How to Develop Your New Small Group Leaders

by Steve Gladen  

For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline (2 Timothy 1:6-7 NIV).

No matter what age we are—5, 25, or 55—none of us wants to fail. That desire to avoid failing never seems to leave us. We always want to succeed. Our fear of failure is therefore one of the enemy’s most effective weapons. He uses it to keep us from following God’s lead.

That’s why I love 2 Timothy 1:6-7, especially the critical phrase “fan into flame.” As Paul writes to Timothy, he talks about doing something that will fan a spark into a flame. If you’ve ever gone camping and had to start a fire, you know that fanning a little bit of an ember is a key to having a roaring campfire.

That possibility of fanning into flame your hosts’ leadership potential stands in sharp contrast to their fear of failing. Which road will they choose—the road toward leadership or, because of their fear of failing, a dead-end alley? They’re going to go down one or the other.

When we launched the 40 Days of Purpose campaign at Saddleback Church in 2002, we started out with 3,000 people willing to be a HOST (lead a small group). Many were nervous about the prospect of leading a small group. Most likely, these new hosts were not going to become “leaders” in time for the campaign, which was just a couple of months away. Instead, we asked them to be willing to simply “HOST” a group, which meant have a Heart for people, Open their home, Serve a snack, and Turn on the video or DVD. We felt any weekend attendee could do that.

Then we devised a process of “on-the-job” training for the months after the campaign. At Saddleback we call this plan, the Small Group Leadership Pathway. It takes people from “Come and See” to “Come and “sacrifice”.   It is what Jesus did with His disciples when he first said “follow me” and three years later to was “die for me”.  This pathway helps us to do just that by fanning the leadership potential of our small group Hosts into the flames of leadership. You may find this pathway helpful as you look to move small group hosts into the leadership of your own church.

The first step on our leadership pathway is Leader Training One. This is a monthly basic training session for all new hosts or leaders. The course explains the strategic overview of our small group ministry, gives the new Hosts a few basic “survival” techniques for hosting a group, and shares the support structure we’ve put into place for them. It gives them the overall picture of how groups fit into the strategy of our church and focuses the Leader on the goal of health.

The next section gives them practical things they could do over the next 6 to 12 months in their group to bring health and balance.

The last session teaches them the importance of support and how they can develop support themselves and what support the church provides.

After our Hosts have taken Leader Training One, the church sends them a letter of congratulations and a certificate, which marks their completion of this step. This affirms the Hosts for this important step they’ve taken along the leadership development pathway.

The second step along the Leadership Pathway is connecting the small group Host with a mentoring Community Leader (CL). From that point on, each Host’s Community Leader starts playing a key role in the growth process. A CL is a seasoned member of the church’s small group ministry and a person who the church has identified as someone who “gets it and lives it.” During that time the CL will help the Host realize that he or she is not alone in the journey along the Small Group Leadership Pathway. The CLs will walk with the Host each step of the leadership pathway.

To emphasize just how important this relationship is, Rick Warren, senior pastor at Saddleback Church, sends the hosts a letter introducing them to their Community Leader. Rick describes the CL as the Hosts’ 24/7 connection to the church, so they won’t be alone. In the letter, Pastor Rick encourages the Hosts to contact their CL at any point along the journey and reminds them that the CL is there to help make their small group a success.

The third step, after this connection with the CL is made, along the Leadership Pathway is Leader Training Two. This four-module training course is led by the Host’s Community Leader and often held in the CL’s home.

Leader Training 2 focuses on:

• · Character – Deepening your heart towards worship
• · Skills – Diving below the surface to understand true community
• · Health – Determining your purpose to help your group be balanced
• · Empower – Demonstrating your service to help your group do ministry
• · P.E.A.C.E. – Directing your group towards the P.E.A.C.E. plan

The first module that the CL takes a group through is Health—which teaches the group how to balance the five biblical truths in their group.  After that, if a group is newer in their journey we encourage them to take Character or Skills.  If the group is a bit more mature, then Empower or P.E.A.C.E. is their next step. Upon completion of these modules, the Hosts receive a certificate from their Community Leader congratulating them on being a leader in our church’s small-group ministry. This certificate helps them realize that the church now recognizes them as the core of our leadership team.

The fourth step along the Leadership Pathway focuses on continuing education, which we call Small Group Host Gatherings. We continue to invest in the development of our small group leaders because all leaders should be learners. Small Group Host Gatherings consist of large-group worship followed by elective workshops designed to meet the leaders’ specific needs. We focus on a different one of the five biblical purposes each time.

We hold Small Group Host Gatherings twice a year, in January and in July. The January session is a kick-start after the holidays. The July session prepares the leaders for the upcoming fall campaign. We meet on a Saturday morning from 8 a.m. until noon. During the first two hours we have a keynote speaker; then different workshops are held from 10 a.m. until noon.

The Small Group Host Gatherings also offer continuing education for our Community Leaders. On Friday evening before Saturday’s training, we have a special dinner for the Community Leaders, their spouses, and the keynote speaker. Then, during the Saturday morning elective workshops, the keynote speaker teaches a special session for the Community Leaders.

Through this Small Group Leadership Development Pathway we’ve seen our small group Hosts follow God’s lead, overcome their fear of failure, and choose the road toward successful leadership.

Steve Gladen is the founder of the Purpose Driven Small Group Network and Pastor of Small Group Community at Saddleback Church.

Multiply or Divide? How to Start New Groups

 

by Steve Gladen

When I was in Seminary taking classes on World Missions, one thing my professors stressed was if we wanted to bring the Gospel to other cultures, we needed to be sensitive to those other cultures. We had to focus on principles that would be cross cultural and never bring American idioms into foreign cultures. The principles were biblical, so they would be true in both cultures, but the methodologies must always be flexible and sensitive to the culture. American methodologies don’t necessarily work in other countries, and vice versa.

In my early years of leading a Small Group Ministry, somehow I forgot what I learned in Seminary. When I began small group ministry, I read all the books on Cell Groups, Meta Groups, Small groups, and anything about community in general. All those books from churches around the world and in the United States, taught generally the same methodology—start a group, go a certain amount of time and then birth or split into multiple groups. The phrasing might have varied, but the focus was the same –divide the groups and multiply into new ones. In essence, the books all advocated building community for a short period of time, and then disrupting that community so more groups, and thus evangelism, could happen.

For years I tried to teach that, push that, beg for that to happen; all with the same results – a very small percentage would heed my leading. My goal was for the groups to multiply, but all they did was divide – against me! Now, it could have been an issue with my leadership; but when I talked with the people in other churches, they were having the same problem. Even when I talked with the people in the trenches of the churches writing the books on small groups, I would hear about the same type of problems I was experiencing. What sounded good on paper, wasn’t working out in the day-to-day life of small groups.

Even knowing all this, I continued to try to make it work, because that’s what books said to do. But then, an old tape that was in my head from Seminary kicked in. What was the principle and what was the methodology being used? Where were these methodologies coming from? I started doing some research and realized most of the American small group influence was coming from Korea, China and Columbia. In those areas, their methodology was working and working well. But bringing what worked in their culture into an American culture wasn’t cross-cultural; just as I had learned (and forgotten) in Seminary. The principle wasn’t wrong, but what I learned the hard way was (at least for me in a Southern California culture) the methodology was. The principle was evangelism. They birthed groups in order to see evangelism happen. There is nothing wrong with that! Who doesn’t want to see evangelism happen? What I found to be true was “how” to do that makes a big difference. I want the same principle to happen here at Saddleback Church—evangelism and aggressive evangelism at that! But that methodology just was not working for me. Why was this such a struggle for my church, and the American church in general?

In order to answer that question, I needed to look at what I had been learning about my culture. In doing thousands of Spiritual Health Assessments, I learned the majority of people scored low on the purpose of evangelism. It just wasn’t a strength in comparison to the other four biblical purposes (fellowship, discipleship, worship, and ministry) found in the Great Commission and Great Commandment. Consistently, most people scored the lowest on evangelism.

Another thing I learned in looking at our culture was “community” (community as in Biblical fellowship) was in a fractured state. Family social foundations have seen two major cracks happen. One is the reality that adult siblings are now living greater and greater distances from each other, making family gatherings much more difficult, if not non-existent. Take me for an example; I have three brothers and a sister. Each one of us lives in a different state. Getting together as a family takes a lot of planning and traveling for everyone. As a result, it doesn’t happen as frequently as we would all like.

Another issue attacking the family foundation is divorce. Like it or not, divorce has lasting impressions on the children. We are in our third generation of this rippling effect, sending people looking for “community” that the family system lacks. When you look at these three factors, it is no surprise that very few of the people in my ministry were willing to give up the sense of community they had found within their small groups. And yet, all across America, Small Group Point Leaders are dying on the hill of believing in a principle, but totally missing the correct methodology for their culture.

Let’s all agree, we want to do evangelism in our small groups. Let’s also agree that if birthing groups out of groups is working in your culture, that’s awesome! Let’s also agree, that if it’s not; we need to figure out how to accomplish evangelism in the context of small group life in a way that’s a cultural fit.

At Saddleback Church, we have adopted a methodology that has helped us take our small group ministry from 280 adult small groups to over 3,500 adult small groups over the last twelve years. Since 2004, we have had more people in our small groups than in our weekend attendance. How has this happened? What is our methodology for ensuring evangelism still takes place?

We have found two things to be true. One, it is far easier to start a new group than to get an existing group to multiply. I learned to avoid division by stopping talk of multiplication. Now we add. Two, it is also easier to empower a new person to start a new group with a couple of friends they already have than place them in an existing group of people they may or may not know (or like). We call this the Two Friend’s Rule—if you have two friends you can start the journey and begin a group! If you don’t have two friends…well, uh…there might be another issue.

Our primary strategy, and we have many sub strategies, is our Campaign Strategy. See http://www.saddlebackresources.com/en-US/campaigns for more information. This Campaign Strategy is something we do once a year, usually in the fall. We align the five learning modes around a central compelling question and implement it throughout the church, from the children to the adults. Everyone is on the same page, with a similarly themed sermon series, and delivery of additional materials through the small group system. Roll these factors together and the result is exponential growth and alignment in your small groups. If you don’t have small groups, this strategy is the perfect way to begin them. If you do have small groups, but they all seem to be going in different directions, this is the perfect way to align them.

So, how long do we allow our groups to continue meeting? We let our groups go for life, if they like. We don’t tell them that ahead of time, we let them discover that! Letting our groups focus on building community helps instill some natural by-products. First, it helps them see that you care about their spiritual health and the community needs they have. It also builds trust and opens communication for you to teach evangelism in a safe way that won’t disrupt community in the process.

A common question I get asked at almost all of our conferences, is if you don’t encourage groups to multiply, won’t they become “Us Four and No More” or “Us Seven till We Get to Heaven”?  Again, just because we don’t birth groups, it doesn’t mean we don’t have the people in the groups do personal evangelism—we do! So if they don’t add people to their group, but still effectively do personal evangelism; then it is a win/win. Also, my experience has been, even when you don’t plan to add people to the group—you do. People move, schedules change, life stage changes happen. There are many factors that influence the dynamics of the group. Whatever the factors, however, a group has two options: either it will dwindle to nothing or organically grow.

A key component to launching Groups For Life is to use the yearly Campaign to give people a reason to leave their group. The pastor needs to challenge the people in the group to leave annually. Why? Because leaving a group is hard when you launch it for life. People need a reason to leave, and the pastor asking them to is a great reason. It may be that they just aren’t gelling with their current group, or it may be that God as plans for them to step it up and begin leading another group. Whatever the reason, you need to provide them with an easy out. Over the years three couples have left my small group and started new groups during a Campaign…never to come back. Is that bad? No. Is that strategic? You bet!

Steve Gladen is the founder of the Purpose Driven Small Group Network and Pastor of Small Group Community at Saddleback Church.

 

Infrastructure: The Foundation of Your Small Group Ministry

by Steve Gladen

Last month we looked at “Gathering” as an important part of sustaining groups, now I want to take a look at infrastructure and the role it plays in keeping groups on purpose.  As you start to add groups to your church, a common problem is keeping them.  Groups left on their own will soon fade away.  Without the proper guidance, groups will become social communities, and without purpose people will quit coming because there are more than enough social communities pulling at us.

Let me go through some common questions on infrastructure to help us make “infrastructure” a strategic word instead of a task word. 

What do you mean when you use the term “infrastructure”?  Infrastructure is the term used to describe the supporting structure for groups in your church.  Imagine building a city with no roads.  Can you get around? Sure. But with a little planning and direction, you can make things run much smoother.  I love Ecclesiastes 10:10, If the ax is dull and its edge unsharpened, more strength is needed but skill will bring success. This verse is telling us we need to work smarter, not harder.  Infrastructure gives you the ability to oversee a lot of groups and determine whether health is happening.  And when I refer to infrastructure, I’m not saying you need infrastructure only when you have hundreds of groups.  If you have over 10 groups, you need infrastructure! 

What is the purpose of infrastructure?  The purpose of infrastructure is to design, develop, and maintain the health of your small groups.  At Saddleback Church our infrastructure is designed to develop healthy individuals and groups by balancing the 5 Biblical purposes (The Great Commission and Great Commandment).  Having a design and knowing what you want to develop is not enough. You need to not only develop your design, but also maintain it through relationships. Maintaining may not seem necessary, but it is crucial if you want to stay on course. There is a delicate balance in giving groups the right amount of guidance. Too much and it can crush the group.  Not enough, the group will become purposeless.  This delicate balance can only be achieved through constant relational guidance. 

Do all churches need a small group infrastructure?  Only if you want to stay the course and finish the race strong! Everything needs structure.  We structure for growth, but not for control. 

What “levels” of infrastructure does Saddleback have?  Even though the number of our small groups is in the multiple thousands, our structure is somewhat flat.  We have two levels that oversee the small groups.  A Community Leader (CL) who has a ratio of 1:25 small group leaders, and an Area Leader (AL) who has CL’s under them (the number varies), and has a ratio of 1:250 small group leaders. 

How do you recruit people for the different levels?  It’s all about relationship, make-up and vision.  Everyone has 168 hours a week to give.  How they give of their time is based on where their heart is.  In order to speak to their heart, you need to have a relationship with them.  To have the relationship takes time…period. The end.  You cannot micro-wave relationship!  Make-up is the next key to recruiting.  By make-up I mean, what is their personality and how is their life arranged?  You need to look at two aspects.  First, do they have the heart to shepherd/care for people and take them to where you want them?  Next, do they have the time and availability to do what you want with the commitments they have in life.? To close the deal on recruiting people you need vision.  People will give time to a vision they can believe in.  You need to let them know they are part of something bigger than them and with eternal impact. 

How do you train everyone?  Our job descriptions can be written on a napkin.  People need to know the macro concepts and then be able to go micro as they can take it in.  Again, relational training is always the best choice. The main training for Saddleback infrastructure is based on “care” and how you use “care” to build the 5 Biblical purposes into every group and life.  Once relationships are established, traditional small group training is implemented, and the vision starts flowing. 

How do you keep track of everyone?  One of the churches I worked for in the 80’s was the largest church in America at that time.  That pastor built his church on 3×5 cards and shoeboxes.  When we were switching over to computers and frustrations began to set in, I will never forget him saying, “I built this church on 3×5 cards and shoeboxes and we can go back to that if needed.”  The point is, you can do it without computers, but in today’s era, there are so many programs that can help you keep track of your leaders and their people.  We track people/group development, not attendance.  It is very important to figure out what you want to track before you start to track. 

If I am thinking about adding a small group infrastructure, what should be my first step? Know your desired results and keep the end in mind.  If your people don’t know what they are trying to tangibly produce, then your infrastructure has no guideline or base for success.  Once you know what you want, you can decide what you want to track and how you want to develop groups.  Recruiting can then take place, because you know what to recruit for.  

Infrastructure may not be the most exciting piece of your small group ministry, but it is what sustains your ministry.  Don’t overlook it. It is always far easier to grow groups than sustain them. 

Steve Gladen is the founder of the Purpose Driven Small Group Network and Pastor of the Small Group Community at Saddleback Church.

The Importance of Gathering Your Small Group Leaders

by Steve Gladen

There are two questions inherent in every small group ministry: How do you get people connected into new groups, and how do you sustain existing groups?”  There are two crucial areas you need to consider in sustaining your Small Group Ministry.  One is how you do infrastructure; not sexy, but needed if you have over ten groups in your church.  This topic will be discussed in next month’s issue. The second area, and the topic of this article, is Sustaining Gatherings.

What in the world is a Gathering? Why are Gatherings important and why should your church do a Gathering?  How do you do a Gathering?  Are Gatherings just for large Small Group Ministries?  Each of these questions needs to be answered in order for you to sustain the small groups you start.

What is a Gathering?  MLM’s (Multi-Level Marketing) or companies doing a “pyramid” strategy have known the value of bringing together their people for a rally for some time.  At these gatherings, the companies cast vision, share values, and get their people excited about the future. This is a valuable lesson we can learn from.  The church, however, reaches far beyond any MLM or “get rich quick” pyramid program.  The focus of the church is people and their eternal destination.

A Gathering (Appreciation Event, Small Group Night, Connection Rally, or whatever you want to call it) is bringing together all your small group leadership (current and future) under one roof so they can see the big picture beyond their individual small group. Current leadership consists of those doing the small group ministry, from those working the infrastructure to those leading the groups—anybody and everybody that plays a part.  Future leadership are those that are going to play a future role, but don’t know it yet.  Now don’t spoil it for them, they don’t need to know it now. So, how do you determine who to invite for future leadership?  A couple weeks before the event, ask all of your existing leadership to answer the question, “If you were to be gone tomorrow, who would do your role for the church?”  That is who they invite to the Gathering.  If they don’t know “who”, which is the case more times than not, get them thinking and praying about who to ask.

Why are Gatherings important and why should your church do a Gathering?  People need to be valued and to know what they are a part of.  What is the macro part they play beyond their small group or helping the Small Group Ministry?  A Gathering helps reinforce your church’s vision, values, and reinforces why those in Small Group Ministry are doing what they do.  At Saddleback, we do two Gatherings a year.  We do one in the late summer to get the groups ready for our Fall Campaign.  We do another one after the holidays in January or February to get our groups out of the holiday funk. Our infrastructure has gotten so large now, that in the summer we do a Gathering for our Community Leaders (our infrastructure that oversees all of our 3,500+ adult small groups) and one for Small Group Hosts (leaders).  We call our Gathering just that, Small Group Host Gatherings. 

Here is what a Gathering can do for your church:

• United people under the same focus
• Cast vision repeatedly
• Reaffirm “why” they do what they do
• Honors—shows value for what they do
• Connect them with body—all the other people doing what they do
• Alignment behind common vision & goal of the Pastor
• Help them see what part they play in that vision
• Give people a chance to see their leadership up close and personally – hear from heart & ask questions
• Gain ownership – pulling people together creates a sense of shared ownership in the vision
• An opportunity to recruit new volunteers
• Empower your leaders – newbies seeing leaders take hold of vision
• Instill discipline and motivation to carry it forward. They will sacrifice for a vision not a task.
• Motivation & inspiration, alignment & direction = fuel toward vision
• Demonstration of community produces excitement
• Show the authenticity & integrity of leadership
• Begin to teach your leaders how to think out of the box 

Getting people together to share a common vision is a powerful thing. This is a quote from someone who just attended our last Gathering: ”I was inspired to feel such a personal connection with other people in the room including the pastors who greeted and hugged each guest. I knew in my heart this must be the foundation of Saddleback’s small groups, making each person feel as though they belong while sharing the love of Jesus Christ” -Heidi Harjer (guest from the Rock Church San Diego).

How do you do a Gathering?  Here are some practical suggestions based on what we have learned at Saddleback.  Regardless of the size of your small group ministry, most of the same things need to be done.  The only difference is size and scope. 

1. Set a date – we all need a deadline to do anything.  A Gathering is no exception.  Avoid major holidays and other church events.
2. Get your Senior Pastor there to speak.  Make sure that the date works for the Senior Pastor and put him or her in front of the core leadership of the church. 
3. Have good worship and a flow that has energy, heart and a message.
4. Make sure the Gathering aligns for optimum impact for the launch of small groups on the calendar.
5. Provide food or dessert not pot luck.  When at all possible, invest in your leaders.
6. Budget the Gathering.  When you look at where you spend money, you see what you value.
7. Make it a big deal to elevate emphasis of importance.  Everyone has 168 hours a week.  Make sure they know their hours are needed.  If you don’t, something else will creep in.
8. Word of mouth advertising.  It is important to put your Gathering in the bulletin, mailers, email, social media, etc., but the best invitation is a personal invitation.  Nothing else works better.
9. Keep creative, fresh & new by building on a theme.  It doesn’t have to be expensive and resemble an art festival; but building a theme keeps your message in front of your people.   
10. Personal recognition in program.  It costs you nothing to recognize people.  Recognize the newest, the oldest, the longest doing group life, the youngest…you get the idea, think of a reason to highlight them!  Be sure to recognize spouses—they are the unsung heroes!
11. The more personal the better.  Create low-key & high spirited events. Sizzle fizzles. Let your people see you (authenticity and enthusiasm). Focus on tenor & tone of the presentation to do that.
12. Have them take an action step.  What do you want them to do with what they heard that evening?  Minimally, let them know of upcoming events. 
13. Follow up on their action step after the Gathering is over.   At Saddleback, we follow up with the guests each leader brought to see if they want to be a part of the ministry.
14. Send all participants a personal thank you note for coming, or save the postage and place thank you notes at the tables instead of place cards.
15. Celebrate after the event.  Gather those that planned the event together and write down what worked, what didn’t and what’s next.

Are Gatherings just for large Small Group Ministries? You may be thinking, my church isn’t as big as Saddleback, so do I really need to do a Gathering?  Bottom line – yes!  If I had five groups, I would do a gathering at my house and have them bring “up and coming” leadership—basically, do everything I do for thousands, but scale it down.  Think about it and go set a date for your Gathering!

Steve Gladen is the Pastor of the Small Group Community of Saddleback Church and the founder of the Purpose Driven Small Group Network.