When we set out to begin our small
groups ministry at Bell Road Church, we wanted to set ourselves up for
success out of the gates. Over a two-year period, we have met with
pastors and leaders of churches with small groups programs, have
attended training seminars, and have read a huge stack of books,
websites and articles to glean information that we could apply to our
context.
I stumbled across ACTIVATE quite by accident on Amazon.com, as I usually ignore the website's book recommendations to my account. I've since discovered that this is a useful tool, as it has pointed me to several fantastic books based on my order and viewing history.
Activate: An Entirely New Approach to Small Groups, written by Nelson Searcy and Kerrick Thomas, became a foundational work upon which we've built our "Life Process" (our small groups ministry). Using these principles, we've created a system that seems to be working on a much larger scale, early on, than we had hoped. As I write, over 75% of our average weekly attendance is plugged into our Life Process... extremely good enrollment for Phase One: Our Beta Phase.
Nelson Searcy is a systems guy, and is extremely practical in his writing. I've purchased 3 other books by him, and am currently reading FUSION, and have LAUNCH and IGNITE waiting patiently in the queue.
The insight we gained through this one book was more valuable than most of what we learned through all other sources. On the back of the book, in bold letters, the words "Build a Small-Group Ministry with 100% Participation" jump off the cover. When I initially read them, I was, of course, skeptical. With the early success we're experiencing, however, through the beta phase of our implementation, I believe it entirely possible to reach more people on a weekly basis through small groups than our average weekly attendance in services.
