Video Transcript: Small Groups Everywhere

When you plant a church and set up an infrastructure to take care of the church  and to build the capacity to grow a church, really, it's all about small groups. In  many ways, small groups are everywhere. They're not just life groups or house  groups, small groups are everywhere. What basically, as a small group, it's  basically a small amount of people working together on teams, or it could be in  pastoral care settings. It could be in worship settings. These small teams make  up your infrastructure of a church both in what you do as in program, and what  you do in care. So we're going to talk about the small group size organization  that you will put in your church plant, the whole infrastructure of the Leadership,  Culture, and much of the ministry culture is done in small groups. Each small  group setting has a different purpose, and needs a different approach. Let's talk  about types of small groups. In every church, and especially in every new  church. Well, there are permanent groups, in form teams or whatever you want  to call them, such as the advisory leaders moving all the way to the ruling  elders. So when you start a church you're going to start with advisory leaders  and someday, you're going to have ruling elders, you're going to have deacons  and those are going to be small groups. worship leaders, form a small group.  Discipleship team is a small group, young Christian leaders, team leaders.  Those are small groups of leaders that lead the youth of your church. There's  childcare teams, finance teams, promotion teams, and evangelism teams,  hospitality teams and small group leaders. Now, when I mentioned our small  group leaders, this has in the last 30 years, thought to be this is the group that  leads the care groups or life groups in every church, they too are small groups.  But the fact of the matter is, is small groups, small teams of people with utilizing  their gifts and calling within a church are very important, but to think, as a church planter that really you are recruiting and creating stages for small groups. There  are short term types of groups. So we just talked about more permanent types  of groups. But there's also short term groups. Groups can be created for  counseling purposes or seminars, or service projects, groups that just exist for a short life shelf or shelf life, so to speak. And then those groups move on. Let's  talk specifically about some of these permanent small groups. While we have  advisory leaders, when you start a church, they become the ruling elders,  Deacon boards, Deacon leadership, those are small groups. And you start with  recruiting advisory leaders, I Timothy 5:22, do not be hasty in laying on of  hands, and do not share in the sins of others. But keep yourself pure. As you  start a new church, you are looking for those people that have that gift of  leadership. You're seeking to recruit, let's say you look into your church, and  you're looking for men, called by God, to be raised up in leadership to help you  in leading the church. And again, you're looking for those available, available  leaders, and depending upon some of your policy issues, with women or men,  elders, that's a local call that you have to struggle through. But you're looking for those leaders to help you but don't be too quick in a church plant to put that 

permanent leadership apparatus in place. We've talked about this and other  places in this class, about how to develop those ruling elders and the deacon  leadership. So I'm just gonna mention this is a permanent small group. There's  also leaders as a church planter, you are the first producer. That's right. You,  your family, and your little small group of your family starts the whole thing and  then you recruit some other people to help you. You're creating stages. So you  create a worship stage, so to speak. A small group is another example of a  stage and you pick music that connects to the people your group is reaching. If  you're reaching predominantly young people We'll, of course, the music is going  to be different than if you're reaching predominantly older people. When you're  creating that small group watch out for that egotist worship leaders. These are  people who come up there just because they want a stage, and they want the  attention on themselves. This becomes a discipleship issue. So when you're  actually creating this small group, there are unique discipleship issues that come in creating of every small group. And then the worship leader, one, many times,  leaders have been enculturated, to basically want to be on the stage and is  more about them. But in a church plant, it's about God in training people how to  worship God. So some of those discipleship issues will come out in every small  group. Here's an example of what happens in a worship small group. But every  small group has unique discipleship issues. You know, before we just talked  about elders, and leaders, but there are unique leadership discipleship issues  that that small group needs, worship leaders need different ones. Also, in  worship leaders, one thing to watch out for is volunteer and balance because  worship is something so fun, sometimes leaders can be burned out. So you  might want to have more than one worship small group. After you develop one,  develop another, get to the place where you're having that balance where  people are not over volunteering. Discipleship teams are another form of a small group, recruit those who love mentoring and educate, recruit those who love  mentoring, and educating children or adults a lot of ways this is a good place for  future elder training, future shepherding training, run the Christian education  team. In other words, at first, what you're looking for is that the team reflects  your goals as a church planter. But soon, you're going to want to pass that off to  qualified leaders who have a passion for Christian education. Come up with  short term, small groups and seminars, and a lot of ways there could be  permanent discipleship teams, for children, maybe like Sunday school and  whatnot. But in many ways in a church plant, you can also start with some small  events that come and go. And also lead permanent education offerings. What  that means is, what are those places in a local church, that you're going to  consistently bring discipleship and education. And these are going to be those  standing education places. Young Christian leaders team recruit leaders who will lead them the raising up of young Christian leaders. And I usually think about  that young Christian leader age group from around 12, 13, through 18, or even 

into young adult, maybe recruit a team of two to five adults who sense the  calling to work with the young people get the young people together with the  expectation that they are going to be the future leaders of Christianity. So many  times when these types of small groups are put together in churches, it's the  youth ministry and its programmatic and it can be any size, it is, in a sense, just  babysitting the young people through their teenage years. But in a Christian,  young Christian leaders team, this team of leaders of two to five adults are a  small group, the leadership small group, and what they are going to do is get  together young people, and it can even be in a beautiful program. But the  purpose is to encourage the young people, not just to, this is what's done for me babysitting me through my high school year, but give them the expectation that  they're going to be the future leaders doing engaging leadership topics for  teenagers, such as people smart in ministry, you know, things you've learned  here, you know, people smart is a big topic for young people. And they need to  do well with people and they're gonna see the benefits right away. But if you talk about some of those issues, and then, of course, grounded in the Word of God  and have many opportunities to share the faith, those are powerful, small group  leadership opportunities, creates a stage for them to do music and worship. You  know, many times these young people play instruments and seek to bring them  into that other small group team as well. So they're not just connected to the  church by one small group, but they're also connected in other ways as well.  And also when you find young people who are on fire for the Lord, get them  involved at Christian Leaders Institute get them started in the Getting Started  class. There's also the child care team. This is many ways called the nursery.  But this is a group of people a small group whose calling is to care for the  young. Maybe while there's a worship service, there's a nursery that's  conducted. Here's just a few things if you can do background checks, in many  places in the United States, liability insurance is connected to the background  checks of people that work with young children, or actually any children for that  matter. You know, maybe the idea of background checks applies to anybody  who works with children at any age, all the way up to age 18. So think about  that, that when you recruit young Christian leaders, when you are leaders, when you recruit childcare or Sunday school leaders, it's just a good idea to do a  background check. Always, at least two people with the children never have it  where one person is in the nursery alone. Design your offering for the paranoid  parents. What does that mean? Well, think about some a parent who's coming  in, they don't know what your church is about. They're looking at things like is  everything clean? Do is are two people there? Do these two people dress? Well, these first impression issues are really important. Check online, type in search  keywords, such as how to make a really excellent and safe childcare program in my church. And you'll get all sorts of tips from churches that have done that.  Find leaders with passions for children. And here's something pay if you need to 

have a high quality care. Pay. Yeah, that's right. Many times, this is such an  important issue that in the new church. Maybe this has to be the sense of, we  need to make sure that we get high quality service in this area. Now, many  people will say don't ever pay, and I'm okay with that too. But I know many  churches need to specifically pay for childcare. And if that's you don't feel bad  about that. The finance team, that's another small group, recruit money  counters, at every service, where you take a collection, have someone else  dependable people to count the money, you as a pastor in general, just stay  away from touching money, have a whole system set up, somebody else counts  he money, somebody puts a deposit slip. The spending and prioritizing of money is the work of the ruling elders, not deacons, by the way, so a finance team, and  the money counting team would probably be a different team. So when you think about a finance team, they're not necessarily the team and the money counters  that create the budget. So I just want to insert that little thought in there. Many  churches, the deacons or the finance team also makes the budget, but really the the spending of money how it's spent is really a function of the spiritual care of  the church and the deacons. If, if you have a traditional understanding of  deacons as money counters and stuff like that, the finance deacons, I should  really say, are not necessarily the ones who set the priorities, develop a budget.  And then that budget gets brought to the elders communicate how the funds are coming in, communicate, experiences, you know, the experience of what's  happening in your local church are something that you want to bring through the finance, small group, the finance team, some more issues that I think are very  important. And here's another one, the whole whole pastor salary issue. See,  you're a church planter, and you may not be getting paid at all. So how does a bi vocational church planter who's giving more and more, whose life is totally  involved in this church plant? How do they actually get paid if more and more  they're going to need to phase out of their bi vocational job, their other job and  do this full time with the finance team and the elders, maybe get a team together whose role is the development of a plan for the pastor to go full time. So put a  pastor salary plan in place appropriate to one income of the middle class of the  people group of the primary funders and senders, leaders salary amount to be  decided upfront with senders and advisers. So now what I'm saying is, let's say  a mother church is sending you to plant this church, and be sensitive to how that salary amount reflects the community you're reaching, but also factors in the  sender as well. So what you want to find is that good balance. So how do you  stair step that? Well, here's sort of the way in which many bi vocational church  planters do this. Stair Step, the salary for bi vocationals is 25%. Of that salary  amount might come after the first year. So the first year, the church planter might be just planting out of the fullness of his or her life. And then they get involved  with the ministry, they raise people a lot, they raise small groups and leaders,  and giving and tithing is occurring. So after the first year, the church planter can 

receive 25% of that salary, then 50%, the next year 75%, the third year 100%,  the fourth year, and then that fifth year, and again, this is assuming the church is growing, and the church can afford this. That should be 125% of that first agreed salary amount. And then in year six, and on three to 5% Raise increases. It's  tied to growth numbers giving etc. But this is sort of a paradigm to think about  how a bi vocational pastor can receive a salary after this pastor has planted this  church. So the finance team separate from you is part of that. And then those  recommendations, go to the elder board. Let's talk next about the promotion  team or evangelism groups of leaders who are called to talk about and execute  promotion and evangelism plans. Emphasis on word of mouth. We've talked  about that here at this class in the past, emphasis on local witness. What's up,  how's evangelism happening? Emphasis on apologetics in some places, a lot of  people have a lot of hard questions about Christianity and are, are there  promotional events, small group events that these leaders can put in place to  spread Christ in their local area? Hospitality teams, you know, I really believe  that shepherding elders, deacons, and even ruling elders. All the leadership is,  first of all, it says in the Bible that any office bearer is given to hospitality. So that hospitality focus in a church is vitally important. So you want to recruit those who have that. That passion for meeting people, that passion for making people feel  welcome. And you want a specific team, that's the hospitality team, recruit  maybe future deacons, and even future elders that might participate. Meet to  develop that local plan, schedule hospitality to newcomers, discuss the best  practices for assimilation, make connections of newcomers with existing  participants in this is sort of how it goes, okay. So let's say a elder or deacon or  leader in the church is willing to take a Sunday of hospitality opportunity. So they are on this list. A newcomer comes to church, that person invites that newcomer  to their home. Now, they might also connect with an existing member of the  church to make that connection to for the newcomer. So often what happens is  somebody comes to a church, and really, they come, no one hardly talks to  them, and they leave, or people talk to them in sort of a superficial way. Like  they're the official greeters. They do their official work. And after their official  work is done, everybody goes home, when you plant a church, every one who  comes need to feel welcomed, and need to see the possibility that they can be  friends here that they could join in Co-journey with someone else together in  that spiritual trajectory that they're on that that journey that they're on. So the  hospitality team is vitally important, a very important small group. In fact, as I  look over church planting, I'll, I'll say this, we like to say that the worship team is  really important. We like to say that the elders are really important. I would say,  the hospitality team in a church plant could be more important than how great  your music is, on Sunday, more important than how your Sunday school  program might be more important than so many things. And yet the hospitality  team, though leaders are called in the Bible to be given to hospitality, often the 

hospitality team is still weak in many churches. So the hospitality small group,  that team is vitally important. There's also small group leaders and this is sort of  the traditional understanding of small groups. So you recruit maybe the pastoral  care team, commission as a small group leaders, deacons, you know, you know, we're not really talking about here, but in a lot of ways, elders and deacons both  are filled with ministry duties and opportunities. When when deacons are  ordained, they're not there just to be about budget and counting of money. They  are all about ministry, learn the methodology of starting ministries, small groups,  and even go online, we have some blogs for you to read here. In this church  planting class. The leader team leaders team is the pastoral care work of the  ministry deacons. So in many ways, what I like is when somebody becomes a  small group leader, they also go through a ordination as a deacon process. Now again, in your local setting, you might see that a little differently. These small  groups are about shepherding the church, and you want to create the platforms  for people to do that. One more thing about small groups, small groups tend to  create cliques that are closed. One thing I would suggest to think about is to  create a small group and have it automatically that after a year or two, the small  group is going to disband it for in order for you to meet other friends. Now, I will  tell you people won't want to do that necessarily, unless you say that upfront,  and basically say, you know, we are all new here, we want all of you to have  friends. And we want you to grow in your friendship developments. So what  we're going to ask is that we create these small groups. And after a little bit, you  try another small group, just because you want to keep meeting people and  keep growing spiritually. Or maybe another way to do it is maybe two couples  really connect. And they become the team leader to start a new small group.  You are going to have look at your situation and your temperament and what  you think about that. But the downside of care groups, life groups, small groups,  is often it can form cliques, there are groups that will be together for 10 years,  you know, recently I visited a Church where a small group was together for 12  years, and no one else had ever joined that small group. Now, this, this group of  like six families know each other, and whatnot, but nobody else is invited. The  um, one of the people of the church said that, what they do sometimes is they'll  have like a get to know new members, week for the small group. And what they  do is they invite some people, to their small group to get to meet them, and then  they tell them, Okay, we invited you just to meet you. Now you can go back to  the church, it's nice to meet you here. But our small group is full. You know, that  that happens quite a bit. So be careful as a church planter, about small groups  that they do just do not become cliques or closed groups. You know, another  way to do it is to say that every small group is going to split in half, and then half  are going to meet new people. So you have a little bit of a concept of long term  relationships. But the group is going to open up to three new families every year, and then those three families that are going to open up to three more families. 

So there's a lot of ways to do this. But please remember that small groups can  be very cliquish counseling, small groups, maybe identify short term, small  groups, or task force or teams that have a specific problem in mind, maybe a  marriage seminar to renew marriages. You know, that's something that needs to  happen maybe every year or every two years and maybe it's just a seminar.  Identify the problems in your church in your community. Refer difficult matters to  specialized helpers. This is very important. Don't get over your head, like for  instance, doing a counseling, seminar on bipolar disorders, you might want to  get a professional to help you. And follow up if a follow up is needed. Because  some of these things become very dicey, very difficult, very long term. And  churches that go into those waters often get into trouble. Connect mentors, if  possible. Like maybe there might be a mentor program in your community. And  a small group might be a retired man with a at risk team who needs a little bit of  mentorship. In a sense, that's a little small group, it may be less for short term  one year, have clear end dates in mind, or clear event dates in mind, and do all  these things upfront, especially in small groups related to counseling. Then  there's just seminars in general, think of various topics that are offered at a  church. Maybe it's like a Christian businessman's approach to the community.  So you have promote a topic there's attending, connect the attendees, with the  larger church life, a lot of times I find seminars in churches do not do this. Well.  What they do is they will do their seminar, it's so separated from their church.  One thing that you can do things like, Okay, you have a seminar in area, about,  let's say, Christian business, development, have this seminar, but have your  worship team start and do a song or two and devotions and have like a little  devotion, that it's like a mini church service. So you have the community coming, and they see just a little mini devotional church service. Now, if people from the  community see this, they see the great seminar you put on, but they see a little  bit of kernal seed of your church that will get them to say, you know, that was  really meaningful. I think I'm gonna check the church out on Sunday, or on a  Saturday night service, or however you structure your worship program. See, so when you do a seminar, keep in mind how to connect those seminars, to the  local church, service projects, small groups, where you word or deed, we admit,  but when you do a service project, remember, you're really mostly thinking about discipleship goals in your local church be understand that that's the first thing a  lot of times people believe like a mission project. The whole purpose is to help  you know people in another country now there is a lot of help that can occur  there. And be very careful that your discipleship goals, don't just have the  mission goals as sort of the the main purpose because what happens is, is that  you can confuse who you do mission to by your discipleship goals. What I'm  saying here is be very honest about when you do a service project, understand,  it's for young people to see other cultures and along the way, teach them about  being friendly and giving leave, give a hand. Christian love to the community. 

Where your church is, is one of the best places to do word indeed projects, so  that you can form relationships with the community. There's many discipleship  goals, and there's much love in the community, these goals can combine  together to create even church growth for your new church. Remember to keep  projects low cost if possible. And the reason you keep them low cost is because  you want that sustainability to be there. And you don't want to create financial  dependencies from people that you're helping to your church. A lot of times what happens is the church feels such love for the community, they will set an  expectation that they will not be able to keep they'll they'll say we're going to  help single moms and they'll start this program. And then because they can't  maintain it, it goes away and then it brings hurt because you started something  you could not keep going try to think of service projects that create discipleship  goals that show love to your community or another community with yet the  budget staying very reasonable and appropriate. You know, there are so many  different small groups and and each one of these areas, you can check online  for some of the best practices. But when you create small groups remember  there's task small groups, there's small groups that are short term, there's long  term permanent small groups. you're organizing your whole church around  groups of people to do ministry. Sometimes a small group meets once a month,  sometimes it meets every week. Some small groups meet once a quarter,  maybe there's an audit small group that you have that audits all the books it  meets once a year. There's all forms of small groups in your organization as you lead and develop a new church. So, read up on them read up on the different  types of small groups become very good at creating small groups, very good at  delegating others to create small groups and be also good at ending a small  group if its purpose is not there. Church planting is incredibly fun but when you  have a group of people with you, you really see how the body of Christ operates  and is very effective for God's glory.