Here’s something that some of us at Fulcrum have been kicking around. I’d love your feedback.
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As we’ve thought about our ministry strategy for Fulcrum, we’ve developed three environments and one exercise that are central to our pursuit of Christlikeness.
1. Large Group Worship Gathering: Primary purpose is worship and teaching. This is the front door through which most newcomers enter to check out our community.
2. Home Groups: Primary purpose is missional community. Community that is the bi-product of a group of people being on mission together.
3. Microgroups: 3-4 people. Primary purpose is deeper bible study and mutual encouragement to grow in Christlikeness.
4. Personal Growth plan: After taking a brief survey that assesses personality type, learning style, and spiritual trajectory each person develops a personalized plan for Spiritual formation.
One way to implement this is as a funnel through which each person who becomes a part of our community will be moved. The shape of the funnel sets the expectations for involvement in each environment. The further we travel down the funnel, the less people will be involved in each activity. There will always be more people in the large group gathering than in the home groups just as there will always be more people in home groups than in microgroups. The number of people who will actually complete and implement a personal growth plan will be but a small fraction of the number who attend the large group gathering.
To increase participation in each level moving down the funnel, we’ll start using rhetoric that communicates that the further down the funnel you travel the more important the activity is.
“We believe life change happens in a small group setting,” we could say in the large group gathering when trying to get people to sign up for a home group.
“Microgroups are the basic building block of our church,” we could say to those who are in a home group, but not yet meeting in a microgroup.
“Developing a personal growth plan is the missing element in most people’s quest for Christlikeness,” we could say when trying get people to take the survey and develop their plan.
As we ramp up the rhetoric, an unsettling irony will emerge: the activities that we say are the most important will end up being the things in which most of our community is the least involved.
Does it have to be this way?
What would happen if we refused to give any one environment a privileged place in our programming or our promotional rhetoric and instead held all of them up as equally important and valid options for those who are a part of our community? What if we encouraged each person to invest their time and energy into whichever environment is best suited for their particular season of life and stage of spiritual development?
Let’s say a single, introverted, skeptical young man shows up on a Sunday morning in response to an invitation from a friend. He’s intrigued enough by what he sees and hears to keep coming back. What do we do with him? Do we start trying to funnel him into a home group? Do we make sure he understands that he’s not really a part of our community until he joins one? What if he never joins a home group, but after several months of showing up and listening and pondering, he’s finally willing to join a microgroup with his friend who originally invited him? The combination of the large group gathering and the microgroup where he can ask questions and discuss possibilities is exactly what he needs. The thought of attending a home group has no appeal to him whatsoever, because as an introvert he always feels awkward in groups of 10 to 15 people.
Is this okay or does this young man need to submit to my plan for his life and work his way down the funnel?
Instead of arranging these activities in the shape of a funnel, what if we laid them out like a configurable computer dashboard? We could present each environment with a clear explanation of its purpose and the anticipated outcomes for those who participate in it. Without prioritizing any one environment above the other, we would encourage each person or family to invest themselves in whichever environments make the most sense for them.
The large group gathering is a great way to be introduced to our community and meet a few people and get a sense of what we’re about. Home groups are a great way to develop a sense of community with a handful of others. Microgroups are a great way to go deeper into Scripture and to explore the spiritual disciplines within a more intimate environment. Developing a personal growth plan is a great exercise for those who are hungry to grow and looking for “next steps.”
If we regularly communicate the availability and purpose of these options without prioritizing any one above the other, could we trust that through adequate pastoral coaching and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, each person in our community would discern which environments, activities, and exercises are best suited for them at any given moment?
Could we live with the outcome of this kind of approach? Not everyone will be in a home group. Not everyone will be interested in a microgroup. Not everyone will be working on a personal growth plan. Not everyone will regularly attend the large group worship gathering (Although most will or it would cease to be the large group gathering!). But they’ll all still be a part of our community, and to the degree they invest themselves in at least one of these environments, they’ll be connected and hopefully growing.
Of course, after some time in a given environment, their growth may stall. When that happens, they can opt into a new environment and be stimulated to grow in new areas and ways. Take the skeptical young man mentioned above. After a year of attending the gathering and being a part of a microgroup, he gives his life to Christ. Not long after that, he meets an attractive young woman at the large group gathering who invites him to her home group. He decides to give it a try. He still feels awkward in small groups, but he decides having his comfort zone stretched in this area is a good thing. That, and the young woman who invited him is really attractive. In order to conserve his social bandwidth for the group, he decides to take a break from his microgroup. No problem. He’s still growing!
What do you think? Is this idealistic crazy talk or could it work?
Telling Stories, Asking Questions, Learning Lessons
Is the objective of the strategy centered on the central focus of “teaching them to obey everything I have commanded”? If not, why even bother? Perhaps fasting, praying, and watching for Jesus to immerse people in the Father-Son-Spirit reality and then pray/watch for the Spirit’s guidance and prompting, rather than trying to imagine a who might show up and what may or may not “work” for him? If you have a community where the core “Fulcrumers” are manifesting the character and power described in Jesus’ teachings, you can be sure the single guy or housewife or anybody will jump in while not giving a rat’s rear-end what the strategy is. Or they will hate you.
Allen—thanks for the comment. The objective of the strategy is individual and corporate Christlikeness.
We like “Fulcrumites.” Sounds a bit more biblical. 🙂
Wade, I like the openness and freedom your trying to establish. Some people are introverts and some will hug any old skunk. I think what it will really boil down to is connection. The Fulcrimites who bring their friends will have the greatest impact on them i.e. they will follow their direction or guidance. The individual who is brave enough or curious enough to come in off the street may be willing to choose for themselves small group, micro group, etc, but someone will have to connect with them to keep them.
What you are proposing sounds good to me. Being allowed to function where one is comfortable rather than being required to participate in everything seems like a no brainer. I wonder if some people’s reluctance to be part of micro groups and especially home groups are the cliques that often form as a result. When a group leader states, We don’t accept just anyone into our group…”, might that be just a wee bit off putting to those listening. And no matter what, the home group that has the preacher is going to be the “IN” place to be.
Aside from those two concerns I think the freedom to worship in an environment of comfort is very, well,comforting. We love you Wade!
While reading Erwin McManus’ book, “An Unstoppable Force,” I learned they had the concept that focused on what an individual could bring to Mosaic, which is their community. When someone joined the community, they were asked, “What can you do to change Mosaic for the better?” He likened the community of Christ-followers to our eco-system. One thing has a direct effect on another. This concept taught people that they could bring things to the table rather than having to fit some mold.
I love the openness of your group too. I have learned that when I begin this kind of community that “everything’s an experiment.” I got that phrase from the National Community Church’s website as one of their core beliefs. It is a refreshing way to look at new things. Doing this kind of thing does away with the old “we’ve never done it that way before” syndrome.
Love you brother and appreciate the updates on your mission there. It is encouraging to many of us.
Wade,
Your plans for openness and options sound great. We all just have to grow to be more Christlike so people do not get lost in the crowd or too comfortable with their microgroups and form cliques. It is learning the Word and loving others as Jesus does that will keep that from happening. When people learn how much Jesus loves them despite their sins, “faults”, and flaws, and that their Christian brothers and sisters love them the same way…without judgement…then your plans of openness and options in the funnel of love will happen without people getting lost in the crowd or locked into a clique.
Growing in the Word daily!
Chinell
Enjoyed the Funnel of Love. Glad to read of the thoughtful and intentional way you are going about helping people take next steps in their spiritual journey.
I would say that each step is as important as the next. A baby learning crawl is developmentally very important to standing and standing to taking her first step. One is not more important but rather each is vital to the next.
Inadvertently I believe many Christian leaders, myself included, have caused a very unnecessary caste system in Christianity. The elders are the elite to which all should attain. That is the top tier. There are lesser tiers, of course.
However, the word “walk” employed in both testaments demonstrates that the crucial issue is that we are on the right path not necessarily where we are on the path. Jesus, for example, calls all of His followers (new or mature) to love, obey, and bear fruit. The degree and the kind will differ with maturity. I’d say don’t make too much of one step. Just an opinion.
We are in the process of working these things through as well. We certainly appreciate your thoughts. They are very helpful.
This is really a great process and I am thankful that you put in on your blog. It is really hard getting new people connected to others. We learned that sometimes we do best when we contact new people to new people and relationships can grow out of this. Thanks for this work.