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.