This afternoon I’ll be meeting with Nancy and Greg Bremer in regards to the small groups this year. We will be discussing curriculum, make up of the groups, leaders and expectations. I’m pretty confident about our groups, but I know over the next year or two I would like to take small groups to a new level.
Small groups will do great in this building this year; however, with the growth of the congregation and the lack of physical space on Nativity’s campus we need to start thinking about other ways of expanding community. If we don’t the lack of capacity can hurt the growth of groups. Two years ago I miserably failed trying to get groups to meet in homes mainly because I just told the small group leaders to do that and I didn’t set-up a system that would set them up for success. So if we are going to put groups into homes we need to figure out a good system.
Another way I think we will take groups to a new level is by experimenting with our own curriculum. Unfortunately, that takes a whole other team (as our adult small groups program discoverd) and takes a lot of time. I think we’ll figure out how to write curriculum, but in the meantime we use everything from Simply Youth MInistry, Group, Bluefishtv and Nooma to use as a means of discussion.
But, in the end our groups aren’t successful because of curriculum or because of where they meet. In the end our groups are successful because this is where we match up God-loving, caring adults who want to mentor and guide teens to a deeper relationship with Christ.