Our Partnerships with 40 of Outreach Magazine’s Top 100 Largest & Fastest-Growing Churches

by Brett Eastman | May 25, 2018 | Main Blog

Over the years at Lifetogether, we have either published video curriculum, consulted on the small group ministry and/or produced fully-custom alignment campaigns for over 500 growing churches. Below is a list of 40 of the churches we have worked with from Outreach Magazine’s largest and fastest-growing churches. Now, for the first time ever, we are coaching and producing programs for churches no matter what your stage or size.

Saddleback Church – Rick Warren
While serving on the staff at Saddleback Church, I helped produce multiple churchwide alignment campaigns and dozens of video-based curriculum series––including the Purpose Driven Life series and the the most famous spiritual growth campaign of them all, 40 Days of Purpose by Rick Warren.

When I got to Saddlleback, there were only 73 small groups, and we were able to grow to over 2,500 groups during the 40 Days of Purpose campaign.   Some of the breakthroughs and innovations during those early years set the foundation for what is now over 7000 off-campus small groups.  Over 40,000 churches have done one of the 40 day campaigns over the years. It was quite a season and the best is yet to come.

Below you’ll see The Daniel Plan curriculum and campaign that we helped put together at Lifetogether for Zondervan and Purpose Driven. The Daniel Plan book was awarded Christian Book of the Year and the five volume video curriculum series featured teaching from Rick Warren, Mark Hyman and Daniel Amen–– and it was actually hosted by my wife, the Founding Director of The Daniel Plan.  You have to check out this series.

Willow Creek – Bill Hybels
After serving with the senior staff for half a dozen years I served on a team that went from 23 groups to over a thousand groups with over ten thousand people in groups. I was invited back several years ago to produce the first video campaign called Wiser Together. With our coaching and consulting they were able to connect over ten thousand into groups in the first wave and one year later over twenty-thousand people.

Oak Hills Church – Randy Frazee & Max Lucado
We produced one of the more unique video series with Randy Frazee, his wife Roxanne, Max Lucado, and his wife Dana called Make Room For Neighbors. This was one of the most beautiful productions, shot in multiple settings in their community. The curriculum includes testimonies and training features that have helped to launch thousands of people into groups and introduced a new model on how they could launch groups directly off the weekend series.

Church of the Highlands – Chris Hodges
We produced the curriculum companion for Chris Hodges’ book Fresh Air. We were able to coach and consult the small group team on how to recruit, develop, and lead a team. We equipped some high performance writers and talented designers to produce this series.

Christ Fellowship Church – Todd Mullins
Over ten years ago we produced the first video curriculum and church-wide campaign for Christ Fellowship with Tom Mullins, Todd’s father. This campaign helped launch 500 groups at the time and got close to 5,000 people into groups. Just this last week we confirmed a new partnership with Todd to help him and his team take their small group ministry to the next level and streamline their system strategies and staffing models to connect over 100% of their adults in groups.

Southeast Christian Church – Dave Stone
Over the last three years we have produced Dave Stone on several video curriculum projects including the Life on Mission project that was produced with over a hundred of the largest and fastest growing Christian Churches in the country. This series was published by Purpose Driven Ministries and introduced to hundreds of churches.

Woodlands Church – Kerry Shook
We consulted with Kerry Shook over a two year period helping them connect over 7,500 people in groups. We helped produce numerous video curriculum and church wide campaigns including One Month to Live curriculum series that was used in over 8,000 churches.

Mariners Church – Kenton Beshore 
We produced the very first video curriculum and church-wide online campaign for Mariners church that connected over 5,000 people years ago. We produced Kenton Beshore right out of his office that aligned with a video companion curriculum. This aligned with a major church wide capital campaign that raised over 19,000,000 in the months following this small group campaign. We also introduced a breakthrough leadership training strategy that trained more than a 1,000 small group leaders.

Bayside Church – Ray Johnston 
We recently launched a one year partnership with Bayside that included four major video curriculum that all align with the weekend sermon series. The first campaign just recently launched and has already has close to 2,000 groups and close to 20,000 people into these groups. The small group campaign leveraged all of our latest and greatest strategies recruiting leaders, training leaders, and mobilizing ordinary people in the congregation to take a video series and gather some of their friends. The results on this one speak for themselves.

New Life Church – Rick Bezet 
I traveled to New Life and produced Rick in a video series that was produced for the ARC Church planting network. This video series was called Life Giving Relationships in which we produced over 100 of the top 100 Churches in their network. There were over 1,000 people who attended, including their entire leadership team.

The Rock Church – Miles McPherson 
We partnered with The Rock Church over a year to help launch and lead a new movement in their church to connect their entire congregation into community. In their first major campaign we helped move them from having 350 groups to just about 800 groups. The format was over the top and one of our most creative campaigns where we introduced a decentralized worship experience and an 8.5 X 11 full color congregational style curriculum. This initiative was integrated with a major capital campaign where they secured $73M in the “One Fund” strategy.

Watermark Community Church – Todd Wagner
We met with Todd and his small group team and introduced them to a new way of developing video based curriculum that align with their weekend teaching series and helped to influence the development of what was several different series that aligned with the weekend teaching and catalyze people into community.

Celebration Church – Stovall Weems
We produced a video curriculum series for Stovall and Kerri Weems based of Kerri’s book Rhythms of Grace. This series was shot in Weems’ home, wrapped around an audience of 40 people in their own living room. The companion series included a spectacular print curriculum and video DVD and when rolled out to the church there were amazing results. It served as the catalyst for us to partner with Christine Caine and develop five different propel curriculums. We are in conversation now to develop the next initiative to take their small group ministry to the next level.

Southland Christian Church – Jon Weece
Years before John took over as senior pastor at Southland Christian Church we consulted with Mike Rowe and the existing staff team to take their small group ministry to the next level.

North Coast Church – Larry Osborne
Larry has always been an inspiration on how we have done our small group ministry, from the early days of working at Willow Creek. Recently I gathered with Larry and his entire leadership team to talk about the breakthrough model we’re doing with decentralizing the worship experience by producing the worship team of a local church. With his encouragement we are now producing worship with many of our church partners. Churches are now included 10-20 songs that will be introduced in small group curriculum, microsite services, online services and as he said one of the best applications is church planting. I have produced for Larry many times over the years from church leadership training and other tools for church leaders.

Potential Church – Troy Gramling
Produced a stewardship curriculum called Reveal with Troy. Teaching one of the sessions years ago with the capital campaign company RSI was based off the theme of time, talent, and treasure, and served as a Continuity program for capital campaign and stewardship programs.

United Methodist Church of the Resurrection – Adam Hamilton 
We consulted with Adam Hamilton and his church for a year helping to introduce a new model of how to decentralize small groups. How to launch small groups into the community to reach their community for Christ. Adam went on to produce over a dozen based video curriculum that aligned with multiple books he had written and that aligned with his weekend services. Adam continues to be one of the greatest proponents of bringing alignment to what happens on the weekend with what happens in a small group setting throughout the week

The Summit Church – J.D. Greer 
We consulted and coached J.D. and their executive team to produce their first video curriculum that aligned with a weekend teaching series and stewardship campaign where they raised a significant base of funds to fulfill their mission vision church planting and campus expansion. This was in the early days of lining a major church like campaign with a curriculum. Now it is the norm for us to partner with many churches and their capital campaigns.

Central Christian Church of Arizona – Cal Jernigan
We partnered with Cal to develop a series based off a life message that he had on the Kingdom. In a cabin setting in the mountains we shot what was 30 different testimonies and teachings. This helped launch hundreds of small groups in his congregation and community. Studying a life message helped connect thousands of people in the congregation into community.

First Assembly of God – Dan Betzer 
Years ago we consulted with Dan Betzer and the entire team at First Assembly on how to connect your entire congregation into community by leveraging the model of off campus small groups with the weekend services. During this time we were not using the video curriculum that has proven to exponentially launch more and better groups on and off campus.

Cathedral of Faith – Ken Foreman 
We’ve partnered with Ken and Curt Foreman and the entire Cathedral of Faith family to produce a major church wide campaign and video series called Family Matters. This series was produced in a town hall format and included the production of their worship team in one of the most spectacular productions we have ever done. Results launched 5,000 people into groups with 500 new groups

Shepherd of the Hills Church – Dudley Rutherford
We produced one of the most creative series we have done yet with Dudley. Being an avid cyclist, Dudley based the series Walls Fall Down off the his published book. We filmed this while Dudley rode his bicycle up and down the hills of Los Angeles. This series launched thousands into groups during a major campaign season.

Life Church TV – Craig Groeschel 
I helped Craig produce material that was used for a project with Saddleback Church that integrated leader training with a teaching series. We were able to coach through how to use this material to launch and train leaders on the vision and values of worship in a church.

World Outreach – Allen Jackson 
We have partnered now for three years in a consulting relationship with Allen Jackson. We have had the privilege of producing 8 different unique video series that has gotten north of 10,000 in 1,100 small groups. This is one of the best models that we have that has sustained growth over multiple series rather than just one. The most recently produced project is also the most creative piece of work called Let’s Pray. Just this fall he is launching an additional 2,000 to his already extremely effective small group strategy.

Northview Church – Steve Poe
We have produced several different series with Steve and the team at Northview. Each project has been a little different in how they are produced. Both were in done in a home setting. The latest was done in a very interactive town hall like environment around the topic of family, marriage, and relationship. This series helped to launch almost six thousand people into groups and continues to grow.

The Crossing – Jerry Harris 
Jerry Harris is one of the contributing teachers on the video series that we did in conjunction with the North American Christian Churches and Tim Harlow called Life On Mission.

Savannah Christian Church – Cam Huxford
Cam was one of the contributing teachers on the series that we did with the North American Christian churches where he provided featured Leadership training for pastors called Life On Mission that helped focus their life and mission. Helping to refocus on living selflessly, Life On Mission, was released by Purpose Driven Ministries and introduced to hundreds of churches.

River Valley Church – Rob Ketterling
We produced Rob and his wife Bekkah along with his entire family in a series done with the Assemblies of God denomination. Over a two year partnership we were able to produce a 40 volume series along with leadership training. This series was called believe based on Dr. Woods keynote address. Rob played a primary role in the series Life Giving Relationships in which we produced.

Shadow Mountain – Dr. David Jeremiah
We were able to produce a three volume series with Dr. David Jeremiah. We produced an adult, Spanish, and youth edition of the series. This series helped to raise the weekly tithing by almost a hundred thousand a week. And helped to finish what was a half a million dollar capital campaign for a new educational building.

Scottsdale Bible Church – Jamie Rasmussen
When Pastor Darryl Deuse (SP) was still the senior pastor we produced a series with him and Jamie Rasmussen that helped to launch thousands of people into small groups at Scottsdale. It was in the early days of curriculum but we are in conversations with Jamie now about all of the latest innovations and findings. We hope to continue to build on what was started years ago.

Healing Place Church – Mike Haman
Produced several different series with Mike and his team. The initial development of the “GROW” strategy was developed at the healing place. This “grab a friend and go” strategy over a six month period has exponential growth.

Cornerstone Church – Sergio De La Mora
Coached and consulted with Sergio and his team on small group strategies for some time informally. We have had Sergio participate on multiple curriculum series over the year and conversation about helping to produce a series on the revolutionary heart as we speak.

Faith Promise Church – Chris Stevens 
We consulted with Chris over a years time and helped to produce multiple curriculum with him and his wife on a married series and a vision and value series. These efforts help connect about 5,000 people into groups. As a result of our coaching Chris has gone and produces multiple series. They have one of the healthiest small group ministries in the country.

Faith Assembly of God – Carl Stevens
Years ago we consulted with Carl and his team to develop a health small group ministry. As an Assembly Of God church, where small groups are not as common, we were able to make incredible progress together.

East Lake Church – Mike Meeks
We consulted with Mike Meeks for a season and helped him take his small group ministry to the next level. We coached Mike through producing multiple projects. This is one of the most vibrant churches in the world.

Cherry Hill – Shane Farmer
Working with Shane at Willow Creek on the largest small group launch Willow creek has ever done in history called Wiser Together. We developed small group strategy that has influenced Shane and the small group ministry at Cherry Hill.

Traders Point Christian Church – Aaron Brockett
Aaron was one of the contributing participants in the series Life On Mission and provided the young emerging voices in a tribe of more established churches around the country. Aarons teaching style is authentic and edgy at the same time. Offered leadership training to many pastors

Real Life Church – Rusty George 
Produced a town hall video production in a living room setting with Rusty that helped connect over 3,000 people in this congregation. The team engaged in the opportunity to decentralize worship. We were able to help author and design curriculum that acted as a companion and complement to the series.

Crossroads Christian church – Chuck Booher 
Participated in the production Life On Mission that has been introduced to hundreds of churches. Chuck provided both teaching content and leadership training.

Eastview Christian Church – Mike Baker
Produced a series with Eastview in the streets in Chicago. Walking through the community Mike did the best job teaching in order to produce a series that was launching in hundreds of churches around the country. We were able to help write and produce with Mike and the teaching team. This was used as an alignment campaign connecting over 4,000 people.

Call us for a free consultation and on-site assessment

Case Study with Greg Surratt at Seacoast Church – “I See a Church”

by Brett Eastman | May 25, 2018 | Main Blog

We partnered with Seacoast for a year and helped them produce four complete full-color curriculum and video-based series that aligned with the weekend services. For two we did complete production and for the other two we coached them on how to do it themselves in a “train the trainer” relationship. The latest series, called I See a Church , connected over 10,000 people into groups and aligned their congregation around a renewed vision for ministry.

Case Study with Max Lucado & Randy Frazee at Oak Hills Church – “Make Room For Neighbors”

by Brett Eastman | May 25, 2018 | Main Blog

I first met Randy Frazee when he was the senior pastor at Pantego Bible Church in Texas and discovered our shared desire to see connection and community in the Body of Christ. We stayed in touch over the years and when he joined the staff at Oak Hills Church, we reconnected on the idea of creating a sermon-based video curriculum and church-wide campaign.

Summer is an unusual time to launch such an initiative, but the topic was based on a series called “Make Room for Neighbors” that focused on spending relaxed time together and sharing your story in a casual way—perfect for the lazy days of summer.

You can view the project gallery below

We shot the series in living rooms. Max and Randy co-taught the sessions, often joined by their wives for part of the teaching time. In each session we captured a unique testimony that aligned with that week’s focus. We also gathered in one home where Randy was able to cast the vision for his neighborhood strategy and lead a Bible study that modeled it.

The Oak Hills staff did leadership training and opened and closed each session. We also interviewed Max and Randy separately on each session for those small group members who wanted to go deeper with that week’s theme and shot a series of promotional videos that could be played on the weekend and sent out throughout the week.

You can watch the first session below.

Of course, both Max and Randy had published books and materials for the broader church world, but this was the first campaign they did specifically for their church. Needless to say, publishers were interested in it after it was finished, and we’ve found that to be true for many of the leaders we work with.

Few months ago, I got a phone call from their team and flew back out to strategize about some of the breakthrough strategies we are doing in churches with small venue Multisites and new kind of church service called a Conversation Service which is the best of our Town Hall production with a weekend service. Oak Hills is exploring these kinds of strategies and our conversations were “over the top” exciting. Love those guys!!!!

Watch the video below to go behind-the-scenes with Max Lucado and Randy Frazee in our series “Make Room for Neighbors”.

Case Study with Ray Johnston at Bayside – “Born For This”

by Brett Eastman | May 25, 2018 | Main Blog

10 Innovations in Growing Churches Around the Country

by Brett Eastman | May 25, 2018 | Main Blog

Over the last twenty years, we’ve had the privilege of working with hundreds of the largest and fastest-growing churches in the country, including 50 of the top 100 listed in Outreach Magazine’s annual list.

This year as we reviewed that list, we also reviewed some of the things we’ve worked with these churches to create and some of the insights we’ve gained along the way. These 12 discoveries have introduced an exponential approach for not only connecting entire congregations into community but also equipping them to reach their communities and beyond. These emerging small group models are aligned with weekend services, with the vision of the church’s pastor, and with the mission of the congregation.

Click here to hear more about some of our recent learnings in the Largest and Fastest-growing Churches in America

Here are the 10 characteristics we’ve discovered from having worked with some of the largest and fastest-growing churches around the country:

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1. Create More and Better Weekend Alignment

The number one event in any local church in America is the weekend service, and it requires most of the staff’s best efforts- all the more reason to leverage that experience far beyond the weekend. What if there were more and better ways to leverage the impact of the weekend sermons? What if we turned one weekend into more of a “catalyst” to next steps vs. merely a weekend event?

The question is, “What next step do I recommend and how do I make it happen?” We are saying why not take the inspiration of the weekend service to greater application through conversation all throughout the week? This strategy honors the time-tested insight that people forget 80% of what they hear but what they discuss they integrate better into their lives. So how do I get them to talk about a sermon instead of just listen on Sunday?

Many growing churches are using sermon-based discussion questions for their small groups. This serves as a good next step for taking the sermon and putting it into context in a living room. However, with further research, we’ve discovered the lion share of existing groups don’t use this very comprehensively and we found that a new model is far more effective. Producing a shortened video edition of the weekend sermon or a new production leveraging the senior pastor allows groups to watch a video from the pastor and review the material at the next level.

Lifetogether is showing churches how to produce this and when to introduce this on a weekend so you can not only have your existing groups go through the study more effectively, but introduce a new strategy to launch groups exponentially 24/7, 52  weeks a year.

See how we used this strategy for: capital campaign at Rock Church with Miles McPherson!

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2. Shift From Recruiting Leaders To Growing Disciples

The greater opportunity is to challenge any new or existing attender to continue the conversation with a friend or two with the short video segment based on the weekend sermon. If we can motivate unconnected attenders to take this step, many will grow into being a small group over time.

For decades, we focused on recruiting small group leaders in order to launch new groups in a church. Then we introduced the Host Strategy at Saddleback Church that got us 75% of the congregation connected in groups in a matter of months by simply asking people to host a group using the video curriculum that aligned with the weekend service.

This worked like nothing we had ever seen before. Today we are targeting people to not “host” a group but empowering Christ followers / disciples who simply want to “grow” spiritually. Every pastor wants his people to grow and people attending church on a regular basis by definition want to grow in their walk with God or they wouldn’t be there. If the “next step” spiritually is to not just be a disciple but make a disciple, why don’t we call it out of them?

We’ve discovered that using a video curriculum that aligns with a weekend sermon series, it provides the perfect tool to make that happen in any congregation of any size, anywhere in the country. When the pastor uses his influence to say we want you to “GROW” spiritually and your “next step” is to GRAB the curriculum outside (or online), GATHER a few friends and start “GROWING,” we see a huge response!

With 95% or more of any church service filled with Christians who have already become a disciple of Christ, this is your chance to redefine that spiritual growth is not defined by simply attending church but gathering with a friend to grow together. Trust me, this is a killer strategy to get not just 5%, 10% or even 15% of your congregation to step up and functionally lead a group – 20% – 25% of your congregation will gather a friend almost overnight. The beauty of this model is that with a video-driven curriculum and companion print study guide, you are able to then catalyze a few

friends to grow into a circle of friends or an active small group community.

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3. Launch Groups Anytime, Anywhere With Anyone 52 Weeks a Year

When I got to Willow Creek we began hosting on-campus events to connect unconnected people – it worked but compared to what? We would have hundreds of people come and get in a group and we would hope and pray it stuck. Upon further analysis, “the sign up to show up” was embarrassing and the “stay up” was disaster.

When we started “connection events” (that others later called “Group Link”) it increased the “stick rate” substantially, but primarily just among the already-motivated church members. For the first 50% of the motivated church members in any congregation we found that “connection” was a really good hook but to get the other 50% of the congregation and beyond it would take a completely different model. Producing a video curriculum series helped a new attender gather with a few friends, family members, neighbors or coworkers to start a “circle at friends” on their own. Empowering people to “create their own community” is a far more effective way to start and sustain a new group and can be done anytime, anywhere and with anyone 52 weeks a year.

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4. Streamline the Connection Strategy for Groups

Letting people sign up for groups on the weekend or go online to get in a local group is not as effective for connecting people into community.

But what is the alternative? Launch more and better groups that are more “self-organized” vs “church-organized.” To get affinity-based groups based on authentic relationships is exponentially more effective in assimilating people into groups. Simply give them a “4 spiritual laws” like tool that aligns with the most influential person (like the senior pastor) and even with the most leveraged and resourced event of the week (like the weekend service) you will NEVER come close to connecting your Easter adult attendance. Instead, have them download a how to get connected in a community video and brochure that helps them grow spiritually…crazy, yes, but 10 times more effective then we have been using so far.

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5. Discover the New Mid-Week Worship Experience

When I served on the Saddleback staff, mid-week worship was the number one thing recommended as a next step off the weekend service. Many churches still host a mid-week service on either Wednesday night, Sunday night, or some other night of the week. But this was taken over by Saddleback by a small group experience and we eventually shut down the mid-week worship experience. Most of the growing churches we are working with now are doing the same thing.

For the last 15 years, Lifetogether has been delivering a video-driven teaching experience that has helped to launch and lead more groups and churches than ever before, helping to attract over 100% in many of those churches. But in the last two years the decentralizing of a worship experience led by the worship team of a local church has become an emerging new model to integrate the best of small groups and a mid-week service. We work with churches to create a second worship service experience by producing 5, 10, or 20 worship songs for a small group, a small venue or even a personal worship experience led by the worship team at their very own local church. This is, and will be, a trend that many churches will be doing in the future. You have got to see this to believe it: Best of Worship Medley.

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6. Produce In-House Alignment Campaigns and Companion Video Teaching Series

Hosting a “40 Day-like campaign” has long been an outstanding strategy to build momentum into the fall, new year or spring seasons in any church. There are hundreds of best-selling authors and Christian publishers with a handful of off-the-shelf campaigns to choose from.

But the growing trend today in local churches is producing their own in-house campaign and video curriculum based off the teaching ministry of their senior pastor and aligned with their sermon series. See a few examples from pastors and churches you know well that are producing annual (or even more often) alignment campaigns with video curriculum: Best of Print Curriculum.

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7. Build More Conversation, Not Another Sermon

After trying to create small groups in a church and still producing a weekend service, a new integrated model is emerging. We are calling it the “Conversation Service,” which is the best of small groups and a weekend service. This new service is not traditional, nor contemporary, but in a new conversational format that we believe will emerge as the new contemporary service in the future. The teaching is taught in the round with an audience surrounding the senior pastor. It starts like a small group with an icebreaker and some brief interaction from the audience, then proceeds with the teaching by the senior pastor, and then ends with audience interaction that is open, authentic and unplugged. We can produce this live and make it available for the small group to discuss or just produce it as a brand new curriculum format.

We are finding that this is a far better format for an emerging culture and a better way to reach millennials who are more interested in authentic, engaging conversations than sitting and listening to a full-length sermon. Most churches don’t realize they can host a service like this, just as churches hosted contemporary services to complement their traditional services years ago. It’s a far more effective way to reach un-connected and un-churched people looking for a church of a different kind. So how might you take your first step into this? Lifetogether is coaching churches on how to produce a Conversation Series in a new pilot program we are doing.

You can co-opt a poorly-attended existing service on the weekend, either on Saturday night or Sunday morning, or you could add an additional service on either of those times. Or, like some are doing, you can add a Thursday or Sunday night service, or replace your Wednesday night service with this format. The beauty of doing this any time of the week is that this is a more effective service to stream live as opposed to your long-play weekend messages that may not be as engaging or that don’t have this kind of participatory engagement.

In this day and age, people are looking for more story, testimony and application through the lives of everyday people. It’s important to understand how to engage this audience and how to then coach the audience to engage with you, which is a part of what we are doing with local churches around the country.

This format is also the next step toward streaming a live service that we are calling a microsite service that targets a setting larger than a small group but smaller than a multisite campus. We are still calling it a campus because it ultimately operates similarly but you don’t need to pay for the lights, land or leadership–you just catalyze, coach and care for them remotely. This is a killer app for the future. Many churches are starting to do this and are going down this road… it’s just a matter of time. For example, check out what we did with Jerry Dirmann at the Rock Church whose series is now playing on Christian television and not only launching groups but launching satellite and microsite campuses: God Swears Sample Session.

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8. Leverage Small Groups to Become the Best of Attractional and Missional Methodologies

Small groups driven by a video teaching experience can be the best of the resources provided by the attractional service and the integration of the best of the missional model. At Seacoast Church, Greg and Josh Surratt had a “Missional Ministry” developing but it wasn’t very comprehensive or effective in its approach. We aligned their weekend content by providing video curriculum resources and saw an exponential number of groups launch that were not just effective for assimilation but evangelism and outreach as well. We are working with a number of churches around the country that are integrating the best of both of these models.

This is being refined and rolled out more comprehensively for training purposes, services, and sermon alignment series. Check out the series we did for Bayside Church for evangelism training called “It’s a Party.” It features a fun, new format that we developed with a small group of 8 people in a live small group format where they interacted, taught, and talked about the topic at the same time.

And here is another missional series we did with Tim Harlow at Parkview Christian Church called Life on Mission.

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9. Provide Online Small Group Leader Training

Over the last 25 years, we have hosted more live small group leader training sessions than anybody in the country. The initial training may include 75% of those registered but the follow-up training only has a fraction of the response. That’s why we are seeing a growing trend of producing small group leader training and volunteer training online in a variety of new formats. The clear winner is to produce a video training versus a print-only handbook. Some may simply be a video of frequently asked questions, some are taught by small group pastors and some are topical or developmental. But the most effective is a whole new approach to training.

When we produce a video curriculum for a church, we customize scripts based off proven small group training techniques that we have learned over the last 25 years. We actually put this kind of training on DVD and online as well. This gives you hours of small group training that will be watched by 90 of the new leaders that you’ll recruit during a campaign.

The more popular format has become a leader training strategy based on a live small group interaction facilitated by the pastor and sometimes the rest of the pastoral staff. This models group life, trains new leaders AND is a killer curriculum for small groups about what it takes to be a healthy small group.

This is put on a master DVD series that is a standard size for all small groups. We typically have an audience of 25-40 people that helps to ensure full buy-in from all of the ministries and the local churches.  For multi-site churches it provides standardized training across all of the campuses.

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10. Know the Secret of Sustaining More Groups

Over the last 25 years we have cracked a new code on how to start more groups but the constant struggle is how to sustain those groups, and we are learning a ton in this area as we work with the bleeding-edge congregations.

The first thing we are doing is a new philosophy of small group ministry which is more “the parable of the sower” versus “Jesus and the 12 disciples.” The focus is more on planting, sowing and watering but recognizing it’s God who causes the growth. At the same time, aligning with the weekend services and providing a 10-15 minute version of the weekend sermon is vital in this process. The more you are aligned in message and mission from weekend to mid-week, the greater success you will have in sustaining as well as starting new groups.

Check out how we launched 2000 groups with Bayside Church with Ray Johnston!