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 The problem there is that they get outdated within minutes of handing them out.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.
2 responses so far ↓
Jeff Fisher // September 25, 2009 at 7:11 am |
Hey Spence,
Enjoying your posts. I still think a piece of paper with the groups would be a good thing, and not hard to do. At least put the newer groups on it.
I’m glad to see the small group website evolving. Some great changes.
Have a good day!
How do I get in a group? 3. Personal Invite « Small Groups Guy // September 27, 2009 at 8:27 pm |
[...] critical, piece of our connection strategy: Personal Invites. The first two posts talked about our web presence and our on-campus [...]