Out Of The Norm Ministry

I like when the unexpected happens.  It can be positive or negative, but when it happens I feel like God is showing me something.  Last night we our 8th grade girls small group wasn’t supposed to meet because their leader was out.  She had called her girls to let them know, so they would come to worship but leave after the message.  But, then the unexpected happened.
They Wanted To Have Small Group

One of them asked if she could lead the group, so I said, “Why not.” and from what we heard and from what they said it was awesome.  I know we aren’t the first to do peer lead small groups, but for us it was out of the norm.  And, that’s good


Because If Your Ministry Is Normal Than You Aren’t Growing


So, the question is, How do you do “Out of the Norm” Ministry?

• Vision Not Programs – When you focus on vision, you’ll do what it takes to get there.  If you make it about a program, as soon as the newness wears off you are done.
• Humble Leadership – If it’s about you, then you won’t attract out of the box thinkers.  If we make it about us, then after a while we’ll run out of ideas.  New ideas come from new contributors.
• Strive To Fail – If you take the safe route, you’ll end up coddling yourself to death.  Yeah you’ll get bumps and bruises with failure, but you’ll learn.  Learners grow.

Letting those girls run the small group could have been a disaster, but it wasn’t.  You could associate with pure dumb luck but I’m going to say we had something to do with it.  We’re all about relationships (vision), it’s not always about the leader (humility) and if it didn’t work it doesn’t mean it’s worth a shot again (fail).  If we play it safe and do what’s normal we’re saying our programs are too important to compromise.  If that’s your attitude your building monuments, but that’s not ministry.  Ministry is a movement, not a monument.

How do you do “Out of the Norm” Ministry?