Episode Transcript
Well, Dustin, just share a little bit about your story there at thrive and kind of paint a picture for what the church looks like today. Sure. We're hitting the ten year window.
We actually moved. We sold our home. We were living in Delaware, Ohio. I was serving at the Powell Grace church. And we sold our home on October 31, 2014, and we moved to York.
And so we're hitting that ten year Mark. And reflection back. We overestimate what we can do in a year, and we underestimate what we can do in ten years. So a bit of the story, 38 people voted as I candidated to come to the church. Ed was actually working with them, helping them guide through the process as the previous pastor retired, serving their 27 and a half years.
And they were looking for the next guy to come in the stage of the church I think I walked into was a herding church. It was small, it had gone through some tough bumps. It had lost people. There was fear of what's going to happen, what's next, are we going to be able to keep the doors open? And so I think we went from a herrting church to a healing church, an active step of trying to just heal with people and to allow them to experience that.
And then we went from a healing church to a healthy church where we actually were able to function. And it was a different phase of life. And then we went from a healthy church to a growing church where we started having new people come and connect and engage with us and to grow. And there were people that didn't know how to function between hurting to healing to healthy to growing like that. Not everybody made that transition and that move as we stepped through those phases.
And I think, again, a piece of advice ed gave me as I walked in, he got to coach and work with me for the first several years of that time is, you know, people want to be loved before they're led. And so that was something that, you know, you walk in with vision and ideas and direction, and the congregation can be excited about that. But the question they're asking is, do you love me? Do you care about me? And so trying to slow down, I think that was going from hurting to healing, making sure that they felt loved and they felt engaged.
And so, yeah, journey. We went from you 60 on a Sunday to 90 on a Sunday to 115 to 100, and 3150. Right before COVID we were at the 180 Mark, and we were dreaming of what might be next at our church. And that was two services and two locations. So we started dreaming a little bit of campusing.
We paid off the building. We went debt free in 2019. The spring of 2019, we hired our first full time associate pastor. December 2019. Boy, life was good.
Things were moving. We were growing, expanding, and BJ moved in December and Covid hit in March of 2020. So that drastically shut down, put a stop to everything. We navigated the COVID years, finally, finally came out of that probably 2022, you know, until we were back to kind of where we were pre Covid. 2023.
We set a metric of we go to 200 and we're gon to go to two services, 200 for four weeks, consistent average. So that happened in November of 2023. Christmas time, we hit 275. Easter, we hit 352. And now we're averaging in and around the 300.
And we just launched our soft launch of a campus. And so that actually just happened Sunday. So I preached at 09:00 service here at what we call Kwanis Lake campus. And then I drove about 8 miles north to the Manchester campus meeting in a middle school, and we'are soft launching. And then October 27 is our hard launch, our grand opening.
So we're right at that cusp of, like, exciting times. And so, yeah, God's been working and moving and just seeing his hand in it. The church is growing, expanding, and people are excited about vision and where we're going, and they're investing in it and giving towards it. So lots of great health and lots of great things happening here. So that's kind of the snapshot of, of our dream about where we'not, our dream, but where we've been.
The history of thrive. We did rebrand in 2021 from the York Grace Brethren church to thrive church. And the rebranding has been very helpful as far as getting eyeballs and getting looks and people searching and search near me is the leading way. People are finding us. So then they go to our website and then they check out a service, the live stream, and they end up coming saying, hey, I watched the last two, three weeks, or I watched the last two months, and we're excited about, you know, what we see here.
And so the website and the rebrand, I think, has really helped us, you know, get new eyeballs and get a fresh perspective. Nobody told me they drove by and saw YGBC on a sign and then wanted to know more about it. But they have stopped people wearing thrived church shirts at grocery stores and, like, what does that mean? And where is that church? And so it's been a fun journey in lots of ways to see all those things happen.
We did adjust our leadership team. We went from an elder led that was just adopted in 2012. I came in 2014. It was a church board that moved to an elder team. And then in 2022, we shifted to a four team model.
So we had an oversight team, we had a strategic leadership team, the staff, and then the key volunteers. And so, like, even just change after change to adjust what got us here won't get us there has become atra mantra at our church. Canoeing the mountains has been a book that has been read by lots of people and recognizing these things. And so it's been a great Lewis and Clark. Yeah, that's right.
That's right. So on the small group side, if I can shift to that, is that, is that fair? Yeah. So, yeah, as we, as we start to talk about small groups, you know'it's? Something that, as Ed and I are coaching churches, we, we really spend a lot of time looking at churches that have had, like a traditional Sunday school model or adult Bible fellowship model.
And, you know, a lot of the guys that will be watching or listening to this after the fact, that's what their churches have traditionally known. And some of them may have been in churches with small groups or not. But sometimes it's kind of complex to transition a church from one to another. It's easy to plant a church and say, we're go goingna be a small group based church, and you kind of launch with small groups, it's different when you're transitioning from one to another. Can you share a little bit about sort of where the church was when you started pastoring and really where you've been maybe for almost, almost ten years, eight or nine years.
In terms of that Sunday school model versus small groups, what did you inherit? What did you shift to? And then how, how are you implementing small groups into your discipleship pathway now? Sure. So, thankfully, when I came, the church was down to just Sunday morning.
There was really nothing else happening. I didn't have to kill anything. I didn't have to bring an end to anything, really. It was, it was a very simple church model that was, we're keeping the doors open and we're doing church on Sunday morning. So before that, there was a lamplighters class.
There was a couple other, you know, the names are still, the rooms are still called those names, even though it's ten years ago. And so they did have a Sunday school model and a Sunday school system that was meeting on Sunday mornings. And they also had small groups that were meeting. But if you would have said which is the more important, people probably would have said Sunday morning, Sunday school is more important. So as we grew and as we move forward, we went to the small group model, and probably an experience that's not just unique to us.
They've been named many things. Life groups, life app groups, grace groups, thrive group. Like, there's lots of names and people like, what are we calling it now? What are we doing it now? Like, it's been, you know, retreaded and tried to, you know, launch different ways.
And so, you know, for a while, for a season, we just did a traditional small group getting a small group. And as a church grew, new people weren't going into existing groups. Like, we were really struggling to see new faces move into groups. And we tried some different things. We brought them all on site at the building with shared childcare, and they were topic driven.
And so people would do kind of semesters, you of you classes, they would bounce between, and we saw new people engaging that way. But still, we didn't quite have our groove set as far as what groups were. It was a good thing to do, but we weren't quite sure what we were doing with them. And so I think that conveys to your congregation if they kind of get a sense of like, yeah, we're doing something, but we don't know what we're doing. We don't know really the.
We don't clearly have an outline plan. It's just who wants to meet with who? And we try to group people that way. It gets hard to recruit to it. It gets hard to cast vision and sell it to people and explain why it's important.
And so we kind of were working our way through that process. We had kind of, in a small church, we had a homegrown couple that grew up at our church, and they experienced some other things in different states as they were doing their career. They ended up moving back to this area, and they came in and expressed how hard it was to get into small groups and how it was shocking to them. That was hard to get into a small group. It was hard to find an open group.
It was hard to find a group that wanted new people to come. And I was a solo pastor at the time, and so I kind of leaned into this couple. Their name were Matt and Becky, and they're currently at the Gateway church with Scott Feather, you know, doing great stuff there. So they were building their home in that area, living with their parents in our area, and they kind of helped champion this. So as a solo pastor, I needed someone to help me develop the vision and direction they shared the struggle and how hard it was.
And people in the church said, we feel that it is hard to get into a group. It is hard to find it. And they said, it shouldn't be that way. And soically, let me ask you a question. At that point, how many groups would you say you had operating healthy groups or groups?
How many groups? How many groups would you say there were? And of those, how many were healthy? Probably three groups in the 60 to 90 range. I would say there weren't a lot of groups that were meeting.
So there was a few group, and people would say, we've been in those groups for ten years, 15 years. So there was a long duration with a low attendance in those groups. Okay, so they championed. And, Ed, you can jump in here. We used is the book synergy or the church in New York where you were part of the small group semester model on off ramps?
The journey. Yes. Nelson Cersei ye. What was the name of the book? Synergy.
Is that the book?
Do you remember the name of the book, Ed? I don't. It's a Nelson Searsey V on groups. Yes. Yes.
It was one of those. They will brag that we have more people in groups than we have attending on Sunday. So that's their claim to fame. Okay. Yeah.
The things that we saw that were super helpful was having on ramps and off ramps and having clear start dates and stop dates and groups. You could ramp up and say, we want you to join for a semester. And we were launching a new group, so new people didn't feel like they were entering an old group or an existing group being the new person. And it gave clear start date and stop date. I think people have the fear of commitment, you know, they just don't want to commit to anything.
And so we were able to say, hey, we're going to run this group for six weeks, for twelve weeks. They were topic driven groups at first, and the topics were marriage, parenting, Bible study, Daniel plan. They were kind of. They were vetted by staff, but people were able to lead something that they were interested in. And so that helped us move into like, a defined place and path.
And it was. It was a helpful step. It was good, but it wasn't the best step. And so I think keeping that semester driven, launching new groups, clear start date, stop date, but syncing it up to our sermon series. So really, it's not a book study, it's not a marriage study, it's not a Daniel fast study.
It's applying the sermon and what you heard Sunday, it's not an additional book to read. It's not homework outside. It's like, come to church and then go to hear application in your small group and discuss. What does it look like to live out what this sermon series was about? And so I think that simplified it.
It was a bit of change. People like, well, what is this group studying? What is that group studying? Because all they knew was, I signed up for a study and it was based off my interest. This is now based off of, as a church, we want to live out what we're talking about, and we want to practice what we're preaching, and we want to spend time moving from rows to circles.
And in those circles, we form relationships and connections, and we learn each other's stories, and we get to support each other and have community in that space and in that place. I think Tim has a question. And Tim, I muted you, so you'll have to unmute yourself, because we were getting some bicycle interference there for a moment. So iuted, if you can figure out how to unmute yourself, you can ask your question.
So as far as when you did the sermon based small group application time, did you provide questions to all the group leaders? Yeah. So part of putting the message together was then putting together the material that would go to. To the leaders. I try to get those out by Thursday, so they have, you know, Thursday, Friday, people that like to prepare, have it ahead of time to be able to look at.
I'm sure there's people, we coach them to prepare ahead of time. I'm sure there's people who don't look at them until 15 minutes before group starts. But, yeah, we have our groups through planning center. And so one group on planning center is group leaders. And so group leaders are emailed, coordinated with through that group, the resources posted so that they're able to pull down the PDF of, you know, introduction, quick look back, and then application questions for them to do with their group in that way.
Let me ask Ed a question. Ed, you've been coaching and working with Dustin off and on for quite a few years now as you guys made the transition from what was sort of the HoD. I'll just call it a hodgepodge small group structure, which sounds like what it was to the sermon based small groups. What were some of the primary principles that you had Dustin work through to get people from where they were to where they were going to be? Were there any key elements of making that transition happen?
I think we had to really go back and redefine what groups were all about and really push the why rather than the what, because there was a bad taste in some people's minds. And really what. What most of the groups were were fancy Bible studies that we called groups. That was sort of the. That was sort of the grid.
And then I think we came up with the two drivers of the groups that it was going to be the primary place that you were connect. It becomes our care system, which is an important thing, and then it becomes care, care, connection, and change. It's where life change happens. We talked a lot about, boy, don't you wish that life change could happen in the Sunday morning in the auditorium? It just doesn't.
And that most people, by 02:00 on Sunday can't remember what we've talked about. So that's why we get together on Tuesday night, Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday morning, and go back and talk about that stuff. And I think the other thing I think we did that was really, really good was we allow people to dabble and check it out. And we never talk about it being a long term sign up for life thing. But most of the groups, once people sign in, it becomes their family.
And we do take breaks, so we do semesters and time on time off. I think that was really important. And then the thing that we're at now, I think that's going to be the next important step, is we have to constantly raise up new leaders because we're gonna have to start new groups, because now, if a group's been together for 18 months, they have inside stories. And for somebody new to come in, even if we would invite them and we'd be comfortable, they might not be. So we had to wrestle through are we, how are we going to do that?
Are we going to split groups? And the thought was, hey, we got to raise up what you'd probably, in book, call apprentice leaders. And then those two and maybe two from this group are going to leave, start a group over here. It's a model that's in process, so we're not perfect at it. But one of the things that I love about Dustin and many of the guys that I coach is super teachable and willing to take risk, because when we did all these steps, we weren't really sure.
We thought it should work on paper, right, but we weren't really sure. And it did work, but we made adaptations to it along the way. Dustin, let me ask you a question. As you've been pastoring this church for ten years, and I'm sure that you've had somewhat of a revolving door on some level, with people coming and people going and people leading groups and then people not leading groups. As you look at your current group format, the structure, and what you're trying to accomplish through groups, what are some of the primary characteristics that you're looking for in someone who is going to lead a group?
How are you identifying the people who can be, should be leading? And then how are you actually staying connected and coaching those people to make sure that they're actually accomplishing what you want them to accomplish through their groups? Right. Right. Observation, early years.
What are we going to do? We're stuck. How are we going to do this? A repeated statement is we have to outgrow this stage. Like, in some ways, it's not just reshuffling the same cards that you have in your congregation and the people you have, but it was like, we're going to keep pushing and pushing in some of this.
We need to out andgrow it. Like, we don't have the people yet. Like, we were praying for people and resources for two years to see this campus launch happen. And that prayer is God, will you bring us the people and the resources we need to help us be able to grow to that point? And so I think for a little while, when it was a hodgepodge of groups, we were just reshuffling people and thinking.
Calling it a different name would make it different, calling, meeting it at a different night would make it different, trying different things. But it took off when we got the right people in the right seats of leading groups. Our excitement in our time of growth right now, God brought us some really good people, passionate about community, passionate about small groups, passionate about shepherding. And in some ways, that we would use that word, fresh blood or new people, new faces that that kind of came in in the last two years are the ones who are excitedly pushing and leading groups in dynamic ways. And so some of the leader training, right?
So how do we get leaders? We talk about our groups and we use words like, we're better together at thrive and thrive. And that's why we move from a row to a circle. We say that a lot, we repeat it a lot, and we say, if re part our, if you're a part of thrive, you call thrive your home church. We want you to be in a group.
And then our leaders, we were re saying, leaders, groups need to be a place where there's real community. And each week, so this last year, we had each week groups reading, this is why we meet as a group, you know, reading a mission statement for why we're meeting as a group. And community was in that. We're a place where there's community care, prayer and share, like, this is why we're here, this is what we meet about, this is who we are. And it gave the group, the leaders.
Giving that clarity allowed the group to experienced community because we spoke to it. And so we're coaching it up in a way that we're saying, hey, there are pillars of success, there's keys to success with our leaders. And keeping it real simple, you know, like, you're a facilitator, you're not a teacher, you're asking good questions, you're listening more than you're speaking, you know, helping them understand what success looks like in their group. Clearly communicating, clearly making the ask. This is the, this is what we're doing, this is where we're going.
And so really, God brought us some key people that stepped in and led with excitement and energy. They didn't come in with, I've been doing this for ten years. I've been doing this for 15 years. And we made sharp asks of the people by saying, hey, we really are in your group. What does this look like?
To have real community, to have real application, to have real prayer, to have real care. And we told stories about it. We celebrated it when it happened to, you know, we celebrate to calibrate. God brought in a lady from Bloomer, Wisconsin. She and her husband moved a year and a half ago to the York area.
And she's, you know, in her sixties, a real estate agent. And she is fearless. She calls she bulldogs talking people like, not. Not pushing people over, but like, she calls, she's after it. She will.
If she says it, she'll do it. And if she said she's going to contact all five of the thrive group leaders this week, she will do that and she will get it done. And she has five checking questions. Know, how's group going? How are you doing?
Are there any concerns? Anything come up? How can I pray for you? And she's spending that time calling and checking in with those group leaders. So they feel supported and encouraged by her.
And they also know clear chain. Hey, Dustin's working with groups. We can reach out to Dustin with questions. We rally together. We have leader training meetings where we go over our goals.
And it's not new information each time. It's. The secret is we're repeating the same training just in different ways, helping leaders hear what we're asking them to do, what groups should look like, you know, what expectations are, you know, as we're trying to help people grow in that way. And so I think a year into this new model, our summer pause, each group had a time to connect. Once a month.
They were hungry for it. They missed each other. They wanted to go mini golfing together and connect and share. They wanted to have meals together. They.
So it's almost like the science success was people wanted more time together because they had been experiencing community together. And they were experiencing that because we were re telling them, this is a place for you to have community. So it's almost like you have to turn the lights on. Otherwise they'll sit in the dark and feel like there's no community. You're like, guys, you are the community for each other.
You are that place. You are that space. And just using those words help people repeat those words and then experience what they were saying. Okay, so you mentioned a little bit earlier that the model that you're using with the small groups is that you have semesters, so you have natural on ramps and off ramps, times that people can you make a change if they need to make a change. When you're asking a small group leader to commit to leading a small group, what is their commitment?
What's the level of commitment? What are they committing to other than just meeting with their group on Wednesday nights or Thursday nights or whatever that is for the semester or longer. What kind of coaching and training and ongoing connections. Are they committing too? Sure.
And so we're figuring it out as well, like in that we're trying to have a leader and a co leader. And so the leader is saying, hey, I'mnn, I'm gonna be the facilitator. I'm go going toa take ownership of this. The co leader is someone who might be hosting, they might be using their home to host or they might be helping co lead. The dream is they become the next group leader, as Ed referred to.
We don't split groups. We don't just say, okay, you seven are going over here and u six are going over here. We pull out the next leader and another couple, but we leave the group primarily intact. So like someone has their, their group, they know, hey, this is going to be, you know, my group. Semester driven on off up.
80% of people stay in the same group once they get to know people. And we do see some movement happen, you know, from group to group. Soccer moved from Tuesday nights. I can't make Tuesday night, but I can, you know, I can do Monday nights now or somed might come into a busy season and say, I can't. I can't be in a group this semester.
That's okay. Take that pause. We believe doing life with margin at thrive and so you might not. We don't want you to burn out. So take a pause.
So that's kind of how groups move. The leaders they're going to lead and it looking for about a year commitment. Like, you know, lead a group for a year. Let's evaluate. So we have somebody that has projected out saying, hey, I can lead up now until December.
And so that's about all the further they can see. So now we're starting to think who will be the next group lead in that group as that leader steps off. So they're getting weekly communications from me in an email format. They're getting a phone call check in from Belinda in a support and encouragement format. We meet before each semester launch.
We have a leader meeting where we gather together, we share wins, we talk about what's happening and what we're seeing in that way. So they're checked in with weekly, they're emailed material, they're coordinated. And in some ways those quarterly meetings are sharpening. Skill sharpening. Hey, how's this going?
Hey, what does it look like to do this? Tell me a story about how care happened in your group. And so we share stories or we share struggles or we talk about things that are happening that way. You talked about skill sharpening. What would you say are the top two or three skills that a small group leader needs to have to be successful in leading a small group that is in the structure of the format that you're using.
So I think the leader saying, hey, look for your people on Sunday morning and give them a high five and say you're excited to see them. Follow up on prayer requests. People are sharing and let them reach out and know that you're caring. You know, you're praying about that. How's it going?
I think it's engagement and involvement that that group member would say that leader cares for me and follows up with me and has time for me and listens when I talk and engages in that way. And so we were aware andure studies. You guys know you have six weeks for somebody to make six friends, you, if they're going to stick at the church. And so, like, that group leader is kind of that person who's, who's rallying the team. And another goal we have that thrive.
We say we're a name, not a number. And an application of that is we want everyone to hear their name on Sunday morning. Like that is a goal. Is it incredible that people come and they get to hear their name? So thrive group leaders greet your people by name.
And so we're trying to help them coach and lead in that way by example, living it and demonstrating it. Sometimes great teachers are not good group leaders. Just because you can teach information or because you have a lot of peer and you're good to talk for half an an hour, I think that's another sign your groups might be unhealthy. If the primary person is a teacher and not a shepherd. So we want these groups to be shepherding well.
Be caring, touching through the week with texts and emails and follow ups and really loving people. Like, you have to have a heart to love your group. And that love is seen in how you interact, is seen in how you spend your time and how you encourage people. When you're identifying group leaders and empowering them, are you primarily working through couples? And do you see the couple as leading the group together, or is it the husband or the wife in some cases?
Like, how does that look from a leadership standpoint? So I usually listen, and I listen to hear people say, we love thrive groups or we love small groups. We used to lead small groups. We love hosting. Like, I wait to hear people say words that show they have a passion and a natural gifting for what it takes.
Typically, it is a couple, a husband and a wife. But it also doesn't have to be equally shared if whoever's the main facilitator, whoever has that peopling gift and that ability to see that. And so usually when I hear, and I also look to see who's in groups, who's actually committed and faithfully showing up and attending a group. And so I'm listening to here, people use words to say they love it, they're excited by it, they're interested in it. You give them the experience to be a part of a group.
Like, there's a guy now who I think could be a great group leader. He just hasn't gotten into the group for, like, a year. You know, it's just, life's so crazy. Jobs moving, the kids are sick. He can't be here, he can't be there.
And it's like, I think eventually he'll be a great group leader, but right now, it's too inconsistent to put him in and say, hey, will you lead a group when you don't have the capacity to do that? And so I think it's finding teams also. People like one couple hosts, but they would never want to lead the group. Like, the other person is a retired school teacher and can lead a group. Great, because to them, it's not a stress level.
And so he's happy to show up at their house, where they've cleaned it, they prepped it, they're ready to host it, and he executes the facilitating of the discussion and the talking and the follow up. Incredible. Shepherd. And so that makes a good team. It takes two people to do that role because the ones hosting, the others facilitating, I want to double click on that for just a second, because.
And we can maybe extrapolate on this a little bit. I actually really love that model of having a host couple or a host person and a small group leader because I think what it does is it gets more people with skin in the game, with building the community and building the culture of the group. Sometimes you have people who are very gifted at leading, but oftentimes, those people who are really gifted at leading, they might actually have the busiest lives or the most complex lives and have the least ability to host, because, well, they've just got kids running around all over the place. They get home from work late, so they might have the capacity to actually be the leaders, be the shepherds. But hosting is outside of, really their wheelhouse, which might prevent them from saying yes to an opportunity to actually lead, lead a group.
Because if they feel like they have to host it because they're the leaders, then they might say no to that. So let's ask Ron that question. Ron, do you have any thoughts or ideas about that particular concept and things that maybe you've experienced in your past churches? Yeah. I'd agree with you that a lot of times the leader is too busy to actually do the hosting.
There is a different skill set. My wife and I are quite different that way. We host and lead and. But most couples'don't operate that way. Yeah, yeah, my wife and I would do the same thing.
Although I would love to have another couple host. Just. Just like I said, just to share the love, to share the community building. You know, we're happy to host the home that we have. We bought specifically because it was a great home in which we could have small group environments.
But if there was somebody else that God brought into our circ, that would allow them to host so we could lead and we didn't have that responsibility, we're fine with sharing that as well. Ed, is that something that you see as a priority, or is it just something you think you take advantage of it when it's there? Well, I'd go after it hard because I think there's a secondary practical benefit to having a host couple. I prefer when Wely groups, and Carol and I lead groups. I prefer not to do it in our home.
Here's why. If it's in my home and now we're done at 815, 830 or whatever, we're never done when we're done, right? I mean, always have people that don't read the room that think, oh, I'll just stay around till 1030, because that's what they do. But what I've learned is if we're at somebody else's home, so the group is over, I'll hang around 1520 minutes, and then I again, hey, guys, great to be with you. When I leave, it's officially over.
And everybody now feels permission to go. But if it's at my house, nobody feels that. And so that's ause that's okay. The first night of the second night, you start doing that 15 nights in a row, and it's like, oh, my word, these people are coming again, and they're never gonna leave till 1030. But if it's at somebody else's house, as the leader, I can leave, and I know when I leave, then everybody pretty much follows me out the door, and it has a more natural end.
This is where you and I are very different, Ed, because you stay up really, really late at night. So people would be, they would be inclined to stay late. I go to bed at night nine, so I will literally walk out of the living room and say, goodn night, everyone. I'm going to bed and I'll go right into my bedroom, close the door, and they can stay if they want to, but it'll be a little bit awkward if I'm in my pajamas and they're still in the house. So let me bring up one thing that actually super fresh that Dustin and I talked about yesterday, because as a ministry, we're beginning to do an equipping process and helping people to understand 90% of her ministry happens out there.
And so what we were saying is to be a thrive group leader, to be a small group leader, you have to buy into where we're going and not only buy into it up here, you have to be living it out, or you cannot be a small group leader, which limits the people that can be small group leaders now, but we can't afford to have someone who doesn't live out the vision leading a group because they become the primary influencer of those twelve people. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Ron, you had something, I think, that you wanted to share there. Yeah. Another advantage to having other people, hosts and whatnot is I think it's important to get different people empowered in your groups to carry it on.
They feel responsibility for keeping it going. And even, like, in our group, we eat a meal all the time, so people commit to bringing something and that empowers them to contribute. And I think that's an important part of the life. Group life. Yeah.
I like to take the people that are in the group, and I'm facilitating, like, I'm leading the group discussion questions. I have somebody else who's kind of like the prayer note keeper, another person who's going to take all the prayer requests and then make sure they get texted out or emailed out to the group. If we're going to have like, a meal or another get together where people are going to be responsible for bringing things, I want someone else in the group to kind of own that. So I think that that shared leadership, that shared ownership, that shared responsibility, like I said, gets more people with skin in the game, and it just levels up everybody's commitment to the group. We're going to wrap this up.
Dustin, what did I not ask you that? You think I should have asked you about what the journey has been like for you guys with small groups? The things that you're seeing benefits. I have one last thing I want to share before we. I hit stop on the recorder here, but I just wanted to give you kind of a last word in terms of anything.
I didn't ask that. I should have asked. Sure. So a secret sauce that is, you guys were talking about host and home and structure and setup. We have actually budgeted church money for childcare.
And so what that does is your group can go out and find a student or a young person to watch the kids, and there's money there from church budget to pay that person to reimburse you for chilDc care. So the leaders are responsible to find the person to vet the person. Like, it's not a church liability. Like, you know, it's like you find the person you trust to watch your kids. We'll reimburse that.
And so, in turn, Arey, we are young, family heavy, and a lot of parents hearing what you have childc care provided for my kids, and they get to drop their little kids off. Then some of them, it's at the same house. They watch them in the basement, and the parents meet upstairs. Sometimes it's a one house as a child care house. Six houses down is where the parents then meet, and it's shared net community.
So we actually budgeted that money in order to remove that excuse. We don't have child care. I can't come. You don't. You provide that.
It is a headache. It is hard. It is, like, tedious. We couldn't find child care for one group right now, so parents are rotating. The first night, Ron watches the kids.
The next night, Ed watches the kids. Next night, Bart watches the kids. So we're rotating through, but you've got to have a plan and figure out childc care if you're going to see young families engage in these life groups. And honestly, these groups are where young families have to engage. If you want them to have a community, you got to take care of their kids, you got to have a plan, and their kids have to want to go to group ye.
So I think that's a really good point. I actually thought of one more question that I wanted to ask you. I did think of something I want to ask you. If I showed up to thrive this coming Sunday, what is your expectation in terms of how long I can be or should be attending the church before I connect in a group, how are you facilitating my understanding of group life, the importance of group life, and plugging me into a group, what does that look like for a new person? In your church.
So a new person comes. Hopefully they filll out a connection card. That's amazing, right? If they come and they trust us enough to give us their email address, that lets us start our process with them. If you come with a child, you have to give us your email address to check your kid into the downstairs area.
So our kids spaces in the lower auditorium. So we track information that kicks off a welcome letter, you know, some type of contact follow up. We're so glad. Thanks for checking out. Thrive.
We have a quick connect class that's once a month, 15 minutes after both services. So we've got cookies. You come quick connect, quick commercial, who we are and then let them share how they. I love to hear stories. How did you find us?
Who invited you? How did you get here? And they share a little bit about what it is they like or what drew them here, how they heard about us. We try to get the rest of the information for the database. They'll give us as much information as they'd like to.
We get a church app on their phone. Hey, here's how to connect with us. Here's our church app. Install it. Here's our groups.
Here's the opportunities. Here's how to sign up for a group. Sometimes people come the first Sunday and they come to quick connect. This has actually happened. And they signed up for a group and they showed up that week at that quick connect.
So amazing. Like, actually people using the path in that, seeing it work in that way. So we try to communicate that. Something we're experimenting with. We didn't see a high sign up rate with new people this last semester of thrive groups, and we're trying to figure out why.
Like, our groups are healthy, but we didn't see a large increase in that. And we're kicking around the idea of, can someone come to see a group before they commit to a group? Like, our verbiage might be a little scary. Sign up for a group. I don't know who you are.
I don't know where you are. I don't know if I'd like you guys. Right? But what if we say, come see a group? Like, just come experience it before you commit to it?
Also, like, signing up to work in our kidsman area, shadow, before you commit, like, come meet, get vetted, background checkd, and then shadow and see if this is a fit for you. So we're trying to let people get a taste before we ask them to sign up. Like, church people will sign up for stuff they like. Sure, I'll do that thing because they know what it is or they think they know what it is. New people, new to church.
I don't know what happens in groups. Like, that's weird. Like, I don't know if I want to do that. So we're trying to figure out, is there a way to let people see it and experience it before they sign up with it. And we're also trying to get relationships to be that bridge.
So as a new person comes, can we walk with them? Another great idea to drill down later is a tour guide concept that Ed's helping coach us on is how do you have a tour guide? Walk somebody through that assimilation process where that person relationally helps guide them versus church announcements and videos and testimonies and like all the things we used to do to get groups to work. I don't know if it's working as well today. I think we have to let people experience it before we ask them to commit to it.
People in our culture today, particularly younger people, they like to test drive everything. And so it might be, hey, we're going to go out for a steak dinner at a restaurant, and we're going to go to the restaurant's Google Business profile and we're going to look at the menu, we're going to look at the prices, we're going to look at pictures of everything that everybody has posted because we want the inside scoop before we show up. Dating apps, people get to know people on dating apps before they ever go on a date. Right. It's kind of a weird scenario.
So you might think about how you introduce people to groups, to group leaders, to that dynamic some way. Maybe it's digitally, maybe it is incarnationally in some way where they get a chance to actually peek behind the curtain before they make that commitment. I think that's a, that's a really intuitive thing there. As we wrap up, you know, you sermon based small group questions, you're preparing those every week, I'm sure, when you're writing your sermon. I have talked about this in our cohort in the past, and I'll mention it again.
There's a tool called Sermonsspark AI. It's a free account. You can now upload your audio or your video file or link your YouTube video into Sermonsspark and it will create a transcript, a clean transcript from your teaching from Sunday. And there's a prompt that will write small group discussion questions for you right there. So in a matter of about a minute, minute and a half, you can have from your sermon transcript a set of small group questions that you can start with.
You don't have to obviously distribute and publish exactly what comes out of it, but it's a good start, good starter point. If you don't want to use the Sermonspark tool for those discussion questions, take your transcript from Sermonspark, throw it over into chat GPT or Claude, and then you can give a more specific prompt to chat CPT or Claude about the types of discussion questions that you want. And you can come up literally with discussion questions within, you know, a few minutes after having the audio or video file of your sermon on Sunday. It just saves you tons in tons of time. And I don't.
Well, I don't propose that pastors use chatptt to write their sermons. I don't think that there's anything super spiritual about the discussion questions that we apply after the fact. And we just need to get people talking in a laboratory environment where they can put some action steps to what they're learning on Sunday. So I think I'm a big fan of Larry Osborne's book Sticky Church, which again promotes the whole concept of small groups being the primary ways that you get new people to stick. And a lot of our churches, as they go through season of revitalization, as they are starting to make an impact in their community, they see more and more new people coming in on Sunday mornings.
The question is, how do we get those people to stay? Most of the time they don't stay just because the preaching is great or because the music is great, or because the children's ministry is great. All those, those things don't hurt. People are going to stick when they make relational connections. And the best way to do that is in the context of your small groups.
So, Justin, thanks for hanging out with us today. Go ahead. You have one more thought. I can shoot you what our big picture looks like as we dreamed and whiteboarded something ed led us through. I can send you that document.
I can send you our thrive group keys to success for thrive group leaders. I can shoot that document as well. And then maybe even a sample of what sermon questions look like. Yeah, we love to have. Yeah, please do.
I would love to have all of those. And I'll share those with all of our guys.
