I'm always amazed at every committee's commitment to be on an extreme on every scale. Some feel they aren't doing their job right if they don't change something. others keep things EXACTLY the same, regardless of changes in circumstances.
I love using the single gender small groups failure as an example of what goes wrong when people don't think long term about their decisions. Not that I'm against single gender groups; I'm just against having them exclusively. Actually, not even that, I'm just against things being changed without prior thought to practical logistics, current congregational need, and long term impact.
2 years ago the commitee decided, in the midst of years of successful co-ed groups, that we should switch exclusively to single gender small groups. That switch failed horribly for the men's side that year. The next year, I don't know how this is supposed to help, but they introduced more bible studies in SGs (bible studies were pretty much jammed into anything and everything). Men's attendance was STILL dismal, women's attendance was good, but leadership investment was forgotten about. So finally we come to this year, we have almost no female leaders, due to graduation and lack of development, and a bunch of male leaders that have little to no clue as to what they're doing, because no one has ever been in a small group before. Hardly the brightest picture is it?
See what happened there? We essentially lost 2, maybe 3 years in the small groups ministry because:
1) someone (someone, not so much God) wanted to change something
2) the change was made without adequate thinking and preparation about the consequences, and taking in the concerns of the congregation
3) successive leaders had slow/non-existent reactions to a ministry that was clearly not doing well
4) some leaders just wanted to stick with whatever happened before.
5) lack of communication between years to reflect on successes and failures, and how they apply to their current situation.
Now you ask anyone at CCF and no one has any idea of how small groups actually worked great before the single gender fiasco; how plugging newcomers into small groups was easy, and people genuinely enjoyed being there rather than having to be reminded to go every week.
Leaders, when you make choices, think about HOW (I already know you have a million Sunday school answers as to why) you're going to do what you plan to do, and more importantly, what will you do if it DOESN'T go well. I know we need to live by faith, but it is simply irresponsible to not think about consequences and potentially leave a mess for the next committee to clean up. And evaluate your ministry on a constant basis, and COMMUNICATE to future leaders what went well and what didn't, not so much that they can just follow you, but that they can make informed choices in order to properly meet the needs of their situation.
Who knows, maybe some of them will actually listen for once...
I love using the single gender small groups failure as an example of what goes wrong when people don't think long term about their decisions. Not that I'm against single gender groups; I'm just against having them exclusively. Actually, not even that, I'm just against things being changed without prior thought to practical logistics, current congregational need, and long term impact.
2 years ago the commitee decided, in the midst of years of successful co-ed groups, that we should switch exclusively to single gender small groups. That switch failed horribly for the men's side that year. The next year, I don't know how this is supposed to help, but they introduced more bible studies in SGs (bible studies were pretty much jammed into anything and everything). Men's attendance was STILL dismal, women's attendance was good, but leadership investment was forgotten about. So finally we come to this year, we have almost no female leaders, due to graduation and lack of development, and a bunch of male leaders that have little to no clue as to what they're doing, because no one has ever been in a small group before. Hardly the brightest picture is it?
See what happened there? We essentially lost 2, maybe 3 years in the small groups ministry because:
1) someone (someone, not so much God) wanted to change something
2) the change was made without adequate thinking and preparation about the consequences, and taking in the concerns of the congregation
3) successive leaders had slow/non-existent reactions to a ministry that was clearly not doing well
4) some leaders just wanted to stick with whatever happened before.
5) lack of communication between years to reflect on successes and failures, and how they apply to their current situation.
Now you ask anyone at CCF and no one has any idea of how small groups actually worked great before the single gender fiasco; how plugging newcomers into small groups was easy, and people genuinely enjoyed being there rather than having to be reminded to go every week.
Leaders, when you make choices, think about HOW (I already know you have a million Sunday school answers as to why) you're going to do what you plan to do, and more importantly, what will you do if it DOESN'T go well. I know we need to live by faith, but it is simply irresponsible to not think about consequences and potentially leave a mess for the next committee to clean up. And evaluate your ministry on a constant basis, and COMMUNICATE to future leaders what went well and what didn't, not so much that they can just follow you, but that they can make informed choices in order to properly meet the needs of their situation.
Who knows, maybe some of them will actually listen for once...
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