just about to begin and consists of one 2-hour phone call each month for 8 months – please fill out an application if you are interested.

God bless…

Kerrick

P.S. For another great resource to give you an in-depth look at what’s involved in implementing semester-based small groups at your church, purchase a copy of the The Small Groups Intensive.

Small Groups Q & A – Transitioning

This is Kerrick Thomas – I co-wrote “Activate” with Nelson and he asked me to share this recent question and answer about transitioning small groups in a church with a more traditional structure:

Q: Hello!  I am currently reading your book Activate: An Entirely New Approach to Small Groups.  I am the associate pastor at a Christian Church.  We average a little over 200 in two worship services.

We have “tried” small groups in the past and I am very interested in your method.  My question has to do with getting the rest of the work of the church done.  You mention how people can’t be going to worship and a committee and a women’s group AND a small group.

So what do we do with our Worship Ministry Team, and Property, etc?  Would that become a small group?  We have three full time staff, the senior, me and a youth/children’s minister.  We are a traditional structure with committees meeting monthly, Christian Women’s Fellowship meetings, elders, etc…

How do we focus on small groups but still keep the church “running”?

A: To begin with, The Journey is a staff led church and have the benefit of not having to ask our church attenders and members serve on committees.  Instead, we try to get them more actively involved in front-line ministry.  With your current structure, you would probably still have to have your committee meetings on top of your small groups.

However, our women’s and men’s ministries are operated through small groups.  We don’t have other weekly or monthly meetings.  We have women’s and men’s small groups.  And then at times the small groups will sponsor retreats/events, etc.

We also do community service through our small groups.  And though our Worship Arts Team works separately from small groups, we do ask our vocal team and musicians to be in  Worship Arts Small Groups.

The goal is to have as many of your areas of ministry as possible running through the small groups system so that you don’t have competing ministries.

I hope that helps!

God bless…

Kerrick

P.S. For all the answers to your small groups questions, check out The Small Groups Intensive: https://nelsonsearcy.infusionsoft.com/cart/store.jsp?view=4&i=p285&navicat=39

Free Small Groups Reading

I have been humbled by how many of you have purchased my book, Activate: An Entirely New Approach to Small Groups.  It has proven to be a useful resource to churches of all shapes and sizes in building a small groups system with 100% participation.  I want to thank all of you who have already read and recommended it.

Many have settled for 30-40% small group participation and have even made that a worthy goal, but our experience here at The Journey tells us otherwise.  In writing Activate, Kerrick and I really wanted to help people re-think a lot of the conventional wisdom we have been taught about small groups over the years.

I believe so strongly in helping people re-think how small groups should be done that I’d like to give you a free gift.

For those of you who haven’t yet read the book, follow this link to get a:

FREE COPY OF CHAPTER 1 OF ACTIVATE

If you’ve already read the book and are interested in going deeper into the nuts and bolts of the Small Groups System, you may want to purchase the Small Groups Intensive (now downloadable).

Q & A: Activate Webinar Follow-Up

This is Kerrick Thomas – Executive Pastor at The Journey and co-author of the Activate book with Nelson. Nelson and I recently led the Activate small groups webinar and he asked me to share my reply to this follow-up emails:

Thanks so much for offering this webinar on the Activate small groups system.

We like this system and have serious intentions to work it in but would like some reassurance on a couple questions like this:

Does the semester-based small group system enable people to simply hop around from group to group between semesters without ever going deeper or committing to life-transformation?

Thanks so much for offering any additional insight on this that you can.

I’m glad that you found the webinar useful and am excited that you guys may be moving to the semester-based option for small groups. And thanks for the question.

A couple of quick thoughts. At the end of every semester the groups end. So, everyone signs up for a new group each semester that will study a new topic with a new group of people. However, there are a couple of traditional assumptions about spiritual growth and small groups that we believe are a little off base when it comes to thinking that this model won’t lead to real life-transformation and real life-changing relationships.

1 – It’s easier to remain stagnant in your spiritual growth when you attend the same group with the same people month after month and year after year. What you are doing is staying in a comfort zone. And whether you are speaking physically or spiritually – you don’t grow stronger unless you get out of your comfort zone and add stress to the environment.

For instance – a body builder doesn’t do the same exercises on the same body parts every day. No, to experience muscle growth the body builder must work out all the different muscle groups and then do different exercises on each muscle group. Then the body builder must also take time off to rest his entire body. All of those are physical growth principles.

The same principles apply to spiritual growth. You can just meet with the same people over and over again month after month and expect to grow. You need to (a) bring new people in the equation on a regular basis; (b) introduce new and relevant study topics; (c) and have time off when you aren’t meeting for rest (stress and release – the same principle as letting the farming groud lie fallow every few years or taking the Sabbath every week). The semester-based small group system allows for all of this.

By putting people in on-going groups of the same people – we actually keep them from deepening and growing their faith.

2 – Although you are changing groups from semester to semester – in each group you are making important and valuable relationships that will carry with you outside the group. In your small group perhaps you really click with 4-5 of the 12 people who attend. After the group the 5 of you may decide to be in a group the next semester together. Perhaps 2 of you will even decide to lead together.

That’s an example of close personal relationships developing within the safe social environment of the group and then continuing outside of the group where real life is done and even perhaps to another group.

Whereas if you force the group to stay together in the hopes of everyone developing deeper relationships, it’s not going to happen. Not all of the 12 people are going to click. And after a while the group will dwindle down to those who do click. You’d probably end up with no more than 5-6 in the group after a year. That’s what typically happens in the most successful of on-going groups anyway.

The semester-based model allows for those valuable relationships to form and then move outside of that initial group. And if I’m in that group and had a good time but didn’t really connect with anyone. That’s okay. When the group ends I can sign up for a new group, get plugged in and take another shot at it.

I hope that makes sense and helps answer your question. Let me know if there is anything else at all that I can do for you!

God bless…

Kerrick

PS – For even more information about how to implement semester-based small groups at your church, check out the Small Groups Intensive.

Q & A: Moving to Semester-Based Groups

This is Kerrick Thomas – Executive Pastor at The Journey and co-author of the Activate book with Nelson.  Nelson asked me to answer the following question about moving an existing small group system to the semester-based groups that we recommend:

The question I have for you deals with our groups that have done really well.  Five or six of our small groups have been going strong for a full five years.  They have invited people in and are still active.  They have never gotten stagnant.  How do you best get these groups to buy into breaking apart each semester?  Most of these groups have met every week for 5 years.  There are strong relationships there and I am afraid they will be hesitant to break apart and join a new group.  Do you have any suggestions?

First of all – when it comes to groups ending – we never use terms like “break apart” or “split up” or even “multiply.”  Groups just come to an end naturally because we are on a semester-based system.

If I were trying to convince already existing groups to join this model I would take several approaches:

1- I would invite the decision makers in each group to lunch/coffee/meeting.  I would cast vision to them for the new direction and let them know why we are doing this.  To get more people plugged in, to develop more leaders, to increase the spiritual growth in the church, more friendships developed, more variety in the small group system, etc.  If you get them on your side – things will go well.

2- If you sense some hesitancy you can visit some of the groups yourself to cast the vision.

3- I would ask the leaders of the existing groups who in their group do they think would be a good group leader.  They may or may not give names.  Either way – identify people within those groups and go to them and ask them to lead one of the new semester-based groups.  Ask them to just try it for a semester.  It’s best to get two people who are in one of those groups to lead together.  Once people in the existing groups begin to leave to lead new groups the group might have less hesitancy.  Make sense?

4- If the groups are not trouble makers and there is a lot of resistance and some of them insist on continuing to meet together – continue the plan of pulling leaders out from those groups – but you might also allow them to keep meeting.  Just be sure not to promote their group and make sure no one new signs up.  It’s the philosophy of not fighting an unnecessary battle.  Just move forward with the new system and make sure no one knows about the old group that’s still meeting.  Usually the group will break-down after a while and get excited about checking out the new groups with the more diverse options.

Those are just my initial thoughts.  I hope they are helpful!

Blessings…

Kerrick

PS – For more information about how 100% participation is possible in your church’s Small Groups system, get a copy of The Activate Seminar.

New Small Groups Tele-Coaching Network

This is Kerrick Thomas – Executive/Teaching Pastor at The Journey Church.  I’m writing to you today because I want you to be aware of a special tele-coaching opportunity for your Small Groups Pastor or for the staff person you have leading small groups at your church.

In just a few weeks (on Thursday, February 26) I’m kicking off our first ever Tele-Coaching Network just focused on small groups that will last for 8 months (through September 2009).

WHY ARE WE DOING THIS FOR SMALL GROUP PASTORS/LEADERS?

At The Journey we have experienced first-hand the power that life-changing small groups can have on the growth and health of a church.

In the Fall of 2002 when we began our first round of semester-based small groups – we didn’t know what to expect.  We only had 80 people attending each Sunday.  We started 7 groups and had 110 people sign up.  By the end of that first semester – our average attendance had grown to over 100 people and we had 11 people ready to be baptized!

Fast-forward to the beginning of 2009.  In the few years since we started semester-based small groups, The Journey has grown to 1,150 adults attending each Sunday and has seen over 650 people baptized.  This semester we will have over 90 small groups available and close to 1,500 people will sign up!

And every semester we have seen over 100% of our average Sunday attendance sign for a small group!

Semester-based small groups have had an incredible impact on the growth and health of our church.  And we believe that this coaching network can help take your small groups and your church to the next level.

In this network, each month we will connect for a 2 hour phone call to talk about issues directly related to improving and growing your current small group structure.  But not just that – we will also invest time in growing the influence, leadership and competency of your Small Groups Pastor.

WHY TELE-COACHING?

By making this a tele-coaching network (as opposed to an in-person network in New York) it provides several benefits to you and your church:

(1) It saves you thousands of dollars on travel and hotel – as the network only costs $195 a month to join;

(2) It saves your church valuable time and money as your Small Groups Pastor/Leader doesn’t have to be away from your church to participate (only one 2 hour phone call per month);

(3) We will be providing those who participate in the network FREE resources throughout the network that they can make available to you and your entire staff.

So, your Small Groups Pastor/Leader can get all of the valuable, hands-on coaching from the comfort of their own office.  And they will have unlimited access to me each month between the phone calls for questions or discussion.

If you are serious about the growth of small groups in your church and you believe that your Small Groups Pastor/Leader needs to be in my upcoming network, I want to challenge you to ensure that I receive their application for this network. We’ve already got a good group of Small Group Pastors/Leaders confirmed – and the network begins in a few weeks – so I need their application ASAP.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

The Small Groups Tele-Coaching Network is a relationship-based coaching experience.

Your Small Group Pastor/Leader will have the opportunity to connect with me and other Small Group Pastors/Leaders from around the country once a month from February – September 2009 on a two-hour phone call (1-3pm EST) where we will cover the following topics/challenges:

* Build a small group ministry that will see 100% participation
* Avoid the same traps that small group ministries fall into over and over again
* Learn how to have small groups that are outward focused
* Discover what the ideal size for a small group is and why
* Create a small group environment that encourages friendships to form
* Understand the advantages semester-based groups have over long-term groups
* Develop a simple and clear sign up system that will multiply involvement
* Utilize the flow of the yearly calendar to maximize sign ups and life-change
* Grow new small group leaders without overwhelming them with trainings
* Multiply small group leaders without having to split up existing groups
* Implement a small groups structure that is clear, produces results and, above all,
can work in your church

As a part of this network, your Groups Pastor will receive:

* Monthly hands-on coaching from me
* A proven coaching process that leads to growth and health
* FREE resources every month
* Unlimited email access each month to me and others on our staff
* A monthly small group environment where everyone is focused on personal,
professional and church growth
* Free access to other CLI events and on-line trainings during the network
* Plus much, much more

You have already experienced the benefits of a coaching network as a lead pastor – imagine how much more would your church could grow in size, influence and effectiveness if your small groups were operating at maximum efficiency.

You can download the application for the Small Groups Coaching Network by CLICKING HERE

The network begins on Thursday, February 26.  We are limited in how many people we can accept into the network – so the sooner you get the attached application back to me…the better.

Email me with any questions you might have or have your Small Groups Pastor/Leader contact me directly by email or phone.

Growing together…

Kerrick Thomas
Executive/Teaching Pastor
The Journey Church
kerrick@journeymetro.com
P: 212-730-8300 x206
F: 212-245-0620

*Kerrick is Executive/Teaching Pastor at The Journey Church and has co-authored “Launch: Starting A New Church from Scratch” and “Activate: An Entirely New Way of Doing Small Groups.”  Kerrick has been at The Journey from the beginning and was part of the team that launched The Journey Church of New York City in 2002.  By 2008 The Journey has grown to over 1,100 attending each Sunday with 1,300+ in small groups.