Bob Mayfield

Suggestions for New Groups

I have another post appearing today about starting new groups at SundaySchoolLeader.com and thought I'd write sort of a companion piece here. New groups are absolutely essential for a church to reach its community and minister and disciple its folks. Here are some random thoughts about new groups:

1. Use the word "branch" instead of split, divide, or start. Even "birthing" doesn't sound like fun to me (I was in labor for 12 hours waiting for my wife to have our first child!) But "branching" seems to connect for me. When you branch off a new group, it seems to still be connected to the other branches but still have its own identity. And it's a natural process. Branching off is what trees and plants are supposed to do when they are healthy, right.

2. I prefer to give people a choice when starting a new group. They can either stay in the current class or leave to start the new group. I like to be treated like an adult, and most adults don't like to be told what to do! But if you give me a couple of reasonable choices, now that's a better option.

3. Generally I've found it best if the leader of the new group comes out of the existing class, if possible. This process does several things. First, it requires the current leader to reproduce him or her self. Second, it makes the new leader more comfortable if they have been trained to be a leader from within the Sunday School class to begin with. Third, if the new leader comes from within the existing class, then his friends will leave the class too in order to help their friend succeed. Finally, it makes the whole process organic. The class reproduces itself.

4. If possible, start the new group off with a fellowship first and invite everyone who might be interested in joining the new group to the fellowship. This includes guests and friends who are not church members. Have food, have fun, but be sure to let everyone know why you are having the party. It would be a good idea for the leader to share for a few minutes about what is going on in his heart. People connect with passion and they connect with a story. Share yours!

5. Start right! Be on time, be prepared, have some coffee and food, and share God's Word. Call every person who attended and thank them for being there. Contact some possible guests and invite them to come next week. It's easier to do it right from the beginning when expectations are high and momentum is building. Once a group meets for 6-8 weeks, the class begins to establish an identity and if you don't start right, it will be hard to break a group of lowered expectations. People become skeptical quickly.

What are some of your experiences in starting new groups?

Or, if you have never started one, what seems to be holding you back?

New Blog for Sunday School Leaders

You may have noticed I haven't been blogging as much lately. Part of that is because I've had a busy spring and to be honest, God and I seem to have been wrestling a lot lately about stuff. I'm not limping around like Jacob, but I'm coming out on the losing end of the wrestling matches He and I have been having lately.

But also, for the past six weeks or so, I've been working with the state Sunday School directors of our 42 Southern Baptist state conventions to put together a new blog just for Sunday School leaders. So if you're a Sunday School teacher, pastor, Sunday School director, or a Minister of Education; I encourage you to go check out the new blog at http://sundayschoolleader.com. With so many different writers, it will have a variety of perspectives and writing styles.

Also, during the month of August, sundayschoolleader.com is posting a new article every day on the theme of "31 Days to a Great Expectation Sunday School", based on David Francis' new book Great Expectations Sunday School. It is already turning into a great collaboration and you can leave comments or ask questions and interact with Sunday School and Small Group leaders from all over the nation.

I'll still do some blogging here too, and try to stay up with both blogsites.

One Day Training - Run the Play

J.D. Greear is a great communicator. In the video clip below, J.D. shares a frustration common to the American church. It is also a frustration that is best addressed (in my opinion) through the church's small group or Sunday School structure.

Our One Day leadership training is a decentralized, customizable approach to equipping your church's Small Group or Sunday School leaders. This training is available free of charge. Thirty-one seminars are available for leaders of preschool, children, students, adults and general leaders. Also, a 30 minute video of J.D. addressing the issue of the church and its groups being on mission in their communities is available if you register. For both registration, downloadable seminars, and other information about The One Day Initiative, go here.

One Day Training - Putting the Gospel on Display

One Day316 is the theme for a unique opportunity for churches to provide a high quality training option for the Small Group and Sunday School leadership. Part of the One Day strategy is to provide a high quality 30 minute video that provides a broad visionary look at what a church's small group strategy could be.

In 2010, we are using J.D. Greear's message from the Missional Ministry Conference to help inspire the people in our classes and groups to be displays of the gospel in their communities. Here is a brief 30 second excerpt from J.D.'s message about missional groups.

There are 31 new seminars this year that your church can download and use to train your leaders this year. Go to the One Day316 webpage to view these resources. Also, if you would like the full 34 minute video of J.D.'s message to show your leaders, simply register to train your leaders and J.D.'s video will be shipped to you free of charge.

What Sunday School & Small Groups Could Learn from the Teaparty Movement

I have always enjoyed politics. The Southern Leadership Conference was in New Orleans this past week and the Tea Party Movement is receiving attention from both liberal and conservative news media. I was watching a pundit describe how the Republicans may not end up benefiting from the Tea Party Movement this coming election because, although the two groups have much in common, they may end up splitting over secondary issues, which could impact the upcoming election for both groups.

As I listened, I immediately began to think about the Sunday School and Small Group movements. I know how difficult it is sometimes for leaders in these two movements to agree on some issues. In fact, it often looks like both movements want to, shall we say, major on the minors when we dialogue with each other. We argue over things like; do unchurched people feel more comfortable coming to a home or a church facility? Content or community... which is more important? LifeWay curriculum or Group? I am a little embarrassed to admit I've entered into some of these arguments myself, and more than once I've felt my temperature rising over an issue was more secondary than primary in importance.

What has occurred to me is that the Sunday School and Small Group Movements have more in common with each other than we may realize. I have put together a list of things about which I believe we can find common ground.

1. A belief that lives are more easily transformed within a framework of "small groups". Whether it is in a classroom or a living room, the opportunity to meet with a small group of people that studies the Bible together, prays with each other, and ministers to each person in the group is a powerful foundation for spiritual transformation.

2. "Open groups" are essential to evangelism and sharing the Gospel. Groups that are easily accessible by new people are very effective in helping unchurched or unevangelized people engage the Gospel message both through Bible study and interaction with followers of Christ.

3. Groups are key to assimilating new members and bringing them into a closer walk with Christ. Rainer's data states that 86% of new believers that are active in a Sunday School class will still be around five years later.

4. The church needs leaders and a healthy small group structure will equip new people to step into the church's leadership needs.

5. Healthy groups start new groups. I have found that the window to start a new group in both Sunday School and Small Groups is 18-24 months. The longer a group waits to start a new group, the harder it becomes.

6. Keeping a robust, healthy structure is hard work... period! I don't care which strategy you prefer, it takes time, work, and people skills to lead either one.

7. Patience truly is a virtue for both classes and groups. Rome wasn't built in a day and Jesus' twelve followers did not become best buds after their first mission trip.

8. That context is more important than personal preference about which strategy (SS or SG) that your church uses.

9. Finally, both groups realize (hopefully) that structure and strategy are no substitutes for relationships and passion. Groups that thrive on relationships and have a passion for ministry can overcome terrible structure and poor strategy. The reverse is not true.

As I grow older, I guess I'm less interested in fighting and more interested in making friends. It seems to me that sometimes two movements that have similar goals and interests can sometimes spend more time arguing over less important issues and forget about all we have in common. Sunday School and Small Group leaders can learn a lot from each other, and I believe we could help both movements become stronger as a result!

New eBooks Available

We have taken the two series I put together called "31 Days of Sunday School" and also "31 Days to a Better Sunday School" and put them in ebook format for you to download free. Combined, this series of practical suggestions about having a quality Bible study ministry gathered over 10,000 hits. I had several people ask if we would put them on the web, so we did. My assistant Tiffany did a great job reformatting everything.

Just click here on our Missional Resources page and these new eBooks are available now for download.

We also included an e-version of last year's book, Missional Pivot Points as well. Pivot Points is also available on the Missional Resources webpage.

While you are there, you will also find podcasts, PowerPoint presentations, and some inspiring videos for you to use as well.

Small Group-Large Group

I ran across this spoof of the Apple vs PC commercials that are taking place right now. Now although it is a spoof, it carries an excellent message about the importance of small groups and Sunday School classes (small communities) in connecting people together in more than just superficial ways. I enjoyed it and I thought you might too...

John Piper on Small Groups

I've never really thought of "John Piper" and "small groups" in the same thought, but here is this very well-spoken pastor encouraging his church to get involved in a small group, and sharing why it is important.

Lately, I have been trying to update the definition of Sunday Schoo/Small Groups. The age-old axiom is this:

Sunday School is the church organized to do the work of the ministry.

My new definition is simply a 21st century expression of the one above:

Small Communities is how the church organizes for mission.

It is imperative for church leaders to understand that the church's classes and groups need to be the organization carrying the major responsibility to carry out the church's mission of making disciples. This is best done by impacting lostness in the culture, bringing them to repentance and salvation in Christ, and then walking with people in their journey as Christ-followers.

I am finding it very common now for churches to assign the church's mission to the missions team, or the youth group, or through broad appeals from the platform to just go. Our classes and groups want to be involved in the core mission of the church, and should be the platform through which the church organizes itself for mission. Smaller groups are easier when it comes to understanding mission, communicating mission, and also for accountability.

Honda Cog - Plan, and Plan Some More

This commercial by Honda is just fun to watch. It's captivating and creative

Now some behind the scenes information:

• It is not CG (Computer Generated)
• The commercial took one year to design
• Once the producer was ready, it took four days to shoot the video
• The ad required 600 takes before they finally got it to work
• 140 pieces of a Honda Accord were used

Go here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kh4zWeUDW-E&NR=1 for more information about the making of "Honda Cog".

But the last line of the commercial captures the intent of the two minute video, "Isn't it nice when things just work?"

Like you, I kind of like it when our small groups work. It takes some time and effort by a lot of people to have an effective ministry of small communities. The more harmonious the ministries of the church are, the more effective it will be. It's nice when ministry is happening!

Are Education Ministers an Endangered Species?

I read the following excerpt from an article written by Nathan Finn of Southeastern Seminary about the fifteen factors affecting the SBC since 1979. As a person with deep roots in education ministry, I found this article insightful. I also found it interesting that of all the points he makes, this point had zero comments. (The pic to the right is of our Minister of Education Learning Community in Oklahoma City)

To view this entire article by Nathan Finn, go here

6. Changing Paradigms in Education Ministry

Whatever happened to the old-fashioned education minister? There was a time when virtually every SBC church with at least 300 regular Sunday School attenders employed an education minister, even if that staff member also (often!) led the youth or music ministry as well.

Now some of you may be thinking, "We still have an education minister, and Bro. Joe does a great job on our staff." Frankly, a couple of the strongest churches in my home association back in Southeast Georgia have education ministers who do a fine job. So I'm with you on that. But once I went off to college and then two different seminaries, I was struck with how many churches are dispensing with the education minister model-and much of what that paradigm entails. Fewer and fewer churches (especially those outside the Deep South) are following the "evangelism through the Sunday School" strategy dominated SBC life for three quarters of the 20th century. Fewer and fewer churches are using a strictly graded Sunday School model, at least at the adult level. And when was the last time you attended a Sunday School assembly? How many of you don't even have a clue what I'm even talking about? (And I'm just focusing on Sunday School-we could discuss the myriad of other programs that education ministers help administer in medium-sized and large churches.)

The paradigm shift happening in education ministry is fascinating to me for a number of reasons. First, Southern Baptists pioneered "Christian education" in the local church. Southwestern and Southern seminaries in particular developed very specialized programs that were cutting edge for the better part of the last century. Second, the Christian education paradigm was at the heart of most of our churches' evangelism and enlistment, and some of our most prominent denominational programs (particularly "A Million More in '54") were directly tied to this approach. Third, a great deal of "Southern Baptist ethnicity" I discussed in my first article was cultivated through the church's cradle-to-grave education program. Finally, most churches of which I am aware continue to prioritize Christian education, but they often call it something different (like "discipleship" or "spiritual formation") and many have "tweaked" (and sometimes rejected) the earlier paradigm.

I could spend all my time on this one, but I have to move on.

I sort of wished Dr. Finn had gone on! From my position as the state director of Sunday School (Oklahoma), I can share that we have a remarkable group of education ministers here. They are great workers and have a strong desire to reach their communities for Christ and develop disciples. However, I am concerned that we do not see many young ministers who are hearing the call to this field of service. I believe there are six factors behind this phenomenon:

1. The "behind the scenes" role of the education ministry prevents church members from understanding what their ministy is about. As a result, education ministry often is devalued;
2. Education ministry when applied is often unpopular. It is very difficult to get classes to plant new classes, develop new leaders, etc. For example, when is the last time your church "promoted" its adults? Yet this simple practice is essential to the prevention of ingrown groups.
3. Education ministers, as a general rule, have done a rather poor job developing their networks. Education ministers generally lead from isolation. Leading people to make correct but unpopular actions is emotionally draining. Most educators do not have a strong support network.
4. Education ministers and churches have not updated and adapted their ministry model to the changes of the culture. Many Sunday School (and churches) still use the 50's model of attractional evangelism rather than the 21st century model of incarnational evangelism.
5. Economic or budget issues that affect education ministry positions in the church structure.
6. The move from "education ministers" to "adult ministers". Many people serving as ministers to adults do not lead the entire education ministry of the church. Coordinating the different age-groups is difficult and affects the overall direction of the education ministry.

It is critical for the church and for education ministers to develop a viable ministry model that reflects the critical role of small communities within the church. We have all heard this quote, "Life change happens best in small groups". We need to figure out how this value can be tangibly developed so that our people can have a greater opportunity for spiritual transformation.