Friday, March 25, 2011
Creating Community: 5 Keys to Building a Small Group
4.
CREATING COMMUNITY – SMALL GROUPS
“CONNECTION NEEDS SIMPLICITY”
Jesus told us in Matthew 28:19 to “go and make disciples of all men”. There can be no real discipleship without true relationship, in small group environments. The challenge for the church of today is to build a true and lasting relationship with God and with each other.
Following are three questions to utilize in a process to guide people in a community’s faith development process:
1. What do we want people to become? – People growing in their
relationship with Jesus Christ.
2. What do we want people to do? - Pursue three vital relationships –
• Intimacy with God - God desires an intimate relationship
with everyone, for people to continually pursue an intimate
relationship with Him.
• Community with Insiders - growing in community in small groups
• Influence with Outsiders – God has invited us to partner with Him in the
process of evangelism - invest and invite strategy.
3. Where do we want people to go? - in to a small group.
A church must provide people the opportunity to connect and belong and the benefits of a small group, as stated above. CELC’s Small Group Ministry will be hosting future connection events, or GroupLink events, where people have opportunity to connect with others in the church, their geographic area and stage of life to connect and/or belong to a small group.
There are three different environments that are effective to change people’s minds about church and the manner in which people connect in groups within a church- the “Foyer”, the “Living Room”, and the “Kitchen Table”. CELC’s Small Group Ministry offers curriculum and connects people from starter courses, such as Alpha: Questions of Life; and move people into community groups, such as kitchen table environments, i.e. Table Ministries, and the primary small-group environment, i.e. Challenging Lifestyles, Thrive Women’s bible study, Men’s Master Builders, Monday Night Group. Each environment is designed to help people connect, belong, and to be a place God can use to change lives.
CELC’s small groups ministry is a sustaining factor for the life of our church. If you have not connected or belong to a CELC small group, please contact:
Florence Heacock (flohea@heartmindsoul.com),
Larry Goolsby (goolsbycl@comcast.net, or
Sanna Solem (sannasolem@gmail.com).
Florence Heacock, Minister of Small Groups
(CELC Connection, April 2011)
3. CREATING COMMUNITY – SMALL GROUPS – STRATEGY - CONNECT
Small Groups – a sustaining factor for the life of a faith community. In the book, “Creating Community: 5 Keys to Building a Small Group Culture”, Pastor Andy Stanley and Bill Willits, Director of Group Life, at North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, and Buckhead Church in Atlanta, Georgia, discuss small groups in the third key “Church Need Strategy”.
When people think of CELC, what comes to your mind or what is the word you associate with CELC? For example, what comes to mind when you read or hear the words Starbucks, Hersey, Federal Express? Al Reiss in his book “Focus” says the word an organization finds to describe themselves is a “fundamental strength”. So when people think of CELC, what word do you hope they will associate with us?
Some churches are described by the word, or the goal of the church, such as “evangelistic church”, “worship church”, “doctrinal church”, “recovery church”, and “service church”. It describes what the church is best known for in their communities. North Point Community Church decided they wanted to be known as a “relational church”. They want to do ministry in the context of relationship in communities.
Pastor Stanley and Bill Willits advise that once you have found your “word”, it is time to decide “how you are going to get to your goal” – time to choose your strategy. With the strategy teaching of Moses and his father-in-law in Exodus 18, they pursued a small-group strategy at North Point Community Church. “Sustained spiritual growth takes place where people are personally challenged/encouraged in their relationship with God and others—in groups.
Small groups: (1) support evangelism strategy, (2) enable more people to serve, (3) help develop authentic community, (4) offer maximum flexibility, (5) allow people to be better stewards, and (6) remove the primary limits to growth. Authentic community around the ABC’s of group life – Accountability, Belonging, and Care.
Regarding small groups, Ecclesiastes 3 reminds us there is a season for everything. Every group has a season/life cycle--new groups will form/grow, continue to welcome new people, nurture existing healthy small groups, service groups, ministry groups. Florence Heacock, Minister of Small Groups
(CELC Connection, March 2011)
2. CREATING COMMUNITY - SMALL GROUPS and CLARITY
The January 2011 Connection presented the first key from the book “Creating Community: 5 Keys to Building a Small Group Culture’’, people need community, which is authored by Pastor Andy Stanley and Bill Willits, Director of Group Life, who are the creators/developers of two current serving churches (1) North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Georgia (congregation of 12,000), and Buckhead Church in Atlanta, Georgia (congregation of 3,000).
The remaining four keys are (2) Leaders Need Clarity, (3) Churches Need Strategy, (4) Connections Needs Simplicity, and (5) Processes Need Reality. The ``5 keys’, contain their blueprint for success for building a thriving small-group culture in your local church.
What is second key – Leaders Need Clarity? How does a community and a Small Group Ministry move so leaders have clarity? In the development of their churches, their leaders believe they have worked and found three questions their leaders utilize in a process to guide them for their community’s faith development process.
What do we want people to become? – People growing in their relationship with Jesus Christ.
What do we want people to do? - Pursue three vital relationships –
• Intimacy with God - God desires an intimate relationship with everyone, and
the mark of a maturing follower is that they are continually pursuing an intimate relationship with Him.
• Community with Insiders - growing in community with other believers – small groups
• Influence with Outsiders – God has invited us to partner with Him in the
process of evangelism of Evangelism, and encourage people to grow
relationships with unbelievers – invest and invite strategy.
Where do we want people to go? - In to a small group.
They found the best place for sustained change to occur is within intentional relationships. Pastor Andy Stanley and Bill Willits, Director of Group Life, believe that the best place for encouraging intentional relationships is in a small group.
Faith and spiritual growth is meant to be a continual pursuit of our relationship with God and others, which can and does happen in small groups. Pastor Stanley, Bill Willits, together with numerous ministers grow and know the immense value of small groups – a foundation of faith communities.
CELC’s Small Group Ministry has all the components of:
What do we want people to become? – People growing in their relationship with
Jesus Christ.
What do we want people to do? - Pursue the three vital relationships.
Where do we want people to go? - In to a small group.
As CELC community grows, small groups and it’s ministry will be a sustaining factor for the life our faith community. Forence D. Heacock, Minister of Small Groups
(CELC Connection, Feb. 2011)
1. Community—Getting Connected
Authors Andy Stanley and Bill Willits have authored a book entitled, Creating Community: 5 Keys to Building a Small Group Culture. Bill Donahue, Willow Creek Association, states, “Andy Stanley and Bill Willits give us a simple process for a complex challenge—connecting people to transformational community. No hype here, no flash-in-the pan groups that fizzle in a few weeks. This is a proven wisdom for promoting deep connections and lasting change These guys are for real, and so is this material.”
The five keys are (1) People Need Community; (2)Leaders Need Clarity; (3) Churches Need Strategy; (4) Connection Needs Simplicity; and (5) Processes Need Reality. Over the next five months, I will address each of the five keys in my Connection Small Group Ministry message and in the monthly Small Group Ministers Forums.
The first key is “people need community.” We are a culture craving relationship. The authors tell a story about stopping at Starbucks for their morning coffee, and saw a card promoting career opportunities at Starbucks. The card read, “Create Community, Make a difference in someone’s day.” When you work at Starbucks, you can make a difference in someone’s day by creating an environment where neighbors and friends
can get together and reconnect while enjoying a great coffee experience.” Starbucks is creating community and building revenues.
How do we do this at CELC? One of God’s biggest dreams for us is authentic community. Pastor Randy Frazee, author of The Table Ministry, says, “The development of meaningful relationships where every member carries a significant sense of belonging is central to what it means to be the church.” I ask you to study and pray in John 17:6-26, where Jesus teaches us to pray for disciples and His
people to be able to create authentic community.
We, at CELC believe in the second commandment—“Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” God has called the church to create environments where authentic community can take place. With the New Year of 2011, let us, at CELC, begin and/or continue to connect people to our transformational community. Florence Heacock, Small Group Minister (CELC Connection, Jan. 2011)
Monday, October 09, 2006
Making your small group real
Making Your Group Real "Friends"
7 principles for deepening small group relationships.
Don't we all long to be a part of something fun, exciting, and life-giving? How can we create a community like this? How can we connect with one another? Here are seven principles to help you CONNECT with the people in your group and to help them connect with one another.
1. Create a one-another community. In the New Testament there are over 50 different references to "one another": love one another, bear one another's burdens, pray for one another, and serve one another are just a few. This can't happen only on Sunday mornings; it needs to happen in other settings, like small groups.
Once you've invited your circle of friends and they show up, remember you don't have to be a Bible scholar to create a one-another community. Your job is to ask the questions, look around the room, and wait for someone to respond. When someone voices a response, affirm them, no matter what they say. Don't feel like you have to answer every one of the questions yourself.
Another way to create a one-another community upfront is to schedule socials and meals together. Pull families together and get to know each other. Schedule casual gatherings, like a pizza dinner, before the meeting starts. During this time, your group has time to check in on prayer requests. Throughout the six weeks, rotate homes, so that people embrace the group as their own.
2. Open your heart. Being authentic lets your group know you don't have it all together either. When we communicate openness, that makes it safer for everybody else to be open as well. It's healthy to say, "You know, good question. I don't know," "I'm not sure," or "I'm lost." When you're authentic, your group will be more authentic.
3. Naturally, group members together for deeper discussion. It's important that every meeting permits discussion time. When your group gets larger than 7, it's more difficult for everyone to share. So break into discussion groups of 3-4 people. The more airtime an individual has leads to greater life application; and that's when you'll see lives transformed.
Also, this allows time for people to share prayer requests. You don't want to get halfway around the room during prayer request time and suddenly say, "Oops, we ran out of time." Break into smaller groups so you have time to share prayer requests pray as well as for one another.
Remember when people feel heard, they feel loved; when they feel loved, they return; and when they return, life transformation happens.
4. Never run from challenges, questions, or even conflict in your group. Remember, the Bible says, "Iron sharpens iron." The group that doesn't have sparks actually doesn't have as much life. Healthy groups have conflict.
There are practical things you can do, however, to ensure that conflict doesn't dominate your small group. First, agree to make a small group covenant. This agreement outlines the ground rules for your group. If you write down your expectations early on, conflict will occur less later on.
Second, facilitate discussion to help evaluate the progress of your group. After a few weeks, assess how things are going and just throw out the questions: "How's it going? What is one thing you like, one thing you think you'd change if you could?" You may want to have them do it on 3X5 cards to make it safer. Issues that arise from these responses are ones to address immediately so controversy doesn't ensue.
5. Encourage shared ownership. When this happens, the group moves from being "your" group to "their" group. Remember to rotate the facilitation of the group at least by the 2nd or 3rd week. Get out your group calendar and record where the group will meet, who will host, who will lead worship, and who will bring refreshments. This will develop ownership on a variety of levels.
Also make sure that each group member has a responsibility. Some people may not be ready to lead worship or plan a ministry project, but everybody can take a responsibility by teaming up and doing something together. It could be planning a social, or following up on absent group members, or participating in a ministry project. Sign them up, pair them up, and follow up. If you don't follow up, it won't happen.
6. Cultivate a group of friends. The Bible says that early believers gathered in temple courts and house to house, week to week. This model ensured members would always connect with one another, even if they missed a meeting at the temple.
Because the early church embraced this model, they added to their numbers daily. Everyone wanted to be a part of the fellowship. Who are you going to add to your circle? If you invite friends to join the group, they'll have a greater tendency to come back themselves because they'll be surrounded by friends.
7. Take time to do life together. Don't miss anniversaries, wedding parties, baby showers, job promotions, and even house closings. Celebrate one another's lives.
