Allen White's Blog

By Allen White 

Several years ago a small group pastor joined our coaching program. He had gone from having no small groups in his church to actually launching 233 groups for a 40 day church-wide campaign. At the end of the campaign, when it was all said and done, he ended up with three groups. What a heartbreak!

Over the years, in the laboratory of hundreds of churches across the country, we’ve learned a few things about keeping the momentum going and helping to sustain groups for the long haul.

1.       Groups Need a Next Step.

Most new groups do not have an opinion of what they want to study next. How many times has a new group leader presented a selection of curriculum to the group only to hear, “They all look good. Why don’t you pick one.” Happens almost every time.

Of course, the other issue here is the fact you invited folks to join a group for six weeks and not for the rest of their lives. For some strange reason, once the six weeks ends, they feel like their commitment is up – because it is.

We launched groups at our church in California for the first time in the Spring. Our fear wasn’t just Day 41, but also days 42-96. It was a high hurdle over the summer. We gathered the new leaders mid-way through the Spring study and invited them to join our next series which began on the second Sunday of October. Then, we held our breath. It’s a long stretch from mid-May to mid-October. October held a big surprise.

When we gathered groups in the Fall to give them a sneak peek at the Fall curriculum, 80 percent of the groups who started in the Spring were right there to join the Fall study. You could have knocked me over with a feather. By giving the groups a next step, even a huge step over four months, is key to helping groups sustain. If I hadn’t experienced this first hand, honestly, I wouldn’t have believed it.

Wendy Nolasco, Small Group Pastor at New Life Center, Bakersfield, California, found a similar result. After successfully launching 100 groups in the Spring, they gave their groups a heads up on their Fall campaign and then said a prayer. This Fall 75 of those groups are continuing into the next step Pastor Wendy gave them.

If you are in a Fall or New Year’s campaign, the next step is not quite so daunting. They don’t need to wait three months for another study. They can start a new study the following week. Once a group does two back to back six week studies, usually they are good to continue from that point forward.

2.       Give Your New Groups One Specific Next Step

If you send your new group leaders to the internet or the local bookstore, they will get lost in the plethora of selections. In fact, it will take them so long to make a decision, more than likely the group will falter before they can choose their next step.

If you started the group with a video-based curriculum, then the next step should involve a video as well. Again, if you invited folks to form groups with the idea that they didn’t have to be a Bible scholar, because the expert was on the video, they will need that strategy again. Whether the next series aligns with the Sunday sermons or not, a specific next step will take them past Day 41 and into a longer group life.

Now, you may ask, “How long can groups continue with video-based curriculum?”

Carl George put it this way, “As long as there are DVDs.”

3.       A New Study is a Great Time to Recruit New People to Your Group.

The beginning of a study is a natural time to invite new members into a group. The group could host an open house or a barbecue to invite some friends and neighbors who might be interested in joining the group. Everyone likes to start on the ground floor. A new study certainly provides that opportunity.

4.      If the Host Can’t Continue…

Well, you could go the guilt route: “If you love Jesus and want to go to Heaven…” But, I wouldn’t recommend that.

If the hosts legitimately cannot continue, they are probably not considering other possibilities for the group to continue. they think if they can’t go on, then the group can’t either. But, that’s not necessarily true.

When a host informs you around Day 24 of your current campaign that they won’t be able to continue with the group, have their coach begin to investigate whether another member of the group would like to step up and host the group. If the group has been rotating leadership during the study, someone may very easily take over leadership of the group so the group can continue.

Oh, and how do you get your hosts to state their intentions around Day 24 or so? You ask them. I’ve used both a mid-campaign survey as well as a mid-campaign host huddle to determine who is interested in continuing and who isn’t. Before I walk into the huddle meeting, I like to know what to expect. Often I will send the mid-campaign survey first. It serves as what John Maxwell calls the “meeting before the meeting.” Then, when you walk into the room, you know who plans to continue and who needs to be given some options for their group to continue.

All in all, Day 41 is just the beginning of group life. With the right encouragement and next steps, groups who started to only complete a six week study, can find themselves enjoying quality group life for many studies to come.

By Mark Kelly

New Life Christian Center in Turlock, California, was stuck on a plateau. For seven long years, Associate Pastor Allen White had been trying to develop a small group program that connected every member of the church in community. He knew an effective small group ministry was the key to taking the church to a level of ministry he had only dreamed of. But despite all his best efforts, they couldn’t get but about a third of the adults involved.

To view video Click Here.

“The thought of connecting everybody in a group was my dream,” Allen said, “but we were stuck at 30 percent. We were slugging it out the old-fashioned way – raise up an apprentice, birth a group, and deal with the aftermath – but we were headed nowhere.

“I thought my senior pastor was in favor of small groups, but not enough. My small group leaders were stifled by the whole apprenticing-multiplication process. None of them could find an apprentice in their group. Some of them had started greeting me on Sunday morning with ‘I’m working on my apprentice.’ Whatever happened to ‘Hello’?”

“Only one guy named Carlos ever birthed anything in our church. I wanted to call the Guinness Book of World Records! It seemed that connecting everyone was only a pipe dream.”

Then, a few months later, at a gathering of church leaders, Allen listened as Kent Odor from Canyon Ridge Christian Church in Las Vegas stood up to share how they had connected large numbers in their congregation in a relatively short period of time. Allen heard how groups could multiply without dividing. He learned how people overlooked in recruiting would actually start some of the best new groups.

Allen was intrigued, but unconvinced. He had some decisions to make.

On the drive home, he began to think about what his senior pastor, David Larson, was the most passionate about. At the time, it was the approaching release of “The Passion of the Christ,” the Mel Gibson movie everyone was buzzing about. Dave had planned a message series and ordered a banner for their church sign on the highway.

The light suddenly came on for Allen: Why not launch small groups based on the Passion?

And that’s exactly what they did. Allen asked his senior pastor to invite anyone who would open their hearts and their homes to a group of people for a 6-week study to host a group. In one day, that church of 800 adults doubled the number of their small groups! After Easter, they added 50 percent more new groups in another campaign. Things were getting out of control in a very good way!

When autumn hit, they started recruiting hosts for the biggest launch of the year. Pastor Dave aligned his weekly messages with a Lifetogether study. They took 50 verses from the Bible and asked 50 members of the church to write a one-page devotional, which they then compiled into a book. When it was all said and done, they had enough groups for 125 percent of their average adult attendance and had given out 1088 devotionals books. Well over 100 percent of their average adult attendance was plugged into a group!

“We were all in awe,” Allen now says. “The pipe dream was suddenly a reality.”

Allen realized the only reason the church had been stuck on that plateau was because of a mental block.

“It was like back in the 1950s when everyone said no man could ever run a four-minute mile. It was just a dream,” he says. “Then, on May 6, 1954, Roger Bannister ran the mile in 3:59.4 minutes. After that, many runners broke that barrier. Four minutes wasn’t a physical barrier. It was a mental block.

“New Life Christian Center had just broken the four minute mile. Churches actually could start small groups that would involve the majority of the congregation and then reach their communities through community!”

This wasn’t about numbers, though. One man named Ken invited his co-workers to join him for a study on the Passion movie. Two of them accepted Christ.

When one host named David was asked, “What motivates you to continue your group?” he replied, “My dad showed up.” Because of a painful experience years before, David’s dad had turned his back on church. But though he refused to walk through the church doors, he was willing to attend a small group meeting at his son’s house. That was his first step back toward God.

New Life’s small groups began to reach out beyond the congregation. Groups served hot meals to the homeless every Friday night. One host took the study to a local women’s shelter. Another started a group on her commuter train. Another woman decided to do the study, because she and her friends went for coffee every Thursday morning at Starbucks anyway. Why not do the study too?

A guy named Rick picked up the study to do with his friends. Carlos, who was now a small group coach, called him to check in. He found that Rick was very passionate about his group – and the pastors didn’t even know who Rick was.

Connecting 100 percent of your congregation in small groups is far more than a sales pitch. Connecting 100 percent is the first step in reaching beyond the walls of your church and connecting your community. In the pages that follow, you will read about principles that have unlocked amazing growth and community outreach for church after church. It can happen in your church too!