Road Trip - Part 2

I found another unique place to have a small group meeting in our local community. The new lobby of the Grove Building in Zona Rosa is now complete and ready for use. The new redesign is quite striking and has a great layout with very comfortable furniture and a scenic fireplace for our upcoming cold evenings.

Some of the other great features about this location is that it is kid friendly with the all new play area that is centrally located and will make it easy to keep an eye on your children while you enjoy the company of your group. There is also a food vendor by the entrance to grab a snack and drink from with reasonable prices.

So consider this location and the many other great ideas mentioned earlier in Part 1 of the Road Trip and feel free to share your favorite locations as well.

Thanksgiving - At His Feet

Throughout this week I have been reflecting upon the main text we studied Sunday found in Luke 17 and the healing of the lepers. It was quite stirring to think that only one of the ten returned to Jesus and gave thanks after showing themselves to the priests. Not only did the lone Samaritan return to give thanks, but he “threw himself at Jesus’ feet”!

This throwing of oneself at the feet of Jesus is what I keep reflecting on the most. A thankfulness that goes beyond an acknowledgement with our lips or prayers of thanks, but a total abandonment of our being to Him that saved us by His grace. The artwork that is depicted here by Anthony Novak reveals just a glimpse of how that gratitude can be illustrated visually.

Are we thankful at this level for small groups? Some may think that is a little deep, though I do know of so many people that were truly starving for a more unique relationship with others before we started small groups. Not that there were not friendships, but there was this unfulfilled need to get even closer to Christ with the help of others that had like desires. Now we see more than just groups happening… a genuine community has developed that cares for, prays for, and desires a deeper walk for everyone involved.

So yes, I am that thankful that we are more than just friends in the foyer on a Sunday morning. I throw myself at the feet of Jesus and thank Him for all of the relationships that continue to grow by His plan, both among us and with Him. Happy Thanksgiving and know that your comments and thoughts are appreciated.

Road Trip

As the saying goes, “time to take this show on the road.” Ok so I tried to find out where the saying originated, but to no avail. In any case, I’ve been taking note that many of the new emergent churches are meeting in some pretty creative places these days, which got me thinking, “why not small groups?” You could grab your group’s prayer journals, study guides, and bible and then meet up at some fairly interesting places and really impact this world! Here are my top five picks for unique places a small group could meet.


#1 – Once in a while a good restaurant is always in order as long as the seating arrangements and acoustics are adequate. My top pick would have to be Buca di Beppo’s for the family style dining and seating to accomodate almost any size small group that you have… pasta anyone?



#2 – If you are not really up for a meal but still want a snack and a beverage, consider your favorite coffee house for getting down to business. My pick in this category would be Caribou Coffee, but just try not to order a Grande… that’s the other shop down the street!



#3 – So in case you are looking for something with higher ceilings, perhaps the group could consider Union Station. There are several open seating areas, shops to get a beverage or snack, and good Kansas City ambiance to set the tone for getting real in your group’s devotional.



#4 – In case you are looking for something with information resources, your group can search the Christian section at your favorite book store then head to the large seating areas to discuss your finds and life application. The B&N has a great seating area on the second floor!



#5 – With the decline of shopping malls since street shop districts have become the latest trend, there is a great open seating area in Metro North Mall. It is just waiting for someone to love it once again… so grab some popcorn and a drink then let the group begin!

Go ahead... click the comment link and list your top five.

Multiplicity

A good title for a strange movie and not such a bad idea for evaluating small groups! I recently read an article by small group guru Mark Howell that talked about the efficiency or lack thereof in using the group assistant model in expanding and growing groups. He identified the fact that even though we have good intentions and actually identify the assistant or apprentice, do they actually ever leave the nest? In his experience, Mark mentions that most assistants will gladly lead the group when the leader is on vacation, but they rarely take the leap and go on to lead their own group.

This had me asking the tough questions; first, are we identifying assistants, and second if we have, do they really plan to start their own groups when they feel comfortable in their abilities? I know we have had one group follow the model with the best of intentions, but end up not finding a host and now we face being creative in finding a meeting location, which may actually be a good thing. I know I for one would enjoy having small group in a coffee house! Still yet, another group has successfully multiplied and both of those groups have remained healthy, which allowed more people of the church to get connected.

Obviously, the ultimate goal is to get a larger percentage of the unconnected people in our congregation plugged into groups, and our current assistant model should be producing leaders to start new groups. With that, we have a few questions to answer… Can we afford to develop leaders through the assistant model fast enough to keep up with future growth demand and if so are you taking active steps with your assistant? Let’s take some time here and measure our results by leaving comments on this topic for the next few days.

How People Learn

The primary focus of a small group is to encourage spiritual formation and Christ-like growth through community, so understanding how people learn can be a key factor in leading people to greater spiritual growth. To help your group attain a more effective growth atmosphere, here are three things you should know about how people learn.

• Motivation to Learn – It seems most adults seek out learning experiences in order to cope with specific life-changing events such as, marriage, a new job, a promotion, lose of income, retiring, losing a loved one, moving to a new city. With this, the more life change events an adult encounters, the more likely he or she is to seek out learning opportunities. Just as stress increases as life-change events accumulate, the motivation to cope with change through engagement in a learning experience increases. This is why we encourage ice-breaker questions at the beginning of small group meetings. You can us this as a means of gauging your group’s motivation to learn and finding how many life change events are taking place.
• Curriculum Design - Adult learners tend to be less interested in and enthused by survey courses. They tend to prefer single topic courses that focus heavily on the application of the concept to relevant problems. Programs need to be designed to accept viewpoints from people in different life stages and with different value sets. A concept needs to be anchored or explained from more than one value set and appeal to more than one developmental life stage. The concept of multi-generations and stages becomes one of our greatest challenges in keeping our small group topics relevant and whereby leaders should be evaluating spiritual maturity of group members on an ongoing basis to evaluate future direction.
• Learning Environment - The learning environment must be physically, mentally, and spiritually comfortable. The home setting seems to create the ideal environment for comfort with group members that are already familiar and have current relationships with others. As well, areas outside the church tend to yield an environment that allows group members to bring a great deal of life experience into the learning and growth equation when they feel comfortable and at ease. A group that is just starting out may want to choose a coffee house or restaurant setting as common ground to break the ice and develop relationships.

These points were developed from writings found in an article entitled Innovation Abstracts, By Ron and Susan Zemke.

Group Outreach Ideas

Many of our small groups have commented lately on how they have a desire to be involved in various outreach projects to our community. My first and foremost comment would be to say “That is Awesome!” It seems as though we are really coming full circle and accomplishing so many great things in our Tiffany Groups – small group ministry. You should be excited for your part in helping create a community that cares for others.

Here are a few suggestions for your group outreach involvement. May we suggest that we not reinvent the wheel when it comes to giving assistance. As you may know, we have some good offerings operating in our local community already, so it would be a great idea for your group to adopt a well functioning cause and help collect items they may need. We maintain a list of assistance programs in our area from clothing closets, to food pantries, and various counseling centers that you can contact and offer your support to.

Also, you should consider getting the local community involved by requesting them to help in your efforts. They can easily be reached by a simple flyer being placed in their hand or in the door if they happen to be gone when you call on them. This could also be a means of inviting neighbors into your group or even open the possibility of becoming aware of needs in your own community. Here is a sample of how a handout might read.

Hi my name is… and I participate in a small group at Tiffany Fellowship Church. We are collecting… for the local… We would love for you to be able to participate in giving with us. If you are willing to help donate any of the items, we will be picking them up on… Just give me a call and our group will be glad to come by to pick them up and deliver them to… during this time of need.

Active Members

Have you ever read a book that really gets you motivated and challenges you to put something into practice? That current such book for me is “it”, by Craig Groeschel, the lead pastor of Lifechurch.tv Anyway, I am about mid-way through the book and came across an interesting portion that seems very relevant to Just Groups and can help contribute to our success of encouraging one another through this platform.

The particular portion of the book deals with not walking alone and points out the many ways this is revealed in Scripture such as; God telling Adam it isn’t good to be alone, Solomon said two are better than one, and Jesus said that God is present when two or three gather in His name. The author also mentions a quote from Henry Ford, “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping it together is progress. Working together is success.” So here are a couple of ways that we can work together on Just Groups or other forms of digital and social media.

First, here at this blog you can stay connected and be part of the process by subscribing to the blog in various ways. You have the option of adding the blog to your favorites and visiting regularly, use one of the many subscription tools such as an RSS reader in your mail client, or set up subscription notifications in Google and Yahoo type navigators. Just select one of the options in the right side bar. This will allow you to keep up with great ideas that are posted, see other peoples comments, and share your own encouraging words with others.

Second, you as leader or group participant can start your own blog for the small group that you are part of. It is as simple as clicking on the “Create Blog” link at the top of the page. If you are more advanced and plugged in to the digital landscape you can even create groups on Facebook and other media platforms. Between the times you meet this would be a great way to keep your small group focused on particular areas that are important in your current devotionals , or even continue that discussion you did not get to finish. Just remember, “Working together is success.”

First Steps

So we have taken the first step in making our schedule more manageable, or at least that is what the experts have said. You see, my wife Diana and I had the opportunity to attend the ’08 Group Life Conference at Willow Creek recently, and our minds were so blown away with the quantity and quality of information that we acted like deer in the headlights for the following week just trying to figure out how to process it all. We knew we were in for an information rich experience as we were greatly impacted by the quality of information in just the pre-conference experience alone, not to mention all of the top notch speakers lined up for the main sessions.

So back to the more manageable schedule… Social Media; blogs, webinars, Facebook, Twitter, and similar platforms were touted as helping us accomplish some of the tasks that we as leaders find it so difficult to bring our schedules together on. Here at Tiffany Fellowship Church we have twelve small groups, which for the most part we find is fairly manageable, but as we grow and expand our groups and congregational base, then keeping in touch with the team could become a daunting task. Imagine trying to touch base with over one hundred groups as some larger churches regularly do.

Obviously social media and custom tailored platforms such as Unifyer and CircleBuilder become useful technology to address a large number of connection issues that are experienced in church related programs. At the same time, there has to be a want for involvement by those on the team to embrace the technology for the potential that it can provide in the challenge areas. Essentially, social media can reinforce what is already established. Ultimately these platforms must be seen as an assisting tool and not an answer to fundamental or program flaws.

Now we find ourselves here looking at our small platform piece called the Just Groups blog. Are you intrigued by the potential for connection and communication that it brings, or staggered by the thought of one more piece of digital media to fit into your already busy schedule? I feel that as we develop this tool and apply it to our already great small group structure, we will begin to see it as an integral part of our process and really benefit from what it has to offer.