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.