Small Groups vs. Sunday School

Hi All,

I just had a conversation with a church chairman about the impact of Sunday School on small group involvement. Sunday School, or Adult Bible Fellowships (ABF's) are a good tool and so are small groups, but you need to know what you are trying to accomplish with each. In many churches the two are used interchangeably, but are they?

This discussion is impacted by my thoughts about "Simple Church" the book by Eric Geiger and Thom Rainer. We are taking a good look at everything that we are doing as a church and trying to decide how it SPECIFICALLY fits in with our discipleship process. We are no longer going to do 'discipleship by accident'; that is, just hoping that because we have a small group, or a SS or ABF that people will automatically develop into disciples of Jesus Christ.

We have developed our Product description (something I teach about when I do the 'Growing a Healthy Church' seminars - see the "Seminars" page on HighPowerResources.com), and we have developed a 27 point Christian growth list, based on intellectual, emotional, and behavioral goals (head, heart, hands). About one-third of those goals are Christian character traits, fruit of the Spirit, mercy, compassion, humility, etc. What we discovered as we talked about in our strategic staff meetings (4 hours a month), is that it is very hard to develop these qualities in people intentionally. (By the way, let it just be said here that we believe totally in the sovereignty of the Holy Spirit and the power of God to change lives, not us. But we want to COOPERATE WITH GOD, in the best way possible, that is why we are developing these Christian growth goals.). So we realized that if we are serious about developing Christian's who display the very character of Christ, through these personal attributes, related to what we call 'heart' traits, then the very best place to make that happen is in our SMALL GROUPS, NOT SUNDAY SCHOOL.

We no longer have Sunday School, or ABF's; it's all small groups all the time. We are even trying to avoid using the word 'class' about anything we do (except for maybe membership class, which we now call 'On Ramp'). And this brings me to my main point of this blog, the issue of small groups vs. Sunday School (ABF's): Sunday school in its classic incarnation was not going to do what we wanted it to do, so we are now totally focused on small groups.

You have to realize that in most churches, Sunday School, by its definition ("school") is aimed at intellectual education of the Christian mind with more Biblical teaching. The focus is primarily intellectual teaching of the Bible. Now anybody you talk to will say that they are also focused on fellowship, prayer, sharing, etc. just as any good church would want to be. But the problem is that this is done in a 'classroom' in the church building. Big difference when you go into a small group in somebody's home. It has a totally different feel, not only in size, but in atmosphere. This provides the opportunity for deep sharing and care and prayer of real life issues. This is where you really have a hope of helping people to address the deeper character issues of the Christian life. And that is where our church wants to be - focused on character growth.

So we have made the switch; out with Sunday School and Adult Bible Fellowships, and totally in with Small Groups.
And we are trusting that God the Holy Spirit will use these more intimate settings to conform us all more to the image of Christ.

At work in His Kingdom,

Dr. Bill

SIMPLE CHURCH, p. 5: FOCUS

Simple Church, Part Five: Focus

I want to keep sharing with you what I have been learning from the book Simple Church, by Eric Geiger and Thom Rainer (which you can now buy from the HPR site under "Books"). This is a great book, because it really makes you think about church systems.

In our final look at the book Simple Church, we look at what is probably the most controversial part of the book; I know it is in our church.

The chapter is entitled, “Focus: Saying No to Almost Everything”. And THAT is a hard proposition in most churches.

The book flows like this: Clarity ⇒Movement ⇒ Alignment ⇒ Focus.

Focus means eliminating everything that doesn’t fit in with your discipleship plan. Geiger states, “People assume the more that can be squeezed into the menu, the better.” But as they make abundantly clear in the book, that is not always true.

They spend some time talking about the “one thing” principle, quoting various Scripture (Psalm 27:4; Phil. 3:13-14 “But one thing I do…”; Heb. 12:2 to “fix our eyes only on Christ”)

Focus is defined as “the commitment to abandon everything that falls outside of the simple ministry process.” And that ministry process has already been clearly defined as the church has worked on Clarity – defining what they are trying to achieve; and Movement – making a simple process to move people through the discipleship process; and Alignment – brining everything to work together toward that goal. That just leaves this final step, which is eliminating those which do not apply to the discipleship process.

This is backed up by research: “According to our research there is a highly significant relationship between church vitality and the church’s focus on the process” (Simple Church, p. 203). They also quote a doctoral study (Travis Bradshaw, University of Florida) which assumed that the more programs a church had, the healthier it would be. But what the researcher actually found out was that healthier churches had LESS program than non-healthy churches.

So how do you achieve focus?
1. Eliminate – “While eliminating programs is difficult, the data indicates that vibrant church leaders have the discipline to do so” (Simple Church, p. 205). You can eliminate programs by emphasizing stewardship. To be a wise steward of your people’s time, money and energy requires that you eliminate programs which consume too much of any or all three of these commodities. Simple Church is your church’s means of safe-guarding your resources for that which is truly important.

2. Limit Adding – as hard as it is to eliminate existing programs, then make sure you do not easily add new programs.

3. Reduce Special Events – These are the events that do not fit in the normal church calendar, nor in the streamlined discipleship plan, but someone is just so excited about them that the church decides to squeeze it into the calendar. But don’t do it! Rather decide how to use the event strategically by maybe combining it with another event or tying it together with the discipleship plan. With a little work this can be done.

I’ll close by quoting the German poet Goethe who said, “The key to life is concentration and elimination.” -- German poet Goethe

Eliminate the non-essentials, and concentrate on the most important aspects of making disciples, and your church will do OK.

Later,
Dr. Bill

What is Good Coaching?

The elements of a good coaching relationship include the following four:

1st - Good coaching is always change-oriented.
That is, good coaching is not counseling; it is not focused on the past. Although it may discuss past behavior or results, the goal is to make appropriate changes for the future so that success can be enjoyed.

2nd - Good coaching focuses upon solving problems, not fixing the person.
That is the focus is problem, not person. Even if the the person being coached is concerned about particular habits which s/he may have which are inhibiting their success, the goal is still on solving a problem. Coaching is objective, not subjective. That is, even if the person being coached wants to be changed, the focus is upon the problem, or habit, that needs to be changed; not the person that needs to be 'fixed'.

3rd - Good coaching always communicates respect.
The coach keeps all sessions confidential. The coach respects the other person's judgements, opinions, and action steps selected. The coach is not there to second-guess the client, but to support, encourage, and offer feedback when asked.

4th - Good coaching is focused on outward, observable performance, not internal feelings.
This is another reason why coaching is not counseling. While feelings are the main issue to deal with in counseling, they are only secondary to coaching in so far as they inhibit performance of specific success behaviors.

If a coach wants to help a client achieve a high-level of success this necessarily requires a focus on specific, observable behaviors which can be recorded, commented upon, and changed.

For positive change is the name of the game in coaching.

God bless,

Dr. Bill