Supporting Leaders/Facilitators

This past month I've had a lot of contact with people who are facilitators of groups. The number one complaint they have is that the support they received from the minister dropped off once things got started and were working well.

If you are a minister who has let the support drop, I invite you to say OOOPS! in the privacy of your study. Once you've done that, schedule your next leader/facilitator meeting. Remember, this model is like a web of ministry fanning out like the veins of a leaf. You minister to your leaders, leading a small group for them and they in turn do the same for the rest of the congregation.

If you really want to use SGM as your ministry model, here is my challenge. Judge your entire ministry by your ministry with your small group leaders. Do this as a private spiritual practice or discipline. As you minister to them, challenge them to do the same with their groups. That is going to raise the bar. It is going to bother some people. But it is also going to transform your congregation and the ministry of our larger faith. It is a different way of being.

Have you had resistance to sharing responsibility with facilitators?

What kind of resistance?

Youth Groups vs. Small Groups

I had a conversation with someone involved with youth and Religious Education recently. It was suggested that youth group/small group ministry models are very different from curriculum/structural models.

There is no doubt that SGM is different. However, I would caution that the "small group ministry" and "youth group" models are not necessarily the same. There is no doubt that we are seeing a convergence of the two. In fact, many youth groups are set up as quasi small group ministries. They have the common ritual, check in, focus, and closing.

But there is more to small group ministry than that basic format. At the heart of small group ministry is intentional empowerment and leadership development with the ultimate goal of helping each individual share their gifts through their personal ministry, in many cases as small group leaders.

I wouldn't call a single group of youth with advisors planning and leading the sessions a small group ministry. The youth group I worked with ten years ago, through a collaborative effort, developed a format identical to small group ministry. That group did very well until they grew to over twenty and now thirty per meeting. The intimacy and deeper explorations/sharing that happened with a small group of ten to fifteen broke down. We didn't have as part of our model training youth leaders to facilitate smaller groups. We didn't have a plan for coupling youth worship with youth small groups. We didn't try to integrate the youth into the larger ministry of the congregation. What happened? Over time it became a larger check in and social focused group with lots of talk about what could be done. Fortunately I went to Star Island and took a workshop on "Small Group Ministry and Religious Education for children and youth"!

If any of you are working with youth or young adults and small group ministry, I'd love to hear from you. I am working on a resource for "YOUTH small GROUP ministry" with an emphasis on how the youth SGM fits into a lifespan model.

In the book The Connecting Church, Randy Frazee suggests that we need to address the need for education OUTSIDE of the worship service and OUTSIDE of the small groups. This is accomplished in his church through bringing groups together into "community groups" of about 50 for traditional classroom style education.

Also, at the upcoming "Spiritual Growth through Small Group Ministry" conference I will be leading a workshop on lifespan small group ministry and my vision for how it can transform our association & larger faith.

If you cannot attend this conference, I am going to offer this one-on-one via phone for those interested. I want to interact with you and get my ideas on lifespan SGM into your head.

Schedule a call.

Purple Church

Over the holidays I revisited the book Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable by Seth Godin. Purple Cow is about marketing by communicating how REMARKABLE your organization or product is. This relates to the UUA's Uncommon Denomination campaign and how we promote our congregations. It also relates to a friends research project I am assisting with -- exploring what a "Wonder Church" would look like. A church for all those people who do not fit in with other religions, including UUism.

As for small groups, Purple Cow challenges readers to think about how to out do your own business. If you could dominate a niche what niche would that be? Who are you trying to reach with your groups? Everyone???

Small group ministry is the ultimate UU tool for serving little niches within out community. One way to do this is to make sure people understand how to adjust the culture of their group and their session content to meet the needs of the group.

An example, I talked to someone recently who was blown away when I said I thought it was fine for the group to add a fifteen minute meditation to their small group schedule. The group had evolved to be more of a buddhist group. I suggested they do this in consultation with the ministry team and discuss being identified as a buddhist affinity small group.

What if you had general groups and affinity groups where people could work together, exploring common spiritual disciplines, teachings, and so on?

We know that there are basic structures need for SGM to work. Beyond those, try and break all the other rules you have in mind regarding church. If we don't someone else will.

UUA President Bill Sinkford has talked about our becoming the most dangerous church in the America. Sinkford says we need to give people "a community that will help them develop spiritually and grow emotionally". I can't see any better way to do this than with Small Group Ministry.

But we're going to have to break some rules. Make some Purple Churches. Do crazy, bold, visionary things with our Small Group Ministries.

If you were going to design a SGM that broke the rules in a way that would help your church reach more people and do a better job helping each individual grow spiritually, what would you do?

Email me your answers. Okay?