Big Ideas about Small Groups

5 Tips -- Free of Charge!

Carter Moss  |  CCC/NewThing Adult Catalyst

Whenever I train small group leaders through our Turbo Groups, when we get to the final session, I like to leave them with my final thoughts to take with them as they go, "the last 10%" of the conversation. (Sometimes I call them "Carter's Keys", but I realize that name is lame, so I need a better one :))

So here you go, free of charge--I hope you find them helpful:

•Don't go it alone
Team ministry can be more effective and way more fun. Always start your groups with an apprentice, and remember that apprentices are not just for planting new groups, but they make your existing group experience better. And your coach is the other key part of your team, so make the most of the coaching relationship.

 

•Expect the revolving door
You may rarely have the exact same set of people in your group for a very long time, so don't make that your goal. Often small groups are much more like a revolving door, so one of our goals is making the most of the time God brings each person to us. Your group may be the next key step on their spiritual journey!

 

•Don't over-emphasize the meeting time
Don't get too caught up in making the 2 hours of your small group meeting time be perfect. Sometimes, the majority of connection and life change happens during all the other hours of the week, and that's OK. And often the best group meetings are the ones that totally stray from your plan. It's still your group that brings those relationships together and creates community!

 

•Use your freedom and creativity
You have the freedom to experiment with what your small group time will look like, so take risks and try different formats. It can be great for the group to mix it up and blow their minds once in awhile, whether you split into men/women for the evening, do a service project together, meet for group at a bar/restaurant, have an all-worship night, watch and discuss a movie together, or whatever.

•Leave a legacy
Planting new groups should never become some dreaded “have to.” Without planting a new group, your group dies with you! But with constant planting and multiplication, it carries on long after you're gone, and what is more exciting in life than leaving a a legacy behind!

Training Your Group HOW to be a Small Group

Carter Moss | CCC/New Thing Small Groups Catalyst

I was talking to one of my small group leaders this past weekend, and he was sharing how even though his group had been together for a couple of years now, they were still having trouble getting people to open up and really be authentic in their sharing. In our CCC terms, we would say this group is still at "first base" (which is the "Acceptance" stage, meaning we basically just accept you in this group), and haven't yet even gotten to "second base" (which is "Affirmation," meaning you can be authentic and transparent and know that you'll still be affirmed).  Plus he said people weren't really developing friendships and hanging out outside of group time. It's like his group still didn't know how to really be a small group, at least not in the way that we hope for our groups.

That reminded me of the curriculum I'd heard about recently from Willow Creek, that is for small groups to go through together to learn HOW to be a small group together.  I suggested this as something for his group to try, and he is considering it.

I myself have never tried Willow's stuff, nor anyone else's, when it comes to this topic. So help me out here--have you used something like this, or heard of groups who have?  Was it valuable to go through? What were the upsides and downsides?

Leadership Community

Every month here at COMMUNITY we provide training and vision casting opportunity for all apprentices, leaders, coaches and staff.  We call this event Leadership Community.  4 times a year we bring together all the locations (our next all campus gathering isn't until Jan '09) and the remaining months we meet at each of our respective campuses. 

If you are a small group apprentice, leader or coach; contact your Campus Director for this November's Leadership Community.  Here are the Small Group Directors and the Campus they are oversee:

• Beth Kolar - Yorkville
• Steve Kerby - Montgomery
• Tony Escobar - Pilsen
• Mike Tjaarda - Naperville DownTown
• Eric Metcalf / Nick Plassman - Naperville Yellow Box (Nov 1, 9am-11am)
• Earl Ferguson - Carillon
• Brad Prunty - Plainfield
• Scott Knollenberg - Romeoville
• Genea Browne - Shorewood

Contact your Director and find out when your Leadership Community is happening!

Missed Our Apprentice-Development Training?

If you missed our Apprentice-Development Training session last week at Willow Creek's Small Group Conference (or if you fell asleep during it, or decided to make paper-airplanes out of the handout instead of take notes), we are now making our outline and notes available for FREE download!  (yeah, we're nice like that)

To get the outline (the handout with the right answers filled in), just click HERE.

To get the full details of what we talked about (and beyond), get our newly released Apprentice Field Guide HERE. This is the foundation of our training!

To get the humor, improvisational thoughts, and powerful spiritual moments from the talk.....well, you missed that, and we can't figure out how to make it available for download yet. Sorry. :)

Keep developing those apprentices......in them lies the future of the Jesus Mission!

The Rest of...The Story of Everything

Enjoying "The Story of Everything" small group discussions so far?  We have heard some great feedback of some powerful discussions!

We went ahead and posted all of the remaining weeks here, so you can download them all ahead of time if you need to.

You have 3 options:
Either click the links in the "Big Idea Discussion Guide" list on the left.

Or click these links:
Session 1 (God)
Session 2 (Sin)
Session 3 (Jesus)
Session 4 (Holy Spirit)
Session 5 (Church)
Session 6 (Eternity)

Or get them all in one document from our main CCC website HERE.

Enjoy!

Willow, Here We Come...

 

Over the next 2 days, some of our CCC Small Group team (Eric Metcalf, Nick Plassman, Genea Browne, and myself, Carter Moss) gets the opportunity to go present a training session at the Willow Creek Group Life Conference. We are doing a "General Breakout", which is different than a "Featured Breakout" or a "Point Leader Breakout", but maybe we can get promoted next year. :)

Our session is called "Catalyzing a Network: Reproducing Leaders, Groups, Churches, and Networks." I'm not sure what all that means, but doesn't it sound cool?  Just kidding, it will definitely be some valuable stuff--it's pretty much the most practical leadership development stuff we've ever written, and it's lots of info packed into a small amount of time, so we will hopefully leave everyone with plenty to think about.

If you'll be at the conference, come find us and say "hi," we'd love to chat. And if not, watch this blog for some updates on stuff that we learn from the really smart people that will be there....

Let The Story Begin!

This week we begin The Story of Everything, our new 6-week series that will explore the foundations of Christianity and discuss some of the "what we believe" at CCC. (God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, Sin, Church, Eternity)

To go along with our new series that starts soon (The Story of Everything), we have created teaching DVD's that feature Lead Pastor Dave Ferguson and Teaching Team Leader Tim Sutherland discussing these topics.

We have also created our Big Idea Discussion Guide for this series so that small groups can use it whether or not they have seen the DVD. There is a summary of the DVD teaching at the beginning of each week's discussion guide, with the questions listed at the end. So as a Small Group Leader, you can either read through the material and ask the questions as you go (like our Guides usually do), or you can just skip to the end and dig right into the questions.

Rather than a complete booklet (for now), we are instead releasing these Discussion Guides one week at a time, so check back here each week to download yours.

So for now, you can download Week 1 (God) HERE!

What Has God Been Saying to You Lately?

Genea Browne | CCC Shorewood Small Groups Director

"What has God been saying to you lately?"  As leaders, it’s not only important to ask this of ourselves, but it’s also very important to ask the people in our small groups. Maybe we think the question is too much for them to handle. I bet they can take it, in fact I think they are waiting for a question like that.

 

I tried it out in my small group a while back, and the results were overwhelming! As soon as I asked the question I could see everyone’s eyes light up with anticipation and excitement. We went around the room and shared with each other what God had been saying to us in our lives. Everyone had an answer, and not just any answer. Some were scary. Some were life-changing. We even had 2 people who God was speaking the same thing to. Pretty cool! But one particular story stood out above the rest. As soon as I asked the question she said, “Oh boy, I can’t believe you just asked me that question.” She said she was even afraid to speak it out loud because it would make it real. She went on to share that God had been telling her to “spread the Word”. It had showed up when she was reading the Bible, on the radio, across her computer screen, in books and everywhere she looked. You could see the excitement as she was sharing. She doesn’t know exactly what that looks like yet for her life but she is still praying every day and listening to God.

 

As a result of asking that one question, we were able to share something in group that meant more than anything we had ever talked about. And we were able to come together as a group to support, encourage and pray for one another as we continue to listen to God.

 

So……..

 

What has God been saying to YOU lately??