8 Steps to Penetrating Lostness Through New GroupsThis is some great information for reaching people who don't have a relationship with Christ through new groups.
Guide your church or new groups to pray for God’s heart for the lostness in your community and world. Then follow His leadership to penetrate that lostness by starting new groups through which He will draw people to saving faith in His Son. Here are eight steps to consider:
<ol>
<li>Pray to know God’s heart for the lost.</li>
<li>Put names and faces on lostness in your Jerusalem… and to the ends of the earth.</li>
<li>Pray for laborers. (Matthew 9:35-38)</li>
<li>Commission and equip teams (2 or more people) to start new groups.</li>
<li>Pray for God to open your eyes to see where He is working and join Him. (John 4:35)</li>
<li>Pray for open doors. (Colossians 4:2-6)</li>
<li>Invite people to listen to God, learn from Him, and come to Christ. (John 6:45)</li>
<li>Tell your own story of what good things Christ has done for you. (Mark 5:18-20)</li>
</ol>
As you pray, consider new groups for:
<ul>
<li>Age Groups: Who and where are they?</li>
<li>Sunday Workers</li>
<li>Socio-economic groups</li>
<li>Language Groups/Ethnic/Cultural (see: www.peoplegroups.org)</li>
<li>Housing Types (e.g. apartments, trailer parks, condos)</li>
<li>Professions</li>
<li>Relationships (coworkers, relatives, neighbors)</li>
<li>Geographic Areas (other towns, villages, neglected regions)</li>
</ul>
Caring for Your Small GroupCaring for your small group or Sunday school class is essential to the life of the group. Most people are in a group whether it is in church or not. It could be that groups you see in a local fast food restaurant on a weekday morning or a group that meets that have a common interest. The difference in kingdom minded groups are many and one of those is how we care for one another. Below are some ideas on how we can best care for one another in our groups.
<b>Caring for Your Small Group</b>
<strong>Pray for your group</strong> – This list of name that you have are a prayer list. Each person should be prayed for on a regular basis. This reminds us of the needs that they have in their lives.
<strong>Pray in your group</strong> – Share needs and pray. This is best done in smaller clusters rather than one person leading in prayer over every need.
<strong>Connect with your group</strong> – Email, Facebook, Twitter, Text, and other means of electronic connections allow for quick updates about the needs and celebrations of those in the group. This does not minimize the personal phone call or hand written note.
<strong>Connect with your group regularly</strong> – We need to have some kind of touch in the lives of every person on our list at least once a month.
<strong>Connect with key events in the lives of people</strong> – Birthdays, anniversaries, graduations; births are all things we can celebrate. Deaths, sickness, divorce, and other difficulties in the lives of people give us ministry opportunity.
<strong>Connect with events outside the church</strong> – Groups socials build relationships and strengthens caring. Doing ministry and missions together does this to a greater degree.
Leveraging Social Media to Grow Groups......Many are familiar with the idea of making contacts through cards, letters, phone calls, and visits for their Sunday School or Small Group. We understand the value of a personal touch with a face to face conversation but we must never neglect the social media world that exists as well.
Making contact or connecting with those we have on our list is essential. With the advent of social media many if not most groups are still not using these tools connect with those on their ministry list and to others as well. Here are a few things to consider when using social media with a group.
<ul>
<li>Understand what type of social networks are used by your group so you can be the most effective.</li>
<li>Communicate weekly.</li>
<li>Use social media to connect the teaching of the previous or upcoming meeting of your group. This helps with application.</li>
<li>Use social media to promote group socials and update prayer request and ministry needs.</li>
<li>If using Facebook, create a group for your group. Here is a video on how this is done and how it can benefit your group for both ministry to the members and reaching new people as well.</li>
</ul>
<b>More from LifeWay</b>
<strong><a href="http://www.lifeway.com/pastors/2017/11/21/3-ways-social-media-helps-outreach-efforts/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">3 Ways Social Media Helps Your Outreach Efforts</a></strong>
Fall and winter are usually busy outreach seasons for churches: Fall Festivals, Trunk-or-Treats, Thanksgiving dinners, musicals, Christmas Eve and Christmas services, and more.
In the not-so-distant past, advertising for such events was limited to your local newspaper. Such ads were not always cheap, and reach was limited to subscribers who read the paper on the day your ad ran. Not so with social media. Today, your event info can be shared, shared, and shared some more, providing multiple opportunities for viewing.
Social media is the easiest, most effective way to promote your outreach efforts that exists today. Please don’t overlook it.
What are some benefits? Here are three.
1. Social media provides advertising at no cost.
It costs nothing to share an event (or ad graphic) on your church’s Facebook page, Twitter feed, or Instagram. It is completely free for as many times as you want to post or tweet about it.
You’ll have non-church members sharing your event to their friends.
2. Social media provides advertising at low cost.
It costs very little to “boost” a post on Facebook, the only channel I recommend for pay ads. You can books for as little as $1 a day. Boosting also allows to you target people close to home, which means you get more for your money.
You don’t have to boost posts for every single event, but Facebook does suppress organic reach (the number of people who like your page who see a given post in their feed). Boosted posts are a very inexpensive way to expand your reach to all the people who like your page and beyond.
3. Social media allows for answering questions.
Social media allows for the quick answer for questions asked right on the post: “Can I bring my dog?” “Is there an age limit?” “Can my kid dress like Sauron at your Fall Festival? Can my grandfather?” (Twitter and Instagram also allow for interaction.)
Surely there will be people who look up the church’s phone number and call the office, but most will simply used the possibility embedded in the medium itself.
We live in a day when social media is part-and-parcel of “word-of-mouth.” If you want people to talk-up your event, then make social media integral to your outreach promotion.
Small Group Roundtable: 3 Most Asked Questions...Staff members from Georgia Baptist Sunday School/Small Group Ministries travel the state for Small Group Roundtable discussions. We get asked questions all the time from churches that have some of the same concerns about Sunday School, small groups, growth, and long-lasting connections. Here are three of the most common questions we hear at Small Group Roundtable discussions:
<ul>
<li>How do I start Small Groups at my church?</li>
<li>How do I organize or handle Childcare?</li>
<li>How do I make sure Small Groups are doing what they are supposed to be doing?</li>
</ul>To help me answer these questions I asked Scott Smith from Lakewood Baptist Church, Gainesville & Jason Britt from Bethlehem Church in Bethlehem to join me in a Small Group Roundtable discussion about some important issues in Small Group Ministry.
Creating Friendly Small GroupsDiscussion about how to have friendly In Bible studies and sermons alike, the relationship building and fun is often viewed as the fluff of the event. In fact, many leaders often skip over icebreakers, pair shares, and times for interaction. The research indicates that fellowship and fun are just as important as, if not more important than, the content of our meetings.
So we need to choose programs and materials that provide fellowship and fun. Every body wants to have fun. Shouldn't the church be the place they find it? Let’s take a look at how we can infuse fun and fellowship into everything we do.
Please click <a href="https://gabaptist.egnyte.com/dl/XDPXqfimnM" target=“_blank”>Creating a Friendly Small Group Experience for Everyone</a> for your listening guide.
Starting New Groups ChallengeJoin Dr. Timothy S. Smith, the Sunday School/Small Groups Specialist for the Georgia Baptist Convention, in discovering the essentials for starting NEW GROUPS. There have already been over 900 groups started in the last year as a result of this emphasis. If you are pastor, minister of education, Sunday School director, teacher or leader this session will assist you in doing one of the most essential practices of a healthy/growing church. In this training, you will hear the biblical foundations for staring groups, as well as a practical strategy that has been effective in starting new classes.
Available Downloads:
<p><a href="https://gabaptist.egnyte.com/dl/CWUlVGNXAV/New-Group-Challenge-Description-FINAL.pdf_" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New Groups Challenge Description.PDF</a><br /><a href="https://gabaptist.egnyte.com/dl/SAiP0qHuet/Starting-New-Groups-Challenge-Listening-Guide-FINAL.pdf_" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Starting New Groups Listening Guide.PDF</a><br /><a href="https://gabaptist.egnyte.com/dl/FA5Cs5SzCA/Starting-New-Groups-Challenge-FINAL.pdf_" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Starting New Group ppt. (PDF)</a>
Below is an article from LifeWay with additional information about starting new groups:
<h4>How to Start a Small Group Bible Study</h4>
There are five important steps for starting a healthy, successful small group. Starting a small group ministry will move your church members beyond "doing church" to "being the church." And when followers of Jesus are being the church, the not-yet-followers of Christ can’t help but notice (Acts 2:47). There are five important steps for starting a healthy small group.
<strong>Step 1: Determine the goal of your group.</strong><br />In Bill Donahue’s book, Leading Life-Changing Small Groups he points out five kinds of small groups. I have added one more.
<ul>
<li>Disciple-making groups: for believers wanting to develop spiritual disciplines and go deep.</li>
<li>Community Groups: for believers and non-believers, persons who want to build in-depth relationships with others.</li>
<li>Service Groups: for believers and non-believers who are serving alongside one another in ministry</li>
<li>Seeker Groups: groups led by a couple of believers but for non-believers. Groups that spend much time dealing with the issues non-believers are considering before coming to Christ.</li>
<li>Support Groups: groups for believers and non-believers that support attendees through personal difficulties.</li>
<li>Healing Groups: groups for believers and non-believers who come alongside one another to recognize and be released from the lies that Satan has imprinted on their hearts.</li>
</ul>
When you decide what kind/kinds of group you want to be, you will know what resources fit your group, how to train others and who to recruit for leadership.
<strong>Step 2: Craft a purpose statement.</strong><br />Every aspect of the ministry will be driven by a compelling purpose statement. Here are a few facts about your purpose statement:
<ul>
<li>It must get to the core of your small group ministry. Be certain the purpose statement doesn’t try to say too much.</li>
<li>It must be short enough to be easily memorized and remembered. You’ll want every person on the small group team to be able to voice this statement without hesitation, so make it short and sweet.</li>
<li>It should have the same vernacular of your church culture and compliment the purpose statement of your church.</li>
</ul>
<strong>Step 3: Get help from others.</strong><br />If possible, set up a meeting with your pastor or with other group leaders and express what God is asking you to do. Be sure to share the following information with them.
<ul>
<li>How this ministry fits into the purposes or vision of the church</li>
<li>Your vision for the ministry</li>
<li>Why you believe this ministry is important for this church</li>
<li>The implementation plan you will use to get this ministry up and running</li>
</ul>
Answer any questions they may have realizing that there will be many questions yet unanswered. Experienced leaders can help you prepare with information you may not have, but they can also pray for you.
<strong>Step 4: Enlist and lead the first group.</strong><br />The first group is made up of 10 or so people who will become your first small group leaders. Lead their group. Let them see what an effective group leader does. They will do what they have seen done so be the model small group leader for them. Using Disciples Path is a great way to begin each and every small group.
<strong>Step 5: Allow the people in your first group to start a group of their own.</strong><br />Once you are confident that your first group leaders are ready to lead a group of their own, help them recruit group members and be there for them as they begin their journey as small group leaders.
Growing Groups Online: SpaceWe all need to be good stewards of the space that God has provided at our churches. It is in fact, His space anyway and not ours. This short video will help train your leaders on the better use of space that they use in your church. Use it as an individual or in a larger training session.
Church Design Tips for Church LeadersLeading a church through the building process has many different components. How the building is used, what the building will look like, how does the building fit into the existing community, are just a few things that we need to consider when it comes to the design.
This video will help you look at various aspects of design to help your building be the best functioning and appealing facility it can be. Steve Newton Architect at Lifeway Christian Resources will walk us through some of these helpful tips.
<b>About Steve Newton</b>
Steve came to the Visioneering team in 2013 after originally joining the LifeWay Studio in 1990. He serves as an architect with major responsibilities for consulting, project conceptualization, and design. Steve contributed to Planning and Building Church Facilities, published by Broadman Press in 1991, and authored Baptist Church Facilities: The Architect's Guide. He has led numerous seminars, workshops, and conferences for church leaders and architects, and has consulted with hundreds of churches across the country. He served as director of the Nashville/Middle Tennessee chapter of the American Institute of Architects in 1989, is a past president of the Nashville Area Habitat for Humanity, and as an active mission volunteer, has participated in several overseas volunteer mission projects.
Steve was previously a principal at Cornerstone Architects, Inc. in Nashville where he designed multiple church projects. He was project architect for the Southern Baptist Convention headquarters building in Nashville when he served as project architect at one of Tennessee’s leading firms, Earl Swensson Associates, Inc. Steve began his career as an architectural intern in an Oregon architectural firm. A native of Tennessee, Steve received a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Tennessee.
Steve lives in Nashville, TN with his wife, Pam. He is an avid golfer and fan of the Tennessee Vols.
7 Keys to A Successful Church Building ProjectThere are lots of things to consider before starting a church building project. Many churches will struggle through a project unnecessarily because some important issues were not considered. The following video helps you and your church make wise decisions in the various aspects of a building project. Learn from Steve Newton Architect at Lifeway Christian Resources on the important key to a building project.
<b>About Steve Newton</b>
Steve came to the Visioneering team in 2013 after originally joining the LifeWay Studio in 1990. He serves as an architect with major responsibilities for consulting, project conceptualization, and design. Steve contributed to Planning and Building Church Facilities, published by Broadman Press in 1991, and authored Baptist Church Facilities: The Architect's Guide. He has led numerous seminars, workshops, and conferences for church leaders and architects, and has consulted with hundreds of churches across the country. He served as director of the Nashville/Middle Tennessee chapter of the American Institute of Architects in 1989, is a past president of the Nashville Area Habitat for Humanity, and as an active mission volunteer, has participated in several overseas volunteer mission projects.
Steve was previously a principal at Cornerstone Architects, Inc. in Nashville where he designed multiple church projects. He was project architect for the Southern Baptist Convention headquarters building in Nashville when he served as project architect at one of Tennessee’s leading firms, Earl Swensson Associates, Inc. Steve began his career as an architectural intern in an Oregon architectural firm. A native of Tennessee, Steve received a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Tennessee.
Steve lives in Nashville, TN with his wife, Pam. He is an avid golfer and fan of the Tennessee Vols.
Facilities Expo: Facility Stewardship - Session 4Session 4 - Facility Stewardship
Tim Cool presentation from Georgia Baptist Church Facilities Expo. coolsolutionsgroup.com
Many times churches are faces with difficult decisions about facilities. Hear from Tim Cool of Cool Solutions with answers to many of the questions you might have regarding your church and its future! Here are the videos for your assistance as you move forward.
Facilities Expo: Future of Church Buildings - Session 3<b>Session 3 - Future of Church Buildings</b>
Tim Cool presentation from Georgia Baptist Church Facilities Expo. www.coolsolutionsgroup.com
Many times churches are faces with difficult decisions about facilities. Hear from Tim Cool of Cool Solutions with answers to many of the questions you might have regarding your church and its future! Here are the videos for your assistance as you move forward.
Facilities Expo: Why Church Buildings Matter Sessions 1&2<b>Sessions 1 & 2 - Why Church Buildings Matter</b>
Tim Cool presentation from Georgia Baptist Church Facilities Expo. www.coolsolutionsgroup.com
Many times churches are faces with difficult decisions about facilities. Hear from Tim Cool of Cool Solutions with answers to many of the questions you might have regarding your church and its future! Here are the videos for your assistance as you move forward.
<b>Why Church Buildings Matter</b> – Based on his book by the same title, Tim will discussed how our church facilities communicate a story to our community and church family. The church campus tells a story. Stories are all around us, in virtually every aspect of our daily experiences, which means that our church and ministry facilities also tell a story. In this general session, several key questions about church facilities are answered: How does church space support the story of the people? How does the church space prime the heart, minds, and emotions of your guests? How does your facility bring people into the story of the church?
