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.

Building the case for multi-generational small groups

I constantly battle back and forth over what the make-up of a group, and by implication the design of a small group ministry, should be. One main dynamic seems to consistently float to the top in most churches utilizing small groups today. Below is a brief pro/con of the model that organizes & launches groups based on the life-stages of the people in their church. For example,  a small group in this model could be…”Just Graduated College and just got Married, no kids yet but practicing.” To be fair I will present my conclusion here: I find this model effective just not fully developed when it comes to “making disciples.”

PROS & CONS OF THE “SAME-LIFE STAGE” SMALL GROUP MODEL

• PRO:
  • Meets people where they are. We live in a consumer-driven culture where we are always looking to find stuff tailored to their life category. So most new faces at the Summit come to our small groups team with their life-stage bio and ask the question “Do you have any groups that “FIT” me?” Setting up a small groups ministry to answer that question easily (Yes or No) will help in many ways to connect new faces.
  • Creates easy friendship-making settings. When you come to a group with a lot already in common, its not hard to strike up conversation and find you have similar takes on life & enjoy similar activities. Usually you have 7 to 15 other people who are going through the same general life issues you are which almost instantly builds a bond between you and that person.
  • Same life-stage doesn’t mean same life circumstance. Even in a group with people all alike in age / marital status / kid status, you have people who encounter different circumstances that the others in the group can speak into. For example, someone may have a loved one pass away. It is not uncommon to have another in the group who has experienced this type of loss. The comfort that person can provide is very valuable.
• CON:
  • Felt needs are not necessarily actual needs. Tailoring the church to fit the “needs” of the consumer has the potential to be quite harmful to a new person entering a church.You’ve probably heard plenty of times that the church has recently tried too hard to “look like the rest of society.” That’s not my point here. My point is, People come in feeling like they need to be around others like them, while what they actually need is discipleship. The two are not mutually exclusive, but you must build a small group ministry on the latter and not the former.
  • Socializing can replace fellowship. The two are different. Often a small group meeting of people all in the same life-stage can look like 1 hour of “catching up”, 20-30 minutes of opinion-driven bible conversation, and a quick blanket prayer at the end. Fellowship is hanging out with a purpose, bible-study with a purpose and prayer with a purpose. Purpose: reminding / encouraging one another of/with  the gospel.
  • Lord of the Flies Syndrome. In some ways a group of 12 guys all age 24-25 & single is awesome. My younger brother is in a group like that (actually they are branching out but still…) and I think its one of the best groups at the Summit Church. Man weekends, grilling out at 9 pm, open-fart zone…all good. However, these small groups do miss the element of mentorship Paul talks about in Titus 2. Older men & women are to be intentionally invested into the lives of younger men and women. This keeps younger men & women from commiserating in life’s difficulties with no helpful wisdom or life experience to draw from.

Hopefully this analysis helps show you some of the advantages of the multi-generational small group model. In this model, people of different ages and life stages are in small group together. Caveat: Im not suggesting any one person should be all alone as the representative for their life stage, instead think Noah’s ark. Go 2×2 with one other person or couple who you identify with and build a small group that has people from different stages of life. Thoughts?

1another :: confession

We continue with the 1another series. hope you are finding it worth your while. Remember to check Danny’s post each day as he and I are co-blogging this series.

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. James 5:16

We are confronted here with a passage of scripture worth meditating deeply on. A great, largely unrecognized, truth exists in this verse and in its surrounding context. That is, there is a very real power in the verbalized confession of sin and in the prayers of the saints (believers).

In fact, I feel a bit irresponsible talking about this verse without talking about 13-20 where James explores many more facets of the church as a people of prayer so be sure to read that on your own. Today, we will cover the first part of this verse, tomorrow the latter.

I digress. Let’s talk about the first part of this verse. Confess your sins to one another. This is probably, along with fasting, the most overlooked command of scripture among protestants in our time. When you hear confession your mind either wanders to the confessional booths of the Catholic church, or to the last 5 minutes of your favorite TV crime show where the criminal finally reveals what happened.

Yet it remains a 1another command. Confess your sin. why? Because there is great victory in bringing sin out into the open where it can no longer eat away at you in private. Confession to another is what helps you maintain a correct perspective on the grace of Jesus Christ given to you. When you confess, you acknowledge you have disobeyed God in some way. This acknowledges God as your authority whom you are a servant of. And you dont offer some sort of gift to God when you confess. All you have is your acknowledgement of sin and your repentant heart. yes repentance must come with confession.

Deitrich Bonhoeffer, one of my favorite authors, talks about confession in his book Life Together. Read below

In confession the break-through to community takes place. Sin demands to have a man by himself. It withdraws him from the community. The more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin over him, and the more deeply he becomes involved in it, the more disastrous is his isolation. Sin wants to remain unknown. It shuns the light. In the darkness of the unexpressed it poisons the whole being of a person. But in confession the light of the gospel breaks into the darkness and seclusion of the heart….

Since the confession of sin is made in the presence of a Christian brother, the last stronghold to self-justification is abandoned. The sinner surrenders. The expressed, acknowledged sin has lost all its power.

I could go on and qoute the whole chapter. You should read it. Suffice it to say, I know beneath your pride is fear of being exposed as a sinner among the righteous. This however is a lie from hell. You are instead a sinner among sinners who are all made righteous by the grace of Jesus.

How? Again, this is why we have SummitLIFE groups. And to our group leaders, make confession a part of your prayer time together. Break up into groups of 3 (SINGLE GENDER PLEASE) and offer a time to confess sin together. And as you do dont say “thats okay man” but instead say “praise God you are not enslaved to that sin and that God doesnt love you less for it. Praise God for the gospel. believe the gospel that you are forgiven” or something like that.

If you are not in a SummitLIFE group….I think you know.

1another :: encourage

Today’s post comes from our newest small groups staff guy, Craig Eggleton. See Danny’s post on serving one another here.

Who doesn’t like encouragement?  Everyone needs a little “‘ata boy or ‘ata girl,” every now and again.  But encouragement often times calls for something deeper and heartier than a pat on the back or a cheerleader in your corner.  Taking a snapshot look at the Scriptures in continuing in the “one another” series, let’s look at what the Word say about encouraging one another.

1 Thessalonians 5:11
Therefore comfort one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.

There are 3 principles I would like you to consider when meditating on this verse.

1. The encouragement the writer is referring to is motivated by Verse 9: For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ
   Take notice of the “therefore” at the beginning of the verse.  What becomes apparent is that this particular text is fundamentally built upon some truth the writer has just previously mentioned.  Look back at verse 9 and find that the encouragement is motivated by the truth that believers have obtained and continue to obtain salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Do not look over this point too quickly as something you may have already grasped, for I believe in this life we will never be at the point of fully grasping everything Christ has saved us from.   Verse 10 further amplifies a believer’s encouragement in the Lord that whether in life or in death, we will live together with Him.
2. Encouragement must take place in the context of a community.
   In order to fulfill the command “comfort one another and build up one another,” a believer needs to be plugged into a healthy and vibrant group of fellow believers.   Comforting one another calls for more than the typical shake of the hand and pat on the back during the normal greeting time at the Sunday worship meetings.  This type of comfort is vocal in nature, requiring the community of believers to express the truths of Christ salvation and the assurance of His communion with the saints.  Building one another up calls us to embolden each other in the truth; spurring each other on to obedience and healthy Christian growth.  The way the Summit Church has chosen for such community to take place is within our Summit Life groups.  We feel that being a part of a Summit Life group is vitally important to the spiritual growth and well being of every member of the Summit which is why we go on and on about how crucial it is for each member of the Summit to make every effort to plug into a small group in his or her area.  You can get into a SummitLIFE group on January 18th at GroupLink.
3. Encouragement is a continual, ongoing practice
   The writer of Thessalonians affirmed the original recipient of their conduct of encouragement in the faith but still found it necessary to command them to continue in the practice.  What we as believers can take from this principle is that we ought to make it our habit to always “comfort one another and build up one another” in the truth of Christ’s salvation on behalf of His saints.  We can never say within ourselves that we have arrived or have attained his quota of encouragement in the faith.  Therefore, encouragement is an ongoing command for the community of believers.

1Another :: love

This week The Connections Guy and I are doing a series of blogposts where we will be discussing what “being the church” really looks like in a 21st century context. To do this, we will be discussing the “one another” commands found in the New Testament and talking about how those principles translate into practicing church. Why?

1. We are going through a “why the church” type series in our Sunday services called cannonball.
2. We find most people, ourselves included, have an extremely difficult time figuring out how to practice “church” without it resulting in good old fashion legalism

These will not be exhaustive, because we have other stuff to do as well, but hopefully helpful for small group leaders & members at the Summit, as well as readers at large, and readers at all other sizes.

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34-35

Toss aside introductory comments and lets jump right in. I hope you catch the gravity of this statement Jesus makes here. The setting: they just finished “last supper.” Jesus has just washed his disciples feet, and subsequently announced to them that one of them will betray him. He goes outside, and his next words to them are these words about loving one another. This is an immensely intense moment in his teaching relationship with his disciples and this is the command he gives them.
Love one another. What a simple yet profound command. If the church today practiced this simple command as best it could, what would the perception of christianity be today? Would there be a generation of 20 & 30 somethings who abandoned their “faith” when they left home at 18 because all they can relate church to is hypocrisy? I believe there are believers in the local church who do genuinely want to love one another but they lack tangible direction to carrying that out. How do we love one another as Jesus commanded and not as we feel is right?

just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. Sacrificial love is to be the marker of the church. Do not let the significance of this statement get lost on you. This is the heart of the church. It is a simple explanation of the gospel-centered life. AS YOU HAVE BEEN LOVED, so love one another. Do not love out of guilt, force, coersion, or any other motivation, love out of worshipful response to the gospel. Implication? if you have trouble loving other christians in your church, you do not understand the gospel. simple and true. This deserves meditating on. Are you practicing sacrificial love in your church? Or are you just hanging out with those you like?

Ok, catch what he says next for it is the implication of the church loving one another: By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

WHOA! Follow as I quote a great pastor who quotes a great theologian:
“Do you see how high the stakes really are? Do you grasp why we can’t settle for anything less than Jesus’ dream for community? the credibility of the gospel is at stake! As Francis Schaeffer rightly said “Our relationship with each other is the criterion the world uses to judge whether our message is truthful – Christian community is the final apologetic.”  – Andy Stanley in Creating Community (44)

We cannot be a church who loves Jesus, loves the world, but is just not that concerned about loving one another. The world will see through it and we will be an incredibly unhealthy church. So here is my challenge to you. Are you in a SummitLIFE group where you can practice this extremely important command of Christ? If you aren’t, get in one on GroupLink Sunday, January 18th. If you aren’t at the Summit, ask a pastor for a place to get connected to a small group of believers.

Should we allow closed small groups?

This is a question I tend to wrestle relentlessly with. So you know where Im coming from, at the Summit we currently allow groups to close off to “more people” for a season in order to grow together & in order to protect the span of care value we have (not more than 15 people per group). That said, Im being challenged greatly in that view by a book im reading right now called the 7 deadly sins of small group ministry. Below are a couple of excerpts I found to be a compelling analysis of why we dont invite what the author calls “seekers” or non-believers.

But here is the irony for small groups. It is this longing for community that actually keeps them from inviting seekers. They assume the presence of seekers will destroy their group’s hard-won intimacy. However, when we interview believers who have opened their groups to seekers, we find a common thread of experience – the authenticity factor increases, creating deeper intimacy and relationships.

God knows nothing of a people who stretch their arms upward to him yet don’t in turn stretch them out to those he loves so much. So much that his Son stretched out his arms to make it possible for them to be touched.

Conversation between author & one of his group members: After I introduced our apprentice leaders and cast a vision for group reproduction, Paula, a Ph.D. in communication, confronted me with what she affectionately called “the birthing thing.” (aside here: at the summit we replace birthing with planting). Paula: “I’m against the birthing thing, I dont like the open chair, and I think breaking up the group is terrible.” (sound familiar small group leader?) Calmly (but carefully) I asked, “how did you get into this group?” Looking perturbed she replied “you asked me remember?” “And how long had you and your husband been waiting for a group in this area?” “About a year.” Then I took a risk. “I wonder what might have happened if there hadn’t been an open chair for you in this group. Or I wonder if your wait would have been shorter if every group had an apprentice and a few open chairs. Perhaps there would have been more groups and more places months ago. for people like you.

So the big question I have to our small group leaders at the Summit: If you have room in your group for people, are you practicing radical inclusiveness? What if we went on a group invite barrage over the month of January? That is, every group member invited the person who they sit next to during service to attend their small group with them that week! JUST THINK WHAT WOULD HAPPEN!Seriously, think about it. I will be! Merry Christmas!

Planting new small groups isnt fun…growing them is

This past Sunday Ed Stetzer preached to us here at the Summit. It was awesome. Dr. Stetzer is a statistician who loves Jesus and is a gifted teacher. Most statisticians just have the gift of, well, crunching numbers. His sermon sunday hit home with me as he talked about the great role the church has in advancing the kingdom of God. One thing that stuck out in particular was an analogy he used for church-planting. he called it “birthing” new churches. The analogy goes like this…planting new churches is like having a baby. It requires a lot of preperation, and the event itself is messy & painful. But then 2 years later you find yourself wanting to do it again.

Planting a church is not a formulaic process and when it means people leaving the church to plant new churches, many might resist because they dont want to leave their friends or their comfort zone. But when a new church plant starts seeing people come to know & love Jesus, they tend to forget about the messiness and pain because the reward is so much greater than that sacrifice.

At the Summit, we use the same philosophy and even same language as our church planting center. That is, we want healthy small groups regularly planting new small groups. We dont want them “multiplying” or “splitting.” We want them raising up a core team who could be sent out from the group to begin a new small group experience with those who have not yet found a community of believers here at the Summit.

Is it messy planting new small groups? YEP! painful too. Ive personally done it 5 times in the last 3 years! But nothing is better than seeing new small groups take on their own lives and really begin to grow. Im telling you, its awesome. So if you are in a SummitLIFE group or if you lead one, you need to be thinking & praying: “When is our group going to plant a new group?” Talk to your group, we’ve got a lofty goal of planting around 45-50 new small groups in RDU in 2009. We better get rolling.

A moravian lesson

Yesterday I spent the day in Winston-Salem where I attended the funeral service for the father of one of my best friends. The family has been a part of the Moravian church (yes they love Jesus) in Old-Salem for years and years. It was a hard day and I hated seeing my friend & his family in such pain. The service itself was a traditional moravian service that definitely honored this man and brought some comfort to his family. The lesson I learned though is what happened afterwards. It happened very subtly but really hit me hard. After the graveside service the family got back into the limo and were driven to a lunch provided for them by the moravian church. See, the moravians have a great deal of respect for “God’s Church” as I heard it referred to. They see a great deal of importance in caring for every single person who becomes a member of “home church” another way I heard it referred to. So the night my friend’s dad passed away, the pastor was there in there home at 3am. And the point i want to make with that lunch after the service is that the church simply continued loving and supporting this family. Love & Support didnt begin at the time of the tragedy and end when the formalities ended, this church was already in the habit of supporting one another and they are just continuing that now that the services have passed. They will, i believe, continue to support this family as long as they are there at home church. 

What’s my point? Tragedy will happen in our lives as unexpectedly as it did to my friend the other day. A church who understands the importance of community will not wait on tragedy to begin to genuinely love and support one another. They will do it because they understand God created us to be in community and created the community of believers we know as the church to be God’s reflection of hope, love, and life to a world filled with pain and hopelessness. 

At the summit this community is formed first by covenanting to be a part of the Summit Church, and second by committing to a small community of believers we call SummitLIFE groups. We’ve had tragedy strike our church several times in the last year or so and I can tell you those who have a small group to lean on during those times experience God’s comfort, peace, and hope in the best way I think we can offer it here at the Summit.

Ok, this was long and kind of a downer considering thanksgiving is tomorrow. But maybe not. Maybe we can rejoice in the community of believers God has given us. When was the last time you thanked God by name for the people in your small group?

lead to serve

Our small groups are working their way through the book of Philippians right now as our pastor teaches through it on Sundays. During our staff meeting yesterday Pastor J.D. led a discussion through the first part of Chapter 2. I had read that passage earlier in the morning and something stuck out to me both early that morning and again at staff meeting. That is, in probably one of the most theologically rich portions of scripture in the bible Paul is talking about Christ’s humility.

V.7-8 – but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Those words in bold acknowledge that 4 times in 2 verses (and really 6 if you include death ) Paul mentions christ’s humility. Good bible study tells us that should send up a flare that he is trying to communicate something loud & clear. I think he communicates it in verses 1- 3 where he says

V1: So if there is any encouragement in Christ….V3do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

Basically Paul is laying out that one of the key characteristics of a church who believes the gospel is that they will willingly and lovingly serve one another and hold one another above their own self-interests. This is not religious humility forced onto a group of people through obligation to God, but reactive humility stemming from an encounter with the grace of God.

As we looked at this in staff meeting we were talking about how we identify and develop leaders in our church. For our small groups, the discussion was how do I “identify” leader talent? This message from Paul was incredibly important to help guide me in understanding leader development from a biblical standpoint.

The sign of a “leader” is that he or she is a servant to those around him/her. That sounds simple, but should be deeply challenging to you as it is to me. How are you as a small group “leader” serving your group members? Are you caring for them or are you caring that they show up and participate so you can feel like you lead a good small group? Do you know what is going on in their lives? do you pray for them? Do you sacrifice yourself for them in some fashion?

bottom line, lead a small group to get the chance to serve people. Not to get the chance to lead people.

Bible Drill

I grew up in church…bla bla bla…insert a bunch of stuff pastors say about how religious and rule-based their lives were in the pews of yesteryear. One thing churches who are “relevant” today have a danger of tossing aside with the rest of suit & tie Sundays is the habit of studying the scriptures. Dont get me wrong, we have done great strides to contextualize the gospel message to a 21st century context and I am very grateful to be at a church seeking to do just that without watering it (the gospel) down one ounce.

What I am talking about is the noticeable increase in materials (most noticeable to me in the form of small group studies) that deal with life circumstance topics such as marriage and kids, as well as spiritual topics. What concerns me is that at the same time I am noticing a huge derth in the publication of expositional materials. That is, materials or studies that walk a small group through a book of the bible. Im not saying that these two are directly connected though I do suspect if good authors are writing about one thing they are not at the same time writing about another.

I think there is a good place for some of the material being printed and I dont want to get off on a “publisher” rant. Instead, Im going to use my remaining words to exhort our generation to continue studying the scriptures above all else. The scriptures are the only “materials” in the Christian world that we believe have truly life-changing power because they are the only materials “breathed out by God” (2 Tim 3:16). They are fully sufficient for sustaining and growing a christian towards spiritual maturity.

So to you who may be a small group leader I challenge you in your “curriculum” search to start with the scriptures and when you get tired of the studying the bible, talk to your pastor. I look forward to reading in the years to come the insight God is giving the “relevant” pastor-theologians of our day in their study of the scriptures. Here is my plea: Take us through the Psalms! Through the Prophets! Through Paul’s Letters! THROUGH THE GOSPELS!

The greatest small group study ever is recorded in Luke 24. Jesus reveals himself to his disciples and tells them how all of the OT scriptures are written about HIM. He explains the scriptures to them.

So from one small group pastor: Thank you to the many authors writing studies outside the box that are finally tackling issues from a biblical perspective. Your work has been long overdue. Let us now call those same great minds to the challenge of creating book-based bible studies with the same excellence they have displayed so far!

A Caveat: we have a good supply of academics who are writing bible commentaries. We do not need more of these. What we need are teaching materials that help people learn to study the bible for themselves. I am afraid this is a task specific to the pastor-theologian who God has gifted to “teach” the scriptures.