When I became a Small Groups Pastor I naturally had a lot of questions. I didn’t know anything about building, leading or maintaining a Small Groups ministry. Everything that came up was new and therefore felt like an irresolvable problem.

After a few short months as a Small Groups Pastor I found myself attending a conference at a great church not too far from us. One of the most profound results of that conference for me was the business card that I brought away from it…Â

I got to speak with the Small Groups Pastor of that great church after a breakout. When he heard what God was doing at Elevation he handed me his card and invited me to contact him at any time. I was a little nervous to take him up on his invitation, however, because I thought, “I’m probably only going to get one chance to speak with this guy so which question should I ask?� I knew he was busy and I wanted to respect his time but I had a lot of questions. Besides, everything is so interconnected if he were to tell me how to identify leaders I would wonder how he tracked them. If he were to tell me how build a great GroupLink I would wonder how to get people there etc…

So here’s my advice. When contacting someone with questions…Â

1)Â Â Â Â Â Ask one good question.
2)Â Â Â Â Â Expect to get one or two nuggets at best.
3)     Stick to the practical issues that you’ll be dealing with after you hang up.
4)Â Â Â Â Â Set a time limit (15-30 minutes) and stick to it.
5)Â Â Â Â Â Ask if you can call the person again sometime.
6)Â Â Â Â Â Send an email to thank the person afterwards.

When I contacted the Small Groups guy above I did it right, but only because Pastor Furtick gave me the advice that I just gave you. By the time I actually unpacked in his little nugget six months had passed. In fact, I’m still trying to figure out exactly how to apply his response in my context…

My question: “What is your first step in the leader selection process?â€?Â
His answer: “Generate Leads!�

John Bishop, Small Groups Pastor

Filed under: Small Groups | Comments Off

In just a short 21 month period, Elevation Church has experienced tremendous numerical growth. I think a lot of people think that growth has been easy and that we have not had to deal with the issues that most “portable churches� deal with. That would be a big, fat NO.

We currently meet in two high school auditoriums. We don’t have to deal with the summer blockbusters like my friends in the movie theater but we do have fall and spring high school productions. Take this weekend for example. I received an email on Friday telling me there was a set on the stage for a play and we couldn’t move it. So we did what we had to do for church to happen. We lost 2 screens and built the stage out over the seats and had Elevation-in-your-face.

Last spring we battled Beauty and the Beast for 5 weeks. This included a Sunday afternoon show that required us to be out early. We elected to just shorten our 3 services rather than cancel the last one. That was Elevation-Express day.

When you are limited by your facility on Sunday’s, you have several options. Do we try to hide the fact that our set is different so people don’t know? Do we just announce what’s going on and apologize? Or, do just change our set and act like we planned it? All are valid and we have tried them all.

I guess my only real takeaway from this is that whatever you do, try to change it up. People will get tired of having to deal with the same problems at the school or movies. Change it up when faced with adversity. Stay creative and excited and leverage those times to do something different. Don’t just settle and accept a mediocre Sunday. Never let the circumstances around you take away the passion for why you do what you do. And lastly, know that nobody is immune from portable woes.

Chunks Corbett, Executive Pastor
Â

Filed under: Being Portable | Comments Off