Worship Attendance: Between our two services and our youth Sunday school we have been getting 800+ adults and children each Sunday (November 2004).
Number of small groups currently meeting: 94
Number of people currently in small groups: Somewhere between 700-800 (this high attendance-to-group-ratio is directly related to the 40 Days of Purpose campaign which we are currently in)
Background
Part of the recent growth in our small group ministry (and church) needs to be considered in light of our setting and context. We are a traditional New England congregational church founded in 1846. We are in the downtown area of an affluent suburb about a half hour north of Boston. Several small urban mill cities are within driving distance to our church. New England tradition and setting can sometimes be a barrier to change but our senior pastor has been leading us for 26+ years and small groups have for many years been a part of his vision. He has the trust of the congregation and his pulpit support has been crucial for our SG growth. We have had attempts in that past to focus on small groups but none have taken root like our recent experiences of the past few years.
My own personal involvement as small group director began in 2002 and that is the perspective of this case study. There is great health in the church in many other key areas and many other staff and volunteers at FCC have contributed and deserve credit over the years. My personal visibility has been just these past two and a half years. When I got to Free Christian Church it seemed like everything was in place for small group growth. The dots were there, they just needed to be connected. And of course, the work is the Lord's.
The Vision and Leadership Environment
Our small group vision is our own hybrid of a variety of small group strategies proposed by well known authors and churches. We try to see what other churches and leaders are doing successfully and see what might work at FCC. Especially of note and influence for us has been author Carl George as well as the Willow Creek Community Church model.
Our leadership culture is a constantly changing and growing thing. Our main focus for the 2004-2005 year will be to get our coaching system up and running for our group leaders so that there is more direct care and support which the staff alone cannot provide.
Various levels of staffing have existed in recent years. Since April 2004 the SG staff has consisted of 1 part-time staff & seminarian, Andy Wescott (Small Group Coordinator) and myself. While I am full-time on staff only about a quarter of my time is currently dedicated to small groups (not always the case). However, many other staff and volunteers are committed to small groups as a ministry philosophy so it is really a church-wide effort. Nevertheless, I do believe we are understaffed on the SG end of things, so the development of our coaching system is our response and will be critical to continuing our health.
What happens in your church's small groups?
The basic components of small group life tracks with the purposes of our church: D-COWS. Discipleship, Community, Outreach, Worship, Service (our version of the 5 purposes). Except for our 40-Days campaign, each leader is free to select curriculum and focus where they will as long as they seek to incorporate all 5 purposes to some degree. Some form of Bible study is encouraged.
What has been done to grow the involvement of people in Christian community?
I can't overestimate the role of the senior pastor and the pulpit in casting the vision for small groups. We talk about groups constantly in worship services in order to create an environment of groups. I have served as the passionate small group champion and this has been another great tool for the visibility of small groups.
Our main ongoing group tool for growth and health has been the leader/apprentice leader model. We focus on group multiplication and apprentice development. We philosophically believe in Joel Comiskey's (and many others') idea that the best tool for group health is to encourage leaders to focus on multiplication/birthing. That task requires health across the board and sets a tangible goal.
One of the best things we have done in small groups has been to use Rick Warren's 40 Days of Purpose campaign to launch new small groups this Fall. We had a high level volunteer serve as small groups coordinator for the campaign and she and her team did a real bang-up job. We started searching for 40 Days SG leaders for the Fall campaign in May. We really pushed for new leaders and hosts to step up and the church caught the vision. Taking cues from another church in our area which ran the campaign before we did, we spent time strategizing as to how to keep as many groups going beyond the campaign as possible. We'll see how that goes…
Two years in a row we have run a "Small Group Celebration Night" at the church campus. On a Friday night toward the end of the SG year we gather all the groups for dinner and a fun evening of sharing God-stories. It has gone a long way to celebrate and highlight the ministry. This next year we will need to go off-site due to size restraints!!
Another thing we are introducing this coming January is the 1st annual small group leaders retreat. Our intrepid Small Group Coordinator nabbed Russ Robinson to come lead our retreat. I hope it will become an annual fixture in SG life of our church.
What has happened as a result of what has been done?
SG Numbers: Our small group year runs from September to June. We ended June 2002 with 15 small groups, 2003 with 27 groups, 2004 with 38 groups, and currently (November 2004) we have 94 small groups going through the 40 Day of Purpose. We expect a drop off after the campaign, but are praying for 80+ groups to continue on after the campaign.
Beyond the numbers, the level of community and felt love for the Lord and one another has risen exponentially along with group participation. We always had many visitors due to our excellent worship and preaching, but we failed to retain the majority as there were not enough groups operating to welcome them in. Growth church-wide has resulted in the launch of a third Sunday service starting this November.
What would we do differently?
- We still have not hit our stride in coaching and leadership support. The number of groups have grown faster than our ability to support the leaders. I should have hit this issue sooner, rather I tried to coach almost all the groups in 2003-2004. Not good.
- For a while I did not do a good job of getting study and groups resources to our leaders, but we are correcting that now.
- For a full year we produced our own small group study resources for leaders who wanted to follow the preaching series. It was too labor intensive for not much impact.
It all sounds simple when given as a case study, but each small group can tell it's own story. Generally we focus on decentralized ministry with a centralized leadership structure. Slowly, and year by year we try to incorporate changes and modifications to correct the errors of the previous year. "Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm."—Winston Churchill
Lessons learned by trial and/or error (in no particular order)
- Keep it simple.
- Read a lot of books on small groups.
- Gathering leaders together for training is very difficult.
- Small group campaigns work.
- Support from the senior pastor and pulpit is crucial.
- Communicate often and in multiple ways.
- A small group champion is required.
- Encourage your leaders.
- Have many visible signs of small groups within the church building.
- Keep the elders and key leaders abreast of your vision and goals.
- Preach on community through small groups
- Celebrate key leaders and multiplying groups.
- Connect with other local churches and learn from them what is working in your area.
