What is a Healthy Group?

In this episode, the tables are turned as cohost Matt Moore sits down to interview Adam Erlichman and Sterling Archer to answer the question, "What is a healthy group?" and to ask them about their brand new small group curriculum, Healthy Groups, coming out January 13 on Amazon and the Build Groups website. Matt, Adam, and Sterling start the conversation by talking about what an unhealthy group looks like and move into the signs of a healthy small group. 

For more information about Healthy Groups or to order your copies, go to: 
buildgroups.net/healthy-groups

What is The Build Groups Podcast?

How do you build groups? Are you building or maintaining your small groups ministry? We seek to start, spark, and spur on thought trails you otherwise wouldn't have to get you asking questions you normally wouldn't because you get to hear to some of the best church leaders in Groups ministry across the country. Tune in to learn and explore areas of Groups ministry you've never considered before or need reminders.

BG - Healthy Groups Podcast
[00:00:00] ..............hey guys, this is Adam Ehrlichman, senior consultant and founder of build groups. We have a special episode today. So glad you're joining us today. I'm taking the back seat and Matt Moore, our co host. Normally I'm hosting this podcast, but Matt is taking the driver's seat. He's getting the wheel and actually myself and our VP of publishing and content, Sterling Archer, we are the ones who are going to be interviewed today.
We're going to be talking about our new small group curriculum called healthy groups, starting and training, starting and strengthening. Groups in a gospel transformation about that resource today that releases today on Amazon, a leader guide, participant guide video on our website subscription. And so there's going to be some that we're talking about really at the heart of what we're getting at in this episode is we're discussing.
Unhealthy groups and what is a healthy group? Some of the different things that we're seeing out there with churches and with groups and leaders And pastors and what they are experiencing so that you can have a good beat and pulse [00:01:00] on What are the factors and what are the things that are going on with unhealthy groups?
And how do we help them become healthy? More coming with that in this episode. So glad you're tuning in. Here we go Welcome to the build groups podcast. My name is Matt Moore and I will be your host today and excited for just a special episode. I'm interviewing Adam Ehrlichman and Sterling Archer. Adam, you usually host, but today I get to be the host and we're going to talk about healthy groups and we might touch on unhealthy groups as well because, uh, man, it's just a key.
Um, It's something all group leaders and group pastors are thinking about. How do we plant healthy groups? So, uh, Adam, glad to have you here. Let's talk about healthy groups. Yeah, it's different. The roles are reversed today, right? I'm, I'm sitting on the other side with Sterling of us being interviewed and you're doing the interviewing.
So I'm like, I don't even know what to do right now. I'm just hanging out and chilling. So yeah, [00:02:00] we're, we're glad to be here and we're all in one location. And so you aren't seeing this. We're going to have a video of this. You're going to have split it. It's not gonna be split up. So, um, yeah, I'm glad to have you.
So let's talk unhealthy groups. We'll talk healthy groups, but let's talk unhealthy groups. Uh, you're meeting with churches all over the country and I know this is a concern. Uh, nobody wants to plant in the unhealthy group. And so what, what are some of the things you're seeing out there with health and unhealthy groups?
Yeah, I'll let Sterling give some thoughts on this cause we talk about this in different churches that we engage with, you know, it's, um, well, I think we hear more conversation around unhealthy groups than we do healthy groups, which would lead to the conclusion that there are a lot of unhealthy groups and some churches are afraid to start new groups They historically have maybe experienced them being unhealthy when they start these new groups.
And so rather than trying to take new ground or move the ball forward and in a sense with building community helping people get into group [00:03:00] to grow in biblical community, they kind of have this prevent defense of well let's not mess up any of our existing groups. Let's just kind of keep them healthy and not risk sending people out of those ones to start new ones.
At the risk of that being an unhealthy group and then if they lose these core members here There was the healthy group then now that becomes unhealthy. And so there's a lot of conversation I hear around it and a lot of really unspoken fear I think at times you start to pull back the layers in the conversation with people At the root of the symptom of us not starting new groups Is the concern and the fear and the danger of, well, what if it is an unhealthy group?
And a good friend of ours, right? Um, a mentor to me in many ways, Jared Musgrove, he's, he said no groups are better than unhealthy groups. So that, that's, that's a bit about what I'm hearing, but Sterling, uh, you know, we talk about this a lot. What else? When it comes to unhealthy groups, I think one of the things we [00:04:00] see most often is that there's kind of the false promise of, Hey, if you jump into a group, you're going to find.
All the godly friends you ever needed or ever wanted in life. And so if you go through our process, do our thing, hop into the group, then guess what? Community will be figured out and solved. And really that's just not the way it happens because what ends up happening is all these people come in with all their different expectations for what a really good group or even a, you know, a great group could be like, but oftentimes those expectations are just missed or never communicated or even worse, totally unfounded.
And so they come in and then as soon as their expectations aren't met, they What do they want to do? Oh, this isn't what I thought it was. So let me just kind of, you know, maybe I'm not really going to be committed to the group. Maybe I'm really not going to actually dig a little deeper. Maybe I'm just going to let everyone kind of stay at this relational level of just the [00:05:00] surface.
And what ends up happening is if that's everybody in the group, man, the relational dynamic is off. There's no community built. They're not sharing struggles. They're not going deep into life. Uh, they can't do that because of just those faulty expectations on the front end. It's kind of like telling someone to get in a group and that they'll instantly have community when they get into the group.
It's like saying, And this is very relevant right now being January and the new year's resolutions. Hey, join a gym. You'll automatically be fit Yeah, it's it's just like it couldn't be more further from the truth And and there are there are myths and we even we talk about it in in our in our book and our resources That's coming out healthy groups But one of the biggest myths that the church has told people who come and they say hey get into a group and find community And it's just been this horrible lie that people go in and they get into a group A group and they go, well, there's not community here because they were told if they joined, they would have [00:06:00] community.
And the truth of the matter is that communities have found, it is forged. Yeah. It is not found. It is forged through. Through investment, through time spent with one another, through text messages, through praying for one another, through resolving conflict with each other, through showing up to that sports event that maybe you don't even like that sport, but you love that family and you love that kid.
And it is just like herd ball, all the kids falling around the soccer ball everywhere. There's no soccer happening. I know that life. Yeah. Yeah, you're in that life, right? Oh, yeah, and it is hard fought for and earned to forge that community and Helping set those expectations because as you were really, you know, you're really diving into that is to be able to mitigate and Make sure a group is set up to start healthy There's a lot of expectations need to be communicated up on the front and make sure that we're telling them true biblical matters and not [00:07:00] false assumptions.
If you get in, you'll find, well, the Bible says, no, it takes a lot of time and effort. That's great. You, you, you talked earlier that you talked about, um, the fear of planting new groups. And I think, uh, talking to different small group pastors, one of the things I've seen is, yeah, they're afraid to plant in a group.
And, and, um, it's fascinating to me because what I've found is that when you plant new groups, you're able to infuse and train those leaders. with what you want that healthy culture to be. And this is especially true of new small group pastors. If you're starting new in this role, um, one of the ways to make dramatic change is by planting groups with the vision you have for that ministry because you're planning people that are responding well to your leadership, hopefully, Lord willing, that's what you want.
Not trying to influence people that are put in the role by somebody else. And so if you're able to plant more [00:08:00] groups and build groups that are Like that build groups, we're able to build groups with, that was great. With people that, with people that you're able to influence, you're, you're able to change the culture.
If you wait and try to influence people that are put in that role by other people, I just think it's harder. I think there's a lot more effort that's needed. Trust that's needed to be built. And it's more difficult to, to plant that way and to build health. Starting new groups where you train the leader before you let them launch the group and you onboard them.
With the expectations that you want the group leader have, that is the fastest way to increase a group health culture. It is also the quickest way to destroy group health culture. If you don't have an intentional process in the front end, right, to discover, develop, and deploy those new group leaders who start new groups and new disciples are starting to be formed and, and discipled there.
But it is, it's, it's so true. Uh, I couldn't agree more with what you're saying there, Matt. It's [00:09:00] those new groups. It is high risk, high reward. And it will man raise the tide for all ministry ships if you do it really well or it will, man, it'll suck everything into a black hole. And that's usually the fear of the person that's brand new in that role.
The executive pastor, the lead pastor has told them, Hey, we got to clean up. There's some unhealth and we got to clean some of that up. So we don't want to just like plan a bunch of groups. Well, I agree. You don't just want to plan a bunch of groups. You want to have a plan. And you want to have a direction.
You want those groups to go. But when you have that direction, you have that plan. And you have the right leaders plant them. It'll bring health to your ministry. So, um, Adam, you and Sterling have spent time putting together a resource to help local churches. Man, why don't you tell us how, uh, healthy groups came about and your, your curriculum.
Talk to us a little bit about the curriculum you have. Yeah. Yeah. So this, I mean, it's been an eight year project. It's been in the works. [00:10:00] And when I say eight years, we probably didn't do a whole ton of work for four years. Didn't do a whole ton. It was just saying a little bit of here, a little bit of there.
We don't, we need to do this. So the reason why this came about, it wasn't like just woke up in the middle of the night and the light shone in from the window and Holy Spirit told me it was nothing super spiritual. It was just based out of pain point need that our group leaders had in our ministry. In that, We would take them through group leader training, this resource.
And when we would take them through that, they would finish and they would go, man, this was so good. They would start their group and they'd go, man, I wish my group members could go through this training. And we would be like, well, it doesn't make sense. There's so much leader language. It wouldn't, you know, land or apply as much, but there was probably about 50 to 60 percent of the content in here that was very applicable for group members to learn and to know.
And so that's where the idea birthed. Uh, let's not just train the group leader, [00:11:00] but let's train the group members, like let's train not just the leader, let's train the entire group. And so let's take a lot of what we've gotten out of group leader training that would apply to group members, and let's put that into a small group study curriculum, a four week study to start and strengthen groups in a gospel transformation.
And they can use that and it will help support the leader launching this new group. onto a high trajectory for health. That's great. That's great. Yeah. You know, it's funny. I came on board with build groups about, you know, six months ago. And one of the first things I asked Adam was like, Hey, you know, if we can make anything, uh, what's the curriculum you'd want to make and you know, why would you want to make it?
And just like you were talking about having a resource that does set expectations at the front end, right. Help paint a picture of what does it even mean to be a healthy group? Because in church life, I think we often talk about health as this. Really [00:12:00] concrete, solid idea that everyone knows what we're talking about.
When we say, Oh, a healthy group or a healthy church or whatever. And, you know, nine marks has done incredible work in their space and their field, but also like when it comes to just regular group life, we use this language of health, but without a lot of context for what that really means. And I get every church is different.
Every context is different at the same time, like painting a pretty solid picture of what health could be. You know, as we were talking, we were like, man, if we could help churches really kind of give something tangible to them for that purpose, man, how great would that be? And launching and starting new groups, um, that aren't just like, Hey, find all your people, but are more so like, Hey, let's talk about gospel transformation and kind of the day to day life on life.
Well, what might that look like? And so as we kind of created that resource, that's kind of really where we started, you know, how do we help groups? lead into gospel transformation as kind of the, the normative [00:13:00] regular practices of their group life. Yeah. So like a practical example in the first session, we talk about what is a healthy group.
And one of the questions that we have asked to thousands of people, we've been able to collect data on and do surveys with group leaders, group members over Man, it's almost a seven year period now, I believe, maybe eight, I can't remember how long it's been. The question I find that is almost more important than any other question that you can ask when you start a group, to the group members, like a group leader to come in, they sit around the couch, or in the living room, or in a classroom, whatever that setting is, whether it's a Sunday school, a home group, an on campus life group of some sort.
One of the best questions you can ask, and this is in our first session of the book, What is a healthy group? Just like Sterling's talked about, like no assumptions. Everyone's bringing their expectations in here that are here, here, here, and there, and they're all mismatched. And that's what we see again and again with different groups and group [00:14:00] members and leaders.
And you go, well, why did this group fail? And you can trace it back to the beginning of everyone had different expectations and different relative ideas of what a healthy group was. And so on the front, you ask this question, what is a healthy group? And in the data we've collected, what we learned was.
that those who were in the group versus staff and pastors, the discrepancy was very startling, very, very startling in that most staff would say that groups exist to help people grow. And that's where their Christ like spiritual maturation is going to happen. However, with group leaders and group members, when we would take them through and they would answer these questions and we would the data we collected was that 98 percent of those people.
Actually, I think it's more than it was 99. They believe that group existed for the purpose to [00:15:00] help care for people and help them survive, not to thrive, not to grow. One of the most omitted words from the survey that no one said, almost nobody, only a few less than 1 percent of these people said that group existed for them to be transformed or to grow.
It was something else to the effect of they viewed group as this is for the weak people who need helped and cared for. Versus staff and pastors are going, Oh no, that's the place where people grow and get stronger in their spiritual journey and their faith. Yet everyone else is like seeing it as the opposite.
That's great. I love that you hit on expectations early, um, in your explanation there, because, uh, we found that man, um, really focusing on making sure group members, group leaders, everybody in the ministry knows the expectations of what's happening. It eliminates so many conflicts. I look at, I don't want to hear chapters in here talks about, um, [00:16:00] conflict resolution, how to deal with that.
Most of those things come up because somebody in the group has an expectation that isn't realistic or isn't what it's designed for. And so, um, you know, but I know I learned a lot from Dave ends on this, on setting the expectation of the first group meeting with your leaders on, Hey, when are we going to meet?
What's the purpose of us joining? What's the purpose of us doing this group? When's it going to end? What's your meeting time going to look like? All of that does so much to help promote health in your group. Yeah, and also with conflict, something we talk about often is that conflict is not like something to be avoided or something to like, you know, just, hey, don't touch on these subjects because that's, this is going to be an issue, but rather Just knowing that people are going to be people and there's going to be conflict that happens because, hey, guess who's, who's the center, right?
And so because of that, though, like every time there is conflict, we talk about as a [00:17:00] catalyst towards community that it's one of those things to where we don't want to lean away. We want to lean into the not as a, hey, let's find a fight to get into, but rather, hey, here's a way to we where we can show grace.
Kindness, gentleness, all of the fruits of the spirit as we walk through just a point of disagreement or a, a missed expectation. Or just, Hey, relationally, we don't just, we're not on the same page. What's going on here. And so conflict, uh, one of the ways we talk about it in healthy groups is that it's a catalyst towards community.
It's something that, uh, when we lean into it, it actually produces a lot of healthy community because man, imagine a place, I know it's crazy. Imagine a world, right? Where, uh, conflict is not something to be avoided, but rather when we do enter into conflict, we know that there's a community that can withstand that conflict.
And if you want to talk about being a life giving just gospel window into a world that doesn't understand that, man, uh, [00:18:00] be a community that is not afraid of conflict, but actually kind of grows from it. And so, uh, one of the ways that we just see that is that, um, then entering into conflict in a healthy way and with the expectation that it's going to grow you in the end.
I can say that better myself. That's there's two massive lies. that group leaders believe about conflict. One of them is if there's conflict in my group is failing. That's a total lie from Satan. And the reality is, is that if you're experiencing conflict, that's a part of you guys going deeper because you're getting to know each other better.
Yeah. The other lie is that if we have better, clearer communication, like if we set expectations, we have clear communication, then no conflict will happen. As if sin was Totally eradicated because we set good expectations and the fact of the matter is that we set good expectations to remove unnecessary [00:19:00] conflict so we can get to the necessary conflict of people that they have in them is still having sin to work out and that clears the lanes to go down the express lane.
If you're in Texas, right? Go 120 miles per hour and get to the heart of it. and build that community faster and grow with one another. And to Christ, hold on, are you going 120 miles on the expressway? No, no, not me. Just some other Texan. If there is never conflict in your group, it's a good question to ask.
Why? Like, why don't we have conflict? Is it because we stay really surface and there's never. any real conversation. And, and sometimes that's just where the life you're in your group and you're trying to build that into your group. But it's a good question to ask why. And if you're always experiencing conflict, that's a good question to ask why, because that could be, that could be a problem too.
Um, but, but conflict often, like you guys are saying, is the evidence of God's [00:20:00] grace since being, being revealed in the group. Um, you know, really the health of the group, um, because of conflict is bad. being made healthier, especially when all parties are coming to the table saying, Hey, everybody's here for everybody's good and the glory of God.
And when that happens, it's beautiful. Conflict is gospel opportunity. The one another's of the new Testament that describe and prescribe what Christian community is supposed to look like in the new Testament. When there is offense and conflict, that is the chance for us to be patient with one another, to be long suffering with one another, to forgive one another.
So even in the. Conflict that does come up. It's intended to be gospel or to end or lead to gospel. So hope we're not scaring future leaders that, Oh no, life is going to be conflict. Well, it is, but that doesn't mean it's bad, but [00:21:00] man, what let's talk, continue to talk about, uh, some of the chapters in the curriculum you guys have put out on how we forge healthy communities and doing so, and what are some ways we can encourage future group leaders.
group pastors that, man, there is, there's beauty in community in the local church. I've been working on this resource for years, but what has gotten us over the hump and has made this so good of a resource that it was probably subpar until Sterling got his fingerprints on it. And when he did, and he got into that and, and he has made it now, what it is, uh, it is phenomenal.
And so like, If Sterling hadn't gotten involved in this, I don't know that we ever would have published it, one. And two, it wouldn't be probably nearly as helpful. And so, man, you, you, you talk. Dude, I just took your stuff and, you know, Put like commas and stuff. That's all I did. No. Um, okay. [00:22:00] But you know, I think one of the ways that we w we really want to see this resource used, and I think one of the ways it's going to be beneficial for the church is, um, number one, when you, when we say curriculum, what we don't mean is, Hey leader, here's a bunch of content that you need to like memorize, understand backwards and forwards.
Um, here is just like a, like an in depth word by word breakdown study of passages, uh, because it's not that really, uh, this resource is really geared towards, uh, how do you take relational dynamics and groups, right? The horizontal level of spiritual, spiritual growth, right? Uh, that, that community groups are just kind of, that's where they live.
And how do you then create a curriculum that walks leaders through how to do that? And that's really what we wanted to do here is that, um, it's not just a content package. It's not just a, Hey, go learn these things and go teach them. It's really just conversational. It's relational. It's meant to be the kind of [00:23:00] resource that, you know, believer who's been walking with Jesus for a couple of years can take and go, man, I see the value in this.
I understand this. I can go deeper with the people that God has placed around me by using this like tomorrow and also for that experienced believer who's man, maybe run 10, 000 groups. I don't know. Right. But you can still take this in a relational way, begin to enter into all these different avenues of growth that we think are outlined in healthy groups in this resource.
The expectations, Intentionality is what I see in that man being very intentional, man. That really just helps set the stage to build healthy groups. What, what are some other sessions in here and how do you guys format this for leaders? Yeah, so we, we've got it broken out into four sessions. We've got the first one is the healthy group setting up those [00:24:00] good trajectories for them to have good expectations, A, Common definition of this is what a healthy group is, therefore this is what we will be about, therefore this is what we will pursue together.
And not go off into the different expectations that we have, like, find my best friend for life, or I was looking for a financial counselor and I can't believe none of you have been counseling me well in finances. And now I'm leaving the group, or I, it's a singles group, and I was here to find my spouse, you know, and that didn't happen.
So I'm out of the right all those unhealthy expectations. So that's the 1st 1 is on healthy groups. And all this is based on acts to 42 to 47, right? It's all based right on that very transferable. Biblical principles to any church context. It is timeless truths. It's not super, uh, locked into a specific context or culture.
Uh, it's true of anywhere, anytime, any church, in any place. Second session, we go into, uh, forging [00:25:00] fellowship, diving into how do you build community? Cause this lie of, well, you can find community. It needs to be eradicated. We need to forge community and people need to understand it takes time and effort.
The third one is that Uh, fighting for fellowship or resolving conflict. And we get very practical. Here's how you handle conflict. And like, here's literally what you can say to help open up the conversation, to remove the emotional charge and have a healthy gospel center conversation that leads to forgiveness and resolution.
And then the last one is how to grow together. And what does it look like to help one another and oneself mature in spiritual? spiritual journey to become more Christlike. Yeah. So absolutely. And on that note, you know how we built the sessions, uh, there's a leader guide and a participant guide and in the participant guide, um, they can choose, there's all this pre session work that they can do to kind of just, uh, get their minds and their hearts thinking in the direction of, uh, each group session to where there's questions where [00:26:00] they're kind of thinking about.
Man, how would I define a healthy group? Like, for example, in session one, and, uh, let me kind of read through acts two and kind of get an understanding. And then, you know, when you get to the session and the leader guide, there's a QR code to a video where Adam's teaching. on the subject at hand. So, you know, no matter the leader's depth or ability to teach really, that that's kind of taken off of them.
And we've got a video section towards 10 to 12 minutes of Adam working through a particular passage for that session. And then on the backend, a leader kind of walking them through kind of let's think about what was just taught. Right. And then from there, it's really application focused. It really is thinking about, okay, here's acts two 42.
Here's a healthy group. What does that mean for us? What are the steps we're going to take? And then the participant guide, there's a post session study where they go, all right, what do I do? Okay. Like what's my personal next step in this process? And then kind of coupled with that as a prayer section, we're now, man, as a group, we're praying for [00:27:00] these things to take root because it's not, it's not just like an information transfer to then like, all right, cool, healthy group done, but rather it's just helping people take the next steps.
And their own spiritual growth and then together collectively asking God, Hey, do this thing that only you can do, you know, content can only go so far, right? Curriculum can only go so far. Group time can only go so far. It takes God doing that active work in each of the group members collectively. And so hopefully, uh, we've set this up in such a way to where that becomes a little bit easier to do.
There's a, I want to speak to the guy who's listening right now going, man, my leaders. know all this stuff. We do all this stuff. Um, and we, we, we don't need to get back to the basics because a lot of this is like, man, these are the basics of building community. And, um, I remember seeing a video, I'm from San [00:28:00] Diego.
So I remember seeing a video of it was like an interview with Tony Gwynn. Everybody was like, man, Tony, it's amazing. You're a natural hitter. And he laughed and they looked at him and said, what, why are you laughing? He goes, let me tell you how natural it is. And then Tony Gwynn goes through his routine and it started like, 7 a.
m. Got up, got to the ballpark by nine. Everybody was at the ballpark, you know, for a 7 p. m. game, got the ballpark at nine, went in, hit out the tee for an hour and a half. You know, he said, I put a T on the outside corner and hit the ball to left field. Uh, then I go watch film of today's pitcher, you know, and then I would eat a healthy lunch and then I would go and take fly balls in right field.
And then I go back to the T and I do inside pitches and hit them and pull them. And, and he went through all of all of this, this T work, taking fly balls, all this basic stuff. And he goes, then I go play in the game, get home at 10 PM and my wife would have, um, out on the table, you know, VHS tapes of [00:29:00] the picture for the next game.
Wow. And I'd watch those at night till midnight. Yeah. And then I go to bed and get up and do it again. You know, maybe the, the greatest hitter of, you know, the last 50 years, like single hitter. And, and he was doing the basics. I was working on my plan for next year with my executive pastor. And I said, man, I just want to, I really want to focus on doing the basics really, really well.
And this is something we can't do too much of. Yeah. We can't communicate too much of it to our leaders. We can't communicate too much of it to the people in our groups. Um, we just like we, from the pulpit, we can't communicate gospel too much. Our, our lead pastor F Sheen's, he, he says often that there's a lot of similarities to what he does, what a TSA agent does.
Which is, uh, you're like going, where's this going? So, um, but every time you go to the airport, there's a TSA agent and he's saying the same message. Take your shoes off, put your laptop in the box, whatever. Occasionally you get the, you know, the guy that, [00:30:00] that goes, well, not occasionally it's every time I go, Hey boys, do we have to start over?
Cause you're being loud. Don't open the door again. I'm sounding like a TSA agent. Yeah, you are. Ready? Put your suit It's getting worse every time! Uh, our pastor, uh, Afshin Ziafat, he Talks about how his role as a, as, as a preacher is similar to a TSA agent. And I'm going somewhere with this. I promise. Um, but he said a TSA agent has to say the same message over and over and over again, and it's, you know, take your shoes off, take the laptop out of your bag, put on the conveyor belt.
I know sometimes you don't have to, but like. You know, most of the time they're saying the same message over and over. And there's always that guy in line, always that guy in line. Yes. It's you. It's you, Adam. It's going, Hey, what about me? Do I need to take my shoes off? Do I need to take my laptop out? Yes, you do.
You have to be [00:31:00] that guy. But his point is there's going to be something in the line. It's our first time flying. It's our first time hearing the gospel message. It's our first time hearing it and they're paying attention and they're listening. Well, it's the same thing Sunday morning in our services. Well, it's the same thing.
With people in your community group. It's our first time. It's the same thing with leaders. Even if they've led multiple places Maybe they got poor training They're hearing this for the first time and so the more we can repeat this The more we can invest in our leaders invest in our group members to communicate a clear message a simple clear message The more healthier groups are gonna be yes So this is gonna probably blow some of y'all's minds who are listening the audience What we have found with group leaders is that?
Is that the vast majority of them never learned the fundamentals. And many of them think that they know them or they thought that they knew them. And then they go through our resource [00:32:00] and they realize we were never taught the fundamentals of healthy groups or of what building community actually looks like, or what Christian community truly is, or how to help people grow and all the different aspects of it.
That it's not just incomplete with. One dimensional, but it's three dimensional and holistic. And so, even to that sense, it's like, many people go through our resource and they learn the fundamentals and the basics. That's why we've called it starting and strengthening groups. Because what we realized at first was like, hey, this would help start new groups healthy.
And then we realized the vast majority of existing groups need this resource too, because they've never learned these things. Which is just kind of mind blowing in, in, in many, many, many ways. But as we go to different churches and work, and I do trainings with their group leaders who have been doing it for 10, 15, 20, 30 years, or senior pastors who are retired and go through this training, they're like, we've never heard [00:33:00] anything like this.
And, and it's all biblical, it's all scriptural, it's all right there, and, and taking it and applying it to the practical, this is what Christian community is in the New Testament. It changes everything for your ministry and increases health and increases momentum and the excitement and the buy in of people going, I can't not be a part of group is what you begin to see.
Awesome. It's fantastic. So Adam, tell us when, where is this going to be made available and how are people going to get their hands on it? So I think this episode is going to drop on the day that it releases. So I think today In podcast land is January 13th. Is that right? I think so. Yeah. So this releases on January 13th, uh, on Amazon on our website, buildgroups.
net and everywhere else that it will be posted. Um, one of the cool things about this is that if you're a church who, uh, maybe you've got, Man, 30 groups that you want to take this, [00:34:00] uh, this, this study through. Uh, you can contact us and there is church, uh, bulk pricing that we have that includes the leader guides that you need, the participant guides that you need, and then on top of that, a, uh, subscription to the teaching videos, uh, that we've got included in this and then in other resources that will later be included as well, uh, for free as well.
Yes. Yeah. We've got a lot of other free resources that are on the website. You can go to buildgroups. net. And you'll be able to find this, be able to navigate and find the new release of this resource, Healthy Groups, Small Group Curriculum, Starting and Strengthening Groups in a Gospel Transformation. And one of the other parts of this that I think is really important that you're aware of and you know, is that this is not just for this resource, but this is the start of a whole small groups library that we are launching online.
And so there's video curriculums attached with it now. Sometimes you get a video, you know, small group curriculum and it is just, it kills the small group because it's like 30, 40, 50 minutes long. And you didn't [00:35:00] actually even do small group. You just did Sunday school from a video and or a sermon in a video.
And so what you really will value about this is that our videos are pretty short. They're six to 10 to 12 minutes, I think max long. And so it really gives a bit of an authoritative voice into the scripture scripture. That helps support the group leader to facilitate that conversation without feeling like they have to drop the hammer on everyone and go, well, that's not true.
And it's just, Hey, the guy in the video, that's what, that's what he said. You know, don't be mad at me. That's what he said. And that's what the book says. And it helps create safer conversation and the group leader to facilitate that well. And so that's another big aspect is we have a whole library and we have other resources that'll be launching here.
And the coming weeks and months of 2025 where we'll have six, seven, maybe upwards of eight small group studies that will be in this library. And that subscription is going to give you access to be able to use those [00:36:00] and purchase those and get the workbooks and all that good stuff with it too.
Absolutely. It's awesome. Well, and I'm sure we'll be doing more episodes. It's been fun, like more episodes around healthy groups and how to help people grow in their spiritual journey. But man, this is a lot of fun. Joy to have Being in charge for once. Usually Adam's in charge. It's like, I get to be the boss today.
So it was fun, man. But, uh, but thanks for listening to another edition of the build groups podcast.