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Small group leaders, pastors, and more discussing strategies for growth and community in church groups. The Small Group Network is an international ministry that equips churches to engage in deeper discipleship and community.
James Browning: welcome to SG squared,
Steve Gladden on Small Groups.
I am James Browning joining Steve Gladden
to talk about the lobby gathering.
The lobby gathering is a small group event
hosted in Southern California every year.
It is a great opportunity to get
connected with other small group
pastors from all over the world.
Really, this past year we had people
from Kenya, Canada, Australia, and
throughout the us Uh, the lobby
gathering is Steve's brainchild.
Steve, uh, can you give us a quick, like
32nd summary of how the lobby got started?
Steve Gladen: Yeah, really it is.
It's all about the lobby.
Uh, when I went to conferences, I found
myself all the time going into the
lobby to talk to people who are, uh,
you know, just giving me some great.
Practical wins on what they
were doing at their churches.
And, uh, I found myself spending
3 mistakes to avoid with your
Lead or Supervising Pastor
Mistake #1: Wrong assumptions
In the middle of a difficult moment with
leadership relationships, it is very
easy to assume the worst about them.
A Christian counselor friend once said,
âWhen we assume the motives of someone
else we are wrong most of the time.â
I have learned this is very true.
We often forget is what itâs
like to be in their shoes.
Remember when others misjudged you?
What did you want from them?
What did you wish for?
It might be a good exercise to make a list
of what you remember as a starting point
for making changes in your relationships.
The danger of assigning motives,
of assuming someoneâs intent,
is we never know all the facts.
They maybe new to the church?
To the role?
To you?
They come with their own often
un-named values, beliefs, and
assumptions about what we, their
leadership, should or should not do.
Itâs very complicated.
The temptation is always to side with your
own beliefs, to assume you are correct,
because we know themâ¦or think we do.
But God is clear when He says, âYou
shall not be partial in judgment ⦠For
the Lord your God is God of Gods and
Lord of lords, the great, the mighty
and the awesome God, who is not
partial â¦â (Deuteronomy 1:17; 10:17).
Meaningful relations canât happen if
we are assuming the worst or assigning
blame without knowing all the data.
And we will rarely have all the facts.
Conclusion: Choose to believe the best.
Ask God to give you His love and
grace and to help you give grace,
expecting nothing in return.
You will never know the full
impact of the Lead Pastor world!
Help them see you as a
âfriendâ not a âfoeâ.
Mistake #2: Impatience
Weâve had a lifetime to get to know
our ministry, but when it comes to
being the Lead Pastorâ¦not so much.
Itâs all too easy to impatiently expect
these relationships to gel perfectly.
Relationships take time ⦠lots
of time with many investments
of grace, love, and patience.
There are so many factors to
considerâworking styles, age gaps,
passion gaps, interest gaps, etc.
Often what helps me in impatience is
to know, that through PRAYER, God can
make things go far faster than I can.
Simple, huh?
Along with that, you need
to be good for your church.
You are part of the team to
help, not just have your way.
You need to show up, but not throw up!
Basically, be what a friend taught me,
âBe a good General, not a bad Generalâ.
A bad General takes their assignment
and does whatever higher ups tell them.
A good General will assess the
situation, give their advise and then
execute on whatever leadership decides.
If you feel it is wrong,
PRAY, God will course correct.
Conclusion: We are only
responsible to suggest and pray..
God is more than able to work His
will in their lives without our help.
Our job now is to be patient with the
process and trust Him to do the work.
SOMETIMES God is working in the
background and doesnât tell us!
LOL
Mistake #3: Defensiveness
When a Lead Pastor points out a
flaw he or she sees in us, it hurts.
Our natural inclination is to be
defensive, to explain our position
and how hard we tried to do our best
rather than just apologize and say,
âIâm so sorry that hurt you so much
or wasnât done the way you expected.â
We forget so easily that we
are all flawed, broken people
and no pastor is perfect.
So why are we surprised when stuff
happens and people give us issues?
This next statement isnât natural but
⦠instead of having defensiveness of those
of we serve (our Lead Pastor), we should
be grateful for the opportunity to mend
and apologize for the mistakes we make!
Even if it was 100% unintentional.
Modeling an apologetic heart and
seeking forgiveness will open the door
for you to do the same with those that
serve under you (staff or volunteer).
A friend once said, âSeeing a flaw
in ourselves is a joy because we now
have the opportunity to be rid of it.â
It takes maturity and humility
to see our shortcomings this
way, but itâs liberating.
Only when we own our mistakes and
admit where we failed leadership
will we grow rich relationships
with them and church leadership.
The truth is always your friend.
Only humility produces the beauty
of meaningfully deep relationships.
And continually acknowledging
our own shortcomings and failures
before God makes beautiful our
lives in the greater body of Christ.
Itâs been quite a journey at
Saddleback Church since March of 1998.
Iâve known lots of
misunderstandings and mistakes.
Thankfully Iâve known forgiveness too.
I love our church so much,
including the staff and people LOL.
Each difficulty brings uniqueness
which challenges us to a greater
faith, and that is always good.
Heâs got us, Heâs got our ministry
and Heâs got our Lead Pastor too!
More time in the lobby than I was
listening to general sessions,
especially once we found out that
you could get general sessions
later on and listen to 'em.
Uh, but I couldn't always
get people back in the lobby.
So what we wanted to do
is create an environment.
That was a bunch of little lobbies.
We'll set up places where you can have
conversations and it really is a pure
networking event where introverts and
extroverts can both coexist and just
enjoy the best of the best of learning
from other churches, uh, through
one-on-one relationships, you know,
smaller, one on five relationships.
And sometimes we gather together,
everybody just to stretch us a little
bit more in a conversation that.
May take your church to that next level.
So it's just a great environment and
one of the great things we wanted to do.
is the lobby just concluded in May.
And so what we wanted to do was give
you, uh, a couple people throughout
the summer who are gonna be able to,
uh, give us some insights, uh, into the
small group world that were at the lobby.
You may have missed their session,
but here's a great opportunity
to connect back up on it.
And on this particular one, we have
Brad, Brad Shank, who is from CCV
over in Phoenix, a multi-site church.
Running tens of thousands of
people, multiple, multiple campuses.
Uh, but he talks about some great
rhythms that any small group from
any sites church should have.
So I want you to jump in, listen to
Brad, Brad Shank, and just to enjoy
a little snippet from the lobby.
Well, welcome to the breakout, um,
for the lobby gathering, titled
the Best part of Your Week, how
to Make Groups Fun, relational.
And life giving.
My name is Brad Shank.
I lead our adult ministry
department at Christchurch of
the Valley in Phoenix, Arizona.
We're a multi-site church.
Uh, we've got 18 campuses all
over the valley and I get the
privilege and honor of being able
to lead our adult ministry team and
really cultivate and generate how.
How we make disciples and how we create
environments for people to grow in
their next steps and experience the,
the life transformation that they're
looking for in their own lives.
And I'm excited to dive into this
topic and how to build groups that are
genuinely the best part of your week.
And in this breakout, we're gonna, we're
gonna talk about how to design groups
that cultivate meaningful friendships
and spiritual growth through simple,
repeatable and relational rhythms
that we find directly from scripture.
And I'm excited to dive into this, but
before we do so, I want, I want you
to stop for a moment and I want you to
reflect on all the small groups that
you've been a part of in your life.
I want you to think about the one or
two that really stand out above the
others, uh, groups that were, that
were life giving, uh, groups that
didn't feel like an obligation or a
box to check every single weekend, but
you felt like these groups genuinely
were the best part of your week.
What made those groups so much
different from the other groups
that you had been a part of?
And my guess is that those groups were,
were better and a better experience than
all the others, primarily because of
friendships, because of relationships.
My guess is the people within that
group made you feel cared for.
They made you feel seen.
Uh, maybe.
Maybe they.
We're the first people to make
you feel like you were heard and
understood, or maybe they felt,
maybe you felt like you belonged.
Maybe it wasn't like any other
Bible study you had been a part of.
Maybe it was a place that
you laughed together.
Uh, you played together, you did
fun things together That broke up
the monotony of, of Bible study and
discussion and, and it was just a
fun environment to be a part of.
My guess is that that's what
made those groups unique to you,
because that's my experience.
Some of the best groups that I've been
a part of, and in my tenure here at
CCV, we've been a part of, my wife and
I have been part of over eight different
groups, and over those times we've seen
groups that were a little more, more
challenging and we have been a part of
groups that were incredibly life-giving.
Why?
Because they were our people.
They were our tribe.
They, they were our inner circle.
They were the people that when push
came to shove and we needed to talk to
somebody, or we just needed to hang out
and have a good time with, these were
the people we wanted to associate with.
And that's what we wanna produce in our
church environments, in small groups that
genuinely become the best part of our
people's week because that's what the
Acts church did, uh, a few years ago.
Um.
I was reading scripture, and I love when
you read scripture and you've, you read
across, you read things that you've read
maybe a thousand different times, but God
bubbles up something new in your mind.
And as I was reading through the Book
of Acts, uh, this really caught me.
Um, and it's not gonna be news to you.
Uh, this is a passage of scripture
we use all the time when talking
about small groups in our church.
And maybe when you've done messages
on small groups, you've preached
on this exact verse in passage of
scripture, and I wanna read it to you.
It says this in Acts chapter
two, verses 42 through 47.
It says this, they devoted themselves to
the apostles teaching and to fellowship,
to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
Everyone was filled with awe.
All the believers were together
and had everything in common,
selling their possessions and
giving to those who were in need.
Every day, they continued
meeting together.
They broke bread in their homes and
ate with glad and sincere heart.
Praising God and enjoying the favor of all
the people, and the Lord added to their
number daily, those who are being saved.
A few years ago when I read this
passage of scripture, it was very easy
for me to almost comb through this.
I, I feel like I've talked on this
passage so many times that it's almost,
it's almost memorized to a certain
extent, and as I was reading it this
time, I felt like the Lord was prompting
me to say, does CCB have groups?
That embody the spirit of this early
church and how they met in homes.
Dear groups enjoy being together.
Are they breaking bread?
Are, are they eating and praising
the Lord for the miraculous and
wonderful things that they're doing?
When there's needs within the
groups, do we go beyond just
saying, we're gonna pray for you?
Do we meet the needs of the
people and the challenges and
adversities that they're facing?
Do we enjoy the people
that are in our group?
And are we seeing growth and
transformation take place?
So much so that our groups feel like
they're busting at the seams and
we're having to outgrow and multiply
and move to new environments because
the Lord is adding to our number
daily, those who are being saved.
I was convicted by that because if
I'm honest, some of our groups had
that tone, had that environment,
but not all of our groups.
In fact, the vast majority of our
groups in our church felt kind of stiff.
They felt stale.
They felt like a box to check,
like something the church was
asking and strongly desiring of me.
And I felt like, okay,
this is my next step.
So I guess I'll join a small group,
not necessarily because I want to,
or not because I necessarily enjoy
the people there, but because I feel
like that's the right thing to do.
And when I read about this early
church, what, what sticks out to me
is these groups were life giving.
They ate together.
They grew together, they prayed together,
they shared their lives with one another.
They served and cared for the
needs of those in their groups.
And through the process of, of doing these
things, of, of being like Jesus, the vibe
of their group shifted from feeling stiff
and forced to being joy filled to having
gladness and sincere hearts, and people
that enjoyed the favor enjoyed being in
a community of Christians with others.
And real transformation was
happening in their lives and in
their communities on a daily basis.
The early church wasn't
just built on Bible studies.
It was built on the rhythms of
life, relationships, laughter,
generosity, and a shared mission.
They were working in tandem with one
another to fulfill the mission of what
God had called them, and there was so
much joy and transparency in life and
laughter and food and feasting together.
These were the thing to be a part of.
Imagine if our groups in our
church began to embody this.
Would the light of the church shine
brighter or would we be more dim?
The reality is we'd be
brighter than ever before.
People would start looking in
on what are, what's happening in
our church, the friendships, the
community, the joy and laughter in
life that comes from our groups.
And they would start saying,
I want what they have.
And I was super convicted by this.
I remember, uh, going back to my leader
and we started to outline what are
the practical things that we can do
to spur on our church to have groups
that look like an AX two church.
It looked like an Acts two, uh, small
group, and we really extrapolated from
this four key rhythms that have become
the framework for what our groups do.
We don't have bible studies at CCV.
We don't have groups that
go through curriculums.
And we, we try not to even ask the
question, oh, you're in a small group.
What do you study?
Because to me, to us, this isn't
necessarily the most important thing.
A successful and healthy group at CCV
is made up of, of Christians who are
doing life together, trying to develop
genuine, authentic, real community and
friendships with the goal of helping one
another take next steps in their faith.
No mention of Bible study and things now.
We do Bible studies.
We do studies.
We study scripture together, we
discuss the weekend messages.
We are talking about how we apply our,
our faith and put it into practice,
but it's not the primary thing.
We have four group rhythms that embody
this passage of scripture, and those four
rhythms are as followed in this passage.
We see that the early church, they
ate together and when they did,
they had glad and sincere hearts.
So eating together is significant.
So we made that one of our group rhythms.
The second one that they did
was they did life together.
They were in daily rhythm with one
another through relationships and living
in close proximity with one another.
They didn't just meet
in the temple courts.
They, they gathered together in
homes and they broke bread and
they enjoy the favor of being in
Christian community with one another.
So it was beyond what they just did in
homes of studying scripture and studying
how they could apply God's word and
the lifestyle of Jesus to their life.
They actually lived.
In transparent community with
one another beyond the checking
the box of the weekly gathering.
The third thing that they did was
they grew together by just being
together, doing life together.
It created the environment for
spiritual growth to take place.
I love what Proverbs says
about iron sharpening iron,
so one man sharpens another.
When Christians.
Are in tandem in doing life
hip to hip with one another.
It's not so much through the circle in
the discussion in the Bible study, it's
through the observation of seeing healthy
marriages and two couples interacting
in a healthy way to cause another
couple to say, I wanna imitate them.
I wanna mirror what they do.
I wanna implement what they do in
their relationship and their marriage.
And when Christians interface
with one another in healthy
environments through lifestyle.
We start to rub off on one another.
The good habits, the good things
that one another are implementing.
We all start to do cross-functionally
together, so we wanna grow together.
And the fourth is we wanna serve together.
We wanna serve the needs of those in
our group because there undoubtedly
there's hurt, there's pain, there's
struggle, there's life hold.
There's strongholds and obstacles
that everyone in our groups are
experiencing on a regular basis.
And while we care about prayer.
We wanna go beyond prayer.
We wanna activate our gifts,
our talents, and care for the
needs of those within our group.
And in doing so, that'll create
opportunities for us to care for the
people outside of our groups, how
we, how we resource and serve our
communities, our schools, our law
enforcement, uh, our homeless shelters,
our soup kitchens, our food pantries,
and so many other ministries that
our, our groups can be a part of.
So our groups at their core, whenever
we launch a new group, anytime we
launch a new leader, we focus in on how
do we challenge these people to adopt
these rhythms into the environment that
they're trying to cultivate so that
their group doesn't become a box to
check, but the best part of their week.
And so I wanna spend a few minutes
diving in to each one of these rhythms
that we see from this Acts two church.
The first rhythm is eating together.
There is something incredibly spiritual
that takes place when people eat together.
Trust is built.
Uh, belonging is reinforced.
Community takes place.
It's an environment of
connectivity, ease and looseness.
It's a natural environment For fun, I.
I have a good friend of mine
who, uh, for a long time, uh,
just had the gift of hospitality.
He and his wife loved making
delicious gourmet meals.
They would invite people over to have
a meal at their table, and we got to
be friends with them for a long time.
They recently just moved away, but I
remember, uh, he and his wife were,
uh, struggling with another couple, um,
that started to kind of gossip about
them and they kind of had a falling out.
The two, the two families.
I remember talking to my buddy and he
was really bothered by the conflict
that was taking place between their
two families because he said to me,
Brad, we've had them at our table.
We've, we've broken bread with them.
We've, we've, we've fed them before
and I feel like trust has been
broken and you don't do that with
people that you've eaten meals with.
And it really bothered him.
But I remember it always stuck
with me that he was right.
When, when you have
someone around your table.
Trust is established,
walls are broken down.
There's, there's a connectivity,
a bond that takes place when
we have a meal with somebody.
Something spiritual takes place.
And for my buddy, um,
that was important to him.
The early Jewish Israelite families
were commanded by God to practice
the feasts and festivals to remember
God's faithfulness to them, and
they did it through eating together.
Food was a significant priority.
And when we eat together,
spiritual things take place.
And we actually tell our groups some of
our, our, our biggest challenge within
our church for getting people connected
to a group is our 25 to 35 year olds.
Why?
Well, they're newly married and they
have young children in the home, and
most groups struggle with childcare.
If they don't provide childcare
in the small group, they end
up having to dip into their own
pockets and pay a babysitter so
they can go to a small group.
And that's a challenge for people.
That's a challenge for
people in any environment.
And so one of the things
we tell our groups is.
Is if you're struggling to develop
Christian community and be in a
small group, 'cause you have young
children, how about you find three
or four other Christian families and
simply practice this rhythm together.
Just eat together once a week.
Have pizza, have chicken nuggets,
have macaroni and cheese.
Pull out the co, pull out the the card
table, pull out the folding table.
Make one long, uh, Thanksgiving
feast table and simply gather
together on a weekly basis and have
a family meal with your friends.
You're gonna have loose conversation.
You're gonna be, you're gonna be
broken up because you know the kids are
spilling their drinks or they're being
loud, or one's being fussy or crying.
It's inevitably gonna happen.
But when you get families that are all
in the same boat, just simply being
together is a reminder that we can eat
with glad and sincere hearts because
this is hard being a parent, raising
children, but we're not doing it alone.
Sometimes that basic rhythm is
something that can ultimately.
Help you grow in significant ways.
And so that's the first rhythm
we practice here at CCB.
The second rhythm is doing life together.
And if you want your group to
feel like a family, you have to
do and live the way families live.
And families celebrate together.
They play together.
They vacation together,
they work together.
They laugh together.
If you want your group to
feel like a family, you have
to do the things families do.
So you need to celebrate milestones.
You need to intentionally plan
ways for you guys to have fun
together, to work together, to
serve together, to laugh together.
We've got groups in our church that all
attend the same campus and attend the
same service and sit together in church
because they enjoy being together.
They eat together after church.
They celebrate birthday
parties and anniversaries.
They vacation together.
They go on missions trips together.
They enjoy.
Hanging out with one another at sporting
events, concerts, hikes, local events.
They enjoy being together.
You wanna make it easy for
groups to become true friends,
not just formal acquaintances.
At the heart of every great group,
the heart of an Acts church are true
friendship, not formal acquaintances.
And so we've gotta be the types of
churches that generate opportunities
for groups to do life together.
We've seen this play out
in a lot of different ways.
It could be groups breaking from
the monotony of just weekly Bible
study and discussion together,
and once a month doing a game.
Some of our group's favorite games is
games like Heard mentality, monikers,
uh, catchphrase, minute to win it.
We do, we love getting our group
laughing and moving together.
It breaks down barriers, it builds
trust and vulnerability and transparency
that will produce fruit in the weeks
ahead As we dive into uncomfortable
topics of conversation, we have
groups that do progressive dinners.
We have groups that go on con, go to
concerts together and go to big events.
Uh, I've even heard of a group that they
do fantasy football as a group, and they
pass around a trophy every single year.
I've seen groups that do mystery
dinners, um, murder mystery
dinners or Kentucky Derby parties.
Uh, they serve on the same,
uh, serving team every single
weekend at the same campus.
I've even heard of groups that
do a fitness challenge with one
another that they've all said,
Hey, we wanna run a half marathon.
Or we want to, to do a 5K or to do
a, a, you know, a difficult challenge
in the gym or we wanna do this,
lose a certain amount of weight and
they collectively do it together.
When you start to embody this mindset,
the group isn't just a Tuesday night,
Wednesday night gathering, but your
group is a group of friends that, that
are constantly doing life together.
You begin to feel like a family
because you begin doing the things I.
Families do.
The third rhythm is growing together, and
growth doesn't just happen in circles.
It happens through friendships that
carry truth, encouragement, and
challenge one another to take next steps.
You know, faith, uh, grows
best in the context of
friendship, not just curriculum.
And don't get me wrong, curriculum
Bible studies are important, but to
create the environment for growth
and, and transformation to take place.
Sometimes you have to take into
consideration all the environments that
are necessary for something to grow.
When you plant a seed in the ground,
that plant that, that seed needs
soil, it needs water, it needs
air, and it needs light to grow.
The same is true for spiritual
growth and transformation.
There are other components
necessary that we have to focus
in on within our small groups.
That means creating a healthy
environment for relationships
and friendships to be forged.
Creating environments for
emotional health and maturity.
A place where people feel like they
belong, that they can be heard, seen and
known, and, and that they're accepted.
All those things will ultimately
produce the soil system for spiritual
growth and connection to take place.
And when you practice all of these
healthy rhythms, you generate an
environment where growth is magnified
and can can happen very quickly.
And you see.
Bible studies are great, but real
growth, uh, and transformation happens
when we're doing life together.
When we're doing life hip to hip
and in rhythm with one another.
Bible studies are so, so good.
I'm a big believer of 'em, but it can't
be the only thing that we emphasize.
And so when we talk about this rhythm
within our groups, we emphasize that
growth happens in a lot of different ways.
And it's not just through Bible study.
And, and, you know, group discussion,
it happens in, so it happens when we
take all these different rhythms and
collectively bring them together where
transformation can ultimately take place.
The last rhythm that we emphasize
in our church is serving together.
And don't get me wrong, we care
deeply about serving the needs
of people outside of our groups.
But you can't, you can't meet the
needs of the people outside of
your group until you meet the needs
of the people within your group.
Group.
And so we deeply care about caring
for the people that are dealing
with challenges and crisis, um, and
need care within our group today.
And the group that comes around somebody
and shows up for them when they need
it the most will ultimately connect and
grow best when they know not how much you
know, but they know how much you care.
And that's deeply important.
And this is a rhythm that we're constantly
challenging our group to think about.
Yes, we care deeply about what we can
do for those outside of our group,
but serving needs to focus more,
not on me, but on we, and how we can
be a group that cares for the needs
and, and, um, challenges of those
within the context of our group.
You see groups that, that serve together
stop asking what's in it for me?
And they start asking,
what's God doing through us?
The focus shifts from my identity.
To a we mentality, and that's
important with any healthy group.
And that's a another soil system that
cultivates life, uh, that cultivates
transformation and growth in any group.
When we took these four rhythms, when
eating together, doing life together,
growing together, and serving together,
and we adopted them into our group model
and really said at the core of what
our groups do is they live in rhythm.
It's not about the Bible study,
it's not about the curriculum.
It's not about the knowledge and,
and, uh, understanding that we
can develop from this small group.
It's about living in
rhythm with one another.
Fun isn't a break from discipleship.
It is the doorway to discipleship.
Let me say that again.
Fun isn't a break from discipleship.
It's the doorway to it.
Normalizing laughter and eating and, and
having jokes and enjoying one another
is ultimately what the Acts church did.
They ate with glad and sincere with
sincere hearts and praising God and
enjoying the favor of all the people, and
that is what we're trying to cultivate.
When we added this, these rhythms
to our church, it really started
by emphasizing it within ourselves.
We had to be the example,
not the exception.
Did we enjoy the groups
that we were leading?
Did we create margin and space
for laughter, for eating together,
for doing fun things together,
for living life together?
Beyond the weekly small group gathering
in our homes, we had to generate and
cultivate it, and all of a sudden I
started to see a shift in culture.
Our staff no longer felt like it was
an obligation to be in a small group.
But they started to experience the joy
and fulfillment of being in community
with others, that these rhythms were
starting to play out in their groups.
And now we don't have all of
our groups operating this way.
But more often than not, our
groups are generating excitement.
They're in generating buzz.
And many of our people are saying,
my group is the best part of my week.
This last week, uh, was Easter
at our church and we saw a
lot of people get baptized.
And, uh, this last, the weekend after
Easter, we shared some video testimonies
of some of the people that got baptized
at one of our campuses in Barato.
Two men, um, shared why they, uh, made
the decision to get baptized, and they
talked about how instrumental their
small group was, that it, they wouldn't
have been able to make this decision
and commit their faith to Jesus if
it weren't for their small group.
And one of the dudes is all tatted up.
He's kind of a man's man, and he
just said, man, I, I love Mike.
Group I couldn't do.
I couldn't be where I'm
at today without them.
And I just think that's a testimony.
That's a testimony not of a group
that pushed the Bible down this,
this new guy's throat and trying
to get him to fall in line with
what Christians do in Bible study.
He just simply said, just join us.
Just join us in doing life together.
We're gonna eat together,
we're gonna do life together.
We're gonna serve the
needs of one another.
We're gonna grow together.
In the process of doing all this,
God's gonna do something incredible
and, and what the result is gonna
be is he's gonna add to our number
daily those who are being saved.
And when you look back on the Acts
two church, nobody had to twist
somebody's arm to be in a group.
Nobody felt like community
was an obligation.
They enjoyed eating together.
They enjoyed praying together,
laughing together, and serving
together, and it changed their lives.
That's the version of groups that we all
want to, groups that aren't meant to be.
Meetings you attend, they're meant to
be families you love, friends you laugh
with, and rhythms that you live out.
The early church didn't grow
because of better programming.
It grew because people found
their people and when they did,
God did something miraculous.
So my challenge to you.
Is to go home, read through Acts
chapter two, verses 42 through
47, and ask yourself, do we have
groups that if I asked the people
in those groups, they would say, my
group is the best part of my week.
And if not, what do we need to do
through our marketing, through our
communication, through how we tee up
our groups to be successful, to generate
environments that are full of joy.
Generosity, connection and mission
because when we do that, the
Lord will add to their number
daily those who are being saved.
And I wanna close with this.
The best groups don't
just study Jesus together.
They live like Jesus together.
If you'd like to continue this
conversation with me personally,
I'd love to hear from you and hear
what your church is doing to create
groups that people love attending.
Uh, you can email me at Brad Shank,
B-R-A-D-S-H-A-N-K, at CCV Church,
and I'd love to connect with you and
talk more on this topic together.
Thank you so much for your time.
Have a great day.