Celebrating Our First Year!

Celebrating Our First Year!

By Allen White

Photo by Andor Bujdoso

Photo by Andor Bujdoso


One year ago after following a nudge from the Holy Spirit, which felt move like a shove, my wife and I formed our own coaching organization. It was a big step. After working for two churches and then two stints at Lifetogether Ministries with Brett Eastman, it was time to go out on our own. And, what a year it’s been!
Exponential Groups, my first book on small groups, will be released on February 1, 2017 from Hendrickson Publishers. Writing this book was something I just felt compelled to do, even if my mom is the only one who reads it. It’s the stories and best practices from the over 1,500 churches I’ve coached and the two churches I served on staff. Why Exponential Groups? When we recruit individual leaders, we grow by addition. When we train apprentices and “birth” new groups, we grow by multiplication. When we engage our entire congregation in the Great Commission, we grow exponentially. You can preorder Exponential Groups at Christianbook.com, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other online outlets. Hint: The book is $5 cheaper at Christianbook.com (my publisher owns it). (Download the first chapter Here). But, this isn’t the best part.
I have the privilege of coaching some of the great churches across North American and helping them grow their groups exponentially. Here is a partial list of churches I’ve worked with in the last 12 months in various ways.

Coaching Groups — 19 Churches including:

C4 Church, Ajax, Ontario
Christ Tabernacle, Queens, NY
Discovery Church, Orlando, FL
Eastlake Church, Chula Vista, CA
Manna Church (ARC), Fayetteville, NC
Next Level Church (ARC). Ft Myers, FL
Peninsula Covenant Church, Redwood City, CA
St. Johns Lutheran Church (LCMS), Orange, CA
The Branch Church (COC), Dallas, TX
Victory Worship Church (AG), Tuscon, AZ
Ward Church (EPC), Northville, MI

Onsite Assessments

Bayside Community Church (ARC), Bradenton-Sarasota, FL
LifeBridge Christian Church (ICC), Longmont, CO
St. Matthew Catholic Church, Charlotte, NC

Individual Coaching

Allison Park Church (AG), Pittsburg, PA
Bethesda Pentecostal Church, St. Johns, Newfoundland
Mariners Church, Huntington Beach, CA
The Rooted Network, Mariners Church, Irvine, CA
Venture Church, Los Gatos, CA

Online Courses including:

Love of Christ Church (ARC), Bear, DE
Overlake Christian Church, Redmond, WA
Salem Lutheran Church (LCMS), Tomball, TX
The Life Church, San Angelo, TX

Speaking: Keynote, Retreats, Workshops, Conferences

Thousand Hills Church (AG), Corinth, TX (Leader Retreat)
Georgia District Council (AG), Macon, GA (Pastors’ Conference)

Video Curriculum Production

Chip Ingram and Living on the Edge (multiple projects)
Doug Fields and Intentional Parenting (Discussion Guide)
Lutheran Church of the Atonement (ECLA), Barrington, IL
Kingdom Life Church, Baltimore, MD
Wow, when I stop and look at the list, I realize it truly has been an amazing first year. I also serve churches in some low cost ways:
My Blog: allenwhite.org
An Hour with Allen
We’ve had a great first year and have seen great progress in the churches we have served. My hope in the coming year is not only to help more churches grow their small groups, but also to help more churches grow their people. In the Great Commission, Jesus charges every believer with the responsibility to “Go and make disciples…teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” The word we are keying in on for 2017 is “obey.” Jesus didn’t tell his disciples (including us) to “teach them…everything.” He commanded us to “teach them to obey everything.” An obedient church is a growing churches. Priorities will change. Chains will fall off. Communities will be transformed. Believes will be empowered. New leaders will come out of the woodwork. Without building another building or hiring another staff member, we can change the world.
Thanks to all of you who’ve allowed me to play in your sandbox and have taken this work seriously. You and your church will never be the same.
God bless,
Allen

Case Study: The Seven Rules of Success – Wayne Cordeiro – New Hope Oahu

Case Study: The Seven Rules of Success – Wayne Cordeiro – New Hope Oahu

By Allen White Seven rules
Pastor Wayne Cordeiro leads New Hope Oahu, which is certainly the largest church in Hawaii as well as one of the largest churches in America. Wayne came to us with two objectives in mind. He wanted to create a small group curriculum based on his recently released book, The Seven Rules of Success, and he wanted to connect his congregation into groups for the series and beyond.
New Hope Oahu already had a strong production crew, so they didn’t need the work done for them, but they knew that while the expertly produced weekend services, video-based group curriculum was a new genre for them. NHO partnered with us to coach their production team, to provide on-site direction for their video shoot, and to coach their small group team in launching new groups and sustaining those groups past the seven week series. Our team rolled up our sleeves to help them masterfully produce the curriculum for the book.
We provided guidance through the pre-production process from what equipment to have on hand to determining what elements to shoot and which on-camera personnel to use to help with turning a tradebook into a teaching script for the teleprompter. While this was new for the NHO team, this was not new to our team. Prior to this project, we worked with a variety of pastors to create small group curriculum based on a tradebook including Rick Warren’s The Daniel Plan, Chris Hodges’ Fresh Air, Wilfredo (Choco) de Jesus’ Amazing Faith and In the Gap titles, and Pastor Kerri Weems’ Rhythms of Grace. By repurposing great content, these pastors developed additional tools to help their congregations and many others to apply the principles to their lives in a group.
Before you get jealous, the video shoot took place in Oregon, not Hawaii. As you can see from this beautiful outdoor setting, Wayne and his team shot on a horse farm in both indoor and outdoor settings. The Lifetogether team provided on-site coaching to lead their team through every step of the process, every element on the DVD, and every promotional video to recruit leaders and launch their church-wide initiative.
The end result was both a beautiful small group tool and seeing 6,000 people connected into groups at New Hope Oahu in their first video teaching series. There is work ahead to continue support their small group team with the structures and training necessary to sustain groups for 6,000 people, but this isn’t new to us either. Best of all, New Hope Oahu now has the ability to continue producing curriculum for their groups with or better yet, without our help well into the future.