More on Small Groups

I wrote a couple of weeks ago about our need to really clarify our language surrounding the concept of "small groups." (See How does one declare a moratorium?) The post, curiously, caused someone to accuse me of being arrogant. I say curiously because, by the standard used, the entire blog should cause one to think me arrogant. The blog is my place for clarity. I tend to be a lot more nuanced in conversation. Anyway, that is beside the point. I was talking about "small groups." Brian Jones has taken the discussion a step further over on the blog ChristianStandard.com. In his post "Why Churches Should Euthanize Small Groups" he doesn't claim it be be a language or clarity issue. He just thinks church initiated small groups don't work. I guess there is a place for clarity here. He is not saying that small groups of people can't get together and walk together on a journey of discipleship. He is just saying that planned and programmed and measured and controlled by the church, this isn't a viable way to make disciples.

I will need to reread and digest the entire post before I say that I agree with everything the author says but I heartily agree with this paragraph:

"The Achilles’ heel of the modern-day small group movement is simple: Small groups don’t create disciples; disciples create disciples. And modern-day small groups are led, for the most part, by people who have attended the church, had a conversion experience, led a reasonably moral life, and can read the study-guide questions, but are not disciples themselves."

Head over to the post and read it for yourself and let me know what you think.

Why Churches Should Euthanize Small Groups at ChristianStandard.com

peace,

will

How does one declare a moratorium?

I don't quite have the status within the Church or even within my denomination to declare a moratorium on the use of a term, but perhaps I can suggest one. I would like to recommend that we stop using the term "small group" especially without further clarification. Here is why. I have no idea what anyone is talking about anymore. I see in blogs, on twitter and in numerous other sources of endless wisdom, quotes like this:

"Small groups are essential for building community in your church."

"Discipleship development is most effective in the context of small groups."

"Small groups are the key to church growth."

"The only way to create relationships in a large church is through small groups."

Here is the problem. Any one of these statements may contain truth. However, without knowing what exactly is meant by the term "small group," these statements could mean a lot of things.

Is the focus of the group fellowship, faith formation, Bible study, accountability? Is there a focus at all? Is the group self-driven or is there a facilitator? Is the facilitator trained? Are we talking about a self-selected group, a group generated through random sign ups, something created through a complex computer system? Are these open groups or closed groups? Is there an expected life-span for the groups or do they go on indefinitely? Are they based on geography, or life-stage, or hair color?

Don't get me wrong, in asking for a moratorium on the term, I am NOT asking for a break from the concept. There are churches doing some amazing ministry with small groups. But, there is an essential element involved. Churches who have effective small groups have identified the purpose and designed them to accomplish that purpose. For instance, if the purpose of a small group is to deepen member's level of discipleship, a church would have to ask some questions? Are the leaders of the groups disciples themselves? Have them been adequately trained and given adequate resources to lead? A church successful with this model would know that small groups don't make disciples, it is what happens within those groups. What if the purpose of a church's small groups was simply to create new relationships? The church would have to ask, do we have leaders who are good at helping people to get to know one another? Do we have a way of connecting people to these groups? (Otherwise it is likely they will be made up of people already in relationship.) Do we allow these groups to remain together for a long time or, for the purpose of creating new relationships is this a dynamic process?

What can get confusing about small groups is in the difference between products and by-products. We use this distinction in evaluating the effectiveness of different ministries at University. The products are the intentional output of a ministry. The by-products are the other things that might happen, that might be great but aren't the central purpose. For example, if we were to have an evangelism event at the church, the product (main purpose) might be measured on how many new people we go to meet and talk to. The by-product might be that be that we have a really great time with the people we already know. When the event is over, it is really easy to measure the wrong thing. "Well, we didn't meet anyone knew, but is sure was fun. We should do it again next year."

If the intended product (main purpose) of a small group is disciple formation, its success needs to be evaluated in terms of that. I realize it is hard to quantify growth as a disciple, but we can certainly ask questions related to how people are growing in their Christian journey. However, just looking at the narrative and accepting "we have all become really good friends" as success is measuring the wrong thing. It is great that people have become friends but was that what you were trying to do?

I think a lot about this because University does not have a "small group" program. However, people do meet together in small table groups throughout our Pathway to Discipleship; people do gather on Sunday morning in groups for Sunday school; and we do have a fairly decent number of organic small groups that organize and meet on their own. These groups have different purposes and the ones that we do organize are organized around those purposes and measured based on the intended purpose. In our Pathway to Discipleship, we are attempting to evaluate whether or not the program is helping people to "look to Jesus and look like Jesus." That is hard to quantify but there are questions we can ask. The overall goal of the Pathway is to connect people to their Jesus Mission. We can ask, are people serving in the Kingdom and using their God given gifts?

There is now another dimension to this discussion at University. In launching our west campus, West U, there is another need and another purpose for a small gathering of people. In the launch of a new church, there is a need to create community. This is especially important and challenging because you are basically creating a community of people from scratch. At West U, The Pathway to Discipleship will remain the primary way we develop disciples. Under the direction of West U's lead pastor, Adam Knight, we will use small groups primarily for community building. With this purpose (product) in mind Adam is forming groups in a particular way. There is a need to be intentional. They are not going to be based on Bible study or discipleship, we do that in other places. They are going to be designed around leaders and activities that build community. The initial plan includes meeting twice a month - once for simply fellowship and the other for some form of community building mission endeavor. This is new ground, so we don't know how it is going to work. But, we do what were are looking for, so we should be able to figure out how to measure effectiveness.

Okay, so you can keep using the term. But, in doing so, also tell us what you are talking about. What is the purpose? What is the intended outcome? What does it look like? And, how do you know if it working?

peace,

will

Reading the Bible in a Year

I have recently seen lots of tweets and posts and yielded a fair number of questions on the topic of reading the Bible through in a year. It is a common resolution and one likely a little less successful than weight loss or watching less television.

If you are setting out to read Genesis through Revelation this year, I suggest a visit to Jon Acuff's SCL website and read:

Already being behind on your read through the Bible in a year plan.

If you have indeed already fallen behind or if you have decided to put it off until next year or if you have decided it sounds like a good idea but is never going to happen, here is another thought: What about an opportunity to read the grand, sweeping narrative of the Bible and to experience the the stories and chronology of the work of God and of God's people in the words of scripture? What if you could do that in about twelve weeks? What if you could do that in community so that you could hold yourself accountable to get it done plus have a chance to learn a little bit more of what is behind the words, share your thoughts and questions and discuss new insights? What if there was only one meeting at the church and the rest of the course could be done online on your own schedule?

Well then... join us for The Forum a core course in the Message Phase of the Pathway to Discipleship. There is one required meeting at the church on January 16th at 5:30pm or January 19th at 7pm. The rest of the course will take place online for 12 weeks starting the week of the 26th. The cost of the course is $15 which includes a copy of The Story, the text we will use.

You can register online (soon) at register.uchurch.tv or email Elizabeth at elizabeth@uchurch.tv.

peace,

will

It is Time to Reprint the Flyer

If you look closely at the above promotional piece for our Pathway to Discipleship, you will notice that there are a number of stickers covering what was printed there. Those represent changes we have made since launching the pathway.

I wrote about the change to the Meeting Phase immersion event in a previous post: "What Happened to Jesus for Seekers and Skeptics?" Let's continue across the page and talk about what happened to the other two.

The original plan for the immersion event in the Message Phase was a retreat called Invitation to the Bible. I was always a little bit unclear about how to make an immersion event work in the Message Phase. Remember, The Message Phase is designed to connect people to the news about Jesus as contained in Scripture. I never really figured out how one could do that in a couple of days, even if they were intensive. Obviously, either could anyone else. I designed a retreat and no one signed up. It turns out that people who have completed the Meeting Phase were not really concerned about commitment. Most were willing to sign up for the ten week New Testament Survey or the 34 week Disciple Bible Study. However, some did have scheduling issues that made it difficult to commit to something one specific night for more than a few weeks. So I thought what if I could give someone a tour through the entire canon of scripture, in a period of time shorter than Disciple and make is so they only had to show up at the church one time - meaning they could schedule their participation around work, travel and family? From that question, The Forum was born. You can read more about it in a previous post: The Forum.

Since that post, we have completed our first successful pilot offering. We launch our next offering in January. We will be making one change. In addition to the reading and online conversation, we will adding short videos offering participants a little background on the reading and the theological issues at play.

Moving one more section to the right, we get to the Mission Phase. That label covers Coach's Directed Study. I realized that this option never had it's own post, so here is a description:

This option offers participants an opportunity to explore their calling in the context of a one-on-one Bible study with one of our coaching pastors. Depending on the area of desired exploration the participant is paired with Rev. Adam Knight, our Outreach Pastor; Rev. Leslie Tomlinson, our Shepherding Pastor; or with me, our Discipleship Pastor. The coaching pastor assigns a series of scripture readings and some additional reading. The participant and the coach then meet and study together and decide on some final project that will reflect their work together.

The Coach's Directed Study was one part of the pathway that did not fail but got cut anyway. It was replaced because it was simultaneously too successful and not successful enough. It was too successful in that, as the number of participants increased, scheduling became a huge problem. Something like this would be easier to pull off in a University setting in that students there have a lot more flexibility. But when you try to schedule one-one-ones around people's work and family schedules and the tight schedules of the pastors at a church this size, it is incredibly difficult. It was not successful enough in that we still had a number of people stuck between message and mission feeling like there was not a viable alternative. Perhaps they didn't feel called to leadership and want to participate in Pastor's Academy. Maybe they had already been on a Walk to Emmaus or just didn't feel it was a fit. The designed alternative was the Coach's Study but that design had a fatal flaw. Some people did not yet feel called to a specific direction in mission to follow. Others did but did not feel ready to discuss that one-on-one with a pastor. Some people articulated this well as there being "too big of a leap" between the Message Phase and the Mission Phase.

Here is what we are trying in it's place: Hearing God's Call: Discovering Gifts for Ministry. So you don't have to read the little label, here is the description:

A six week course designed to help you discover your God-given gifts for ministry and find ways to put them to work in the life of the church and beyond.

This course will begin in 2011 and will be co-led by me and my Assistant Director Jessica Caccamese. We will be using spiritual gifts inventories, teaching about the theology of gifts and calling and introducing people to areas where they can serve. We are hoping that this will feel like a more appropriate leap from the Message Phase for some. We will let you know more as we continue to develop it.

Time to get on with the reprint. We will save some stickers. Things are bound to change again.

peace,

will

The Wall v.2.0

If you are a regular to the weblog, you may have seen a post back in December (Discipleship Pathway from the Underside) in which I posted the following photo of The Pathway to Discipleship as laid out on the wall of my office.



It has grown and changed a bit (and someone insisted I get a giant bulletin board.) Last night I tore it all down and started over. Here is v.2.0:

The picture is pretty small but there are a couple of things that stand out. Besides being neater and cleaner, it is actually complete. Also, you can't see this very well in the photo, but there is green string connecting the pieces of the pathway with uchoose cards and response letters. A new addition to my wall is the red ribbon. The red ribbon represents the biggest difficulty in the pathway. A pathway to discipleship would be really easy to implement if everyone followed it in a linear fashion, never pausing, stopping or getting derailed. But people are people. People sign up for stuff and don't take it. People finish one phase and then take some time to ponder the next phase. People take a break between phases to be involved in some other learning opportunity or ministry. There is nothing wrong with any of this. However it makes it more complicated to encourage people in their journey because it becomes more complicated to know where they are. So the red ribbon simply marks when people divert. If someone takes our introduction class (uconnect 101) but doesn't choose to fill out a uchoose card to begin the pathway, we want to check with them to be sure that they are involved in some ministry or small group. If someone signs up for a course on a uchoose card but doesn't show up, we want to give them options for another course or see if they got plugged into something else.

Whenever I talk or write about tracking systems like this, someone always tells me that it sounds legalistic. I understand the fear behind that. However, we are not mandating that people follow any certain pathway. We are just remembering our responsibility to make disciples. I do not believe it is okay for someone to join our fellowship of faith and then be told, "you are on your own." We have a responsibility to help them gain the tools they need to begin their journey of sanctification, their journey of discipleship. In a large system like University, where I can't possibly keep track of everyone's journey in my head, we need a system to help us do that.

If you have questions about The Pathway to Discipleship, whether you are a University member of someone interested in implementation in your own church, feel free to post them here or email me.

peace,

will

Beginning to hit critical mass

This has been a good couple of weeks for the Pathway to Discipleship. Here is a list of pathway offerings that have been taking place over the last two weeks.

Meeting:

Alpha: Pop Culture – began Monday
Jesus 101 – ending tonight

Message:

New Testament Survey: The Message of Jesus – ended last night
Disciple Bible Study – going on through May

Mission:

Coaches Directed Study – There are three studies currently underway
The Walk to Emmaus – We had people on a walk this past weekend

I had Michael run the numbers and he figured out that over the span of this week and last we have about 110 people actually engaged in courses in the Pathway to Discipleship. There are an additional 30 or so who are actively involved in the pathway, have signed up for the next step and are just waiting for it to start. We also have a number of people in the pathway who are still deciding what they are going to do next.

These are fantastic results for so early in this process. It takes a long time to implement a system like this and it takes even longer for it to become part of the culture of how a church does things. But we are getting there.

Peace,

will

Intensity

A lot of people have been asking how I like my new position at University. I love it. But, if I were asked to describe it in one word, the word would be "intense."

University is a pretty good jump in size from the previous two appointments, the last one having a membership of about 1000 and the one before that around 1300. In any place other than Texas those would be considered large churches but they are about 1/5 the size of University. What makes University so much more intense is not just that the size means more people and programs. What makes it intense for me is how to work changes at this size. Working in a very large church like University, when it is well managed as University is, allows for a lot really well qualified staff and lay leadership. In a thousand member church, even though there are many more resources than in a small church, the pastor is still required to wear a huge number of hats. At Grace in Corpus and even at Oak Hill in Austin, I found myself answering the phone, fixing a computer, even investigating where a water leak was coming from. At University, there are people far more qualified than me to do everything else. I even have dedicated staff (including the incredible Laura and Elizabeth) to assist me directly in accomplishing what I need to do. Now, if you are a pastor at a small church, this might begin to sound really good. Here is the intense side: Because everyone around me is taking care of everything else, I can focus solely on what I am called to do in my position here. And there is a reason for that. With 5600 members and an amazing number of programs and systems, someone needs to be doing what I am doing all the time at a pretty intense level of function. Where this gets intense is that this all means that I work on creative, administrative and decision making functions for huge chunks of time without many mundane interruptions to give my brain a rest. The sheer volume of creative writing, problem solving and decision making is, well, intense. Often one day here feels like a whole week in my past appointments. Which is all pretty exhausting, but totally cool!

So back to the question, how do I like my new position at University? I love it and there is a lot to love.

peace,

will