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10 Things to Think About Before Starting a Small Groups Ministry

1. Know where you are headed When you consider a believer, a follower of Christ in your church, what is it you want them to look like and act like? What is it you want them to “be”? Too many churches start up a small-groups ministry because it’s “the thing to do.” But it may not be the thing to do. Once you know what you want, then you can back up and decide what will get you there. At Saddleback Church, we want followers of Christ to balance the Great Commission and Great Commandment in their hearts. We want to see them belonging to Christ and His church, growing deeper in Him, serving God where they are gifted, sharing Christ and surrendering every aspect of their life to God. That is spiritual health for us. Check out our Spiritual Health Assessment. What do you want? Once we knew our “end in mind,” we asked the question: What will get us there? Our answer came from Acts 5:42, and it involved a combination of weekend services and small groups. 2. Find the lay of the land in your church. [caption id="attachment_17758" align="alignright" width="300"] Photo by kalebdf.[/caption] Talk to people. Talk to the key opinion leaders in your church—and if you don’t know who they are, ask around! Get the people who built the church and go through step one above. Find the history of the church and the passion that made your church what it is today. What’s the heartbeat of your Lead Pastor? What makes them tick? What is their strategy to number one? Before you ask any of these questions, ask yourself something: Do I have the relational capital to ask these questions? If you do, great! If you don’t, take the time to get to know the people that need to hear these questions. Relationships take time. Sometimes you will find the answers to the questions without even asking anything. 3. Who will run point? Paid or not paid isn’t the question when it comes to this point—passion is the question. Who has the passion for the people to be the healthiest followers of Christ in your church? Who has the passion to build a delivery system that can handle the people God will send your way? Who has what Psalms 78:72 describes in David? Who has the humility of knowing it’s not “them” but “God” (1 Corinthians 2:4-5)? Who is willing to do “whatever” (John 10:10) with the right attitude (1 Peter 5:2-4)? Who is “called” and willing to learn? 4. Who is on the team? Every leader needs a team. If you were to start a business you would get your “C” team together—CEO, COO, CIO, CSO, CTO, and so on. So who is your “C” team, your Christ Team, to make this happen with His grace and strength? Start praying for people who want to see the same thing you want to see and who have different gift sets than you. Then, ask them to join you. People won’t volunteer; you need to ask them. Claim back some of their 168 hours a week for Kingdom work. For some, you may need to align their Kingdom work for greater Kingdom efforts. 5. What will be your strategy? At Saddleback Church, the best way for us to start a small-groups ministry is through a campaign strategy. Now, understand that if you don’t go through the process outlined above, running a campaign in your church will start a bunch of groups, but they will probably be purposeless and drift. (Click here to learn more about our Campaign Strategy) Along with strategy, you need a culture to drive the strategy. Campaigns are successful at Saddleback because throughout the year our people hear from the pulpit the importance of small groups—through testimonies, sermons, commercials, and most importantly through personal stories of the teaching pastors in their sermons. 6. When will you start? To answer this question, look at both the calendar and your church culture. There are usually three times to start small groups: fall, January, and post Easter. For Saddleback, fall is culturally the best time for us. We start our campaign a few weeks after school starts so families can get into their new routines. We use the summer to get ready, September to recruit, and October to launch. Your church will have a different schedule, and that’s okay. Do what culturally fits for your church. 7. What’s your Pathway? When you start groups, your small-group leaders need to know what you want them to do. Not only do you need to know the “end in mind” for your ministry, you need the same for your group leaders. Just like Jesus took His disciples from “come and see” through a three-year relational process to “come and die,” so we at Saddleback have a relational process for our “hosts” to become “leaders.” Now, we pray that none of them need to die, but we do want to take them from where they are to a deeper commitment in Christ. Whatever system you design, know where you want to take your leaders. Peek at our pathway here. 8. What’s your infrastructure? It’s easy to start small groups; it’s hard to sustain them. Since 1998, our small-group team has seen our small groups grow from 280 groups to over 3,500 groups. That doesn’t happen without infrastructure. Just like a city needs roadways to develop as a town turns into a city, so your small-group ministry needs its roadways. One critical part of your infrastructure is what we call Community Leaders (CLs), who are the leaders of small-group leaders. They are the relational arm of your ministry. They provide the care and direction to your small groups. They help with focus so groups don’t drift. Another part of our infrastructure is what we call “Gatherings.” Gatherings are the vision arm of your ministry. A gathering is bringing your leaders together periodically for alignment and vision. It can be done over dinner or coffee. At Saddleback, we do two Gatherings a year—one in the beginning of the year (to get us out of the holiday funk) and one in August (to gear us up for the fall). 9. Don’t stand alone! The enemy loves to lead in isolation and fear. Fear stops us from taking risks for the Kingdom. Isolation cuts off our supply lines so we can’t fight the good fight. In 2006, God led me to start the Purpose Driven Small Group Network so that no one would stand alone. I know what it’s like to do the day in and day out work of running a small-groups ministry. I know what it’s like to be the only one in your church thinking community is the greatest thing since Easter. I am blessed with an incredible staff. My prayer is that this Network will be your staff, standing with you to help you fight the good fight. If you don’t think you need others around you—think again! 10. Prepare your heart. One of the greatest things I learned in seminary is called the Messiah Complex. It’s where you take on the roll of the Messiah and bear everyone’s burdens on your cross. There’s only one problem: you can’t do it. You will burn out. Symptoms of the Messiah Complex are a lack of quiet time and/or Sabbath forgetfulness. Just as God can take your financial tithe and make 90 percent go farther than your best 100 percent, He can do the same with a Sabbath. He can make 6 days go farther than your best 7 days. The principle God is working on has nothing to do with finances or time, it’s all about obedience. If you don’t prepare your heart now, the work for God will destroy the work of God in your life.

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5 Reasons Church Covenants Work

5 Reasons Church Covenants Work

Commitments are the secret sauce of spiritual growth. Think back to the key times of growth in your own spiritual journey, and you'll likely be pointing to times of commitment. For example:The moment you gave your life to Christ.The day you decided to get baptized.The season when you began reading your Bible regularly.If you want to see your congregation grow closer to Jesus, you need to help them make commitments to the purposes of God. At Saddleback, we’ve done that through a series of covenants where people commit to church membership, maturity, ministry, and missions. Spiritual Growth Begins with CommitmentSpiritual growth isn’t automatic. You can grow old without growing up. Growth is a product of commitment. Without commitments, we live in perpetual immaturity. Think about the growth that comes after you accept your first job, or when you get married. You grow up, too, when you have children. No one is ever “ready” for marriage or children. You get ready after you’ve made those commitments. The same is true in our relationship with God. That’s why, during my years pastoring Saddleback, we didn’t work toward spiritual commitments. We worked from spiritual commitments. That means we started with whatever commitments people had already made. Here’s what that can look like:When a person makes a commitment to Christ, we lead them toward baptism. Then it’s time for the membership class. In CLASS 101, new members sign a covenant where they commit to:Protect the unity of the church.Share the responsibility of the church.Serve the ministry of the church.Support the testimony of the church. Then those commitments lead to the commitments in the discipleship, ministry, and missions covenants. Why Covenants WorkThe most important part of a wedding ceremony isn’t the moment the bride walks down the aisle. It’s not when the pastor says the groom may kiss the bride. The most important part is when the man and woman exchange vows and make commitments to one another before witnesses. The same is true for church covenants. At Saddleback, our membership, maturity, ministry, and missions covenants are the most important parts of our CLASS system.Here’s why those covenants are so important. 1. We become what we’re committed to.Our lives are a sum of the commitments we make. Sit down with someone and ask them what they’re committed to today, and you’ll know the contours of the rest of their lives (assuming those commitments don’t change). Commitments establish a person’s character. That means the key to leading people to grow spiritually is helping them commit to the disciplines that help Christians grow—such as commitments to worship, build meaningful relationships, read the Bible, pray, serve, and share the Good News. 2. Commitments define churches. Your church isn’t defined by its programs or the building it meets in or the pastor’s preaching. What really defines a church is the commitments the people in it make together.A motto Saddleback has lived out for decades has been, “A great commitment to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission grows a great church.” During my years as pastor there, that commitment shaped every decision we made.3. People want to be committed to something that brings significance. I always told people in our membership class at Saddleback that they couldn’t do anything more important with their lives than join the church, grow in maturity, get involved in ministry, and begin fulfilling their mission in the world. Those investments would outlast anything else they might do in life. People want to give their lives to something important. They long for their lives to count. Intuitively, they know nothing else fits the bill—not their careers, not their hobbies, and not even their families. As a pastor, you have an opportunity to show people a commitment worth giving their lives to. 4. If you don’t ask, others will.Everyone seems to ask for commitments these days. Travel sports leagues want families to commit. Employers are pushing for more commitment. If you’re not asking the people in your church to make commitments, their schedules will get packed with everything else. As a pastor, part of your job is to guide people toward making the right commitments—ones that help them live out God’s purposes for their lives.5. Covenants clarify vision and values.When your church’s members sign on to your church covenant, they know your vision and values. The covenant reinforces the mission and values that drive your church—and ensures that new members understand them and will work toward them in the future.To learn more about how your church can use covenants to drive spiritual growth, check out the CLASS materials.
Learn From Failure

Learn From Failure

Every pastor makes mistakes; every pastor has defeats. Mistakes are a part of life. Sadly, so is sin. Not even a pastor can escape Romans 3:23: “All of us have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory” (CEV). None of us are perfect. The difference between successful and unsuccessful leaders isn’t that the successful people don’t fail. The difference is that successful leaders learn from their failures. I heard a story years ago about a young man who asked an executive, “What is the secret of success?” “The secret of success is the right decisions,” the executive responded.  “How do you make the right decisions?” “By experience.” “How do you get experience?” “By making mistakes.” I always told my staff at Saddleback to call failure an education. We did more things that didn’t work than did. That means I had a highly educated staff! But the important part was we weren’t afraid to admit our mistakes and learn from them. The road to success is paved with failure. But what’s critical is this: We need to learn from those failures. You can read a good example of learning from failures in Joshua 7. After the Israelites’ great victory at Jericho, they came to the little town of Ai.   The Israelites had just taken on the greatest, most fortified city in the land—and had a resounding military victory. Then they got a little cocky and presumed upon God’s grace. Joshua sent only about 3,000 troops into the town to capture it—and his soldiers were defeated.  But take note of how Joshua responded. He threw himself onto the ground and prayed, and God told him he needed to take care of a problem in the community. A man named Achan had taken some spoils of war when God had clearly told them not to; the entire camp was suffering because of Achan’s sin.  God told Joshua to act, and that’s exactly what he did. Joshua could have defended Achan and refused to confront his sin. Instead, he admitted that Israel had sin in the camp.  He allowed himself to be corrected by his defeat—and that’s a mark of a great leader.  Pastor, be big enough to admit your error. The real mark of leadership is the willingness to say to your people in your church, “I was wrong. I made a mistake.” But do you know what’s better than learning from your mistakes? Learning from the mistakes of others. It’s wise to learn from experience, but it’s wiser to learn from the experiences of others. We don’t have time to make all the mistakes ourselves. Of course, that means learning from people you know. When you see people failing, talk with them. Ask questions about what they’ve learned—and be alert to what they may still have to learn.  And do these things too: Read biographies. Be teachable. Pray for insight. Always be on the lookout for people who have failed and recovered.  Whatever you do, be corrected by your defeats and learn from the mistakes of others so you won’t have to make all of the mistakes yourself.
How to Find Joy in Your Relationships

How to Find Joy in Your Relationships

Relationships are at the heart of every ministry. Whether those relationships are with your family, your congregation, or your community, you’ll be miserable in life and ministry if your relationships aren’t healthy. God wants us to enjoy the people in our lives. In the book of Philippians, Paul models four principles to help us find joy in our relationships.  Be grateful for the good in people. “I thank my God for all the memories I have of you” (Philippians 1:3 GW). Paul focused on the good memories instead of the bad ones. And if you recall in Acts 16, you’ll remember the bad memories Paul could have focused on while he was in Philippi, but didn’t. He was arrested, whipped, humiliated, and thrown in prison. While in prison, there was an earthquake. Then the Roman officials in the town asked him to leave. Paul had a rough time in Philippi, but he chose to focus on what he was grateful for.  To follow Paul’s example, we don’t need to deny the hurts in our lives. Neither do we need to excuse the weaknesses of others. Instead, focus on the good and emphasize the strengths of other people. Practice positive praying. “In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy” (Philippians 1:4 NIV). Praying positively for people will change both your attitude and the other person’s. People may resist our advice, spurn our appeals, reject our suggestions, and not accept our help, but they are powerless against our prayers. In Philippians 1:9-11 (NIV), Paul models four specific ways we can pray positively for others. Pray they will grow in love. “Your love may abound.” (This phrase means to overflow, like a tidal wave.) Pray they make wise choices. “Discern what is best.” Pray they will do the right thing. “Be pure and blameless.” Pray they will live for God’s glory. “The fruit of righteousness.” Most of us are good at praying for people in crisis, but let’s commit to praying specifically and regularly for people who may struggle in these four areas. Doing so will transform our relationships with them. Be patient with people’s progress. “God is the one who began this good work in you, and I am certain that he won't stop before it is complete on the day that Christ Jesus returns” (Philippians 1:6 CEV). Paul looked at people’s future, not just their past. He looked at their potential and was patient with their progress. Mankind is a great starter but a bad finisher. Man leaves unfinished symphonies, unfinished buildings, unfinished books, and unfinished projects. Man doesn’t always finish what he starts, but God always finishes what he starts. We should model God’s patience with people’s progress. To enjoy people, we must give them room to grow and develop, just as God does with us. Love people from the heart. “God knows how much I love you and long for you with the tender compassion of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:8 NLT). Loving people begins with understanding why they act the way they do. You can’t love people you don’t understand. If you care, you’ll be aware. You get understanding by asking questions and then listening to the responses.  Understanding people helps you love them better, but it still doesn’t get you to the love Paul described in Philippians 1:8. Paul said he loved the church of Philippi “with the tender compassion of Christ Jesus” (NLT). Only Jesus—working through you—can love people like that.  God’s love isn’t something you can force. It’s a gift that you get as you let the Holy Spirit work through you. “God has poured out his love into our hearts by means of the Holy Spirit, who is God's gift to us” (Romans 5:5 GNT). Life is too short to not enjoy the people in your life. If you don’t learn to enjoy those who God has placed in your life, you will be miserable. That’s why you need to learn how to respond to them the way Jesus did.
Why You Should Launch Mental Health Groups at Your Church

Why You Should Launch Mental Health Groups at Your Church

If you are reading this article then most likely you have a passion, burden, or possibly a curiosity about mental health and the role the church can play in effectively caring for those affected by a mental health disorder.The following are a few reasons why I got involved and took action to launch mental health groups at our church.1. I Needed It!My wife and I have been in ministry almost 30 years, serving in several different pastoral roles. However, we never imagined that we would be serving in our current role at our church now. We are the Restoration Life Group Pastors at New Life Church in Little Rock, AR, overseeing small groups for individuals impacted by mental health, addiction, grief, abuse, or trauma."When we were experiencing those dark times over and over again without any end in sight, it began to drain us."My wife grew up in a family that was impacted by addiction and—unknowingly—mental health disorders. Little did we know that we would walk a dark and lonely journey for many years in our own family. Approximately four years ago, it would come to a critical crisis moment that would change the path and direction for our family of four. As pastors, Kim and I were used to caring for others and supporting them through difficult times. However, when we were experiencing those dark times over and over again without any end in sight, it began to drain us. Existing and making it through each day seemed to be the goal. Passions, dreams, and vision seemed to fade and the goal of seeing joy and happiness return within ourselves and our children was the target. Everything else seemed insignificant.Who can we talk to? Who can understand and will listen without giving their opinion or unsolicited counsel? Where is a place that is safe and where we can share our fears, pains, struggles, anger, grief, helplessness and even hopelessness?Then in 2014, we heard about Grace Alliance for the first time as we listened to Dr. Matthew Stanford speak on the live stream of the Mental Health and the Church conference (The Gathering by Saddleback Church). Not long after, I contacted the Grace Alliance. After sharing my story and hearing about the hope of the Grace Alliance, I contacted others in our church who had similar stories and we started a Family Grace Group in our church. We have completed four cycles of the curriculum with possibilities for more in the future! The stories of hope and encouragement are a consistent testimony within our members.2. To Offer Hope to Others.Something that seemed to be launched out of our need has now proven to be a beacon of hope for a growing number of others in our church and community. We knew that there had to be many others who shared our experiences and were also in need of support."Since launching the groups, it has been remarkable to see the impact that the group has had on us and others who have attended." Many attend for the first time feeling timid, broken, exhausted, overwhelmed, stressed, confused, angry, fearful or even relieved, excited to find others in similar circumstances with familiar storylines. The stories are heartbreaking, but the encouragement and hope found within those stories is nothing short of God’s faithfulness and grace extended.We’re building a network of support that goes much further than a weekly meeting. It has become a community of friendships that understand and encourage one another.3. To Provide a Resource for Our Staff and Leaders.Our Family and Living Grace Groups have become a resource for our pastors and ministry leaders to now be able to refer family members who are struggling with a teen, spouse, or a loved one with mental illness or battling addiction.During a past life group launch, a pastor sought me out and introduced me to a man who was in a serious crisis with a family member. I spent the rest of the evening listening to him and sharing a portion of my journey. He started attending our Family Grace Group and was able to find a Christ-centered ministry recovery center for his daughter. The Grace Group provided vital encouragement for the parents during their daughter's time away. A few months after she returned, she attended our group and shared what God did—and is doing—in her life. Needless to say, the entire group shed some tears of joy and celebration!Our church staff can now easily connect individuals and families to a place where they know they will be supported. This equips and empowers our staff to effectively care for those who enter our churches.I knew when we launched our support group that it would be our goal to see these groups implemented at all of our New Life campuses across the state of Arkansas. We currently have 12 campuses with the vision of 50 statewide.As a pastor, I highly recommend every church implement some form of mental health group or ministry.  The Grace Alliance is an amazing resource to assist you with training, materials, and support. This article was originally published by The Grace Alliance and is reposted here with permission. Dale Hull | Restoration Pastor, New Life Church, Little Rock, AR
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