Connection Central

This week is the launch week of FALL SEASON 2008 for LIFE Groups here at Word Alive. Thanks to you, fifty-six LIFE Groups launched this new Fall Season. That means 56 great places for people to connect. That’s 56 places to find purpose, meaning, focus, fellowship, and friendship. Here’s a great big thank you from all of us to all of you! Have a great and prosperous season.

For those who missed the Fall Season group leading, begin thinking about a LIFE Group for the Spring Season that will serve your passion and bring LIFE to others. You can start bouncing around your ideas now. Email me at bill@wordalive.org with your thoughts for the future.

This week Kent started a series on laws of life. What a great revelation to know that there is a higher law that frees us all from the ever-present law of sin and death. The law of the Spirit of Life in Christ has certainly released us to soar above the gravitational pull of sin. I encourage you to encourage your groups this week with testimonies of being lifted above on wings of eagles. Recount the times you have mounted up to escape this laws of the world and enter into the higher law of heaven.

Here are 12 simple guidelines that will help you succeed in this fall season 2008

• Make Calendar with dates, times & locations. Use the attendance sheet provided.
  
• Draw people to you. Invite the people you meet, at church, at work…
  wherever you have opportunity.
  
• Manage your groups. Check on the people who are absent. Keep track of the people who join you.
  
• Stick to your promotion.
  
• Don’t be afraid of food. If you can, have a hospitality committee in your group.
  
• Be sensitive to time. We suggest an official ending time for your meeting where people can feel at liberty to leave. We also suggest having a final time thirty minutes after that.
  
• Be vigilant to manage your group in discussions so that everyone has an equal opportunity to participate.
  
• Numbers are not important! It is only important that people connect and that leaders be identifies and encourages for the next season.
  
• Groups should end the week of Nov 24th.
  Please plan to attend our Christmas Party/Debrief Dec 6th.
  Report and relate to Your LIFE Group Coaches
  
  Nanette Mudiam and Nancy Mitchell – Prophetic and Prayer Groups
  Bill Byrd and Cecil Kessler – Hobbies and Sports Groups
  Steve Waters and Huck Fincher – Ministry and Missions Groups
  Mark Harris and Chris Mahy – Books and Bible Studies
  Danny Schneck and Keith Mitchell – Fellowship, Food, and Fun Groups

Turning a church “with” small groups into a church “of” small groups
by Lance Witt

Becoming a church of small groups is a popular topic in some church circles these days. But what exactly does that mean? I define it three ways.

First, a church of small groups can’t accomplish its mission without groups. Groups are so central to your church’s vision that you couldn’t accomplish it without them. It’s not just a complimentary part of your vision; it’s essential.

Second, small groups are seen as a primary delivery system of the church mission. When the church looks at what God wants to do through it in the community, a church of small groups asks, “How can we do it through small groups?”

Third, small groups are in the DNA of your church’s philosophy of ministry. Your church must have a biblical conviction that groups – and building community – are important.
So how do you do it? How do you go from where you are right now to a church of small groups?

Let me give you nine steps in this journey.

Develop your own clarity and conviction about small groups. As the pastor, you need to come to a time when God convicts you that your church needs to move toward this. I had a time like that. I was a senior pastor of a growing church. Yet there was a gnawing sense that something was wrong. We weren’t doing a good job of developing leaders. We weren’t doing a good job of really reaching our community. I personally wasn’t living in community. I knew I couldn’t live like that forever. I didn’t want to spend the rest of my ministry just keeping the machinery of the church going.So for the next year I started really looking at what God was doing around the world. I read everything I could get my hands on. I discovered two things. First, everywhere God was at work prayer was part of the fabric of how they did church. Second, God convicted me that small groups were how these churches “did church.” It wasn’t a program. It was how they did church. That became a biblical conviction for me. I’d encourage you to spend some time in God’s Word really wrestling with what the Bible says about community. You’ll need that biblical conviction if you’re going to make this transition.


Realize this is messy and will take time. To move from a church that is just intrigued with small groups to a church that has small groups at its core will take time. It’s a very long and messy process. In fact, as you make this transition, you’ll have to spend a lot of the leadership capital and relational credibility you’ve amassed in your church. If you’re new to the church and haven’t earned this capital, you might want to wait. It’s not that anyone will disagree with you about the importance of community. But you’ll have to mess with how people do church to do this. So move slowly. You’ll also have to show savvy leadership, knowing who to influence and how to influence them. You can’t do that quickly.


Build a consensus within the church. You have to manage the change process in your church. Most churches (although this is a vast generalization) have three different leadership components. The systems and structures of the church are often led by either the senior pastor or an elder group. The strategy and philosophy of how ministry gets done in a church is often owned by the staff. The more tactical details of ministry are typically set by lay leaders. You’ll have to build a consensus among all three of these groups if you’re going to transition to a church of small groups. You’ve got to get them to buy in. As you try to build consensus, try to do these two things.


Identify the formal and informal leaders of the church. Then spend some time with those leaders discussing your vision. Maybe look into having an all-day retreat to do so.
Know the difference between alignment and attunement. You can force organizational alignment. You can tell people that you’re going to do small groups in your church. Attunement, on the other hand, is all about the heart. You want to create both organizational alignment and buy-in from the heart level. Getting buy-in is harder, takes much longer, and is far messier. It’s also the only way to make lasting change.

Build small groups within your own context. Distinguish between the wine and the wineskin. Remember when Jesus changed the water to wine in John 2? What was more important, the wine or the wineskin? The wine, of course. I missed this early in my journey with small groups. The wine is helping people develop true community. The wineskin is how you do small groups. It will look different from church to church. You need to understand your own context. Don’t just pick up someone else’s formula for small groups. Look at your own context first. Adopt a model but adapt it to your congregation.


Cast a vision. Somebody has to be the megaphone that inspires people to be a part of small groups. It would be great if this was the senior pastor. If it’s not, you’ll always be climbing uphill. But someone has to do it. Someone has to pain the picture of what it looks like to be in true community. Someone has to tell the story of what God is doing through groups in your church.


Develop a vocabulary in your church for small groups. When God first moved me and the church I served toward small groups, one of the first things we did was script out answers to some of the questions we expected to get on small groups. This ended up being great. It meant we were all saying the same thing. You need to make sure everyone on your team is saying the same thing about groups in your church. Try to use the same wording if possible.


Create space for groups in your church’s schedule – and on the campus – for groups. Most of the events in our churches compete with small groups, not compliment them. We did this for awhile at Saddleback. We had 12- and 13-week on-campus discipleship classes. Truthfully, though, our people were not going to come to these classes and small groups. If we wanted to get people into small groups, we had to do things differently. So we shortened the classes and encouraged groups to attend the classes together. Sometimes we used the on-campus groups to jump-start small groups on the topic. Take a look at what’s on your schedule and make sure you don’t have other programs dragging people away from small groups.We also realized that our campus needed to be a catalyst not a container. We didn’t mind using a room on campus to help get groups going, but we wouldn’t let them continue on campus for a long time. At Saddleback, we didn’t have a choice. We didn’t have enough room to have all the groups on campus, but it’s a good idea to move them anyway. Otherwise group leaders see the room you’ve given them as their room – and they don’t believe they can meet God without it.


Develop a coaching infrastructure. There’s a big correlation between support and sustainability. Early on at Saddleback we did a great job of getting most of the people in our congregation involved in groups, but we didn’t do so well in supporting those groups. This happened with many churches that did 40 Days of Purpose. They had a huge spike in the number of small groups through the campaign, but then that number dropped off dramatically afterwards. Why? Generally, there was no infrastructure. If you’re trying to teach the congregation that small groups are where you go when trouble floats into your life, and then you strand the leaders after they get started, you’re sending mixed messages.You don’t have to do this with staff either. You can build this coaching infrastructure with volunteers as well.


Dedicate more resources to group growth and group resources. If you believe in small groups and believe they are integral to the fulfilling the mission of your church, your budget should reflect that. In most churches, the weekend service costs far more money than their groups do. That won’t happen in a church of small groups.
It can be a long journey from being a church with small groups to a church of small groups. But true biblical community is worth the work. These nine steps can help you get there.

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.” - Plutarch

“If you plan to build a tall house of virtues, you must first lay deep foundations of humility.” - Augustine

“Love is blind – marriage is the eye-opener.” - Pauline Thomason

According to the Census Bureau, 60 percent of single adults 18 and over in America have never been married. Another 25 percent are divorced. Fifteen percent are widowed. - (Source: U.S. Census Bureau)

“Many promising reconciliations have broken down because, while both parties came prepared to forgive, neither party came prepared to be forgiven.” - Charles Williams

Quotes on Change

"Change is the law of life and those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."~ John F. Kennedy

"Every generation needs a new revolution."~ Thomas Jefferson

"The most successful businessman is the man who holds onto the old just as long as it is good, and grabs the new just as soon as it is better."~ Robert P. Vanderpoel

"If you want to make enemies, try to change something."~ Woodrow Wilson

"Neither a wise man nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him." ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower

Turn your mistakes into opportunities by Mary Southerland

I am sure you have heard the story of Ivory soap, the "soap that floats." Years ago, this soap was just another brand among many until a factory foreman made a mistake. He left a fresh batch of soap in the cooking vat and went to lunch. When he was late getting back and the soap had overcooked, the foreman frantically examined the burned soap. It seemed to clean the same. The only difference he could see was in the weight. The burned soap was lighter.

He could either report the mistake and risk being fired, or he could make the best of it and ship the soap out as if nothing had happened. He shipped it out. The results surprised everyone. Instead of complaints, the company was deluged with orders for this new "floating soap" and the foreman was promoted.
God works the same way, taking our mistakes and sins and bringing good out of them. Paul said it well in Romans 8:28 (HCSB), "We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to his purpose." If we let him, God will use the pain of our sin and the results of our mistakes as the foundation upon which he can build a new life and a more effective ministry.
God works through our mistakes, knowing there is strength in pain that can be gained no other way. God does not eliminate mistakes, but he does step into the midst of the mistakes we bring to him. At our invitation, God's very presence fills those mistakes with power and fresh hope, redeeming them for new truth and insight.
God is not committed to our comfort, but he is committed to our character – to making us more like Jesus. He will use every part of our life to make that happen. God does not waste a single experience, and there are no "scraps" of life to be thrown away! He even uses our mistakes for good.
God uses mistakes to direct us. Some of my biggest mistakes have yielded the most powerful lessons in my life, pointing me in a new direction or revealing an area that needed change. As the writer of Proverbs 20 explains, "Sometimes it takes a painful experience to make us change our ways."
God uses mistakes to inspect us. People are like tea bags. If you want to know what is really inside, just drop them into hot water! How we respond to mistakes, problems, and sin tests the strength and reality of our faith. James 1:2-3 (NLT) says, "Whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy. For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow."
God uses mistakes to correct us. Some lessons simply cannot be learned in the light; they are wrapped in the darkness of pain and defeat. I remember when our daughter, Danna, was a toddler and had a fascination for electric outlets. I repeatedly pointed to each outlet in our home and firmly said, "No! No!" It was not until she stuck an object into one of those outlets, burning her little finger, that she learned the lesson and changed her behavior. We would be wise to choose the attitude of the psalmist, "It was good that I had to suffer in order to learn your laws. The teachings [that come] from your mouth are worth more to me than thousands in gold or silver" (Psalm 119:71-72 GNT).
God uses mistakes to protect us. A problem can be a blessing in disguise if it prevents us from being harmed by something more serious. Several years ago, a family friend was fired for refusing to do something unethical that his boss had asked him to do. His unemployment was a problem and seemed like a huge mistake – but it saved him from being convicted and sent to prison a year later when his former management's illegal actions were eventually discovered. Genesis 50:20 in the Message paraphrase says, "You planned evil against me but God used those same plans for my good."
God uses mistakes to perfect us. When responded to correctly, mistakes and problems are character builders. In Romans 5:3-4 (NLT), the apostle Paul says, "We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation."
God is at work in us – even in our mistakes, and even when we do not recognize him or understand his process.
Take a closer look at your mistakes. Have they become an albatross around your neck, constantly reminding you of your failure and inadequacy in ministry? Do past mistakes keep you from stepping out in faith today? It's time to examine each failure through a new God-given perspective for the valuable nuggets of truth and the treasures that the darkness holds.