Evergreen Community Church in Burnsville, Minnesota has grown from 120 worshiping in one location to 3,400 worshiping in five locations in the last 13 ½ years. They have also grown from one group to 160 groups, from no coaches to about 50. As a small group consultant, I have consulted with hundreds of pastors and trained thousands of group leaders and have not run across too many churches whose coaching strategy is working as well as it is at Evergreen.
Recently, I sat down with Mark Bowen, one of the pastors of Evergreen and asked him to tell me why the coaching system at Evergreen is working so well. He was first to say that much of what they have learned has come from trial and error. By his own admission, Mark said that they have made their share of mistakes. Sounds like they're human to me. But I know they have done some things very well. So instead of me writing an article about Mike Shepherd's guide to great small group coaching this month, I decided to tell their story. Anyway, as I listened to Mark I began filtering what they have done well with the lessons learned from their mistakes and came up with the following observations:
- VISION. There is a strong emphasis on "relationally" based groups as the catalyst for authentic community. It is in this environment where a connection is made with unchurched friends to come to Christ and become fully devoted followers. "Informational-based groups" did not facilitate growth. So they championed a relational-based approach in the very beginning and that multiplied many times over. Relational community is the culture of Evergreen CC.
- PASTORAL MODELING. All the pastors agreed to become active coaches of small groups. They discovered the importance and power of modeling what you believe. Evergreen is a church OF groups. One of the big reasons for that is when pastors (of any church) step up and model the value of community with their own life, it speaks volumes to the church about how important it is to be in a small group. This is huge!
- LOVING & SERVING. Small group leaders are trained to lead by loving and serving their group members. Coaches are trained to lead by loving and serving their group leaders. Pastors have modeled to lead by loving and serving their coaches. There is a strong emphasis on relationally leading people verses leading them with information. They put 80 percent of their time into building relationships and 20 percent in providing information with those they lead.
- CURRICULUM. They develop a small group lesson handout that goes with the sermon that is taught each weekend. The emphasis is on the application of the sermon. This frees up the group leaders from having to develop their own lessons. It also frees up the coaches from having to manage what groups are studying. And it develops some synergy between corporate worship and group life.
- COACH SELECTION. Coaches emerge from groups that are effective at multiplying. They want people who have led groups well and multiplied groups well to become coaches. These coaches lead the groups they have multiplied. If they continue as a group leader, they coach three groups. If they resign as a group leader, they coach five groups. You cannot lead people where you have never been.
- MAKING ADJUSTMENTS. As they grew they realized they had to give up more and more control and empower coaches to make decisions. For example, they stopped micro-managing the birthing process of every group and determining who should go with what "new group." They let the people decide and honored their core affinities. The only requirement they give is that a group must birth with a minimum of four people, consisting of a group leader and an apprentice.
They gave more and more permission to coaches to lead. They provided a framework for them to operate as a key leader and empowered them to lead their groups. Another example is if a coach wanted to resign from coaching and move back into leading a group, they could. They made it ok to make personal adjustments without feeling shame or guilt. The lesson learned here is to regularly evaluate your system and make adjustments where and when they are needed. Give your leaders permission to do the same in their own lives, too.
- PRAYER/VISION RETREATS. Once every 90 days, they take their coaches away for a Friday night/Saturday retreat. The goal of this weekend experience is threefold: (1). To connect relationally with group life stories; (2). To pray fervently for God to work in their lives and in their group members' lives; (3) To re-vision everyone as to how what they do fits into the overall vision of the church. It always comes back to vision. It has been said "vision leaks." They learned this because they stopped these retreats for a while without replacing it with another visioning strategy. They could really tell the difference in a negative way. Needless to say they are doing them again. Successful churches keep casting vision—especially to the core.
Well, I hope you have benefited from this abbreviated story of Evergreen CC. I know I have learned a lot from Mark and his comrades. Is it perfect? No, they would be the first to tell you that. But take the principles and core values you see here and become a champion of them in your setting. To learn more about what God is doing through the fine folks at Evergreen CC, visit them at www.evergreencc.com
