I can remember it like it was yesterday. I was only on staff at Saddleback Church for a few weeks and Rick told me he reserved seats for over 800 men on 7 different 747's headed for Washington, DC for the Promise Keeper Event. I had the bright idea of suggesting we recruit leaders from some of the existing men's groups to launch a few more men's groups from the 800+ men going to the event. Over 300 men said they wanted to join a group and I had a half dozen men to lead them…the story of a small group pastors life.
I got to game day where everybody showed up to get into a group and I had a momentary (some would say that's typical) loss of my memory capacity and I tried something that has affectionately come to be called the "Small Group Connection" process. People gather into pairs, then fours, and then groups of eight in respective geographical areas according to where they live. The process simply allows people to traverse down a spiral of questions and the group moves from icebreaker like questions into deeper spiritual conversation. This allows them to discern the relative spiritual shepherd (not leader) in the circle.
This model follows the Acts 6 example where the disciples encouraged the people "select amongst this church" 7 people to serve tables. We would never tell them that Stephen was later raised up and died a brutal death…Just thought that was too much detail. We launched 32 groups that day with almost 300 people connected. We saw some disasters but we also had a seed of an idea that helped to serve the church wide small group campaigns for years to come. We had a 50% group success rate that grew to 72% over and over again until we had connected almost 800 people in groups over a 2 1/2 year period. No longer did we need to raise up leaders in the moment, but we were now seeding the table and living rooms of every ministry with pre-qualified leaders.
We refined the process with training, coaching, raising up not apprentices, but co-leaders and the big addition to this was the alignment with the weekend services. We added what we called the "Rick Factor". The secret weapon in any church for recruiting new leaders is and always will be the Senior Pastor! In one weekend we signed up over 1500 people to get into a group. Weekend alignment was big…VERY BIG! The next piece came when I wrote a small group curriculum late Saturday night and gave it to the group leaders to study that next week. This was big… but the biggest piece came when Rick agreed to video tape himself teaching a bible study on the book of James. Finally ordinary members could be leaders because they didn't need the same skills for teaching, facilitation and knowledge of the scripture as Rick had.
So we had the number one recruiter on our side, video curriculum, small group and service alignment but we still had only 50% of average weekend attendance connected in a group. Much progress had been made, but we still had 8-12 thousand people to go before we felt like we were achieving what God called us to do. Then the idea came to us on the eve of the 40 Days Campaign at Saddleback.
When I first came to Saddleback, I termed recruiting "host houses" with a simple Bible study that Lyman Coleman had given me. Great idea, but its time had not come yet. With the new video curriculum we were able to simply say "If you have a VCR you can be a star". Come on anybody can host a group like this! And they did—3000+ people opened their homes for 6-8 weeks. I knew then we were toast! The elders and myself included thought these people must be living in their cars. I was never more scared in my life. How long had those people been Christians? In a small group? Or even attended our church? The research survey said … they were Christians for 14+ years on average, had attended Saddleback for 10+ years and many had attended small groups before. They had heard on average over 500 of Rick Warren's messages. I'd say they were ready to host a video led study and launch a few questions! When all the dust had settled, our team trained over 2000+ new hosts and launched another 2300 groups and had well over 20,000 people (a good 10-12,000 more than before) going with Rick Warren through a six week study on the Purpose Driven Life. It truly "was exceedingly abundantly BEYOND what we asked or thought," as Paul says.
Ok, Brett that was because it was Saddleback right? I thought so too until I had the opportunity to walk with literally 1000's of other churches using our new Doing LifetogetherTM curriculum and some of the basic transferable principals I've outlined in more detail. Over the last few years I've seen with my own eyes that any church of any size could do the same thing we have done. Initially I tried it out in about 50 Model churches and they all had an incredible harvest. Many of them had a greater harvest than Saddleback because they learned from our mistakes and could move more swiftly than a large church. I was so inspired by this, I put our entire process into several key resources of Lifetogether. Each of them bearing fruit and the new Doing LifetogetherTM DVD Teaching Series we developed has benefits of the blood shed on the battlefield of ministry.
For example, how do you train and develop 1000's of new leaders? Not in a classroom…That's for sure. We simply did orientation training for new hosts (go to Lifetogether.com and download a transcript of the Host materials) but we put our basic leader training in a decentralized off campus "just in time" format. Every week you get another 20 minutes of training just when you need it.
How do you recruit unlimited leaders to lead these groups? You've got to grow your own like we did back in the 60's. Leaders are best trained and developed in the living rooms of life rather than in my little six week or 16 week training class that I used to think was the reason our groups did so well in the past. I'm ashamed to admit it now but when we launched 200 new groups and it was just me and no coaches I thought I will train them all in a half day class. They all came, but I didn't have one coach, division leader, or infrastructure in place. Over a year later, 80% plus were still rolling along. Can I really say it was my little 2-3 hour class? Forgive me Lord and shame on anybody else that tries to take credit for it.
Please don't misunderstand me. I have had my share of blow ups. There was the guy who told me he and his live-in girlfriend were so excited about the 20 people they had coming to their group. Or the member who called me and asked if it was okay to be studying the new book "Embracing the Light" instead of a Bible study? But these honestly are the exception not the rule. And by the way, I just married that couple above, a few weeks later in a break out room at Saddleback filled with their small group cheering them on, and them being the most mature of their seeker group, we let them carry on given their recent act of obedience when they were confronted with the truth. You should have seen the baptism that day with over 10 of those seekers being baptized by their relative spiritual shepherd… Sorry I just couldn't let that go.
The bottom line is you have to ask a very basic question at this point…"what is the point of 40 Days of Purpose? Or any spiritual or small group campaign for that matter? It's simply an organizing principle, program & process—to help the people in the church live healthy, balanced, Purpose-Driven lives. It is not just about connecting people into community for the sake of community, but changing community through community in order to convert our culture for the sake of Christ. That is what He came to do…not just in the upper room, but at the bottom of the cross…so that we might do our lives together with Him and one another.
Brett's Top Seven List for the "Now What" Moment
1. Reload and Re-fire— The number one mistake several of my closest pastor friends have made is to get enamored with the small group harvest and then let everyone settle back into their cozy couches and chairs and exist primarily for the purpose of fellowship and Bible study (discipleship). Instead, expect every existing group to not just do life together but to give life. The two best ways to do this are to constantly rotate leadership and to develop an unlimited army of leaders over time.
2. Focus on What Really Matters— My basic of all basics is to stay spiritually healthy, support your existing leaders with a fairly flat training structure leveraging email and infrequent rallies, and most importantly senior pastors are the number one growth engine of any church. Your job is to somehow convince them (Sr. Pastors) of their need and give them the opportunity to do so. This is a near to impossible, frustrating, humiliating, job threatening affair. Trust me I know your pain! Without mentioning who or where I was hurt several times, today I have unlimited job security and don't get called "Johnny one note" any more. Do you know why? Because I listened, most of the time, and worked hard at serving whoever God put into that role. Let my scars speak to you and you will enjoy a greater harvest.
3. Curriculum is the second most important tool— Many churches I have consulted with did what I call old country western style "40 Days of Purpose Campaigns". Launch them, Love them, and leave them…way before they were ready. Groups that have a continued DVD/video driven launch need a similar resource in the next few series they do. What is the use of starting these groups if you don't sustain them. Ideally, a 5 purpose series with a Master Teacher and a training segment is best. This builds more grace than pastors have any idea. Actually, it changes the entire DNA of what is needed before during and after. We have actually called the new Doing LifetogetherTM curriculum, "One Year of Purpose Together." It's a follow up series and it takes the taste of the purposes to a point of transforming people 's lives through the five purposes.
4. Embrace that a greater reformation is yet to come— Most churches, their pastors, and their members had no idea what was coming. Church life will from this day forward never be the same. One person asked a Saddleback Staff member "have we become a cell or home church?' Another said, "What impact will this have on our midweek services?" Another said "what would happen if we had a Sunday school program." Please even as you read this don't close your fist, but open your palms if you can because greater implications are in the works. For example, when we had more people in one week (2500), that wanted to get into groups than was regularly attending midweek and we had 4000 others in midweek groups we decided to end a 15 year Saddleback tradition. Churches all around the country will struggle with this question especially when they get into the second and third phase of their small group efforts. Evangelizing recourses, infrastructure will be reallocated, budgets will be shifted, and building designs will change. The sooner you see it the sooner you can help others process it.
5. Focus on what really matters.— Recruiting new hosts is 10x's more vital than connecting members. It's the difference between spiritual addition and multiplication. The real question is do you want to commit 100% of your congregation or 50-70%? You can get 125% +. Leadership rallies, end of year small group staff lunches, celebrations, and retreats all catalyze leadership community events that help build community and culture. Best of all, it gives you one of 100 reasons to get your senior staff in the game.
6. Begin with the end in mind.— The end is to build healthy, balanced churches, groups, and lives. Whatever it takes to first get them in is the key. Then turn the crock pot of the group temperature way up. Use a survey to have them self assess their own health. And do it with the entire church as well. Also remember that connecting people is only the first step…cultivating health is the ultimate goal. That's why again, a balance of the curriculum, preaching on the weekend, weekly group agenda, and seasonal group alignment is critical. Bill Hybels once said, "it's not the seekers that need the weekend but the believers." We all need to be reminded of what on earth we are here for. As Rick Warren said on the title of his book—"It's not about you"—and when it comes to your group its not about them either, but God and God alone.
7. Recruit and develop a senior leader of leaders— Return to a bi-vocational model of Staff. Why? To get the "best" leaders on this clock. Many times the typical staff drawn to small group ministry have gifts of shepherding and encouragement, but not leadership and administration. They are care givers not campaign managers, certainly not leaders of leaders of leaders. I know this one is a bit scary but it is the truth. Three of the small group pastors in the 40 Day churches have been let go. Why? Not good people? not capable? No, they just didn't have the big "L" Leadership gifts. They may not be on your staff or your current team but they are in your church. Ask for the senior pastor's help to recruit the best set of gifts your church needs. I have had two people in my life promoted over me. The first was hard, but with the second I was ready to hand it over—you know even now what is needed. Trust your leading before God and He will lead you.
