Chris Surratt, Author at Group Ministry

August 1, 2018

Four Vital Questions for Planning the Future

When I am taking time to work on a system, I like to think in frameworks with key questions. Asking those probing questions forces issues to the surface that we would have never discussed without them. I am also a big believer in working on it with a team. I am an introvert by nature, so it would be easier for me to work it out alone, but way less effective. A team outhinks an individual every time.

So as you pull your team together to plan for the future, here are four questions that I use to help filter the conversations toward results.

1. What was?

This is where we can have a tendency to get stuck, but we have to spend some time here to get to the next stage. George Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” What is the foundation for what you are attempting to build? If we rush into a new system without considering what it’s replacing, we will just make the same mistakes. Spend some time in your planning asking about what has been done before, but don’t stay in this stage too long.

2. What is?

This is your current reality. Take some time at this stage to do a careful analysis of your current systems and events. What is working, and what is not? What should you stop doing, and what should you start? Make sure that you have the latest facts as you spend time in this stage. It’s impossible to plan for the future when you don’t know the current state. Do some research and find out what the numbers are. It may be painful, but it’s necessary to get a 360 perspective before you can move to the next question.

3. What could be?

After you have gained perspective on where you have been and are now, it’s time to start dreaming about the future. This stage is about blue-sky thinking. Allow your team to put all of the “what ifs” on the table without worrying about the “how” yet. That will come in the next stage, but this is the time to answer the question: “What could we do if nothing was impossible?”

4. What will be?

Now that you have spent time dreaming about all of the possibilities, it’s time to decide on the initiatives that are realistic to tackle now and set goals for achieving them. Make sure to hang on to all of your ideas from the last stage and keep them somewhere to return to later.

At the end of this stage, determine the one or two goals that you have to achieve in the next six months or everything else will be a failure. In the military, this is referred to as the “Commander’s Intent”—a concise expression of the purpose of the operation and the desired end. How can the next six months be summed up, and what is the desired final result?

Chris Surratt is a ministry consultant and coach with over 22 years of experience serving the local church. Chris served on the Executive Team at Cross Point Church in Nashville, TN, and was on staff at Seacoast Church in Charleston, SC, for 15 years. He is also the Small Group Specialist for LifeWay Christian Resources. Chris’s first book, Small Groups For The Rest Of Us: How to Design Your Small Groups System to Reach the Fringes, was just released by Thomas Nelson. You can follow his blog at chrissurratt.com or follow him on Twitter @chrissurratt.

Tuesday Thoughts

July 31, 2018

Tuesday Thought: Ensuring Community in Your Group

By Chris Surratt

Okay, we’ve talked about the three distinctions of a biblical small group. Number one, are we creating disciples in our small group? Number two, are we experiencing community because we know that discipleship happens best within the context of community? Then number three is our small group on mission? Are we making a difference in the world that we find ourselves in and so today I want to focus on community. How do we ensure that community is happening with our small group? I think we have to be intentional in two ways. The first one is in our schedule with our group meeting. So as you schedule out your actual meeting, you want to look at the different segments and the first part of the group you want to make sure you have time set aside for community. So about 20 to 25 minutes of just hanging out, getting to know each other, maybe have a snack or dinner food of some sort. Just to give the group the chance to have community at the beginning of the group time.

And then after that you’re going to have your study, which is going to be about 40 to 45 minutes, but then you want to set aside the end of the group time, another 20 to 25 minutes for more community building. And a lot of times this is when the best conversations are going to happen. So someone who didn’t want to speak up during the Bible study might find somebody during this last segment when you’re having dessert, just hanging out to ask that critical question that leads to discipleship. And so make sure that you’re intentional with your group meeting. Schedule the built in times for community. And then second scheduling times on your calendar for community. So as you set up kind of your calendar days to meet, make sure that about once a semester or once a quarter that you have at least one day just for community. So that means you can even do like a game night or get outside of the house or the room where you meet and have a picnic together. Go to the zoo or just do something fun that makes sure there’s community built into your calendar, into your schedule, so schedule it into your meetings and then put it on your calendar and let’s make sure we have community in our small group.

Church Leadership

July 20, 2018

Six Questions to Ask Before Launching Groups This Fall

By Chris Surratt

The end of summer is just a month away, and that means it’s time to plan for launching new groups for the fall semester. The odds are good that your church will have new people showing up in August who need biblical community. Whether you decide to launch a campaign with all of your groups studying the same content for a few weeks, or just have new groups available for those new people to join, asking the right questions now will help ensure the success of your future launch.

Question #1: Do we have enough coaches for the new leaders?

No matter how much training you provide for your new leaders, they will almost always run into issues during group meetings that they need answers for. The best source for providing those answers will be seasoned group leaders who have been there before. Every new leader should be assigned a veteran leader that can be one email or phone call away when questions arise.

Question #2: Are we starting the right number of new groups?

Before you launch your groups, make sure there are enough groups to accommodate the people wanting to join. It’s much easier for new people to stick to a new group than an existing one. Existing groups already have relationships formed and a new person will feel left out, no matter how open the group members are. Use last year’s August/September attendance numbers to help calculate how many new groups and coaches you will need to recruit before your sign-up weeks.

Question #3: Are we planning for multiple weeks of sign-up opportunities?

Most people only attend church one or two Sundays a month. If you only offer sign-ups for small groups on one weekend, you will miss over half of your congregation. Sign-ups should be offered at least two weeks in a row, with opportunities also available on the website for those who still missed it.

Question #4: Is the senior pastor prepared to make the initial ask?

If biblical community is an important piece of discipleship for your church, then the first vision call should come from the senior leader. The congregation will need to hear the “why” behind small groups before they understand the “what.” No one can do that better than the lead vision caster for the church.

Question #5: Are we providing biblically solid, easy-to-use curriculum?

It’s easy to spend a lot of time thinking about the details of the launch and little on what the groups will be studying. If groups are going to make disciples, they will need an easy-to-use Bible study to spur the necessary discipleship conversations. Aligning your groups with the Sunday messages is a good direction to start with. SmallGroup.com can help you write solid sermon-based studies without taking too much of your time.

Question #6: Do we have a next step for groups after the launch?

If you want your groups to continue to succeed after the initial launch, you need to think about easy next steps for them. What will they study after the short-term campaign is over? Will they continue with a coach? Will they need to add group members at the next sign-up opportunity? Provide a roadmap for them, and your new groups will last beyond the first semester. A balanced discipleship curriculum roadmap can be found here.

Chris Surratt is a ministry consultant and coach with over 23 years of experience serving the local church. Chris served on the Executive Team at Cross Point Church in Nashville, TN, and was on staff at Seacoast Church in Charleston, SC, for 15 years. He is also the Small Group Specialist for LifeWay Christian Resources. Chris’s first book, Small Groups For The Rest Of Us: How to Design Your Small Groups System to Reach the Fringes, was recently released by Thomas Nelson. You can follow his blog at chrissurratt.com or follow him on Twitter @chrissurratt.

Tuesday Thoughts

July 17, 2018

Tuesday Thoughts – Discipleship Movement

By Chris Surratt

Last time we talked about the three distinctives of every small group, the three things that your group should be about, if you have a purpose. They were about creating disciples, being in community, and being on mission. So if you have those three things happening in your small group, you should have a biblical community. So let’s talk about discipleship. How do you know that the people in your group are being discipled? What are you looking for? Well, you should be looking for movement. Everything that grows, everything that is getting better has movement. For instance, if you try to get physically fit and you started going to the gym or eating better, you’re going to see progress and movement. When you look in the mirror, what we should see is the same thing with the people in our group as they’re being discipled. So what kind of movement?

I think there’s two types of movement that you should be looking for when your group is being discipled. The first movement, the movement that you should see is his movement toward Christ. So as Christ is the center of your group and the people in your group are being discipled, they’re going to naturally become more like Jesus. You’re going to see fruit that is more like Jesus coming from your group members. If you look at the first disciples and in their life they moved toward Jesus. There was movement toward who he is, and so that’s what you want to see from your group members. As they’re becoming discipled, they’re becoming more like Jesus. The second movement that you want to see with your group members is toward each other. So as they’re being discipled, as they’re becoming more like Christ, they’re also moving to take care of each other’s needs. They’re loving one another. You can see in the New Testament, 41 times that word one another is used. They were busy, one another in one another, and so as your group members are becoming discipled, as they’re becoming closer to Christ, they’re going to naturally going to want to take care of each other’s needs. Love one another, reach out to others around them. And so look for those two movements. Is Your group becoming more like Christ and are they moving to a taking care of one another?

Chris Surratt is a ministry consultant and coach with over 22 years of experience serving the local church. Chris served on the Executive Team at Cross Point Church in Nashville, TN, and was on staff at Seacoast Church in Charleston, SC, for 15 years. He is also the Small Group Specialist for LifeWay Christian Resources. Chris’s first book, Small Groups For The Rest Of Us: How to Design Your Small Groups System to Reach the Fringes, was just released by Thomas Nelson. You can follow his blog at chrissurratt.com or follow him on Twitter @chrissurratt.

Tuesday Thoughts

July 3, 2018

Tuesday Thoughts: 3 Distinctives of a Biblical Group

By Chris Surratt

[VIDEO TRANSCRIPT]

Okay, today I want to talk about having a purpose for your small group. Your small group can be about a lot of things and if we’re not careful, they can just become social clubs and not have a purpose that’s different from any other group that people can be a part of. So what are those distinctions that set your group apart from anything else that people can join in the world? I think we can find three specific distinctives when we look at the early church and the small group that they formed in acts. So if you look at acts 2:42 through 47, we can see three purposes jump out at us. It says they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe and many wonders and signs were being performed to the apostles.

Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. They sold their possessions and property, distributed the proceeds to all as any had need. Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. Every day the Lord added to their number, those who were being saved. And so as we look at this passage, I think we can see three distinctives that they had that all our groups should have. And so the first one that our group should be about is creating disciples. They were creating disciples. It was about discipleship. If you look, they were devoted to the teaching of the apostles. So how is your group creating disciples? Are you doing a study that’s kind of setting up those conversations that’s leading to discipleship? Second, they were living in community. It says that they went from house to house, that they broke bread together. They did life together. So how is your group doing that? How are they in community? Are you just about the study or are you actually doing life together? Breaking bread, having fun. And then third, they were on mission.

It says that they sold their possessions and they distributed to anyone who had need to. How is your group on mission? Are you making a difference in the culture that you are in? Are you making a difference in the community, in the neighborhood? Are you reaching out beyond the four walls that you have your meetings? So look at those three things. Are you creating disciples? Are you in community? And finally, are you on mission? Does your group have a purpose?

Church Leadership

June 21, 2018

Three Types of Leader Training

By Chris Surratt

Summer is the perfect season to work on the ministry and not just in it. We have a little bit of breathing room before the fall groups semester kicks in, so this is the time to re-examine all aspects of our systems and processes. A good place to start digging in is with your leader training.

You should never ask a volunteer to do a role that you are not going to train them for. That doesn’t mean you have to cover every aspect of leadership in an 8-week course, but you should set them up for success in those critical first weeks of their small group. As you think through your current leader training, here are three areas to make sure you are covering:

1. Training for the head

In this aspect of the training, you want to cover things they need to know about your church’s theological and doctrinal stands, and the basis for biblical leadership. This part of the training can get really deep, really fast, so choose only the aspects that are critical to a new leader in the church. The rest can come through accessible documents online or in a booklet.

2. Training for the heart

When designing training for the heart, talk about what the new leader needs to be when it comes to group dynamics. This is a perfect place for the senior pastor to share the heart behind why the church offers small groups in the first place. Leaders should hear the “why” from the lead vision caster. This is also where you want to teach what it looks like to be a shepherd leader. You are asking these new leaders to shepherd a portion of the congregation, so they need to know what that means.

3. Training for the hands

This hits what the leader needs to do. You will focus on skill training for the first 90 days of the group in this section. Look to cover topics like: how to host an effective group meeting, how to facilitate a conversation, how to deal with a difficult group member, how to encourage your group to serve, how to handle prayer time, etc. The more practical this portion is, the better. Example role exercises can be very effective here if you have time in the training.

After you have filled in your training outline, the next decision will be what needs to be in the initial training before they launch the group, and what should be included in ongoing training. I like to take each one of these categories and list out my top five for each one. What five things do they have to know before the group starts to be successful? Everything else goes into ongoing training that takes place more informally along the way. Too much information initially will overwhelm new leaders.

So what are you going to cover with your leader training this fall?

Church Leadership

May 31, 2018

Three Ways to Sabbath as a Small Group Leader

By Chris Surratt

We need to develop a regular rhythm of Sabbaths to stay healthy and avoid burnout as leaders. In today’s video, Chris Surratt gives us three ways to take a Sabbath as small group leaders.

We have to Sabbath weekly.

Take one day a week where you focus on prayer, God’s Word, and physically and spiritually refueling.

We have to Sabbath quarterly.

At least once a quarter, take a break from leading a weekly Bible study and do something fun with your small group and family.

We have to Sabbath yearly.

Just a like a yearly vacation with our families, look at taking a short vacation from your group. Leading and hosting a weekly meeting can be exhausting. Take a few weeks each year to step away from those meetings to rest and be ready for the next season with your small group.

Video Transcript

Okay, today I want to talk about how do you avoid burnout as a leader by taking regular sabbaths. You know, as small group leaders, we’re used to pouring into other people, pouring into our group members, into our group, but if we’re not careful, if we’re always being poured out but not poured into, it can easily lead to burnout and that’s not good for you, for your personal health and it’s not good for your group, so I want to talk about three ways that you can sabbath as a group leader to stay spiritually healthy.

The first way is you need a sabbath weekly. What does that look like? That’s simply taking one day every week where you’re going to focus on prayer and if you don’t have a regular rhythm of prayer at least once a week, get into prayer, get into The Word, find a plan that you can follow, maybe a devotional with some scripture. Do that hopefully every day, but at least once a week. Start that rhythm and then also resting and refueling–whatever that looks like for you. For everyone, it’s different. Maybe it’s an activity that refuels you find out whatever that activity is and try to do it as much as you can one day every single week. So we want to Sabbath weekly.

We also want to Sabbath quarterly that looks like, you know, maybe you do Bible studies every single week and you want to take maybe at the end of the study, maybe at the end of six weeks, take a week in, just celebrate and do something fun with your group so you don’t have to necessarily put together a Bible study, uh, maybe go outside of your home, maybe go somewhere and do something fun like a picnic, something easy. So you’re resting, but still spending time in community with your group. So Sabbath, quarterly, about every six to eight weeks. Do something fun, do something relaxing with your group.

And then finally we want to sabbath yearly. You know, you probably take a yearly vacation maybe with your family during the summer. Well, it’s the same concept with your group. You want to look at maybe taking a vacation actually from your group, maybe take two or three weeks during the summer or during the holiday, not have group every week and just refuel, rest, and then by the time you get back, you’re going to be revived and ready again for your small group. So follow these three things, sabbath with weekly, quarterly, yearly, and hopefully you’ll avoid burnout and be in this for the long game.

Chris Surratt is a ministry consultant and coach with over 23 years of experience serving the local church. Chris served on the Executive Team at Cross Point Church in Nashville, TN, and was on staff at Seacoast Church in Charleston, SC, for 15 years. He is also the Small Group Specialist for LifeWay Christian Resources. Chris’s first book, Small Groups For The Rest Of Us: How to Design Your Small Groups System to Reach the Fringes, was recently released by Thomas Nelson. You can follow his blog at chrissurratt.com or follow him on Twitter @chrissurratt.

Church Leadership

May 24, 2018

Five Things to Do Now Before the Fall Groups Semester

By Chris Surratt

It’s the end of May, and for most churches, that means activity for small groups is slowing down. The natural attendance slide into summer is about to commence.

Your groups may not be stopping, but they are shifting gears for the hectic summer months. This time is a great opportunity for groups to point people to spend time working on the ministry—not just in it. We need these opportunities to shift, realign, and refresh our systems.

Here is a list of five ideas and questions that you should start thinking about to prepare for the next season in groups.

Lock in the theme for the fall alignment series.

Start meeting with the teaching pastors now to see where God is leading them to take the church in the fall. What can we creatively do with groups around the teaching theme?

2. Refresh your leader’s training for new leaders in the fall semester.

It may be time to revisit how you train your new leaders. Check out ministrygrid.com for help on potential training topics. Has the culture shifted since you last built your training? Are there more effective ways to deliver the information?

3. Build your curriculum map for groups after the fall alignment series.

Start thinking now about the next step for groups after the fall alignment series. Smallgroup.com allows you to easily design a discipleship map for your groups to follow. Where do you want groups to grow spiritually? What is a natural transition from your alignment theme?

4. Ask current group leaders to identify possible new leaders from their groups for the fall.

Now is the time to start identifying the new leaders for the fall push. Your best recruitment will come from existing leaders tapping their group members on the shoulder. How can we help our current leaders identify and commission new hosts and leaders?

5. Identify and start recruiting new coaches.

If you are planning on growing your groups (and I hope that you are), you are going to need coaches to help care for all of the newly recruited leaders and hosts. Now is the time to start having those conversations. Recruiting effective coaches takes time and patience. Which current leaders would be a natural fit for coaching other leaders? Are there any former leaders who are not currently leading a group, but would be great at caring for other leaders?

Group Leadership

April 19, 2018

Five Keys to Leading a Great Video-Enhanced Bible Study

By Chris Surratt

Leading a Bible study for a small group is an achievable task for most leaders. With the right preparation and curriculum, a group leader’s main goal is simply facilitating a conversation aimed at creating a discipleship experience.

On the other hand, teaching an effective Bible study is not easy, and only a few people are gifted enough teachers to exegete Scripture in an applicable, understandable way.

That is why I love having video-enhanced studies as a curriculum tool for small-group leaders. They free the leader up to focus on the discipleship conversations, while making sure the group is getting doctrinally sound teaching from teachers you can trust.

Widespread use of broadband Internet has made the video delivery easier as well. Instead of each group having to purchase a DVD, they can stream it straight from a site like smallgroup.com to their TV or computer.

But like any tool, there are a few things a leader should still do to make it a good experience for the group. Here are five tips for leading an effective video-enhanced study:

1. Watch the video ahead of time

A good leader is always one step ahead in the process so she knows how to steer the discussion in the right direction. Watching the video and going over the questions before the meeting helps you know where the finish line should be for the meeting.

2. Pre-test the tech

We can easily distract from the group experience by just assuming the video will work. Technical issues will occasionally happen no matter what, but testing it every time before the meeting will make those awkward moments rare.

3. Allow the group to process the teaching

If a leader has done his homework and pre-watched the video, then he has already processed the material and is ready to dive right into the discussion. The rest of the group, however, will need a few moments to digest what they just watched. It’s okay to let the first couple of questions hang in the air while everyone is still processing.

4. Study the Bible, not the teacher

A good video-enhanced study will lead the group to examine the Bible for answers, but it will be tempting to just discuss the best quotes from the teaching. The leader will need to always press the group to dig further into Scripture and not just rely on the video. That’s why it’s so important to have a study guide to go along with the video teaching.

5. Leave time after the video for discussion

One of the most important pieces of a successful Bible study is time management. A good leader should always keep one eye on the clock and know when to move the group to the next segment of the study. If the group spends too much time on the icebreakers, and the video is 30 minutes or longer, there will not be enough time to study the Scripture behind the teaching and discuss how to apply it to their lives.

Chris Surratt is a ministry consultant and coach with more than 23 years of experience serving the local church. Chris served on the Executive Teams at Cross Point Church in Nashville, Tenn., and Seacoast Church in Charleston, S.C., prior to becoming the Discipleship and Small Groups Specialist for LifeWay Christian Resources. He is the author of Small Groups for the Rest of Us: How to Design Your Small Groups System to Reach the Fringes. You can follow his blog at www.chrissurratt.com.

Group Leadership

April 12, 2018

Four Things to Do With Your Group Before Summer Hits

By Chris Surratt

Easter has come and gone, and now the countdown is on for summer vacations and activities to kick in. The temptation for a lot of leaders at this point would be to mail in these last few weeks and let the group slide into June. You can avoid that natural slump by doing these four things before Memorial Day.

1. Choose a 6-week study that follows up on Easter.

Easter is always a wonderful time to celebrate the death and resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Now is the perfect time to follow that celebration with a study that takes a deeper look at the impact Jesus has in our world and lives today. My small group is starting the study, Jesus Among Secular Gods, by Ravi Zacharias and Vince Vitale. The Forgotten Jesus by Robby Gallaty would be another great study to check out.

2. Start planning fun group activities for the summer.

Just because your group may not meet every week during the summer months does not mean that you should stop meeting as a group. Take a portion of an upcoming group meeting to discuss fun things for the group to do each month during the summer. Go to a baseball game. Meet for a picnic. Go whitewater rafting. Take in the 4th of July fireworks together. The summer is a perfect time for your group to laugh and play together!

3. Start researching a summer missions opportunity for the group.

Ask one of the group members to start looking for an organization to partner with on a weekend during the summer. Your church may already have opportunities or a list of organizations you can start with. For example, volunteering to help build a house with Habitat for Humanity is a great way for your group to bond and serve your community at the same time.

4. Choose an online study to do during the summer.

Choose a study on smallgroup.com. But instead of meeting together every week for the discussion, set up a Facebook group page to go through it online. Your group members can watch the video on their own, and then post comments on the page. This will allow the group members to do the study at their own pace, but still participate in the discussion. A great study to check out is Onward, by Russell Moore. All of the videos and study guides are available at smallgroup.com.

Let’s take these last few weeks of spring and prepare our groups for a strong summer!

Four Vital Questions for Planning the Future

Tuesday Thoughts – Discipleship Movement

Tuesday Thoughts: 3 Distinctives of a Biblical Group

Three Types of Leader Training

Three Ways to Sabbath as a Small Group Leader

Five Things to Do Now Before the Fall Groups Semester

Five Keys to Leading a Great Video-Enhanced Bible Study

Four Things to Do With Your Group Before Summer Hits

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