Seven Deadly Sins of Small Group Ministry – Book Notes



Seven Deadly Sins of Small Group Ministry

Book Notes by Brian Hofmeister

Bill Donahue and Russ Robinson, The Seven Deadly Sins of Small Group Ministry, A Troubleshooting Guide for Church Leaders, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002.

Sin 1, Unclear Ministry Objectives

Defining the Problem

• Are you trying to have a church with, of, or is Small Groups?

o Signs of discontinuity regarding the place of SG’s in your Church:

People turn to staff instead of SG’s

People follow SG’s vision instead of the church’s collective vision

• Conclude your Church’s Purpose

• Make Goals Qualitative and Quantitative (Break goals down for each department)

Strategies and Tools

• Dozens of structure & direction issues are mentioned on a surface level

• Study Bethany World Prayer Center (Louisiana) for effective cell evangelism

Sin 2, Lack of Point Leadership

Defining the Problem

• A point leader on staff over SG’s is necessary to build a church around SG’s

• Adding SG’s to another staff person’s role can be just as non-committal as not naming one at all. Dual role positions create lack of focus, conflict of interest, and torn passions.

• Define the Role to Evaluate the performance of the SG Point Leader

o Champion SG’s: make clutch connections with the church through changes, celebrating success, creating want, building consensus, becoming a figure head, and pushing SG agendas amongst other staff.

o Identify, Screen, and Place Leaders

o Know what is going on in groups.

Strategies and Tools

What to look for in SG Point Leaders

• Spiritual Gifts: Leadership, Administration (not just a “details and paper work role,” but rather the knowledge of what an organization needs to achieve goals), Discernment (assess needs, strengths, directional issues, etc…)

• Personality: strategic, theoretical, sociologically curious, people focused

• History: Managerial

• Spiritually Mature and Spirit Led

• Skills: Team Building and Vision Casting (Reference Barna’s “Power of Vision,” or Willow’s CD’s on “Defining Moments”).

Sin 3, Poor Coaching Structures

Defining the Problem

At the time of this publishing, Willow advocated a “metachurch” model which is a pyramid structure: Coaches have “huddles” with leaders; SG pastors have “huddles” with coaches. They fought an uphill battle against discomfort, superficiality, and stagnation in this model, which they have subsequently given up on as of 2005. Bill Search of Ada Bible Church believes the flaw in this structure is making SG Leaders on step removed from their pastors.

Strategies and Tools

• Marks of a Coach: Care, Listen, Encourage, Prayer, Reproducing.

• Have coaching objectives, yet the biggest key in coaching is listening to the Holy Spirit on the spot.

• Division Leaders at Will spent 2/3 of their time with coaches.

Sin 4, Neglect of Ongoing Leadership Development

Defining the Problem

• Hoping for, praying for, or importing leaders is not enough

• Need a “leadership development culture”: incremental opportunities, exponential vision over addition, export rather than import your leaders.

• Strategize leadership development… Don’t just value it!

• Modeling/Mentoring of Reproduction is needed

Strategies and Tools

• Gifting of potential SG Leaders: shepherding, leadership, administration, teaching.

• Having good leaders is 80% selection, 20% development.

• Selection Tips:

o Prospects must have relational skills

o Take calculated risks

o Open SG training to all who are curious

o Giving out Leadership Books makes a leader come out of hiding. Such books include: Spiritual Leadership – Oswald Sanders, Making of a Leader – Robert Clinton, Leaders – Bennis and Nanus.

o Informally identifying someone’s potential is a good start

• Apprentice System

o Does leader work, not grunt work

o Apprentices are potential leaders, not ripe leaders

o Provide basic training

o Involve them in group prep/planning

o Help them assess spiritual condition of groups/individuals

o Maintaining their alignment to core values

• Turbo Groups (6-9 months to speed up the apprentice time)

o 12 sessions (see 122-123 for topics)

o Groups are formed to discuss group/leadership issues

o Released into a lead role at the end

Sin 5, Closed Group Mind-Set

Defining the Problem

• Interest and spirituality crumbles in closed groups

• Nearly a dozen reasons are listed for why groups become closed minded… the dominant theme is that hearts are not valuing the lost and current structures are not received well by the lost.

Strategies and Tools

Contagious Christianity (Evangelism) in SG’s:

Level 1: Talk about and hold each other accountable to personal evangelism efforts. This sharpens each other’s efforts and sparks new group energy.

Level 2: Do evangelism together: pray for friends, practice presenting, host a party/gathering.

Level 3: Fill your group with new seekers

For being an outreach dominant church, I have found Willow’s insights on doing evangelism through SG’s to be quite unremarkable.

Sin 6, Narrow Definition of Small Groups

Defining the Problem

• Differing Groups are needed for differing levels of Spirituality. Willow labels their groups – non-publicly - as:

101 – basic fellowship, church connection, introduced to spiritual development

201 – regular study and moderate accountability added. Basic support system.

301 – in-depth study, prayer, accountability. Primary source of care.

401 – connect personally between weekly gatherings, explore leadership issues.

• Willow cautions against allowing one level of groups to be seen as ideal or to send the message that each lower level group should move up the ladder. I am not behind them on their concerns. Shouldn’t there be a push towards increasing maturity? Couldn’t all groups operate at the same level of spirituality, yet varying degrees of contextualization?

• Create a broad definition of groups to allow flexibility and legitimize novelty. Will recommends including in your definition: role of the leader, nature of group relationships, and goals regarding care, spiritual development, and reproduction. See Appendix 6 for Willow’s SG Definition.

Strategies and Tools

Commonalities amongst small groups:

1. Common Developmental Framework. Willow has their 5 G’s, Saddleback has 5 purposes/bases. You need a clear definition of the spirituality you want everyone to work towards.

2. Common Structure: “Metachurch” model of SG Leaders, Coach, Divisional Leaders insures accountability and equipping around the 5 G’s.

3. Common Ground: Groups are formed by affinity (age, interest, task, or care).

Sin 7, Neglect of Assimilation Process

Defining the Problem

See 188-198 for a very extensive look at Willow’s follow-up and assimilation process.

Strategies and Tools

• Willow’s follow-up after “front door” gatherings on Sunday or other times seems to be too “in your face.

• Retention

o You have to measure your retention rate, not just growth rate.

o Ask people who leave a groups why they left. This communicates that you value their experience and gives you the opportunity to re-assimilate them. It helps to celebrate the success of reproducing groups. It helps to know where reconciliation and leader removal needs to take place.

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