Big Ideas about Small Groups

A Few Small Group Notes

Eric Metcalf | NewThing Adult Ministry Champion

In case you didn't know it, Carter Moss is just plain awesome.  You may be asking, "Awesome?  Really?  You stand in awe of him?"  To which I say, "Yeah, I think I do."

Carter recently became our NewThing/CCC Adult Ministry Catalyst: he writes and oversees the development of NewThing/CCC Adult Ministry training content, Big Idea Adult Discussion Guides (look to the left for those - they rock!), this blog and now has recently begun developing a few NEW products: Baptism Small Group Discussion Guide, Apprentice Handbook (which is going to be incredible!) Reproducing Small Groups curriculum, Turbo Group Curriculum - all coming SOON!  So please join me, standing in awe of Carter Moss.

On another note, I got the chance to hang out with the Willow Creek Association this week: Bill Donahue, Russ Robinson, Dave Treat, and Greg Bowman.  Very outstanding gentlemen and had a great time.  WCA set up a meeting for "elite thinkers" when it comes to small groups and CCC got invited!  So myself, and good friend Bill Barton, headed up to Schaumburg where we met with these guys and others (LifeChurch.tv, National Community Church, Willow Creek Community Church, and only a few others in the room).  At this meeting we learned about WCA and there desires to take on a "Willow-plus" model: to begin looking to other churches for parternship - not just relying upon themselves to train leaders in group life.  Instead partnering more with influential churches.  So at this meeting we talked about what that could look like as we worked together to plan WCA's 2008 Group Life Conference.  It was great experience and I look forward to seeing what God is going to do next through all of us.  And if you haven't ever checked out WCA's Group Life blog - see it HERE.

Gimme a Break

Eric Metcalf | NewThing Small Groups Champion

In lieu of Jon Ferguson's "Gimme a Break" blog entries, I've decided to have a "Gimme a Break" entry about a book I recently read, Launch, by Nelson Searcy and Kerrick Thomas.  The rumor about this book and the movement that spurs other church plants on (Purpose Driven Church Planting) just isn't a true rumor - at least not for Nelson Searcy's church plant, The Journey.

In Nelson and Kerrick's book they state that one should wait to do small groups until after the launch - possibly 6 months to a year for these reasons:

• "...we didn't know people well enough to recognize good group leaders"
• "...we didn't have enough people attending to fill up very many groups"
• "...we didn't have the time or energy...to make our small groups successful"

Now I don't even like these reasons, because they seem so reactive vs. proactive, however check out what is said just a few sentences later (p. 199)

"In the 6 months between our launch and when we started small groups, we intiated several informal, temporary groups as a way of developing early relationships and identifying potential leaders for our new groups."

What?!?!  Did I read that correctly?!?  They started small groups as they launched?  But I have had so many people tell me about this NEW movement of starting churches without small groups and waiting 6 months to 2 years before you start groups - associating this movement with The Journey and Purpose-Driven Church Planting.  All I have to say is "Gimme a Break!"

Speaking of "Gimme a Break" check out John Ciesneiwski's new blog called www.fergusonfree.typepad.com where he will continually share with us what is really happening at CCC.

Thanks Mom...

Eric Metcalf | NewThing Small Groups Champion

I got my blackberry cobbler...mmm...

Happy 4th of July!

Eric Metcalf | NewThing Small Groups Champion

What are you doing for the 4th of July?  I'm currently sitting at my parents' computer (using Windows 98 - sheesh!) in Xenia, IL.  Xenia is a small town located off of old Illinois Rt. 50, population 450 (that's what the sign says - its more like 300).  But don't let this small town fool ya - Xenia and another small town near it (Flora) have some of the best fireworks anywhere, and I can't wait to show them off to my kids.  But honestly what I'm really hoping for is that my mom will make blackberry cobbler - that's the best summer dessert ever.

Anyway, have a Happy 4th of July!

A retreating we will go...a retreating we will go...

Eric Metcalf | NewThing Small Groups Champion

Some of the best minds and best hearts are going on a retreat for the next day and half.  CCC's Small Group Directors from all 8 locations, plus apprentice staff, emerging coaches and Leadership Residents are going on a retreat in Utica, IL to pray, discuss, and strategize for the coming year.  We are going to be talking about some BIG TIME stuff and I am very excited about it.   I can't wait to come back and tell you all about it.  Please pray for us - thanks!

Leadership Networking in Dallas, TX

Eric Metcalf | NewThing Small Groups Champion

Monday and Tuesday of this week I was in Texas with John Ciesniewski (CCC Business/Executive Guy, & Shorewood Campus Pastor) and Bill Carroll (CCC/NewThing Arts Champion/Catalyst, Naperville Arts Guy) as a part of a Leadership Community with Leadership Network.  Leadership Network is an organization who partners with the local church, by creating learning communities for collaboration, encouragement and innovation - and they are AWESOME at it!  It was at this leadership community that I got to interact with about 20 different Small Group Directors from some really cool churches - most of them being multi-site.

During our breakout time together as small groups directors we talked about a lot of things (and I learned we had a lot of common challenges), but there were two key discussions that I'm still mulling over in my head - one was about coaches and the other was about missional communities. 

The coaching conversation was about how almost every church there was frustrated with the coaching models they had in place - saying that coaching didn't work.  In fact there were some churches there who had decided to get rid of the role all together - WOW!  Now, I'm like the biggest advocate in the world of leadership development, so I was totally pushing back, asking tons of questions at this point, and mostly their responses can be summarized by these questions: how much impact do our coaches really have?  Are our coaches genuinely changing the way our small groups, teams and leaders look?  I thought those were some pretty challenging questions - what are you thoughts?

The other discussion that I'm still thinking about centered around this idea some were calling missional communities.  Missional communities are small groups that don't focus all their energy on connecting people from weekend services; instead they focus most of their energy on connecting people who don't yet attend a weekend service.  Or what if instead of inviting that person to small group, the people in the group saw themselves as missionaries and worked to understand the culture of their non-Christ-following friend, helped them find Jesus, and then asked their friend to begin leading a small group/missional community with their sub-culture of non-Christ-following friends - I LOVE THAT!  What are your thoughts on that idea?

And if you're thinking this blog entry was a waste of time check out what John, Bill and I did while we waited for our flight - now did you waste your time???

Exponentially Exponential

Eric Metcalf | NewThing Small Groups Champion

Wow!  What a cool thing to be a part of - the Exponential Conference - quite possibly the best conference I've ever been to (and I'm not a big fan of conferences).  Why did I like this one so much?  Because I got to hang with some of coolest people: Alan Hirsch, Bob Roberts, Wayne Cordeiro, Neil Cole, Ed Stetzer, Mac Lake, Larry Osborne - as I emceed the Reproducing Church track (as Bill Carroll produced with incredible skill).  I also got to spend time with some great friends: Hank Wilson and the Boston team, the CCC/NewThing crew, and vacation with my beautiful wife!

For the pre-conference stuff, I got the chance to speak on the topic of Reproducing Leaders (with Dave, Troy, and Bill) as a part of the 7 Moves to Multi-site; and speak on Reproducing Teams as a part of the Reproducing Church Experience.  RCE is such a cool way to help people catch a vision for being a reproducing church.  If you've never been to it, then sign up for it this August!

But hey, I'm not the only one bragging about their experience - check out some fellow CCC & NewThing blogs:

• Dave Ferguson
• Dave Dummit
• Tammy Melchien
• Matt Payne
• Jon Ferguson
• Bill Carroll
• Sherry Gossman
• Mark Nelson
• Eric Bramlett
• Jeff Boriss

Luke 13 - Cut It Down...Really??

Eric Metcalf | NewThing Small Groups Champion

I'm the kind of guy who likes to read the Bible (wierd huh) and I really get frustrated at myself when I don't do it more often.  I love the Bible because God has revealed so much mystery to us through it.  For the last few months I've been reading through the book of Luke.  I used to be more a John fan but now I have found myself preferring Luke.  So check out what I read recently:

"6Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any.  7So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, 'For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any.  Cut it down!  Why should it use up the soil?'  8"'Sir,' the man replied, 'leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it.  9If it bears fruit next year, fine!  If not, then cut it down.'" Luke 13:6-9

Now you may be familiar with this text - but the version I was familiar with didn't have vs. 8 - "leave it alone for one more year..."  Being a small group junkie, I can't help but ask how does this text apply to small groups?  And here's what I think: some small groups live, some small groups die; some small groups produce fruit, some don't.  And according to Jesus' parable that's ok.  But what's interesting he even offers some "coaching" through v. 8 "leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it.  If it bears fruit next year, fine!  If not, then cut it down."

So let's celebrate with our small groups that are bearing fruit (which makes ask what does a small group bearing fruit look like?).  However, which groups need to be dug around and fertilized?  And not to be morbid (and how can you be mad at me because I'm using Jesus' words) which groups are ready to be cut down?  Because the death of some small groups can be great fertilizer for the birth of new, bearing-fruit small groups.

Our Blog is Your Blog

Carter Moss' last post on the value of having a small group apprentice got picked up by another blog dedicated to equipping small groups leaders.  Check it out here! 

Interesting though, they changed it to 5 reasons to have a co-leader (apprentice) vs. 10 - we must value apprentices more :)  Thanks for checking us out Small Groups at GAC!

Small Groups in San Diego

Eric Metcalf | NewThing Small Groups Champion

Myself and few freinds (Bill Carroll & Sean Bublitz) flew over to the sunny state of California to see Northcoast Community Church to see how they do multi-venue and it was fun!  We learned a lot about video, lighting, and the power of environment.

After checking out Northcoast on Saturday night we were encouraged to check out another church on Sunday called The Rock Church.  This is a very cool church that has grown from just a few young adults to almost 8,000 in attendance in 6 years-amazing!!

During the service their Small Groups Director came on stage and invited anyone who was interested in leading a small group to attend an event called "Imagineering" (a phrase coined by Walt Disney).  At this point the Director shared how they wanted to have 400 new groups in place by a certain date and this was going to help make that happen.  WOW - 400 groups!!  I was very pumped for such a goal - they must really be passionate about small groups - and they had some cool marketing for groups.

BUT...then I ran into the Small Groups Director later and asked about how they are going to do that - achieve such a large goal, etc.  He then confesses to me that they only have 100+ small groups and small groups really aren't the focus of the church.  WHAT?!?!?  Small groups aren't the focus?!?  He said the celebration services are the main thing and small groups are more of an afterthought - GULP!  That was hard for me to hear, but he didn't seem to be very happy about this reality either.

I have been hearing this strategy a lot lately: focus on the weekend, don't focus on small groups; it's all about the celebration service - worry about groups later.  AUGHH!!  I can't fathom the mindset here - it seems so absurd!  In fact, I need to think about this more before I say something I regret later...