Andy Rowell made a comment on Part 5 of this book review that I must make sure you get. After weeks of bite-sized takes on applying the principles of this book, Rowell noted that free audio downloads of Andy Stanley and his team discussing each of the 7 practices are available here. Go listen to Andy! He wrote the book, he's talking about it! Go! Go!
With a final note that may have been helpful in Part 1, here's a quick summary of some specific application in my connections ministry area at Granger Community Church. Much of the vision for shaping our group ministry had begun last fall, then intensified with greater clarity as we began to apply the practices outlined in this book. Here's a snapshot of some steps we've taken over the past 6-12 months:
- We reviewed our own staff job descriptions, evaluating: what we were hired to do, what's changed since then, what we love doing still, what we're doing that's not printed, etc. In doing so we worked on clarifying our own win. This is still being refined.
- We reviewed the win for our volunteer teams. Do they know what it is? How do we talk about it? Where does it need to be clarified and re-communicated?
- We looked at a number of cyclical, annual connection events and retreats, asking, "Is this an expected "program" or is it a clear, manageable, reasonable next step for our weekend attendees and members?
- We committed to doing less events with more focus, maintaining a high level of excellence.
- We narrowed the promotable options, bringing greater focus and more reasonable expectations for our people.
- We transitioned our men's, women's, singles and couples ministries into strategic focus areas of retreats, events and groups. These three areas...
- have created measurable momentum in connecting people and helping them take next steps toward Christ.
- still allow us to connect men, women, singles and couples - but with less volunteer burnout, more focused promotions of next step opportunities and a sharper focus for our staff working along side our volunteer teams.
- will help us stay carefully focused on our mission, vision and values.
- We streamlined our small groups onramps from multi-venues to one single gateway that we call Starting Point. It's the one and only thing we talk about when we talk about groups. These groups are:
- short-term with an end date.
- led by rotating facilitators.
- our strategy for starting new groups - nearly 90% of these groups continue as "existing" small groups.
- We synergized our multi-night, de-centralized support groups under one umbrella we call, Turning Point. All our support groups now meet on a single night of the week on our campus ini 14-week sessions.
- We are working to make the onramps for serving as visible, clear and consistent as our onramps for connecting in groups.
The commitment to sharpening your focus in order to truly be effective in ministry is a high cost. It will require a great deal of vision-casting. It will mean much prayer, many conversations and a lot of coffee. It will create change... and the need to navigate that well. Grace will be a necessary attribute in the process. It is a process well worth the high cost required.
In the end people are served well. Jesus is lifted high. And people know they matter.
Now, go - listen to Andy Stanley and his team at http://www.practicallyspeaking.org.
