SmallGroups Archives - Page 19 of 20 -

Category: SmallGroups (page 19 of 20)

Bike Riding & Community

I rode bikes a fair amount in college.

I was into mountain biking for a while, but going to school in West Tennessee, the flattest part of the state, doesn’t afford many mountains. So I traded the mountain bike in for a road bike. I rode some with my roommate, but also a lot by myself. I would tell people, “I love just getting out there and riding by myself.” I must not have liked it that much, because after college I gave up biking.

In the last couple of months, I’ve picked it back up. I ride three times/week. Twice it’s a shorter sprint, and once/week is a long ride. I’m loving it! And I’m sticking with it. Why?

I experience community when I ride my bike.

You see, I don’t ride alone. I ride with three guys from my community group, one of their sons, and my uncle. Somehow, in riding 30 miles with people, life happens. Significant conversations happen. The distractions of normal life are stripped away, and riding through the country opens up the heart. I’ve built great relationships with these guys, and I look forward to our rides together.

Biking alone is ok, but I

get tired more quickly
don’t have the motivation to keep going
don’t have the motivation to get up early and push myself
get bored
go shorter distances
quit earlier than I intended.

When I bike with the guys, I am encouraged to get up early, to keep riding, to push myself even harder, and to finish the ride.

That’s what authentic, God-honoring community does.

And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. -1 Thessalonians 5:14

Caption this and win!

July 8, 2009 / Ben Reed / 18 Comments

Katrina Watts is the director of Grace Acres (the preschool ministry) and Family Ministry Coordinator at Grace Community Church. She also helps out with Remix on Wednesday nights, and is a community group leader. She, and her co-leader, do an amazing job leading their group, and I’m so glad that the Lord is using her to build community and help people take steps of faith.

She and her group had a cook-out the other night, and this picture was taken (Katrina’s the one standing up, with a black shirt on). What caption would you put under it for her? What’s Katrina thinking? Is she mad? Confused? Why is she not smiling? Leave your caption as a comment (and feel free to leave more than one comment!). I’ll give you guys a few days, and the winning caption will receive a copy of the book that Katrina’s group is going through, Crazy Love, by Francis Chan. I’ll alert the winner by email.

??????

Setting others up for success

June 10, 2009 / Ben Reed / 6 Comments

When I worked as a manager for Starbucks, I was always thinking about the next manager on duty. I wanted to make sure I was “setting them up for success.” That meant making sure the bar was clean, the dishes were put away, the café was tidy, the milk was stocked, the espresso was ready to go, appropriate breaks were given, and, as much as I could help it, morale was high. I wanted the next manager to have greatest chance of succeeding on their upcoming shift. If I did not prepare for this, and work hard to “set them up for success,” I considered my job a failure for that day. Beyond the day-to-day work, I was also striving to train future leaders to do what I did at the company, thus “setting them up for success” in their future with the company.
This is important in leadership. I see this played out in the relationship that Moses had with Joshua. He trained Joshua to be a leader once he was gone. He knew that one day Joshua would be given the lead role, because God had promised Moses he would not enter the promised land. Therefore, Moses worked hard to train Joshua and “set him up for success.” Often, the thought is that the successor of a highly successful leader is a fall-guy. I have seen that happen in churches, where the pastor after the long-term pastor is doomed for failure, and has trouble even getting off of the ground. If the rule of the fall-guy always held true, shouldn’t it have held true for Moses? After all, Moses was considered the greatest prophet of his day! (Deuteronomy 34:10) But Moses had his eyes on the bigger picture. “And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, FOR Moses had laid his hands on him.” (Deuteronomy 34:9) You see, Moses was not content investing only in his own leadership. He invested in the next generation as well. The people responded to Joshua, as soon as he had been given leadership, like this: “All that you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. Just as we obeyed Moses in all things, so will we obey you.” Joshua was set up for success (though it quickly became his responsibility to carry through with the task of leadership: “Only may the Lord your God be with you, as He was with Moses!”) because Moses intentionally took steps to develop him.

How are you setting up others for success in your absence, both in the short-term and in the long-term? Are you controlling the mission, vision, and operation of your organization so tightly that you choke out others?

How are you preparing your children to be a success? What about your co-workers? Your band members? Those in your small group? Are you preparing them to lead? Are you getting them ready for the task that God has called them to do? Or are you so task-oriented that you forget about the bigger picture, and forget that one day you will be gone?

Leadership and Apprenticing, part 4

June 2, 2009 / Ben Reed / 0 Comments

In my last three posts, I’ve given you the positives of apprenticing. Here’s part one on an example and encouragement to find an apprentice, and part two and part three giving you reasons I think it is a viable option of raising up leaders. In this post, though, I’m going to give you my observations on why it is inefficient if used as your sole method of recruiting leaders.

As I said earlier, apprenticeship is not the only method we use here at Grace Community Church. We use a hybrid method, encouraging apprenticeship but also being willing to put somebody into a leadership position who has not yet been apprenticed at Grace. The reason we do that is that apprenticeship has its limitations.

Limitations of Apprenticeship:

1. It doesn’t always happen. As much as you vision cast and “require” leaders to find an apprentice, not all group leaders buy into the idea. They see it as yet another responsibility placed onto their all-too-full plates.

2. It doesn’t always happen as you would like for it to. Some leaders buy into the idea initially, but aren’t able to fully develop their apprentice. For a number of valid reasons, apprentices aren’t being produced.

3. It is a slow process. Apprenticing takes a long time, and if you’re in an organization that is growing, you will find yourself in a leadership deficit really quickly. How do you even measure when apprenticing is complete?

4. Not all groups have future leaders in them. In our small groups, not every group has an apprentice, because quite frankly, not all groups have somebody with leadership potential. That’s not a slam against anybody. Everybody is not called to lead a small group. There are some people who are leaders and others who are followers. Sometimes, groups are full of followers. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I paint myself into a corner if I require all groups to have an apprentice. When I do that, group leaders are investing lots of time into developing leaders out of folks who are not called to be leaders. That’s frustrating for all involved.

_____________________________________________________________________________

I’m sure there are more reasons why apprenticing alone is an inefficient way of recruiting leaders. However, whatever system you are using, you must be recruiting leaders. It is absolutely essential to sustained growth. Whether you are a pastor, the CEO of a major corporation, a store manager, or a small group leader, your organization will suffer if you are not intentionally raising up leaders.

You can take that to the bank.

And if you do, be sure to find out how they’re raising up good leaders.

The end of email?

June 1, 2009 / Ben Reed / 10 Comments

I’m a small groups pastor, and the major way I communicate with small group leaders outside of Sunday morning is via email. I’d love to be able to have coffee with all of them regularly (because they’re some of my favorite people), but it’s just not possible. With the fast-paced nature of our society, and our group leaders in particular, combined with my own personally busy schedule, the ability to communicate important information to multiple people at once is essential.

When I communicate via email, much of the information I send out is never read. In fact, one of the guys on staff (who will remain unnamed) told me that if my email is more than one line long, he won’t read it! I could get upset about this, take it personally, and require group leaders to read the weekly (though it’s more like bi-weekly) emails. But you and I both know that that approach would not lead to increased reading and response to this important information.

I’ve tried vastly shortening my emails. Now, instead of a devotion before the “important” stuff, I start with “Here are the vitals you and your group need to know…” I give them a list of a few major things, and that’s it. But still, the emails are not being read. Why?

Why my emails (and yours) aren’t being read:

1. Their inbox is already full of other important information. My email is 1 of 1000 that they “have” to read.

2. It takes thought to read emails. Reading my emails is not always mindless, because they need to read and process the information for their group.

3. My emails are boring. Since I’ve pared them down to only vital information, they’re pretty boring. Concise? Yes. Thrilling? Not even by a long shot.

4. “I’ll read it later.”

__________________________________________________________________________

So are we seeing the end of email? Maybe. Email is boring and lifeless. It’s often filled with spam, and forwards that we don’t want to read. We get mass emails and “reply all” messages that don’t pertain to us, and our inbox rarely reaches zero. The rest of the world has taken massive leaps forward in terms of communicating, yet email still seems to lag behind in black & white letters and numbers.

I’ve begun utilizing Twitter and Facebook to communicate with my team. Both of these platforms integrate networking with information sharing. Communication moves from the mere passing of information into the realm of knowing somebody better. I put a face with a name in Facebook. I get a snapshot of a person’s life (at least what they want the public world to see) in Twitter. That’s where lots of the group leaders at Grace Community Church “hang out,” so that’s where I’m going to communicate.

I have recently begun using The Flip video camera. I’ve really liked the ease of use, because I can throw it in my bag and have it ready to catch the many things that my wife and I don’t want to miss our son doing. In addition to family videos, I’ve begun using it to shoot some videos for our small groups. I have a lower quality version, but there are even some new, HD models of the Flip available. At the end of the day, I’d sacrifice video quality for ease of use. Based on the response of my small group leaders, they’d much prefer watching me yack on a video than reading it.

Is email dead? I think it’s being quickly outpaced by lots of other mediums.

How do you communicate? What medium to you prefer? Maybe, more importantly, which mediums do “your people” prefer?

Here’s the video I sent to my small group leaders. It’s not the best video you’ve ever seen, but I know that more people watched it than normally read my emails:

Leadership and Apprenticing, part 3

June 1, 2009 / Ben Reed / 0 Comments

This is the third part in a series on one specific model of recruiting leaders. You can read parts one and two if you’d like. These are my concluding thoughts on the value of using apprentices to grow leaders in your organization or ministry.

Advantages of using apprentices to grow your organization (#6-#12):

6. They have seen leadership in action. In my role, as small groups director, this is huge. I love when a group leader has an apprentice, because that apprentice has seen their group leader navigate difficult situations and lead people effectively.

7. They are insiders. They’ve been a part of the organization for some time now, and the company’s DNA has become their own.

8. Others in the organization don’t wonder, “Where did this guy come from?” They have seen the apprentice in the halls on Sunday, or in the office throughout the week, and they’ve built a relationship with the person, whether that’s a surface-level or deeper. There’s a credibility and trust that has been built. Credibility and trust aren’t built overnight.

9. They have been preparing themselves for the specific role. They knew that this move was coming. They knew that, at some point, they would be asked to lead. They’ve been praying about it, reading books on it, talking with other leaders who are doing what they will be doing, etc.

10. They have influence within their sphere. They aren’t somebody who has no relationships. They’ve been working to develop relationships. When they’re asked to take the lead, there are people who will immediately follow them.

11. It’s not a risky way to find leaders. Leadership develops over time, not overnight. The apprentice has been developing over the course of months, or even years. If at some point you need them to lead, it’s easy to evaluate whether they’re ready or not by talking with their leader, who has been evaluating them over the course of their apprenticeship. If they’re not ready, just give them some more time to develop. No harm, no foul. You can avoid placing them in a leadership position that they aren’t ready for, which is a definite “win”.

12. You can put them in the exact position that fits their gifts. You have observed their leadership potential, have gotten to know them, and can help evaluate strenghts, weaknesses, and areas of interest.

In the end, apprenticeship sets up future leaders for success, equipping them for the leadership role to which God is calling them.

However, apprenticing has its downsides and challenges. Check back for my thoughts on the disadvantages.

Leadership and Apprenticing, Part 2

May 28, 2009 / Ben Reed / 0 Comments

Wikipedia defines apprenticeship as “a system of training a new generation of practitioners of a skill. Apprentices (or in early modern usage “prentices”) or proteges build their careers from apprenticeships. Most of their training is done on the job while working for an employer who helps the apprentices learn their trade, in exchange for their continuing labor for an agreed period after they become skilled.”

In part one of this series, I made a plea for apprenticing, gave an idea on how to do it, and encouraged you to both find someone who will apprentice you and find someone to apprentice. In this post, I’m going to give you some advantages of using the apprentice method of recruiting leaders. I tend to think of leadership through the grid of church ministry, and specifically small group ministry, but have tried to keep things broad enough so that if you’re not directly involved in church leadership, you can find these principles and observations helpful.

Obviously, there are tons of different ways to locate and recruit leaders for your organization. This is one of them.

5 Advantages of using apprentices to grow your organization:

1. They already buy into the vision. If they’ve apprenticed for a time in the ministry, then they know the vision and have bought into where the ministry is headed. This helps give your ministry synergy to take leaps forward.

2. They know how the organization should work. They’ve sat in leadership meetings, led some themselves, been a part of training events, and seen the organization in action. This gives them a great advantage over outsiders coming into the organization seeking leadership.

3. Somebody else believes in them. The person who has been apprenticing them is a person who believes in the apprentice’s abilities, character, and leadership potential. They will be a huge advocate for the apprentice, and likely already have been.

4. They have an insider who will continue to invest in them. Their leader, who asked them to apprentice, will not completely abandon their relationship with this new leader. They have been developing the relationship over the course of their apprenticeship, and will (hopefully) continue investing in this person. If you hire (or recruit) from outside of the organization, those support relationships have to be developed.

5. They’ve already been given the chance to lead. The apprentice isn’t taking a huge step when he or she becomes a full-fledged leader. It doesn’t seem, to them, that they’re making a leap, but rather stepping into a role that feels more natural to them.

I’ve got a few more reasons. Check back soon for the next post.

What’s your primary method for recruiting leaders? Do you encourage apprenticeship?

Leadership and apprenticing

May 27, 2009 / Ben Reed / 1 Comment

One problem in any organization or church is finding good leaders. Should you take a risk on a young person with unproven talent? Should you hire the older guy who’s a proven leader but set in his ways? Do you recruit somebody from within, or go outside the organization? Do you put somebody into a leadership position who needs training, or who can hit the ground running? Male? Female? Somebody just like you, or somebody who is nothing like you?

One method of raising up leaders is the apprenticing method, and I happen to be a big proponent of finding and training leaders this way. I know that it comes with its set of problems, the main problem being that it takes time to produce leaders. The number of leaders needed in your ministry will (hopefully) increase (assuming your church is growing numerically), and if your only method of recruiting leaders is by requiring existing leaders to apprentice somebody in their group, you will find your ministry in a leadership deficit. So, at GCC, we have a hybrid method. I strongly encourage apprenticing, but am also aware that we will be desperately hurting for leaders if we only get leaders who have apprenticed for 6-18 months. So, I have my cake and eat it, too. Apprenticing is the best way, I believe, but I’m willing to place others into leadership position that haven’t yet apprenticed.

If you have an apprentice, whether you’re involved in a small groups ministry or in any kind of leadership, let me encourage you with one thing: take them with you when you go places. Ask them to tag along when you go to conferences or to meetings. Share with them what you’re reading, how you’re growing, and what you’re learning. Let them see what you do and how you do it. Be available to answer questions, whether they’re professional or “life” questions. Give them a snapshot of your leadership on a regular basis.

Isn’t that what Jesus did with his disciples? His disciples traveled with him, asked him questions, and did ministry together with him. He even gave them authority! (Try doing that with an apprentice…I bet they’ll love it)

I had coffee with a leader and the apprentice from a small group here at GCC. It was definitely worth my cost of one more cup of coffee! I was able to help the leader evaluate his small group (what they’re doing well, where they need improvement, how they are continuing to grow, etc.), cast our vision of group life to the group leader, and thank him for what he’s doing…right there in front of the apprentice! It was amazing to see the leader and the apprentice interact, and to give them a taste of what group life would look like if everybody in the group would take significant steps in discipleship throughout the life of the group. I could have communicated only to the group leader, but meeting with the leader and the apprentice was more effective for everybody.

Do you have an apprentice? Are you apprenticing anybody?

Leadership Training

May 1, 2009 / Ben Reed / 0 Comments

One of the questions that I had for other groups pastors when I began leading group life at Grace was, “How do you do leadership training?” Honestly, I didn’t get any satisfactory answers. Some said that they do an intense, all-afternoon training once/month, 2 all-day trainings/year, and even more training for new leaders. Whew! It wore me out just hearing their plan! Other leaders only take their group leaders to conferences for training. Some churches don’t do anything. I wasn’t satisfied with any of those plans. I’m always trying to think of outside-the-box ideas on how to train small group leaders here at Grace Community Church. This week, I’m leading a training, and I’m pretty excited about it. Here are some of the highlights. If this is something you can apply in your setting, feel free to use it! If you’re a small group leader, consider sharing this with your groups pastor. I’ve laid out the general idea/direction that we’re going. I haven’t included specifics, because I haven’t completed the training yet, and want leaders to feel like they’ll get new information by coming!

Here are the guiding principles I developed for leadership training:

1. Do training on the night that groups meet. By offering training on the nights that each of our groups meet, I ensure that they’ve got the night available. In other words, if your group meets on Tuesday nights, then you’ve set aside every Tuesday night already, so the excuse of, “I’ve already got something else planned on that night” doesn’t work. In addition, this pushes group leaders to find an apprentice to lead their group that night. Group leaders must ask someone in their group to lead while they attend the training. This helps us to locate potential leaders, and gives those potential leaders the chance to actually lead the group for a night.

2. During the training, give leaders time to talk with each other. You do that in small groups, right? Then why should leadership training be any different? If your small groups are driven by discussion (and not by a teacher behind a lectern), then why should your training events be vastly different? Leaders can connect with each other, be encouraged by each other, and learn from successes and failures that they’re all having.

3. Make the training worth their time. I’m presenting new information, new stuff that they could not get elsewhere. It’s not stuff that I could simply share by email. It’s much better to communicate these things with them face-to-face. If the leaders feel like it’s a waste of their time, they won’t come. I need to make sure that what I’m sharing is helpful for them and their group, both immediately and as they’re thinking about how to grow their group in the future. If what I’m sharing could be shared in an email, I’d share it in an email…that would be much easier, quicker, and cheaper.

4. Honor them. They’re leading groups for you on a regular basis…at least get them some food! Let them know how much of a difference they’re making in the lives of those they’re ministering to.

5. Cast vision. I’m going to change their minds about something. I want them to leave with a different view on small groups and the church than when they came. If they don’t leave with a different thought, then why did they come? If I don’t work to change their minds about something, then I’d say the training wasn’t worth their time.

I’m honored to have the opportunity to sound the trumpet for small groups here at Grace. My prayer is that others would hear the trumpet and come on board.

Tiger Woods needs a coach?

April 9, 2009 / Ben Reed / 0 Comments

With The Master’s PGA tournament going on, I thought it fitting to write about Tiger Woods, who, in my estimation, is the greatest golfer of all time. If asked who the greatest golfer in the world is right now, 99.99% of people would say, “Tiger Woods.” The other .001% of people don’t know what golf is. If asked who’s the greatest golfer in the world throughout history, most would still say, “Tiger Woods.” Part of that is that we oftentimes cannot look beyond the present, and forget that there were plenty of good golfers in the past, but the part that I would to look at today is that he is that good. When Tiger retires from golf, likely he will have blasted every golf record known to man, leaving past, present, and future golfers behind.

As good as Tiger is, he still needs a coach.

If Tiger played a round of golf with his swing coach, Hank Haney, Tiger would likely beat him every time. If you were to watch both of their swings on slow-motion video, you’d say that Tiger’s is better. Tiger’s got more money, more tournament wins, and more experience in the clutch moments. He can hit his drives further, his irons straighter, and his putts truer. Yet Tiger has elected to hire a coach. Not only that, Tiger has improved after having a coach. Why might the greatest golfer of all time need a coach? Can he not just coach himself? Does he really need to improve?

I began a team leader (coaching) structure last year for our small group leaders. One reason is that I cannot offer adequate care for our small groups, because I am only one person. Coaches extend my arms and hands to minister to more leaders. The second reason is that our small group leaders need coaching. They need somebody to come alongside them, encourage them, show them what they’re doing that needs improving, and help them to implement these changes. So what advantage does a coach offer?

1. Coaches notice things that you don’t notice. Tiger Woods can’t see his own golf swing. In fact, nobody can see their own golf swing. Tiger needs somebody else to watch the details of his swing. You, in your leadership position, need an outsider to coach you. By outsider, I mean that you need somebody who is not in your organization, in your circle of friends, in your small group, or one who reads the same books that you read. Those in your organization tend to be blinded, missing the same mistakes that you miss. Outsider coaches offer a different perspective than those on the inside.

2. Coaches offer advice that others may not offer. Coaches have your best interests at heart, not your best “feelings.” Coaches are not the ones who only tell you what you’re doing correctly. They’re not afraid to tell you that you’re falling flat on your face, because they want you to do your best.

3. You need to improve. If Tiger Woods, the best golfer in my generation, and possibly the best golfer in all of history, needs to improve, then so do you. Your leadership can improve. Your influence can increase. You can become more effective. You’re not going to get there by critiquing yourself. You are not perfect, and there is surely room for improvement in your leadership, organization, or ministry.

By surrounding yourself with coaches, you make the statement, “I don’t have everything figured out, and I need help improving.” Is that a suicidal statement in the leadership world? Just ask Tiger.

Do you have a coach? You need one. So do I.

You can also read this post here, on the site, Small Group Exchange.