Are you paying attention to what’s really happening in your small group ministry? Not what you hope is happening or what you think will happen…but what’s actually happening. Are you watching for subtle variations in the way things turn out? Are you noticing when two groups that start on the same time and in the same way have different outcomes? Asking yourself why?
We should all be paying close attention to what’s happening. It’s the only way we’re going to connect beyond the usual suspects. After all, if you want to connect people you’re not currently connecting…you’re going to have to do things differently. You’re going to have to try different things.
So…what’s your most recent grouplife learning? Would you have an answer if the two of us were hanging out for a few minutes? What if we were in a group and one by one we each shared our latest small group ministry learning. Could you chime in when it got around to you?
I remember sitting in a staff meeting at the first church I ever worked at and hearing my pastor say that you could tell what year someone stopped learning by looking at the copyright dates of the books on their shelves.
If we could see the date of your most recent small group ministry learning…would we conclude that you’re still learning? Or that you stopped sometime back? Be honest, now.
But regardless of what you answered, don’t you really want to be the man or woman that continued to be a learned right to the end of your life? I do. I’ve decided that my purpose is to figure out ways to connect way beyond the usual suspects. In fact, I’m dreaming of finding a way to help connect the widening 60% that will never be reached by the attractional model.
It’s why I try the things I do. It’s why I experiment with lowering the leader bar and Jedi Moves that add 5 or 10% more Hosts. It’s why I ask you to think with me about my weirdest post ever and why I’m quick to jump on host orientation ideas that might enable a much better sign up to show up ratio.
I have no intention of just perfecting systems and strategies that have plateaued at 42% connected. And I hope you don’t either.
So…what’s your latest learning? Testing something you want to share? You can click here to jump into the conversation.
