Starting new groups

 In our late 20s my wife and I gave our lives to Jesus Christ and began attending a church our neighbor attended. I still remember the first time we went into the Young Adult Sunday school class. There were about 40 people in the class, all who had been together for years. We felt like outsiders...because we were. It was an uncomfortable feeling, and it took several months before we felt we fit in.

After a couple of years the pastor asked if I would help him start a new class for that age group. It had stopped growing, and he felt a new class might appeal to new people who would visit the church. For the first quarter he taught the class, and I was his substitute. After that three months I became the teacher. We did not divide the existing class but did let anyone interested in the new class know they could transfer into it. When new young adults attended the church they were invited into the new class. In a very short while we had grown to a couple of dozen people, most of them new to the church. 

We have known for a long time that new churches reach new people. That is why so many denominations seek to plant new churches. What we often fail to consider is that new small groups also attract new people. Go into many smaller churches and you will find the same people sitting in the same classes they have been in for years. Now, consider what it would be like for a new person or couple to begin attending that class. They will feel like my wife and I did when we first attended the Sunday school class. Most small groups do not intentionally try to make new people feel uncomfortable, but they often do. New people are surrounded by conversations being held by people who have known each other for years (decades). It can be very intimidating.

Church growth experts recommend that a new adult Sunday school class should be started every 18 months. This allows new people to connect with other new people. That will be difficult to do in many smaller churches. There may be space limitations, leadership limitations and other issues that make this difficult. But, small groups include more than just Sunday school classes.

A small group might include a church choir, a book study group, a group focused on more in-depth theological study, a sports group, a quilting group, a fishing group, or any other groups that might attract people to the church. Many of these groups would not meet on Sundays and often will not meet at the church. But, they do provide opportunities for people to build relationships with people from the church and to be exposed to the Gospel. People such as Gary McIntosh suggests that one of every five groups in the church should be less than two years old. This provides a comfortable place for new people to become connected to the church.

Many small churches will argue that they are already a small group so they don't need to start one. I suppose that's true if they are only interested in the persons already in their small group, but if they are interested in reaching new people they may find it easier to do in additional small groups.

Personal finance and the church

Many economists are predicting that we are moving towards another recession. A typical 30-year fixed rate mortgage now carries about a 7% interest rate. Existing home sales have fallen for the past 12 months, and the inventory of existing homes have increased to about a 2.9 monthly supply. The Fed keeps tightening the money supply, and the US economy is expected to expand less than 1 percent in 2023. Predictions for 2024 look more favorable suggesting that the financial challenges many Americans will face in 2023 will be of short duration. Certainly, no one expects to see a repeat of 2008. Still, many are going to struggle in the coming months, especially those will large amounts of debt. How can the church minister to those people?

God is interested in every aspect of our lives, and that includes the financial areas. The Bible speaks a great deal about money and how it should be managed. Despite this, little is said from many pulpits about personal finance. This gives people the impression that God is not interested in their finances or that it is not a part in our growing as Christian disciples.

I am convinced that every church should regularly offer a course on personal finance as part of its discipleship training. Such a course should be offered at least once a year, perhaps in a small group setting. Some people are very private about their personal finances and would not be comfortable sharing in a large setting, but in a small group many would be more willing to share with others who are dealing with financial challenges in their own lives.

Financial Peace University (FPU) is the best program I have discovered for such training. Dave Ramsey has built this program and defined it over the years. It has been offered in countless numbers of churches, schools and other settings, and have proven instrumental in helping people get out of debt and becoming financially healthy. I personally followed the teachings of FPU and was able to not only get out of debt but also learned how to better manage my finances.

Every Sunday pastors look out over their congregations and see many who are struggling financially. Some struggle to make it from one paycheck to the next. The loss of one paycheck due to illness or an accident would financially cripple them. They know they should tithe, but to do so would mean they could not pay their rent that month. Despite the guilt they feel, they also feel a responsibility to ensure their family has a roof over their heads. Some years their children may not go to church camp because they don't have the money, and their pride won't let them ask the church to help. Behind the smiling faces on Sunday there is fear, anger, and the pain of countless fights in the home over finances. FPU could provide them the tools they need to begin the road to financial security and freedom.

FPU could also be used as a powerful outreach tool into your community. Throughout every community there are countless people living just as I described above. One major study found that arguments about money are the top predictor for divorce. Offering FPU to the community along with the church can not only teach people sound money management principles but also introduce your church to them as one that is concerned about their well-being. FPU is based upon biblical principles so they will be exposed to such teachings through the 9-session program.

In closing, it is no secret that many clergy struggle financially as well. Many do not want their congregations know about their struggle, but it creates problems in clergy households as well. I would encourage such ministers to check out Ramsey's excellent book, Total Money Makeover. It was reading that book and listening to him on podcasts that helped me learn the principles he teaches about getting out of debt and becoming financially secure. The same principles found in the book are those taught in FPU. I should also say that I am not an employee of Ramsey nor a spokesperson for him or for FPU. I simply believe that this is an excellent way to serve the members of your church and reach out into your community. 

Lego churches

 If you've had small children in the home you've probably had Legos. Kids and many adults love them because of the ability to build some very creative things. They are not so much fun at 2:00 in the morning when you step on one barefooted in the dark!

Most Legos have about six snap-on points. Some have more while others have less. As you connect the Legos with these snap-on points you can build just about anything you can creatively imagine. Once all the connecting points are filled you cannot connect anything else to that piece.

Think about this in relationship to the church. The key to getting new people to connect to your church is to offer them connecting points with other people in the church. Unless a new person makes a connection with others in the church in a relatively short period of time they will find the back door and you'll not see them again. The problem is that in many churches, especially smaller churches, most people have all the relationships they can maintain. It's not that they don't like the new people or that they don't want to relate to them, it's that their connecting points are all used up. So what can the church do?

The key is to offer more connecting points. This may be from starting a new Sunday school class. One church had a Young Adult class that had grown too large to allow new people to feel like they fit in. The church started a new class for that age group, and when guests came to the church in that age group they were directed to the new class. Within a few months the new class had grown substantially.

The same thing can be done with small groups. A healthy church should be regularly exploring the possibility to starting a new small group to enable new people to build connections with people in the church. This means the church must constantly be developing leaders for these groups and identifying topics that would appeal to the people in the community for these new groups.

Healthy churches will be very intentional about taking steps to create as many connecting points in the church as possible. With enough Legos you can build anything you want. With enough connecting points in the church it can grow much larger than it is.

Side doors into the church

 A few years ago I heard about the ways some churches were using side-door ministries to reach out to unchurched people. Although I have shared that with some church leaders, I've recently become more interested in the opportunities side-door ministries offer the church. A few weeks ago I read Side Door: How to Open Your Church to Reach More People by Charles Arn. The book was filled with helpful ideas on how to create side-door opportunities for churches.

Let me try to explain the concept of side-door ministries before proceeding. For decades the church has focused on front-door evangelism. We tried to find ways to get people into our churches through the front door. We invited them to worship services, revivals and other special events. While that was an effective form of outreach for a time, the continual decline of church attendance proves it's not an effective means of reaching people outside the church today.

Arn writes that "A side door is a church-sponsored program, group or activity in which a nonmember can become comfortably involved with the church on a regular basis. It is a group that provides an ongoing opportunity for a nonmember to develop meaningful and valued relationships with people in the congregation." These side-door events can be built around virtually any activity or life event. Some examples might be a group that enjoys quilting or bass fishing or camping. It might be a group of grandparents who are raising their grandchildren or a group of single moms. A side-door ministry can be built around almost anything in which a group of people share a common interest. As people come together with common interests they begin to build relationships with one another. Some of these relationships will turn into friendships, and these friendships will lead to conversations about spiritual things. We know that more people are open to attending church services when invited by a friend.

The book gives some great tips on how to create side-door ministries, but the one thing I want to focus on in this post is the importance of a ministry coach. The author writes that "A ministry coach is your church's 'contractor' for overseeing the construction of successful side doors." This is a key person who will oversee the overall strategy of side-door ministries in the church. Any church serious about using this approach to outreach needs to add this position to their leadership team.

As churches are being forced to adapt to new ministry challenges due to the pandemic, perhaps this is a good time to consider side-door ministries as part of your ministry strategy. As I wrote in yesterday's post, it is unlikely we will ever return to "normal" in the ways we minister in the future. Since we need to reinvent ourselves and our approach to ministry we may want to explore this as an option.

Churches are reaching people through the side doors

Traditional churches have long sought to reach new people by inviting them to attend the Sunday morning worship service. A few generations ago it was common for church members to go door-to-door through their neighborhoods passing out tracts and inviting people to come to their church. That type of outreach isn't practiced by many churches today, but the emphasis is still trying to encourage people to attend a church service, The declining numbers in many churches today proves that strategy is not effective.

Most growing churches have replaced the attractional model with a more missional one that emphasizes being out in the community and developing relationships with those who live and work there. These relationships soon point to the best ways the churches can serve those in the community and ministries can be birthed through this understanding. These new ministries provide side doors into the church.

A side door ministry can be anything that brings members of the congregation and members of the community together for some interest or need they both have in common. For instance, a group of individuals who share a common interest in quilting might meet once a week to learn more about quilting and to work on their quilts. Another group might want to come together to learn about bass fishing. Perhaps a third group might consist of persons recently divorced who have custody of their children. Still another group might want to get together to learn how to better manage their personal finances. Another group might be grandparents who are now raising their grandchildren. As you can see, the possibilities are endless.

As these groups meet together relationships are developed among those attending. Unchurched people begin to form relationships with members of the church. As these relationships deepen and biblical truths are presented during their meetings it may well be that some of those attending will decide to attend a worship service. Knowing there is someone they know who will be there makes it less threatening to do so.

Since we are still challenged to practice social distancing, forming these groups may not be feasible right now, but that also makes this a perfect time to begin thinking about forming such groups and putting a plan together to do so. The pandemic will not last forever, and churches need to be prepared to reach out with these small groups as soon as it's safe to do so. 

What does a church need to start such a group? First, there must be someone, or several someones, in the church who have a passion for a particular group. Perhaps there is someone in your church who enjoys fishing in bass tournaments and would enjoy passing on some of the things he or she has learned about fishing to others. If there are persons in the community interested in learning fishing techniques you may have the ingredients necessary for a small group. Along with the individual there also needs to be a team of individuals who want to help with the planning. This is too important to leave it to just one person to develop the group and be responsible for all the planning and work that will be required for it to be successful.

Regardless of the size of your church, every church can have at least one such group that will offer a side door to your church. You may be surprised at how fast your church might grow if you open up a side door to go along with your front door.

Smaller churches and pastoral leadership part 2

Yesterday we began looking at the realities of calling a pastor to serve a smaller church. Our focus was on calling bivocational pastors. Today we will look at some other options.

Methodist churches have had pastors serving more than one congregation for many years. One pastor serves three churches in the area in which I live. I once led a conference for a Methodist district and preached in one of their churches on Sunday morning. That church was one of four that pastor served.

As a Baptist I have found many in my tribe do not want to share a pastor with another church. I was once asked if I would consider serving another church that was much smaller than the small church I was already serving. After speaking to our leadership I agreed if the other church was agreeable. They weren't. They wanted their own pastor. This happened years ago, and they've been without a pastor more often than they've had one. There is no reason a pastor cannot serve more than one small church. I predict we will see more of this in the future or we will see more churches closing their doors.

Another option is to allow your small church to be a satellite of a larger, nearby church. The pastor of that church would serve your church as well. Sermons would either be live via technology or be on video to be played a week later. I know many want a live person presenting the sermon, but these folks also have no problem watching a movie or a TV program. There's really no difference. The pastor would provide leadership to the church as well as preach. One big advantage to the smaller church is that they would probably have an experienced pastor serving them for an extended period of time rather than someone lacking experience who would stay a year or two before moving on.

A third option is one that many churches will not consider: calling a woman pastor. My denomination, which supports women in ministry, has many churches that will not consider a woman candidate. Other denominations will exclude one of their churches that would call a woman as pastor. It's hard to justify that from Scripture (Please don't send me your proof texts. I know them all.). I also struggle to understand this mindset when so many conservative denominations welcome women as pastors in their churches. Can so many denominations be wrong about this? To exclude women pastors is to exclude a growing percentage of the people who might be candidates for the position.

A fourth option is to select someone from your congregation to serve as pastor. I've seen this done a few times, and it worked out well. Such a person is committed to the church and is known and trusted by the members. There are training programs available to help such a person acquire basic pastoral skills and theology. One big advantage is that the person is a known commodity and is already trusted by the congregation.

A fifth option is to restructure your church into small groups with a pastor/small group leader for each group. This might entail selling your building and meeting in homes. As one church planter told me once, a church of 30 people can do the same things in homes as it can in a building. You might decide to keep your building and come together each week for fellowship and worship. The small group leaders might take turns speaking or you could use video courses to study together as a church body. There are a number of possibilities associated with this option.

Smaller churches need to rethink what they can expect from future pastors and what these persons will look like. As I wrote yesterday, it's not 1950 any more. What worked then will not work now no matter how much you might want it to. If you are flexible in your search for new pastoral leadership, you will find the person God has for your church. If not, you are going to struggle to find leadership in the future.

Christian education ministry challenges

Our church is currently looking at how we can improve our Christian education ministry. Like many churches we've seen a decline in Sunday school attendance over the past few years. It is not unusual for the attendance in Sunday school to be about half the attendance of the worship service in many churches. If we are to take seriously the call to make disciples that is not acceptable.

One of the things I'm focused on is starting new classes. Our church currently does not have a class for two important age groups so it's not surprising that we have few from those groups involved in Christian education. Besides, we know that new classes reach new people. In his excellent book What Every Pastor Should Know: 101 Indispensable Rules of Thumb for Leading Your Church  Gary McIntosh writes that one of every five adult education classes should have been started within the last two years. That is certainly not the situation in our church nor is it for many churches.

It's very difficult for new people to enter an existing class. Some of the people in these classes have been together for years, even decades. They've watched each other's kids, taken trips together, and experienced life together. Trying to enter that world is like stopping by a stranger's house for Thanksgiving dinner. You might be invited in, but you'll never feel comfortable.

Unfortunately, it's not easy to start new classes. Some churches do not have the space. Some struggle to find teachers for their existing classes. A new class will often start very small which can be uncomfortable for people. Still, it's imperative to start new classes if we want to grow our Sunday schools.

Of course, in today's environment some people would be more interested in attending a small group than a Sunday school class. We just completed a 10 week term of small groups that featured a number of different groups that addressed various topics. Our attendance was strong in many of these groups, and one of them has now developed into a new Sunday school class. We plan to offer more small groups throughout the year as a way of improving our Christian education ministry.

Having specific starting and ending dates can encourage people to attend a class or small group. They know they are not signing up for a life sentence! The one group that has developed into a new class did so upon the request of the people who were attending the group. They asked for it to continue.

It also helps to offer different class structures and topics. In our small group format I encouraged each leader to select a topic they were interested in leading. Our staff gave final approval for each topic, but we found each one presented to us to be acceptable. You will limit the people who will attend your classes if you simply present material found in denominational quarterlies. We've found that people will come when the topics address real life situations they are facing.

We live in a time when Christian education programs in churches are struggling, but these struggles can be overcome. We simply need to begin thinking outside the box and provide such education in ways that will be attractive to those we want to reach.

Small groups in the small church

For many decades most smaller churches looked to their Sunday school as the primary teaching arm of the church. In the early 1980s, when I was going to a Bible college, we were taught that the Sunday school was also the outreach agency of the church. I still remember the mantra that we were taught: The role of the Sunday school is to reach - teach - win - develop. Classes were structured to perform these functions, and in many churches they performed those functions well.

Today is a different story. In most churches the Sunday school is poorly attended with less than 50 percent of worship attenders involved in a Sunday school class. Evangelistic outreach is seldom done through the Sunday school program in many churches. Age-graded classes are not always found, especially in the smallest churches.

In many churches Sunday school still has an important role to fill, but it's doubtful that we'll ever return to a time when Sunday school is the primary education program of a church. Some are shocked that this is the case, but we need to remember that Sunday schools have only existed for a short period of time in the church. For most of church history the church used other formats to disciple believers.

The first century church met in homes. Evangelism was done through personal contact with unbelievers, and worship and discipleship occurred in the homes of the believers. Today we would call those small groups, and many churches are now using the small group format to provide training and fellowship for their members.

Earlier this year we began a series of small groups in the church I serve as Transitional Pastor. These groups were designed to meet for 10 weeks ending the week before Palm Sunday. Several families opened up their homes while other groups met in the church building. We allowed each small group to focus on any topic they wanted, as long as it received approval from the staff. Every proposal did receive that approval.

The small group I attended held our last meeting last night. Our small group leader was a Messianic Rabbi from Louisville who came each Wednesday evening to talk about the Jewish roots of Christianity. It was a fascinating study that could never have occurred in a Sunday school setting. We learned much about Jewish beliefs, how the Scriptures all pointed towards Jesus as the Messiah, and how to share our faith with Jewish people. It was fun and informative. The fellowship we shared during the meals prior to the study was wonderful. As I was leaving the host said they were ready to host another small group.

I have found small churches reluctant to use small groups. I guess many of them feel they are already a small group, but this format gives any church the opportunity to cover topics not normally covered in typical Sunday school material. One of our small groups this term focused on "Spiritual Parenting" which some of our young families with small children attended. I've been told it was another excellent group. Last term one of our small groups was on achieving balance in our lives, another topic much needed in our fast-paced world. These kinds of practical studies taught from a biblical perspective can be invaluable for Christians wanting to know how to incorporate their faith into their daily lives.

I would encourage churches of any size to pray about using small groups to provide training to their members. These can also be a great outreach opportunity. We've had some non-members attend our small groups because they were interested in the topic being presented. Set them up with a specific ending point so no one feels they are signing up for a life-long contract. 8-10 weeks is usually long enough, and if people are interested another short term small group can be offered. I truly believe doing this will dramatically improve the discipleship training in your church.

An exciting start to a new year

Madison FBC is having a great start to 2018. In yesterday's post I talked about the various small groups that will begin meeting this week. There is still time to sign up for one of these groups if you live in the Madison area. You do not have to attend this church to take part in one of these small groups.

The church also entered into a 40 day period of prayer and fasting as we began the new year. This came from a suggestion from one of our members to the deacons who then invited the congregation to participate. They put up a sign-up sheet for anyone who wanted to volunteer to fast and pray for a day or however many days they wanted. The sheet quickly filled up, and we know that some are fasting and praying who did not sign up.

A few years ago the church was able to purchase an abandoned school building. Although it is being used, there is still a lot of unused space in the building that could be used for a variety of ministries and, potentially, other ministry groups in the community. We had a brainstorming session last week to discuss some possible ways to maximize that space. There was a nice turnout of people who shared a variety of ideas that could expand the ministry of this church.

Last, but certainly not least, this past Sunday, the church voted to called Randy Crutchfield to be their new senior Pastor. Randy has served this church as Youth/Associate Minister for the past 25 years and will soon be stepping into his new role as senior Pastor.

However, Randy is scheduled to take a sabbatical this summer so he will not officially begin serving as pastor until he returns from the sabbatical in August. The church has asked me to remain as Transitional Pastor until that time. During this time he will continue working with the youth and fulfilling his other current responsibilities. We will work closely together as co-transitional pastors although we have not yet had time to discuss yet what that might look like.

The church has been seeking a pastor for around 18 months. During that time we've seen a lot of positive things happen. The church has certainly not sat idle waiting for a new pastor. We spent time discerning a fresh vision from God for the future of the church. We've been involved in community outreach activities. We provided leadership for a Community Vacation Bible School that reached over 220 children. One group visited our sister church in El Salvador, and our youth made mission trips to a community in  Appalachia and to the Dominican Republic. There is much more I could mention but lack the space to do so.

So many churches go into a holding pattern when they are seeking a new pastor. I am so proud of this church for not doing that. The people have continued to seek ways to serve God and this community during this transition time. With Randy's leadership I believe this church will only continue to expand its ministry to this community and around the world!

Small groups

Madison FBC is starting our 2018 small groups this week. These will begin meeting the week of January 21 and will end by the week of March 25. Not all groups will run the entire 10 week period but most will. You do not have to attend Madison FBC to attend one of the small groups. The ones we offer during this term are

• "Women of the Bible and What We Can Learn from Them" which will meet in the church library on Sundays at 10:00 am. This group will be led by Nita Scarff.
• "Healthy Churches" will meet in the Lower Auditorium on Sunday evenings at 6:00 pm. I am leading this one.
• "Unoffendable" which will meet in the home of members of our congregation in Madison. Randy Crutchfield will lead this group which will look at how letting go of our anger can make our lives better and help us love God more. This group will meet on Tuesday evenings at 6:30 pm.
• "Jewish Origins of Christianity" will meet in the home of one of our members. This group will be led by Rabbi Aaron Bortz from Louisville and will explore the Jewish feasts, traditions, prophecies, and theological origins of the New Covenant. This group will meet on Wednesday evenings starting at 6:00 pm.
• "Spiritual Parenting" will be led by Grover and Debbie Anderson and will meet on Thursday evenings at 6:00 pm at the church.
• "A Study of the Book of John" will be led by Eric Rector and will meet on Wednesday evenings at 7:00 pm in the Lower Auditorium. This will be a discussion type of study with all participants asked to share what they learned from the assigned readings.
• "Religions of the World" will be led by Dana and Cheryl Hooton. This group will look at the various religions in the world to see what we can learn from them and how to pray for their followers that they might know Jesus Christ. This group will meet on Thursday evenings at 6:00 pm at the Eggleston building, 419 E 2nd Street in Madison.

The addresses of the private homes will be given to those who wish to enroll for that group.

As you can see, we have a variety of small groups that should appeal to many people. Each are designed to help you better understand Christianity and grow in your faith. I encourage every member of our church to commit to one or more of these groups, and we invite anyone in the community to join us as well. Just contact the church office at 812-265-2331 to register for a group.