A Cool Story & The Tag Cloud

Earlier this week I shared with you that God is at work in our small groups. Below is the text of an email I received from a woman in one of our groups. I share it with you with her permission. Hope you will praise God with me. Also, the  tag cloud over on the right has been updated to hopefully make this site of more use to you. Every post I’ve put up over the past 16 months is tagged under one or more of those tags listed in the cloud.

A letter from a group member:

Spence-
I just wanted to take a moment to let you know how grateful I am for summit life groups.  Last week JD’s sermon on addictions kind of rocked my world.  God put His finger right on the sin of gluttony in my life, and it was not fun.  Tuesday before small group I was tempted to not go to small group because I knew it was going to be rough.  I went anyway though because deep down I wanted it to be rough.  Well, I was right… it was rough.  We talked through the discussion guide, and I was more quiet than normal, just thinking about things.  When it came time for the question about a real way that our group could hold us accountable this week, My Leader decided to turn that into our prayer time (such good wisdom on his part).  My goodness… the moment I started to talk, the flood gates came down.  The more I tried to talk, the more I cried… good thing my small group loves me and didn’t seem to care.  It was so good to not hear (as I have so many times) that this isn’t that big of a sin, that I just need to be more disciplined, or that someone knew a great weight loss plan I should try.  Nope.  My small group prayed.  For the first time, I feel like there are people in my life who see this struggle for the sin that it is, and they’re fighting this fight with me.  One of the women in the group even came up with the idea of only bringing healthy snacks to small group.  She said, “if someone in our group struggled with alcoholism, we wouldn’t meet in a bar!”  I know that my summit life group is praying for me, and that in itself is freeing!  I don’t know what I would do without them.  JD’s sermon was great, but if it hadn’t been for that night of really digging into the Word, and praying for each other, I don’t know that JD’s sermon would have “stuck.”  I don’t say that to diminish the power of the Word in a sermon, or the crazy gift that God has given JD to preach… I just really believe that it was in my summit life group that God truly broke me.  It’s like He knew that was a better place because I’d be surrounded with people who love me and could pray for me and walk through this stuggle with me.  I guess I’m just rambling now, but I just wanted you to know that I am thankful for the ministry you do.  I pray that you hear many more stories of Gospel-centered, life-changing moments in summit life groups!!

Life change happens.

People Are the Program

Jen is a Summit Church member who, along with her husband Brian, helps out on Sunday mornings with our Starting Point ministry. (Starting Point is our monthly process people go through to get connected to the church. You should strongly encourage your people to go there if they have not yet. More info here) Brian and Jen also facilitate a SummitLIFE group. That fact will be important in a minute. Last week, A woman sat down at Jen’s table on Sunday morning at Starting point. One of our pastors stopped by the table and got to talking with her about knowing Jesus. What happened next was nothing short of inspiring. When the woman indicated she was not a Christian but wanted to be, the Pastor turned her to Jen who subsequently walked this woman through the gospel and upon understanding the gospel for the first time she placed her faith in Christ. Did you see that? It was subtle but extremely significant… The Pastor empowered Jen to lead this girl to Christ. And Jen was pumped to do so because she has been equipped by the church to do just that!
( I really want to stop here and talk about how much I love being in a family of believers that really strives to function like the New Testament Church. They want pastors to equip them for the work of the gospel. They want to do the work of saints. I pray daily God infects our church with more of this spirit.)

I cant stop because the story gets better. Last week Courtney and I were at Caribou coffee in Brier Creek (The unofficial hot spot for Summit people after hours. pray with me for the salvation of their staff as we are starting to build rapport with them). I look up from my computer to see the women in Jen’s SummitLIFE group having coffee together. Guess who is there? Yep, the woman Jen led to Christ just a couple of days earlier! I almost jumped up, ran outside where they were sitting and hugged Jen. But that would have been awkward on so many levels I chose to shake Courtney’s arm uncontrollably instead. I’m that giddy because nobody asked Jen to invite this girl into her life. In fact, Starting Point doesn’t do group placement for another 2 weeks. Jen’s group is pretty full as it is and doesn’t need another person. Jen brought her in simply because it was her first instinct to care for the person God put in front of her.

WHOA! So often we wait and hope on a church program or ministry to point people towards. These are good things, but the essence of the church, and the essence of discipleship, is relationships! Its not programs or processes. It is the people of God lovingly sharing the truth (the gospel) with love to those who God brings in front of us.

What would it look like if you asked the person you sit beside this Sunday morning if they were new to the Summit? Rough estimates are that we have 30 people each week who are at the Summit for the very first time. Scores more have yet to meet a single person outside of those they come with (if they come with anyone.) What if we all saw ourselves as the point of connection, for the person beside us, to the body of Christ? What if that person said they were new, and you offered to take them to lunch just to get to know them and let them get to know somebody at the church? Heck, what if you just stood outside for 5 minutes after the service and had a legitimate conversation with them?

Do you see what would happen? Our first impressions team would grow exponentially because we would all become in tuned , like Jen was, to the people God puts in front of us. What if we prayed for God to put a non-Christian in the seat beside us this Sunday?!!! WHOA!!! Did you just get as uncomfortable as I did? For me, that discomfort was no doubt conviction and I am going to pray that today. And I am going to do everything in my power to not sit beside someone I know this Sunday.

Would you be willing to pray that? Would you be willing to act on that? Would you be willing to, right here in our midst, begin transforming the culture of the Summit family to one that starts to live out the love of Christ by being the welcoming family of Christ the New Testament encourages us to be?

12-100-18 :: A small group story

So I gotta tell you about something going on with SummitLIFE up in Wake Forest. It is seriously cool what God is doing up there and I think very encouraging for the rest of us to hear. In the span of 18 months, the area has gone from one SummitLIFE group with about 12 people participating, to 7 groups with an 8th on the horizon. Let me tell you how it happened and what is so cool about it. Along the way I will identify some key group leaders who allowed themselves to be used by God in this whole thing. Try & Keep Up!

18 months ago I asked a guy named Matt Clark to lead a SummitLIFE group for our Young Professionals who live in the North Raleigh area. He accepted the challenge and brought alongside him a co-leader named Justin Patrick. I’ve become great friends with both of these guys over the past year and a half. They started a group by taking a list of names I gave them and started calling and inviting. A group of people showed up to the first meeting and more came the next time. Eventually there were about 20 people showing up to this “small” group. So, one of the women in the group, Melissa Holland, volunteered (after some nudging from yours truly) to plant a women’s group a little further south down in Raleigh. For 2 or 3 months she battled to get more than four or five women there. Those four or five were committed though, and they lived out community together. I think God was preparing Melissa, a first time group leader, for a great responsibility by keeping her group small during that time. After that slow start, Melissa’s group swelled to about 16 committed women. Now here is where it gets cool. Two girls in Melissa’s group volunteered to come through our Group Planter Training Course. Now those two girls, Elizabeth Preston & Michelle Kenney, are having their first group meeting with their group plant this month! Are you following this? It gets better. Back up in Wake Forest Matt & Justin are now on the verge of planting another group (24 people showed up to their small group Sunday) and already have another guy ready to go out who have been through the training course. During that same time period, the original Wake Forest group (which Matt wasn’t even a part of) led by Jeremy Cox has planted one group in Raleigh (Derek Hamaker) that has already planted a group (Dustin & Seth), and another group in Wake Forest that Russ Dredla & Matt Bennett volunteered to help get off the ground. Not only that, Jeremy is calling up more leaders by establishing 2 guys in his own group, Craig Eggleton & Andrew Hopper, as leaders in his group. Lost in all of this yet? I know I am!

For you bottom line people, that is 12 people to right at 100 people in 18 months. That simply wouldn’t happen unless groups planted more groups.

Listen, these leaders would each tell you this has been an act of God that they are simply riding the wave of and they are right. God is doing a great work. What is encouraging to me as a leader is that these folks allowed themselves to go along for the ride. There were plenty of sacrifices, uncertainties, and leaps of faith during the past 18 months. But this is small group planting at work. It isn’t necessarily easy, but it is awesome. Do you see in all of this a very VERY exciting thing happening? Disciples making disciples! “Go therefore unto all nations and make disciples…” Matt 28:19-20. So thank you Wake Forest & Raleigh groups for encouraging the rest of us with what God is doing in your lives. To the rest of our group leaders, who in your group could be the next SummitLIFE group planter?