The Relational Mission

 In a previous post , I wrote about how we our core being is defined relationally. We are socially formed. At the same time, this formation has shaped our personal identity in such a way that we set the self over against others. We are taught to look for our core identity apart from others, as if there is some kind of essential identity that is pure and untainted that can only be found in the individual, isolated soul.   This sets up a problem that often goes unnoticed when we try to establish small groups. We tell people that they need community, that we are created as social beings in the triune image of God, and that the Bible tells us that we are called to love one another. Then we organize people into groups and give them curriculum to talk about each week. Thus far things are heading on a good track. But something happens. The group doesn't move beyond the Bible study experience into community. People say that they want to love one another, but the group struggles t...

A while back, I wrote a series of post entitled Why Small Groups Fail in America. Here I'd like to offer 6 reasons why small groups don't fail. Or Why Small Groups Work. Reason #1: Pastors refrain from "fad hopping." There is no trick to making small groups work. There is no magical structure out there that will make groups work better than all the other structures. For some reason, over the past 20 years there have been a slew of different models and approaches offered that try and convince us that they have a new and improved approach. But the reality is that jumping from strategy to strategy actually distracts people. There are a lot of "right ways" to do small groups. And there is no one "right way". Figure out your right way and stick with it. Reason #2: The senior pastor carries the vision for small groups. If this is not the case, then the best you can hope for is a small group program, not the development of community on mission that sh...

The Senior Pastor Does not Possess the Vision for Small Group Life I've taken a break from this series due to our relocation, but there is so much more to say. If you want to view the first five entries in this series click here . Notice the wording I used above. I did not say "vision for small groups" because I've found that senior pastors commonly carry the vision for small groups and promote their benefits. I said that the senior pastor does not possess the vision for "small group life." Between the two is a huge gulf. A lead pastor can possess a vision for groups and even promote the small group program. That's better than nothing I guess. But if the vision never goes beyond that, then groups will never be anything more than a program. And people don't need more programs. A vision for small group life is not something a person gets. Actually the vision gets them. It gets inside them in such a way that they are compelled to lead people int...

Reason #5 that Small Groups Don’t Work in America: Senior Pastors Try to Be Small Group Pastors For various reasons senior pastors feel the need to be the primary small groups pastor. They lead the church and try to develop small groups and oversee life (or lack thereof) that transpires in those groups. They often feel that they need to serve as the group architect, the group builder and the group sustainer. In other words, they feel the pressure to be the creator, developer and the pastor of groups. In addition, this idea of the senior pastor as the small groups pastor has been propagated for years, if not decades. David Yongii Cho has always stated that he is the cell group pastor of his church. There are those who state that Rick Warren is the small groups pastor at Saddleback. And there are others who instruct pastors that they need to be the primary initiator of groups when they want to start them. Then in the case of smaller churches, pastors are left with few options but t...

Reason #4 that Small Groups Don’t Work in America: Design Flaws Design principles guide the work of architects so they can build sound structures. Architects and structural engineers don’t copy the work of others verbatim. Every building is unique, depending upon many factors including the terrain upon which it is built. If the architect is not equipped in sound design principles, then he will be forced to copy and thereby build something that might not fit the situation at hand. If we apply this analogy to a small group structure, then we need to identify a few things in very clear terms: First we need clear small group design principles. There are many good books and blog sites that are available to equip us all in designing good small group structures. Second, we need architects who are able to apply these design principles to local contexts. In other words, an architect is not one who develops a structure that looks like what is written about in other books. An architect is...

Reason #3 that Small Groups Don’t Work in America: Hiring Program Administrators We hire program administrators to run the small group ministry instead of hiring shepherds who will do the mundane, repetitive work of caring for sheep. Effective small group pastors possess strengths that allow them to focus their energies on caring for people, developing leaders and gathering people around a vision. I’m not sure that this is something that comes that easily for those of us who have been in church leadership for any length of time. Our traditional church structures have depended upon those who are good orators and those who are good program administrators. It does not take long to see this when we assess the average M.Div. program. And look at the most popular books that target pastors. The bestsellers speak to the issue of vision development skills, leadership aptitude and communication skills. I hope that I am wrong, but my observations have caused me to conclude that we under-valu...

Reason #2 that Groups Don’t Work in America: Boredom with the Mundane Church leaders are not usually that good at embracing the mundane. We want results and we want them yesterday. We want something that makes for good testimonies, something that has what they call “sizzle” in the marketing world. After all we are accustomed to building churches on sizzle. In the old days, we had revival meetings, then meetings, and sing-alongs. Then we created seeker-services with all the excellence we could muster. Now we have multi-site with annual growth numbers that are staggering. Long-term small group success lacks this sizzle that we so eagerly long for. It has little fan fare. Small groups work when leaders operate like shepherds. They do the under-ground, consistent, steady work of caring for the sheep. That is hard to promote and measure. It’s different from developing programs in the church which can be seen and measured as we build buildings, develop budget-dependent programs and attra...

A pastor confesses that he can’t figure out how to make groups work. A popular author grabs a confession and says “See, small groups don’t work. You need to do it my way instead.” Another labels groups as a fad of the last decade. Another leader claims that small groups are small enough to care but not large enough to do anything. Then one of the most prominent churches that promoted small groups and developed an extensive network of churches for small group training is no longer doing groups. It seems like many people are jumping into the blog world to announce that their experience reveals that small groups don’t work in America. They proclaim the demise of groups as if their point of view is the gospel truth. And the sad thing is that we embrace their limited point of view as if it is as valid as any other. Welcome to the post-modern world of flat information dissemination. Everyone is an expert. Or so it seems. But we need to have something that helps us discern the elements o...