Small Group Trader

Alright, I’ve got a truckload of material to send your way, but first I want to inform you about a change in one of the links over on the right side of the blog. For sometime now I have been fortunate to partner with and write for smallgroupexchange.com. Samantha and Scott and the rest of the team there have been very gracious giving me my first opportunity to communicate with the larger small groups audience here across America. Since their partnership I have been fortunate to pick-up opportunities to write for smallgroups.com (Christianity Today’s small group site) and Outreach Magazine. In my first year of “real” writing I have learned much and have Samantha and Scott largely to thank for it. Of course, really the only people I can thank for the writing I am doing are the small group leaders here at the Summit. Your commitment to building a healthy local church has been nothing short of inspiring and because of how God is using you, we are getting the chance to tell others of God’s great work here!

Recently the smallgroupexchange team made a pretty big move and retooled their website to better suite their growing audience. The new name is SmallGroupTrader.com and the new look is awesome. I think you will find it very helpful as a small group leader. Spend some time looking around on it today and if you are a small group leader, it may be one you should set in your favorites.

SENT tomorrow night

Simply put, you should be at the Summit’s SENT conference tomorrow night. There are several reasons why. You probably know them by now. I dont need to rehash them here. ALLLLLL small groups should be there. thats just a no brainer. See you tomorrow night!

The narrow road // SENT

Guest Blogger
Curtis Alan, Pastor of Church Planting at the Summit

I suspect we’ve all had those “ah ha” moments – where confusion and chaos in our lives suddenly becomes clarity…when suddenly the light bulb goes off and it all makes sense. I’m no exception, although up until about a couple of years ago, those moments had been reserved for those infrequent times when Algebra suddenly clicked…or when I finally realized how to use the copier at work.

About 4 years ago, I was on a late-night flight back from the West Coast when I had such a moment. My life was in absolute turmoil – God was doing something in my life and I was struggling to sort it all out.

At the time I was literally “living the dream.” I was a director at one of the top companies in America and was compensated handsomely. I lived in a dream home, drove a nice new car, my kids were in the best schools in the state, and we spent our family vacations in Europe. Our lives were in a nice, tidy, and comfortable box.

However, about a month earlier, I had returned from an absolutely unexpected experience. I had spent six incredible weeks volunteering in an area devastated by the 2004 tsunami. There I used my business and management skills to develop projects to re-develop communities there…and plant churches in a vehemently Muslim context. Before leaving, I was asked if I’d return with my family to continue the work. I admit that I had laughed the idea off with an arrogant “you don’t know who I am and what I have”.

But, after returning home, I was a wreck. My heart was burdened by what I had experienced. I couldn’t stop thinking about what I had seen God doing in this place. suddenly all the pieces didn’t fit in my nice tidy box anymore. After much prayer with my wife, we had concluded that God was leading us to go…to sell what we had, leave the “box,” and move our family to the Third World to help plant churches. It made no sense, in many ways it was terrifying, but I couldn’t shake the call.

So there I was on the red-eye back from the West Coast. I had flown out for a series of meetings that were intended to merge the division I led with another business unit. I had wanted this change for years, lobbied my vice president for it countless times. It would mean more money, more responsibility, more prestige…and more things in the box.
As I sat in the seat headed home on the darkened plane, I read Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship. I came upon some comments that he wrote on Matthew 7: 13-14  (“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”). His insight caught me right between the eyes.
But if we behold going on before step by step, we shall not go astray. But if we worry about the dangers that beset us, if we gaze at the road instead of at Jesus Christ who goes before, we are already straying from the path. For He is himself the way,the narrow way and the straight gate. He, and He alone, is our journey’s end. When we know that, we are able to proceed along the narrow way through the straight gate of the cross, and on to eternal life, and the very narrowness of the road will increase our certainty. The way which the Son of God trod on earth, and the way which we too must tread as citizens of two worlds on the razor edge between this world and the kingdom of heaven, could hardly be a broad way. The narrow way is bound to be right.
He’s right, of course, absolutely right. I had a choice – walk down the broad road that the world understood and rewarded or follow the narrow road towards Him, in His presence.

The Gospel  demands a response. It starts with a decision whether or not to accept and follow and it continues with a submission to go. Not all of us are called to the other side of the world. However, the  road to the lost co-worker in the next office or the broken neighborhood downtown is just as narrow. Whether to another zip code or to another time zone, we’ve all been sent.
At the Summit, this compels us to plant gospel-centered churches and we believe that everyone plays a part. Whether it’s joining a church plant, being part of a small group that plants new groups in new communities, or supporting through prayer and short-term trips, we can all love our world by  churches. That’s why we want everyone to be a part of our annual missions celebration called SENT. If you call the Summit home, this is a night you won’t want to miss. So mark your calendars for Friday, Oct 23rd – you can find out more at www.summitrdu.com/sent <http://www.summitwestclub.com/www.summitrdu.com/sent> .

SEND RDU // Advancethechurch

Blog readers: This is a great note from one of the guys I work closely with here at The Summit. You should definitely consider being at the advancethechurch event next week

Guest Blogger: Mike McDaniel, Director of SendRDU

This morning I had the opportunity to share in Southeastern Seminary’s chapel service about SendRDU. I felt like I was preaching to the choir. Danny Akin and the faculty at Southeastern have a tremendous heart for church planting.

As I told them, talking to seminary students about church planting felt a little like lecturing homeschoolers on the value of big families, or telling a tree-hugger why they should recycle. If Southeastern is anything like my seminary was, then most of the guys, when they’re not studying or fighting for the attention of the 10 girls on campus, spend the rest of their time daydreaming about the church they’re going to plant one day.

Still, I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to share our vision, because we don’t just want to be a church that impacts a few pockets of Raleigh-Durham. We want to see all of RDU reached with the Gospel, and not only our city, but in cities all over the world. We believe the key to doing that is developing leaders that will plant churches. I’ve heard J.D. say many times lately that one of his greatest responsibilities as a pastor is developing future leaders.

That’s why SendRDU (our church planting center) exists, to equip leaders to plant churches. It’s also why we have partnered with organizations like AdvancetheChurch. Advance is a movement of local churches committed to planting healthy new churches and reviving dead and dying churches (some of you may have attended the Advance conference in June). We’re excited to be a part of Advance, because we believe that by partnering with like-minded local churches we will better advance (no pun intended) the Gospel in RDU, the South and beyond.

Next Wednesday, October 7th, we are helping put on the first Advance Regional forum at Vintage21 Church in Raleigh. This is a free event for leaders and pastors. It will feature Pastor J.D., Pastor Jeff Vanderstelt from Soma Communities in Tacoma, WA, and Pastor Tim Smith from Mars Hill Church in Seattle. For more info and to register, go to www.advancethechurch.com.

How do I get in a group? 3. Personal Invite

This post is the third in a series of posts I am doing on how we connect people to small groups here at the Summit Church. This one will describe the third, and most critical, piece of our connection strategy: Personal Invites. The first two posts talked about our web presence and our on-campus presence.

PERSONAL INVITATION

We work really, really hard from a staff team side to make sure we are creating as many opportunities as possible for people to get into a small group. That’s what the previous two posts have been about. However, all of those efforts are really supplemental in nature. The driving force for growth and expansion in our small group ministry is, and will continue to be, small group members inviting others to join them in small group community.  here is why:

1. People are more likely to accept a personal invitation. Larry Osborne talks about this principle in his book sticky church. He acknowledges after 20 years of small group experience at his church, that people “stick” in a small group when they are invited by somebody they know. Just common sense, but sometimes we forget it.

2. Groups stay outreach focused. It could be very easy for a small group leader to sit back and wait for names to come floating to them through all of our other avenues for connection. But we dont want to create a disciple making ministry that leaves out evangelism or even less just plain old pro-activeness. So we train people to become recruiters when they become leaders. Its just a part of the job. That’s why the most frequent phrase heard on campus at the summit is “are you in a small group?” if the answer is no, the reply should always be “want to come to mine?”  We want our groups open, and open to anyone.

3. New Groups start with momentum. Because new groups start as “plants” (think church plant) from current groups, they start with a core team who is planting the group and a sending group who is helping them out. That means the average group plant has 15-20 people recruiting and inviting people to the new group.

This has more work to develop as I believe the simple question “want to come to my small group?” may be the first step in a follower of christ getting into the regular habit of sharing their faith. its a small step, but we are always stepping somewhere and I would rather push people towards being others focused than letting satan convince them they need to just watch out for their own interests.

Next and final post in this series: the power of the mix.

How do I get in a group? 2. On Campus Connection

This post is the second in what turned into a series on how we at the Summit Church go about connecting people to small groups. I submit it to you only so that 1. you might avoid our mistakes and 2. if you are at the summit you will be more informed!

In part 1 I introduced our small groups online presence as a means of connecting to small groups. In this post I want to take a look at what we do on campus (by that I mean at our facilities) during a weekend. Weekends at the Summit are a big deal, small groups at the summit are a big deal, so making sure small groups are emphasized each weekend is a…you guessed it…big deal. There are 3 main approaches we take to this on campus connection. I am ranking them according to their small group retention rate (the % of people connected through that outlet who are retained by a group and become a part of group life).

1. Starting Point. Starting Point is our introduction to the Summit put on by our connections team. They are awesome at it too. This month long process involves an introduction to the ministries and pastors of the church, placement in volunteer opportunities and into a small group, and most importantly a clear evaluation of where each person considering participating in life at the Summit is spiritually.  What makes starting point so good for small groups is that each person who goes to SP, is personally cared for by an SP table host to make sure he/she/they are connected to a small group before SP is over. We’ve seen this to be true as SP yeilds the highest retention rate for our small groups out of any formal on campus recruiting tool.

2. Small Groups Kiosk. While this is not up at all of our campuses yet, our small groups kiosk serves as an every week info center for all things “small group” and is stationed in a high traffic area. The goal here is for the kiosk to be inviting enough and accessible enough for the guy or girl who is sipping a cup of coffee to wander over and look around. From there our team goes to work asking the most important question at the Summit “are you in a small group?” This team is comprised of staff and knowledgeable small group leaders. We have the website up at the kiosk and any other basic information someone asking about groups might need. A “win” at the small groups kiosk comes 2 ways. 1. The person interested decides to go to starting point where we know they are likely to make the step of getting into a group. 2. The person jumps right into a group where their group leader will send them to SP so they can get to know the Summit. Retention rate is average here, but we tend to get our most 1st time guest traffic here so it is a win for us because we keep the “word out” about small groups there.

3. GroupLink. I feel like I’ve touched on GroupLink before on the blog. Basically, this is an event we do 4 times a year to connect as many people as we can to small groups. We bring all of our leaders on campus and make a BIG BIG deal out of being in a group on those days. Then, after each service we get anyone interested in a group to go to a designated area where the group leaders are and let the introductions begin. its a bit of an awkward environment we admit, but it usually is a big win for us in 2 ways: 1. The entire service is built around it which means a great deal of exposure about why you should be in a group and 2. we connect a very large volume of people in one day. The biggest loss for us is that because of the ease of connection (just shake a hand and sign a paper) we have our lowest retention rate with GroupLink. We are never pleased with low retention, but have come to expect it and prepare our leaders to fight it by ensuring they follow up with everyone who signs up with them.

These are the 3 outlets that make up our on-campus piece of the connections mix here in the summit small groups world. What about you? Do you have on campus exposure to your discipleship model? What does it look like and how could you diversify it?

I think this thing will wind down at 4 parts. Pretty excited to be talking through this with you.

How do I get in a group? 1.Updated Groups Search Page

I know some who read this blog do so from a variety of discipleship settings, and constantly deal with the struggle that I deal with of how to get people into small groups (or whatever your model is). Do I print off lists of group leaders to hand out on Sunday? The problem there is that they get outdated within minutes of handing them out. A new group starts up and you gotta wait 6 months to “publish” them. Not to mention you waste paper which isnt en vogue right now. So do you do sign-up forms and tell people they will get a call? do you have group leaders stand on the stage during the sermon as live props? You probably feel like you’ve tried everything and still people say “hey how in the world do I get in a group?” I want to address over the next couple of posts how we are working through that right now.

THE INTERWEBNET
The lesson learned here: people use the internet and so should we, as best as possible. SO, During our busy month of August here at the Summit, we launched a new groups search feature on our website. We are fortunate here in RDU in that God has blessed us with a high concentration of some of the best programmers in the world. One of them, Zack Riesland, is the genius behind the thing. If you want his contact info, it will cost you. Seriously though, Zack is a great example of a guy using his talents and present situation to worship God through serving in the church. I said Zack, make this thing better than the best one out there. He said “give me 2 weeks.” I said “i love you” and he replied “i know.” That was followed by a long awkward stare to ensure we were both on the brotherly love plane since our wives were right there. Zack, thanks man.

So here is one piece of our small group connection effort.

This is one of about 4 main avenues and it is neither our primary nor our last resort, just a piece of our connections mix.  More to follow in the coming days.

And hey, if you know any summit people out there looking for a group, be sure to point them to the new find a group page.

Helpful Short Article on Discipleship

So there are a few “gurus” in the small group world right now. Steve Gladen, the small groups pastor at Saddleback Church, is one of them. The guy has a great ability to communicate clearly and is usually really in tune with the needs and realities of a small group leader. An article of his was just published at Small Groups.com called “Making Disciples” that I found to be a great, short read.

Check it out.

The “Hub” Principle

I want to share something with you we are seeing in our small group ministry right now at the Summit Church. Something I didnt anticipate but nonetheless am learning alot from. Hey, nobody can anticipate everything right?

We are in a season of significant population increase as a church right now. One facet of this growth is that people are now coming in increasing numbers from areas of the Triangle where we do not presently have a strong small group presence (2 or less is a weak presence in a 10 sq. mile area). We’ve tried planting groups in these areas but for some reason we couldn’t pin-point they haven’t taken off.

Over the past 6 months however we are making in roads into these previously “un-grouped” areas. We are seeing groups in these areas quickly (2-3 weeks) grow to 30,40, in one case 50+ people. Why now? What is going on? One common factor seems to run through each of these situations: the group leader is proactively making their group a hub for building the church community in their area of town. These leaders recognize they are not just a small group leader, but a catalyst for seeing our church move from big audience to strong community. Right out of the gate, week 1, they are talking to their group about planting new groups. They may have 20 people show up but guess what, they are telling people to invite more! So here are some things I’m working through to help us harness this energy we are seeing. let’s call it the elements of the hub principle:

1. A Hub leader is SOLD on the vision of his/her church. Not just “in agreement with” but waving the banner of the local church frantically calling any who can hear to get on board with them.

2. A Hub leader has an entrepreneurial spirit. They don’t know how they are going to solve the “seats” problem, and that excites them. Yes they bang their heads trying to figure it out, but doing so energizes them. Knowing they are a critical part of a movement is exhilarating and freeing to them.

3. A hub group MUST vocally agree to remain open to newcomers from the onset, otherwise the group will close off almost instantly and slowly shave off numbers until it reaches 10 or so. The drop-offs will likely not get re-connected to another group. Fighting the “no vacancy” mentality will remain a challenge for the hub group.

4. A hub group will likely not remain a hub group forever. We are seeing that most group leaders cannot carry this momentum indefinitely and that is ok with us. Actually, it is healthy to have a time to rest after a season of such growth. Even as the church continues to grow and the need to plant more groups is there, it will be important for the pastor overseeing a hub group leader to help find the next “hub” leader in an area so the present one can move into the regular pace of group life (at least for a season). Otherwise this great leader will likely experience burnout and you could lose them all together.

5. A hub group is fun. Yes it may be overwhelming but it seems like almost everyone in these groups, even at 30+, really like being a part of what is happening in these groups. It is critical for the people who plant groups out of a hub group to seek to retain this spirit of fun and excitement in the group plant. Those that do are most likely to become the next hub group in an area.

Ok, those are some observations and they are pretty raw still. Much more processing to be done here. Any thoughts?

I attribute a big portion of this to figuring out what I am going to call the “hub” principle for lack of a better term.

Im Back, with some changes a comin…

Well, my sabbatical from the blogosphere is over. I know you care deeply about that! Truthfully, my rest from writing was a welcomed one as it reminded me that the internet can and will go on without my 2 cents. I spent several of those days last month without ever looking at anything on a computer screen!! WHOA! Crazy I know but something I encourage you to do if your daily routine involves computer screens and offices like mine does. On to some thoughts I’d like your input into as the blog gets back up and running.

I’m considering expanding the scope of the small groups guy blog. This blog, since its inception, has been geared specifically and intentionally to small group leaders. And I love it. I love being a resource to leaders and the expansion I am considering will not change that. However my time lately in the scriptures has reminded me that we are called to make disciples, not small groups. Of course the former we desire to happen in the latter, but healthy disciples in healthy churches is our goal.
So, I am considering expanding the scope of the blog to include other contributors who God has gifted in areas of missions, worship, teaching, etc that can speak words of wisdom and impact into all of us as people seeking to grow as disciples of Christ. What do you think? Provide feedback in the comment section below.

Also, we are going to need a name for this new thing!