Power of 10

“If a group doesn’t help each other connect it will end quickly.

If a group doesn’t help each other change, it will end within a year.

If a group fails to become mission minded it might last a long time but eventually it will become very dissatisfying.”

Bill Search from his book ‘Simple Small Groups’

I can relate to the above quote by Bill Search.  Been there and done that.  In recent months, I have been thinking a lot about the missional component of small groups because in most cases it seems to be the part of group life that gets most easily neglected.  Problem is, to not prioritize ‘mission’ in group life is to disregard who and what we believe in.  The body of believers has been called to serve each other and to serve others.  There is no getting around it.

So here is an idea for you.  Not sure who came up with the idea but I think it has tons of potential.  We are looking at potentially inviting all the men of our church to be a part of what we are calling a ‘Power of 10′ group.  Here is a brief summary of the idea:  10 people giving $10 to meet a need.  Simple as that.  The rest is up to you to figure out.  Actually, the rest is up to the Holy Spirit to figure out and lead you to do.

My group is just getting started but let me share some initial takeaways.  Our group gives $10/week so between the 10 of us that is $100/week.  We pray for opportunities to serve with the resources that are available.  You see where this is going?  We grow spiritually as we lean into God and rely on Him to lead us.  We grow relationally as we marry our resources together and serve needs that arise.  We are used by God to serve those in need and draw them closer to Him.  It doesn’t get any better than that!

It’s been so life giving to see how God is stirring in each of my group members.  They are excited about the adventure that lies ahead.  Over the next 2 years, our group will contribute over $10000 to this little journey.  We have talked about saving $3000 of it to send with our Haiti teams and using the rest in our community however God sees fit.  The opportunities are endless, that is what makes it so exciting.

Groups that last are groups that figure out a way to inspire every member of the group to begin doing exactly what it is that they feel they have been put on this planet to do.  The ‘Power of 10′ is just one way to harness the potential of 10 surrendered bodies and to let God do the rest.

So what?

Many of our small groups at Oakbrook are currently studying the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan.  I am reading it for the 3rd & 4th time as I write this.  In one group, we are in Chapter 8.  In another group, we are in Chapter 5.  I read it 2 times before that.  It is just one of those books that takes a lot of processing.  I have probably recommended this book more than any other book I have ever read.  Call me a junkie…..I am.

But the real reason that I am reading this book again and again is that I am tired of just reading a book and then moving on to the next book on my list without there being any change produced in me as a result of reading whatever I have read.  Same goes for when I read God’s Word.  The book Crazy Love is one of those books that will call you to something greater than the Americanized form of Christianity that we live.  It leaves you with a choice: to adjust how you live daily or stay the same.  I’ve needed to read it multiple times for God to teach me how to make some adjustments.  It’s been hard but it’s also been life giving.

This leads me to why I love the potential of a small group environment.  It’s in the context of community that we can be faced with the question ‘So what?’.  We are often asked this question in a Sunday sermon, but the question does not become personal until we are asked by someone who is expecting a response.  So what?  Or in other words, what are you going to change as a result of what you have heard or learned as it relates to becoming more like Christ?

Change is never easy.  It’s usually uncomfortable.  But we are called to it.  The way of Christ is counter cultural.  Every conversation we have carries the power to change, but it takes the courage and intentionality to ask the ‘So what?’ question.  As a leader, I want to encourage you to consider answering and asking the ’so what’ question in all your discussions.  If we don’t, we may miss out on countless opportunities to feed the sheep we have been entrusted with.

60-40 Principle

Over the past 5+ years as a ’small groups’ guy, I have had several conversations with frustrated group leaders wondering why their groups just won’t ‘take off’ like they had hoped.

Here is my answer: 

A small group is not a program or a thing to do as part of ‘doing church’, it is a way of life. 

In short, a group that meets 2x/month will not likely end up where you hope.  In fact, more than likely, groups that meet 2x/month usually result in a conversation where I am trying to rescue a wayward leader from committing small group suicide.

None of us need another thing to do.  What we need is a new way to live.

I believe that we need to lead our groups into a relational way of life like the one modeled by the early church.  A life that is modeled by loving and serving others not a life that is controlled by our schedules and ‘to do’ lists.  There is immediate tension when we evaluate this for ourselves and when we try to steer others in this direction, but it is a tension that we all need to fight because it is a fight of selfish vs. selfless.

Groups are a way of life.  I thought these comments by Scott Boren in his book, The Relational Way, were very practical for us as leaders as we evaluate the current health and future direction of the groups we lead:

“The vision for small groups must extend beyond the weekly meetings.  The small group meeting is crucial to group life, but in my experience in participating and leading effective groups, the meeting contributes about 40% to the life of a healthy group.  The other 60% is a result of random life connections between group members.  Good meetings are important, but we need life connections with people who will love us, challenge us, pray for us, and support us.  This cannot be done in ninety minutes once a week or twice a month.”

Read Acts 2.  This small group thing is a way of life.  Quit settling for anything less and lead people to begin living this way with you.

The Community Channel is back.  Let the dialog begin.

Leaders, are YOU a shepherd?

We’ve probably all heard the concept of shepherd leadership.  But do we really think about what this means?  Do we lead like shepherds?  Jesus does.

Shepherds guide their sheep…they never drive them.  In fact, if you try and drive a group of sheep they will scatter…..the way to move a group of sheep is to lead them in the direction you want them to go.

“Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers – not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; not lording over those entrusted you, but being examples to the flock.  And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive a crown of glory that will never fade away.”   1 Peter 5:2-4

We are called to lead like shepherds.  But remember, the life of a shepherd yields little glory.  Sheep are very frustrating to lead!  But that does not mean we stop leading like a shepherd.  It is so easy for us as leaders to put tasks before people and when we do, we stop leading and begin ‘driving’ people in the direction we want them to go.  We begin looking at people as the objects that help us achieve our goals rather than people we are called to love and serve.  Just like sheep, when we ‘drive’ people rather than ‘love’ people they will scatter.

Leaders, are YOU leading like a shepherd?  Or are the people you are leading scattering in many different directions?  May we all strive to lead like Jesus….the Great Shepherd.

Christmas Sweaters & Community

Just had to share a fun pic with all of you.  Our 20’s & 30’s Young Married Environment finished off it’s year together doing 2 things: serving & celebrating.  Next week this community, consisting of 6 small groups, will be serving a youth outreach program in a neighboring town by purchasing gifts for over 40 children and giving them a taste of Christmas that they would not get otherwise.  Awesome!  Last night we celebrated our community with a little Christmas gift exchange.  The pic below highlights the gift of the night…it fit him perfectly!

Celebrate Jesus, celebrate the relationships He has given you, and celebrate through giving.

Merry Christmas.

Crazy Gift Exchanges

Leadership Proverb

A man was asked if he weren’t spending too much of his time serving and giving too much away.  His gentle but honest response was, “I wonder if you will say that after we’re dead.”

Jesus came to serve not to be served ……. Jesus gave everything He had …. may we seek to do the same.

Spiritual Amnesia

No matter how amazing God’s creation is, no matter how many ways God reveals Himself to us through His creation, we tend to forget about Him.  Francis Chan, in his book, Crazy Love, refers to this as an epidemic of spiritual amnesia that we all suffer from.

When I think about this in my own life I am baffled.  How do I so easily forget about the creator of the universe?  Something is wrong.  Am I that consumed with myself?

Our culture’s fast-food and drive-thru lifestyle has become a metaphor for our way of life and I think the source of our spiritual amnesia is rooted in this chaos.  In many ways, we treat God like He is the voice coming through the speaker at a drive-thru.  We tell God what we want and expect Him to deliver.  We leave no time to listen to what He might want to tell us.  We have no time to ‘be still’.  God becomes someone who is expected to meet our needs through the provision of spiritual goods and services.  His Word becomes a place to look for quick answers to our problems.  And then we’re off again….consumed with our lives until we have another need.

How are we tricked into this craziness?  I’ve heard people say that Satan’s greatest tool is busyness.  I agree.  Busyness leads to spiritual amnesia.

God is awesome….holy….all-powerful….all-knowing….fair….just….love.  His existence demands our worship.  Yet somehow our puny little lives become more important than all out worship of The One.

May we seek to become 24/7 worshippers of God….may we seek to be in His presence always!  May we call out those we lead to do the same.

Refrigerator Rights

I have really resonated with the concept of ‘Refrigerator Rights’ that author and comedian Will Miller has proposed.  The idea is this, “How many people in your life are comfortable opening your refrigerator to get a drink or something to eat without asking your permission first?”  Miller suggests, and I agree, that the key to mental and emotional health is the presence of these types of relationships in your life.  I like to take this idea one step further, “How many people in your life are comfortable opening up the door to your heart without asking your permission first?”  Or how about this, “Does God have access to your heart?”

The idea of refrigerator rights speaks to a relational way of life that is rapidly disintegrating in American culture and causing us to get more and more disconnected and fragmented from the people around us.  In fact, such is this way of life that most people, including Christ followers, do not even realize how disconnected we are from each other.  Our culture is constantly on the go.  Yes, most of us are surrounded by people every day, but very few in America have ‘refrigerator rights’ relationships.  I heard it said that the church does not need to figure out how to do small groups rather the church needs to learn how to do relationships!

The American drive for personal success, the drive to focus on my needs, my dreams etc. has left us in a state where there is little value for relating.  This pursuit of self is having a devastating impact on our mental and emotional well being.

In the book, Refrigerator Rights, Will Miller described our desensitization to relating this way:

” If something is nearly constant or routine, we tend not to notice it.  Breathing is so automatic that you don’t tend to consciously think about the mechanics of your body as you take a breath.  In today’s environment, our isolation from other people has become so routine that many of us don’t even realize that this is our state of affairs.”

So what do we do?  We, the church, must help people understand that our way of life is polluted and begin to model a ‘refrigerator rights’ way of life……the relational way of life that God has called us to.

Viewing Grouplife as ‘church’ – PART 2

When Paul wrote about ‘ecclesia’ (the church) meeting in homes all across the landscape, he was not thinking strategically about how these small groups were a strategy to grow the church or reach the lost.  Small groups were not a focus of the early church.  They were the church! There were no church buildings nor was the church recognized with any official status.  The church was a movement of small groups meeting in individual’s homes.  Somehow today, small groups are viewed as a program or just one of the ways to help the church assimilate people and disciple people.  In very few cases are small groups actually viewed as the church or as ‘ecclesia’.

I think it is fascinating to think that the small group was the paradigm or perspective of how the church was to function or how early Christians thought about church.  It’s also interesting to consider that the Scriptures do not outline for us just what a church gathering should look like or how church gatherings were to be structured.  You just don’t find this.

But what you do find is a lot of writing about how Christians are to relate to each other.  Love God, love one another, serve one another, encourage one another, care for one another……..and it can only be within the context of community that we do this.

Group life is ‘ecclesia’!

Viewing Grouplife as ‘church’

In many ways, modern culture has redefined ‘church’ with an emphasis on the organization, the building, and large group worship.  We forget that when Paul wrote about ‘ecclesia’ (church), he was talking about small groups of people gathering in homes all over the landscape.  His image of ‘ecclesia’ was very different from our own.  ‘Ecclesia’ simply meant an assembly or gathering and could refer to both small and large gatherings of people.  Today, most churches operate in such a way that the most important place of connection is the weekly service, and as a result, small groups are viewed more like ’sub-units’ of the ‘real’ church.

Even though most churches would agree with Paul’s early visions for the church, the way we do church now has devalued the small group experience considerably.  As a result, people see small group gatherings as less important as the Sunday worship service and because of this, see group life as optional.

Are we willing to embrace small groups as ‘church’ just like we embrace the Sunday service as ‘church’?  This is a question every church must wrestle with.  Paul’s vision for ‘ecclesia’ was for both large and small gatherings to occur and that both were equally important.  What do you think?

*Thanks to Scott Boren, author of ‘The Relational Way’, for the thoughts that created this post.*