Small talk on October 24th

This Willow Link has a great video from Willow's Executive Pastor about what produces spiritual growth. Some of it may surprise you.

Here is a related quote by Hybels, "Some of the stuff that we have put millions of dollars into thinking it would really help our people grow and develop spiritually, when the data actually came back it wasn’t helping people that much. Other things that we didn’t put that much money into and didn’t put much staff against is stuff our people are crying out for.

We made a mistake. What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and become Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people that they have to take responsibility to become ‘self feeders.’ We should have gotten people, taught people, how to read their bible between services, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own."

Interesting stuff.

a good way to boost attendance at your Group Link event

Have your senior pastor wear a Group Link t-shirt while he preaches on community.

NewPointe small groups video

Here is the small group video we used Sunday, August 5 to go with Dwight's message on community.

The Search To Belong

Has anyone read this book by Joseph Myers?

If you have I'd like to know what, if any thoughts, ideas, etc jumped out at you from the book? If you haven't read the book it's a quick read. Put it on your reading pile this summer then post what your thoughts are. I think right off the bat he has some good points. Although the tone of the book seems to be an anti-small group tone I think there's some nuggets to apply. Dick and I have both read the book and it proved to challege us. I'm hoping it'll challenge you too. And most of all I'm hoping we can talk about it on here!

-Marc

Pot Party Link

http://www.forwardedge.blogspot.com/

Great Meeting Today!

Thanks to all of you for a great conversation today! I enjoyed today more than any other meeting (except maybe for the one when I almost got excommunicated for not wanting to pray). I really believe that Vicki & New Hope are onto something good with their idea about helping people to connect based on their common passions. From my perspective, this is a next, great step toward helping Christ-followers see themselves as God's representative ("missionaries" if you will) EVERYWHERE they go. I believe that attitude or mindset is vital to developing healthy disciples of Jesus. Over the last several decades, the Church has taken the mindset that says "only special people are 'called' to special assignments like 'pastor' or 'missionary.'" Truth is ALL followers of Jesus are called to be on a mission - representing Him in our individual spheres of influence. I don't believe I am any more important to the Body of Christ than any other member just because an organized church happens to pay me. I believe the Church will reach her greatest effectiveness as salt & light as each member learns to see herself or himself as "on a mission." This perspective makes me believe that what Vicki's church is doing will help individual accomplish that ideal. My highest ideal for small groups would be that they are places where we don't focus on our own needs, but where I share how it is going in my relationship with the top 2 or 3 on my "Most Want to See in The Kingdom" list, then every other members does the same. This suddenly makes our Scripture time focused on how our unconvinced friends need or might see the Truth. And, it focuses our prayer time, not on our own needs, but on the needs of our "Most Wanted's". Even our social time will be affected, and, while serving together will always be valuable, we will also see that our individual service - as God's representatives - is equally or more valuable. Make sense? Thanks for reading. Hey, I also see that we can post pictures, so I'm going to put one of me on here... just so you remember who I am.

My First Post-Random Current Thoughts...

I have such respect for all of you. I love being a part of a group of people who share a similar heartbeat as I - community.

I haven't posted before now because I felt that what I say might come across as negative or wimpy (like maybe I just couldn't get the job done). I have been involved in small group ministry for the past 11 years. In that time, I have seen friendships develop, lives change, church growth happen. In that time, though, I have also seen people get hurt, marriages disintegrate, and decline in church attendance. Our 'system' seems to be lacking.

When our new pastor arrived in January, we sat down together and I shared some of my concerns with him. He was surprised to hear that the person in charge of the Small Group Ministry had serious questions about how to proceed in this area. Thankfully, he is very open and we dialogue weekly about where God is leading us.

New Hope is shifting away from an attractional model of ministry. Our weekend gatherings are becoming more of a celebration of what God is doing in individual lives throughout the week and a challenge for each of us to live missionally in the space God has given us.

For me this somewhat undefined space is uncomfortable; since I like to have everything in a row, neatly tied up with a snappy looking bow. But as we proceed, here are some of the things we are moving toward...

We are looking at ways to help individuals rally around the dream that God has given them. We are considering building some groups around specific missions. For example, if your heart breaks when you see aids orphans in Africa, then you gather with people of similar passion and figure out a way to make a difference. The care for one another then becomes a byproduct rather than the focus of the group.

One thing we are considering is using 'pot parties' to bring it home. The pot represents the group of people or specific neighborhood or need that becomes the focus. You pray for that group, put money in the pot and figure out a way to make a significant difference.

We are also using the internet to facilitate men's groups and general reading groups. Right now we have a group of men going through a gospel together. And an online book club is slated to begin that will take a look at Brian McClaren's A New Kind of Christian among others.

I am currently reading "The Relational Way" by M. Scott Boren.

I am encouraged by it because while it recognizes the need for structure, it also acknowledges that the structure can never supersede God's Holy Spirit. And emphasizes that we are called not merely to life change, but to kingdom change.

I don't know how the next Willow Group Life Conference will actually be, but the promos look soooo appealing to me. Are any of you planning to go?

I am encouraged by the response our local church has to the shift and I am curious what you all think. I know I am no pioneer here. I am very aware of my 'normalness,' but I also feel a call for those of us who share a similar heartbeat to step up and show others the difference we can make.

Small Groups - Closed or Open?

Hey all... I'm sorting through something right now at Living Water as we proceed forward with small groups (called LIFE groups). I just did a brief post about some of the thoughts I have and would like to know what you think.

http://marcharvey.blogspot.com/2007/06/life-groups-closed-or-open.html

check out this post by Dwight Mason

One of his best ever, in my opinion.

Here's the link: Personal, Never Private

Enjoy.

New Resource

Vic led me to a guy she met at a conference named Eric Metcalf. He is the Small Group Director at CCC in Illinois. A telephone discussion with him led me to their small group site. I was really impressed and thought all of you could benefit from it too.

It has given me a lot of new ideas and it has made me start to rethink our website; giving it a fresh look and changing the way we communicate with our leaders. I really like the idea of video leader training. Let me know what you think.

Scott

book recommendation

Great book that you can read in 90 minutes. Read about it at my blog.

Also, how 'bout this for an idea...how 'bout you guys actually start posting stuff here? That'd be pretty cool. ;)

Coaches, aaaggghhh!

You have heard us talk about the plight of finding people that truly have a heart for leading leaders. I am finding that this is not a condition isolated here at Newpointe or Rivertree. Small Group pastors all over the country struggle with this issue as much as if not more than any other in small group world.

I had a meeting yesterday with our "coaches" at a monthly lunch we do on the second Tuesday of each month called Coaches Connection. It happened to be the best one we have had in a long while and both Teresa and I agree that the environment had a lot to do with it. We held it in the conference room. We saw more discussion, more involvement and more enthusiasm than we have seen in months.

Toby and I have both been toying with the idea of creating an environment (a room) within the church building for our coaches to meet with small group leaders and new people to get information and answers to questions about group life while it is fresh on their minds.

Every one of the coaches voiced support and enthusiasm for the new environment stating it would make it easier and more convenient to meet with their people on a much more regular basis while everyone was here on Sunday mornings.

Environment is important. It's imperative. It is where things, plants, animals, people, LIVES have the best opportunity to grow and flourish. As small group leaders, we have to pay more attention to the environments we are creating or failing to create. We have to constantly ask ourselves if they are they the absolute best for the results we are wanting to attain?

I have already submitted plans for a Small Group Central area. I'll keep you posted.

blog worth checking out

At Small Talk meetings you've probably heard me or Scott talk about Perry Noble. He's the pastor at NewSpring Church in Anderson, SC. Scott and I frequent his blog so I thought I'd go ahead and post the link here for you.

Here it is: PerryNoble.com.

Careful when you go there...I wouldn't want you to get inadvertently punched in the throat.

My Chocolate Jesus

I started a new book this week, "Blue Like Jazz" by Donald Miller. (I'm probably the only one that hasn't read it yet) This morning I read one of the coolest things I have read in a long while.

In chapter four he is talking about his friend Penny and how she became a Christian. Penny tells him the story about how she began reading the Bible with her friend Nadine.

She says, "We would eat chocolates and smoke cigarettes and read the Bible, which is the only way to do it if you ask me. Don, the Bible is so good with chocolate. I always thought the Bible was more of a salad thing, you know, but it isn't. It's a chocolate thing. And I found Jesus very disturbing, very straightforward".

WOW! Thank you God for revealing something so cool about yourself that I never thought about in those terms before. A relationship with Jesus should be sweet, straightforward and have substance. It should be something that once we have tasted it, we should crave it above all other things. It should not be like a salad that we eat just because it's good for us and we know we should.

We don't need to add anything to chocolate to make it appealing and wonderful, but we add all kinds of things to salad to make it more desirable and full of taste. Jesus stands alone as sweet and fulfilling; sometimes disturbing but always straightforward. Just like chocolate.

No dressing needed.

Thanks for Reminding Me

Rob Bell in his book Velvet Elvis defines Community as "Together, with others, wrestling and searching and engaging the Bible as a group of people hungry to know God in order to follow God".

I had the priveledge of speaking to a group of about fifty men Sunday night at another church. The leadership there feel a need for community, especially for men, in their church and they want to begin a small groups model. They asked me to speak on the need for men to find community in order to engage in a growing relationship with God and become the leaders in their homes, church and communities that God intended for them to be.

Men have a unique set of issues that we deal with just being men. The statistics on struggles such as divorce, anger, drug and alcohol dependency, pornography and sexual addictions within the church are staggering and men tend to try to make the go alone and we end up being miserable posers, really empty inside and distanced from God.

I won't go into all of the details but suffice to say that God was present and I was humbled to see how He worked in hearts that night and brought 15 or so forward that acknowledged the need to address the "junk" in their lives and how they longed to be in the company of other men and fellow believers that could give them the accountability, belonging and care that only genuine authentic community can provide.

We all struggle at times with the implimentation of small groups and the pushback that comes with it. But as I was reminded Sunday night, Small Groups are the hope for healthy spiritual growth and the future of our Christian leadership. Small Groups are THE best environment for sustained life change.

As small group pastors and staff members, we need to continuously encourage those we lead to "Together, with others, wrestle and search and engage the Bible and be hungry to know God in order to follow God" to the best of our abilities. Community is that important. We can't ever give up.

Canton Repository article about Rivertree's sex series

Rivertree, in case you have a hard time keeping track, is the church where Toby Thomas serves. Here's a link to a story on their current series on sex. It's getting lots of media attention.

Main Session videos and notes from NewSpring's Unleash conference

At our March Small Talk meeting I told you all about some of the stuff I learned at NewSpring's Unleash conference. If you're interested in hearing/learning more, you can watch the main sessions on video here: http://www.newspring.cc/236463.ihtml.

As for the small groups breakout sessions, the notes are posted here: http://www.newspring.cc/files/Templates/Unleash%202007/docs/Creating%20Community%20in%20a%20Large%20Church.pdf

Great meeting yesterday. Thanks for the discussion and the ideas.

Keepin' in Touch

I found a great way to add to your communication efforts. It is called PowerCall.

Basically it will call everyone in your congregation or select groups in a few minutes. Leaving them with a personal message from you using your voice. This cost less than sending out postcards....postage, printing, and man-hours. 16 cents a call.

For a quick demo call:

Gene A. Newell Jr.
Corporate Relations Manager
888-481-3727 ext. 193

Their website is www.ocmusa.com/powercall. However, I suggest calling. The demo is quick and you actually get to see how it works.

I like to try to fill all the gaps that can come up in communication. I plan to use this in addition to emails, announcements, etc. If you have questions and do not want to call Gene first, email me at TThomas@RiverTreeChristian.com.

Toby

Too Many Christians

I listened to a podcast of an interview with Erwin McManus yesterday on the Catalyst Monthly site that totally blew me away. If you have listened to anything "Erwin" before, you know that this guy is totally focused on removing the church as a obstacle to people coming to know Jesus. His statements will make you think and evaluate.

Here's the site, http://www.catalystspace.com/content/podcast/default.aspx. Listen and you'll understand the title of this blog. It really brings home Acts 15: 19. Can't wait to hear what you think.

Jumping in the deep end

Here we go..I've never blogged either. I have been posting comments so I'm not completely lame. Scott's admonishment today really made me feel like I wasn't pulling my weight, so I thought I better hold my nose and take the plunge.

I took another plunge Saturday evening. We held our first HOST event. When we were at Saddleback they explained that they refer to their small group leaders as hosts.

H ave a heart for people

O pen your home

S erve a snack

T urn on the DVD

We decided to take the same approach. We asked 30 people if they would come and explore the possibility of being a small group host. 26 of them came Saturday evening to our program.

We called our event Extreme Makeover, Church Edition. Everything we did that evening was centered on that theme. We even borrowed New Pointe's idea and had a Trivia Quiz based on the TV show and gave away gift cards to Lowe's for the winning table. It was a terrific event. We answered questions, shared our vision and encouraged them that they could host a small group.

Everyone at our event signed up to be in a Turbo Group for the next six weeks. We are dividing into four small groups to experience group life and have some hands on training as leaders. We are using Andy Stanley's study, Go Fish.

I have never held a program ( I was Director of Christian Education for the past 7 years) that was blanketed with more prayers or as passionately planned as this was. Our Small Group Advisory Board worked tirelessly to make this night as impactful as possible. This is such a leap into deep water for us. We know we are in way over our heads but it is what we are being called to do.

I know we are going to take in some water and flail about until we get this up and running. In the meantime I will be watching all of you perfect your strokes in the deep end. Aren't we lucky to be in this together?

Starting Pointe

It's been five days since anyone has blogged! Many of you have NEVER blogged and few have commented on any of the blogs that have been posted.

Helllloooo, is anyone out there or do we have this small group, saving souls, know where God is leading me thing down to a science already? I need to be better at it too, so here you go.

I want to tell you about a new Starting Pointe class the we started this past Sunday. One of the ladies on staff and I are leading it and as we asked everyone to introduce themselves to the group we had three scuds fired at us from out of the blue.

One lady would not look up or make eye contact with anyone when she talked, another lady said that she felt the Bible was alot like Santa Claus in that it is fun to believe in but you can't really take it seriously and the only guy in the room besides me said that he doesn't believe in hell and he has been a Christian for 30 years!

Three of the people in the group have been coming to NewPointe for less than 90 days and one lady said that it was her first day in the building. Amazing!

Boy do we have our work cut out for us every Sunday morning at 10:00 AM!! Do the words "please pray for us" seem appropriate here? It continually amazes me who God gathers into various environments for the specific purpose of doing something huge in their lives and it humbles me to think that I get to have a ring side seat and watch it unfold before my very eyes.

For me, Starting Pointe is one of the coolest of environments for just the reasons that I mentioned above. We have been blessed to hear story after story about people coming face to face with Christ for the first time and eagerly exploring faith and what it means to be a Christ follower (sometimes with a little baggage).

Starting Pointe is alot like a greenhouse. We get to plant the seeds in an environment carefully created for the best potential growth and then let God do His awsome thing.

Please pray for us and Starting Pointe (That means you too Dick). Thanks.

Fellow groupies. I'm in the process of revamping our small group format. I'm reviewing the leaders, hosts and coaches' job descriptions. I would greatly appreciate if you would be able to share what your using. I'm not out to reinvent the wheel nor is this rocket science, but it would help to see what I'm missing. You can email it to me at dmiller@stowalliance.org Any suggestions that you may have are welcomed also. This is the one time when I will be able start with a fairly clean slate, so I want to do it right. Thanks.

On Board!

Hi everyone,

I've got my blog finally up and running! Thanks John for a relevant blog that keeps me coming back for more and one of the inspirations for me entering the blog-o-sphere!

Dick Wolf and I have been talking adult ministries for a number of years and now I've stepped into helping him develop a coaching to small group leader structure. We've had our first meeting of coaches and have begun to lay the ground work for what looks to be an awesome (and much needed) adjustment.

Aside from helping him at Living Water I think I've also got the responsibility of posting on this blog on his behalf. Unless I can convey that blogging is fun and ultimately addictive I may be our voice on here for now.

-Marc

Barna research on small groups

I was helping Dwight do some research the other day and I came across this stuff on Barna's site. Thought you all might be interested in it:

In Barna Research Group studies, small groups are defined as groups that meet during the week for the purpose of prayer, Bible study or spiritual fellowship, excluding Sunday school or other church classes.

Participation

• Participation in a small group in a typical week, 1994-12%, 1996-17%, 1997-18%, 2000-17%, 2001-16%, 2002-18%, 2004-20% 2005-23%, 2006-23%
• 20% of men participated in a small group that met during the week for the purpose of prayer, Bible study or spiritual fellowship (excluding Sunday school or other church classes) compared to 9% in 1994. (2006)
• Women's participation in small groups has risen to 26% in 2006, compared to 19% in 1996.
• Participation in small groups in the West has doubled from 11% in 1994 to 22% in 2006.
• Black adults are more likely (43%) to attend groups during the week as are Hispanics (20%), whites (20%) and Asians (21%). (2006)
• Born again Christians (35%) are more likely than those of a non-Christian faith (20%) to have attended a small group in the past seven days. (2006)
• Protestants are over two-and-a-half times more likely than are Catholics to participate in a small group in a given week (32% to 12%, respectively). (2006)

The following population segments are more likely than average to participate in small groups:

• evangelical Christians (55%) (2006)
• blacks (43%) (2006)
• born again Christians (35%) (2006)
• non-mainline attenders (37%) (2006)
• residents of the South (28%) (2006)
• females (26%) (2006)

Here's the link to Barna if you want to read more.

Ten Observations from Churches Who “Get It”

Here's a link to an interesting article: Ten Observations from Churches Who “Get It”.

You may also be interested in Tim Stevens' comments about Granger based on the same article.

Cincyreds = Eric

Hey all, I have just finished watching the Reds beat the Cubs on Opening Day, so I had to call myself that. This blog is going to be a great tool for use and encouragement.

Something that I heard at Saddleback is still sticking... Is there something we as SmallTalk can do for the global crises as drawn out in the peace plan? It has really brought to my attention the global problems of pandemic disease, extreme poverty, and others that are killers. It is on my heart to help and really continue to make my faith more and more real every day.

Even the small things like Free Trade coffee and being active in missions are a start. Lets live out Christ's great commission every day as we encourage each other as small group leaders!

Love you all in Him,
Eric

My First Time

This is my first ever blog post. What an exhilerating feeling!

Thought this might be of interest. John turned me onto this site last week and I have found it fascinating. Check out www.churchhop.blogspot.com and get some insight as to what visitors to our churches might be feeling and seeing. Some of the comments are out there but I have read some interesting observations as well.

I'm looking forward to the ideas that this blog will generate. Don't be bashful, if I can do it so can you.

next Small Talk meeting

April 25, noon, Hog Heaven in Canton. I think somebody said they wanted to talk about recruiting SG leaders. Is that what I heard?

Anyway, think on that...bring your ideas...or just post them here so we can start chewing on them and then we'll be even more prepared to talk about it at our next meeting.

worth checking out...

Okay, this isn't really related to small group ministry...per se. But it's totally worth checking out. File this one under "Ideas I can take to my next staff meeting and look like a hero."

This Web-site is called Planning Center. And it's sweet. It'll organize and help plan your church's worship services and events for you. It'll also help organize and inform your volunteers. Looks like NewPointe is getting ready to subscribe to this service.

Go to this page and watch the 5-minute demo. It'll give you an idea of this service's capabilities.

This is going to help our Group Life department with Group Link, Aqua, and Married Life Live!, just to name a few.

Just thought I'd pass along that tip.

Here it is...

Our own blogsite for our Small Talk group. Great idea Vicki! Anyone in our group can post stuff that would be pertinent to the rest of us. Or, you can ask questions, file book reports, offer suggestions, post links to other sites, whatever!

I'm excited about this new communication avenue for us. Very cool. I think it will be a great way to stay in touch.

Just as a reminder...stuff like this always works best if it GETS USED! So please...use it!