My friend, Brad House (on Twitter HERE), has written a book, Community: Taking Your Small Groups off Life Support, that calls on you to wake up to the life-changing, community-altering reality of biblical, authentic, Gospel-centered community.
This book will challenge you to take your groups to the next level, equipping your church to facilitate small groups focused on transformation through the Gospel.
Check out this promo, then pick up a copy HERE.
Chip and Dan Heath, in their book Switch, referred to the idea of “scripting the step” as you’re walking yourself, or anybody, through the difficult process of change.
We (at Grace Community Church) made some strategic, but very practical, changes to help people “script the step,” and more easily move towards authentic, Gospel-centered community in small groups. I wrote about some changes we made, and they’re over on Mark Howell’s blog today.
Head on over and check it out HERE.
And while you’re at it, track along with Mark on Twitter and Facebook.
via iStockPhoto user: Rubber Ball
When I finished graduate school, I was asked if I was going to go on and get my doctorate. Here was my response:
Nope. I’m going to write about what I want to write…and read what I want to read.
I didn’t want anyone to dictate the content or the timing of my reading and writing. And I found great freedom in that.
Then something happened on my blog. I fell into the trap that says you have to create certain content on certain days. For instance, last week marked the 10-year anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center. The blogging world dictates that you need to put up a post about that…reflect on how life is different or share a story about where you were. You know the drill. You should do this because that’s how you’re going to grow your blog…lots and lots of content driven by what’s happening in society. This is the pressure of content creation.
And then there I was, right back into the rut of others dictating what I wrote about.
So how do you get out of that rut? You create new, fresh content.
Easier said than done, right?
“I’ve got nothing to say!” you purport. And that’s where you’re wrong, my friend. You’ve got plenty to say. You’ve just got to start thinking differently about gathering, curating, and producing content.
Ready to start producing consistently high-quality, original posts? Then get ready for some hard work.
Idea Capture
Always be ready to capture…because you never know when inspiration is going to strike. I use Evernote for capturing many of my thoughts. (in fact, I email myself many ideas. Evernote has a feature where you can email info and have it go straight to the folder you designate. My friend Jeff Goins wrote about that HERE). But I’ve also been known to write ideas down in my Moleskine…the problem is, I often leave the Moleskine somewhere other than where I need it. But I’ve always got my phone, and capturing an idea is key to having content to share.
Observe life
You’ve got a unique angle on life, because you’re the only you. Only you have your job, your family, your church, and your community. Only you have your story and your gifts and your passions. Observe life through your lens and share your observations with us, whether that’s through photos, the written word, or videos.
Share a tool you’re using
Is there a new, helpful app you’ve stumbled on? Some new software that’s helping you be more productive? Maybe a new piece of hardware that you love? Share that with us, and tell us how it’s changing the way you work, play, produce, and enjoy life.
Vblog
Try videoing yourself instead of writing your post out. Having to speak into a camera is a whole new challenge…maybe that’s just the motivation you need.
Interview someone else
Pick an author, a blogger, or a leader you respect and interview them. Most people, if asked respectfully, would be honored to digitally sit down with you and answer some questions. This way, you have fresh content and get to introduce your readers to someone whom you respect and follow.
Read incessantly and share your learnings
I read mostly on my Kindle, and when I do, I highlight sections. Amazon makes all of your highlights and notes available (you can find yours HERE), so when I’m done, I can peruse back through my highlighted sections. Pick a quote you love and write a post on that. Pick 5 quotes and paste them all into a post and share them as proof that we really need to read that book.
Ask a question and aggregate
Try asking a question on Twitter or Facebook. Take the responses and aggregate them into a blog post (making sure to give credit where credit is due). Make sure to add your own thoughts into the mix. This is a great way to create fresh content.
Time to get to work. Start capturing ideas and sharing them with us.
Question: What do you do to create fresh content? What ideas could you share with us to help improve our blogs?
iStockPhoto, user: Noriko Cooper
In the last week, I’ve had multiple pastors ask this question. Maybe it’s one you’re asking, too.
How do I structure my first small group meeting?
1. They don’t have small groups in their local church.
They’re trying to get groups off of the ground, and don’t have a template for how a group should launch.
2. They have small groups in their local church, but they want to ensure, as much as possible, that their personal small group succeeds.
I get that. You’re the pastor, and if your group “fails,” it reflects badly on you, who point people to the life-changing power of community. If your group “fails,” does “community” really work? (hint: the answer is that yes, it does still work…but you may just need to think critically about the dynamics of a small group)
The way that you structure your first few meetings will set the tone for the rest of your group’s life. Getting off to a slow start is a massive hindrance to success because relationships aren’t well-formed, group becomes “difficult” for people to attend, and most won’t see it as worth the trouble.
There are a few key principles to keep in mind as you launch your group. Whether that’s a singles group, a couples group, or anything in between, keeping these in mind is important to your group’s short-term and long-term success.
If you don’t know what you’re aiming for, you’ll never know if you hit it. Define the “win” for your group, and keep those front and center as you launch. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter tremendously (obviously within biblical parameters) what that win is…just that you define it. Define that win and go hard after it. *If you don’t know what the win is for your group, have a conversation with your groups pastor…if you don’t have a groups pastor, talk with your lead pastor for direction.
2. Incorporate “fun” into your group.
You may lead a phenomenal Bible study…but if people don’t feel like they’re having “fun,” they won’t come back. Don’t believe me? No problem…just test it out. Don’t laugh or play a game or have any fun, and see if people come back. After you’ve tried that, and your group has dissolved to 1, come on back and read this again. The reality is that people can get great Bible studies anywhere: podcasts, books, blogs, and forums. They can’t get a real, authentic, enjoyable relationship with people from a podcast, though. I’ve written about this more extensively HERE and HERE.
3. Incorporate “serving” into your group.
If you don’t launch with a focus on serving together, your group won’t naturally gravitate towards it. You have to build this as a value into your group. Whether your goal is once/week, once/month, or once/quarter, set some goals and offer some ideas for the group to chew on. Maybe it’ll be a ministry you believe in. Maybe it’s something in your neighborhood. Maybe it’s something that someone else in the group is passionate about. That’s not as important as building in the idea of serving your community.
4. Share your faith story.
Sharing your faith story, and encouraging others to do the same, is essential to building healthy community. If, in the first 8 weeks of your group, you haven’t done this, your group will feel stale and cold. Lecturers have no need to share their story…but small group leaders do! This is a vital step to building authentic community.
5. Share responsibility.
Don’t hoard the responsibilities you’ve been entrusted with in leading your group. It’s important that everything gets done, but you don’t need to do everything. In fact, if you do everything, you’ll burnout. You’ll also not equip others to lead and use their gifts and resources, which should be a role of all group leaders…equipping others to do the work of the ministry by fleshing out their gifts.
When you’re ready to launch your group, keep these 5 non-negotiables handy.
Question: Do you lead a small group? What am I missing? Anything you would add?
*photo credit: iStockPhoto, Digital Skillet
Thought this video from the guys at North Coast Church was worth the share.
Enjoy.
Growth Groups: Bungee from North Coast Church on Vimeo.
image via iStock Photo, Rellas
I recently posed a question (HERE), “What’s a win for your blog?” In the post, I said that a “win” for me isn’t the number of comments or tweets I receive in response to my writing…it’s getting the chance to articulate my thoughts. And many of you heartily agreed with me.
But I began to wonder.
Is that just a cop-out?
Is that just the Resistance (re: The War of Art, Steven Pressfield) saying, “Don’t work harder…it’s not worth the effort.”?
Because if something is written well, shouldn’t it connect and inspire and spark? Shouldn’t it be helpful for others? Maybe it won’t be helpful for everyone, but shouldn’t it be helpful for some? If I’m using my gifts, shouldn’t others be impacted and benefit? (re: 1 Corinthians 12)
It’s not that I need to start writing in order to get comments and shares. That’s backwards and fake and forced. Nobody wants that. That reeks of inauthenticity.
I was talking with a worship leader about his performance between songs on Sunday mornings. When it comes to speaking between worship songs, he admittedly stumbles over his words, not sure what to say or how to best communicate. He gets nervous and clams up. I told him
Just be yourself. Talk about how God’s been speaking to you throughout the week. If God’s been pounding you over the head with the concept of grace, then share that with us. If He’s been convicting you about holding a piece of yourself back from Him…share that with us. If He’s been prodding you to do something new…share that with us. Share from your heart, not just from a canned piece of information that, on paper, connects the dots from one song to the next. If God really is moving your heart throughout the week, and you share from that experience, it’ll connect.
Don’t miss this: that statement is predicated upon his hard work in seeking God throughout the week. Don’t miss that! It’s only after he’s done the hard work of seeking God throughout the week that he can truly share from his heart.
Writing a blog is a lot like that. Do the hard work of being real, improving your writing over time, asking probing questions of your own heart, observing life well…and the result should show an engagement with others at some level. Am I wrong?
In the church world, where I operate, I’ve heard people use the phrase, “It’s not about the numbers” to refer to the fact that they don’t exist just to simply add numbers of people. The problem is that that statement is often used when things aren’t going well, justifying a lack of effort and innovation.* With blogging, never ever use, “It’s not about the comments and the ReTweets” to justify innovation and hard work. Never.
If you’re aiming for mediocre, you’ll hit it every time, regardless of your field of expertise.
Question:
Do you think, “It’s not about the comments or the shares” is ever a cop-out?
Have you ever used a phrase like that to defer criticism of your lack of innovation and hard work?
*Though this isn’t always the case, and I’m not singling out any one church in particular.
*image via iStock Photo, Rellas
Today is our church’s (Grace Community Church) 6th anniversary. But that wasn’t what was on the forefront of our minds.
We live in a town connected with an Army base, Ft. Campbell. So we worship with countless soldiers who live daily with the after-effects of the attack on September 11, 2001. Soldiers whose lives were forever changed that day.
To properly memorialize this monumental day in our country’s history, we sat down with a few soldiers that go to Grace to get their perspective on how life was altered 10 years ago.
image via Coach Jeremy
Ever gotten no response after you write a blog post? Frustrating, no?
I’d rather have haters. Or evil trolls.
The ‘no response’ is equivalent to standing in front of a crowd, pouring out your heart, and people just looking right past you. Or worse…as soon as you’re done, people begin chattering with their neighbors about something else entirely.
Oh well. I’ll keep working hard. Hoping something connects. And reminding myself that through writing, my own thoughts are clarified.
And that’s a win.
If I don’t consistently remind myself what I’m aiming for in my writing (for me: the number one benefit is “clarity”), then I’ll be forever frustrated. But with the “win” defined, no amount of negativity will deter me. It may frustrate me, but it won’t keep me from pressing forward.
Question:
What do you consider a “win” for your writing?
*image via Coach Jeremy
Creative Commons: Dustin and Jenae
Confession: I just may have learned more while working at a coffee shop than I did in graduate school.
I learned plenty of theory in school…but it was ‘real life’ that I learned while working for slightly more than minimum wage with a group of folks who could care less about what I was studying in books written by dead guys.
I developed some amazing relationships while I worked there. With real people who had real problems and real objections and real passions. It became a way that I stayed grounded while being immersed in the world of ivory towers.
Many days, my coworkers and I would talk back and forth about religion, theology, and finding God. They coworkers were always open to an honest dialog, and their responses were much more…*colorful*…than most “church” people share. Which I found refreshing.
We rarely agreed on any matters of faith. But it was okay. We could still work together and serve together even though we were on opposite pages on many key issues.
But I found that there was one thing that caused everyone in the store to bristle up. It didn’t matter if you were a theologian or a hater of all things faith-based. Injustice trumped all of that.
I could be having a dialog about why God exists, with the other person digging in their heels as to why they believe that all of life is just an accident…when out of the blue, one of our coworkers would get chewed out by a customer. And you know what didn’t matter at that moment?
What we believed about God.
We would all rally around that coworker and find out how we could remedy the situation.
One night, we were closed for the evening, and a customer tried to come through drive thru and order a drink. The customer ripped the barista apart for being closed. Injustice. You think the only ones who responded were the ones who believed in an ultimate Creator? Nope. Everyone did.
Fighting injustice together was much more powerful than my talks on apologetics and theology.
One time, 3 people went out of their way to give 5-star service selflessly. The customer stormed off, still angry that her coffee wasn’t perfect, not even acknowledging the sacrifice that the barista made. Injustice. The rest of the baristas felt that injustice and were angry for them.
Once, our ‘tip jar’ was stolen. Which meant that, for that week, each person lost out on a grand total of $1.23. Not a huge deal, right? But that injustice caused all of the workers to get fired up, angry that they (and their friends) were unjustly treated.
I share these things to point out that it doesn’t matter what you believe about God. Whether you’re a 5-point Calvinist, an Evolutionary Creationist, a Deutero-Isaiah-ite, or admittedly a non-follower-of-Christ, injustice is injustice. You don’t’ even have to believe in God for injustice to find you and stir you up.
So is injustice a better apologetic?
We talked in grad school about the theological concept that God’s law is written on even the hearts of people who don’t believe in God (Romans 1:19-23). I got to see this practically fleshed out.
Finding common ground is essential any time you’re trying to defend your faith. But instead of just finding common intellectual ground, you may find more unity around the concept of injustice. Because we all hate it.
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God. – Micah 6:8
Question:
Does ‘injustice’ get you fired up?
Is injustice a better apologetic than traditional, rationally and intellectually-driven methods?
*Photo by Dustin & Jenae
Creative commons: Kai Blake
I’ve heard people say that a structured, time-sensitive service isn’t one that leaves room for the Spirit to work. Ever heard that? Ever said that?
The conversation starts innocently like this:
I wish we could have sung another song…or chorus…or verse.
OR
I wish that _____ (my pastor) could’ve preached just a little longer. OR It’s over already?
And then you follow it up with this bomb
…because the Spirit needed just a little bit longer to work on ____. (or, sometimes if you’re feeling extra humble, you’ll say that the Holy Spirit needed a little longer to work on you.)
And for saying that, I call you a crazy person. Because that’s the only category you fit in right now.
“Why, Ben?” you say. I’ll tell you in 6 points.
1. It says it in the Bible.
Multiple times in the Bible, it tells us that all Sunday morning church services are supposed to last for 1 hour. Don’t question me on that. I went to seminary.
2. We pastors can’t work more than an hour straight.
Like “they” say, preaching a normal-length sermon is like working an 8-hour day. So if we have 2 services every Sunday, we work a 16 hour day. And if we, like we do at Grace, have 3 live services on our campus on Sunday, it’s like we’ve worked a 24 hour day. And you want us to do more?!? You walk a hard line, my friend.
3. How “bad” are you that the Creator of the universe can’t do anything in your life in a solid hour?
*I’m pausing here for dramatic effect, then peering judgmentally over the top of my glasses at you as they slide down to the end of my nose.
4. When you have multiple services on a Sunday, logistics dictates that you have some structured order.
After all, the next service, full of people ready to experience God, is coming.
5. Structure isn’t bad. Is it?
Since when has structuring something been considered evil? We see nothing in the Scriptures saying that limiting the length of a service is anti-Holy Spirit. In fact, we at Grace have found that people are more apt to engage when they know that there will be a planned start and stop time.
6. Structure doesn’t have to limit the Spirit.
To think that the Holy Spirit is limited by time is thinking very little of the Spirit. Can God not work in an hour? How much longer does He need? Does He need just a few more minutes to really do His best work? One more repeat of the chorus…one more killer illustration…one more winsomely timed video?
*image via Kai Blake
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