Daniel Im

Pastor + Author

Mid-Size Communities

A Review of Ministry Grid and my Midsize Groups Course

By

Do you know about Ministry Grid? This is THE platform that I’ve been waiting for. I’ve always been a proponent of on-demand and on-the-go leadership training, but the learning management systems out there were either too expensive or not user friendly enough. That’s why, years ago, I went ahead and just created my own online small group leader training using Survey Monkey, but that was so 2010.

As I’ve been looking for more of a dynamic and intelligent system, I was first struck by RightNow Media’s online video Bible study and training library. I decided not to go with them since my church already had over 200+ small group videos in our own library, and with the demographic of our church, an online system would only cater to less than 20% of our groups. Furthermore, their learning management system did not have the customization features that I was looking for and it was way too expensive.

Enter, Ministry Grid.

Ministry Grid has the customization features that I want for a learning management system, the types of videos that will appeal to all leaders in my church, as well as reasonable pricing. That’s why we’ve signed up with them.

Recently, I’ve had the privilege to also partner with Ministry Grid to provide them with exclusive training content on mid-size communities/groups, as you see outlined in the image.

Click here to take the midsize groups course on Ministry Grid.

So if you’re interested in learning more about mid-size communities/groups, then take in this course and, while you’re at it, learn more about Ministry Grid.

  • Session 1 – How to Engage People Disillusioned with Small Groups
  • Session 2 – How to Make a Large Church Feel Small using Midsize Groups
  • Session 3 – How to Form a Missional Community through Midsize Groups
  • Session 4 – Leadership Development for Midsize Communities

Is This The Future of Group Life? Small Group Network Interview

By

smallgroupnetwork

I was recently interviewed on GroupTalk @ SmallGroupNetwork.com about mid-size communities!

 

Carolyn Taketa, the Executive Director for Small Groups at Calvary Community Church, is a friend of mine and she interviewed me about all things mid-size communities.

In this Group Talk, we cover:

  • Creating an environment for those not likely to ever join a small group.
  • Keys to developing mid-size communities (MSC) for greater assimilation, discipleship, and multiplication.
  • How does a mid-size community compliment or conflict with existing SG structures?
  • Why is having a leadership team (instead of a single leader) critical to a healthy MSC?
  • Tips on overcoming leadership resistance to MSCs

I’d love to hear your thoughts and continue this conversation with you!

Be sure to check out the interview here.

What Does a Mid-Size Community Look Like? (Part 4 – SG or MSC)

By

Back in May 2013, I was featured on Rick Howerton’s Blog with NavPress for a four day interview on “Small Groups or Mid-Size Communities?” He has since joined the staff at LifeWay, and thus the previous posts have gone away. Here’s the last post:

4. What does a mid-size group meeting look like and how often do these groups meet?

Imagine how it would feel like if you belonged to a community…

  • Where love was a verb and was characterized by action, rather than shallow words that didn’t do or mean anything?
  • Where blessing each other wasn’t a second thought, but it was a normal part of our daily schedule?
  • Where apathy and indifference wasn’t the normal attitude, but we were all filled with passion, filled with God’s Spirit, filled with his strength, and where everything we did was towards serving one another and Jesus?

Can you see this? Can you imagine this sort of community? Can you taste it?

I mean, just imagine what it would feel like to belong to a community where no one had any need? Where the community was more about giving to one another, than taking from one another? Just imagine if you belonged to a community that did not just meet each other’s needs, but also the needs of the outsider…of the stranger?

This is what mid-size communities are all about.

[Read more…] about What Does a Mid-Size Community Look Like? (Part 4 – SG or MSC)

Disadvantages of Moving Away From Small Groups (Part 3 – SG or MSC)

By

Back in May 2013, I was featured on Rick Howerton’s Blog with NavPress for a four day interview on “Small Groups or Mid-Size Communities?” He has since joined the staff at Lifeway, and thus the previous posts have gone away. Here’s the third post:

3. What aspects of group life did you think you would lose by moving from small groups to mid-size groups that you found remained in tact?

There is a wide spectrum of how churches are currently doing mid-size communities of 20-50 people. On the one side of the spectrum, the mid-size community is like a mid-week church gathering with worship, teaching, and prayer – it’s just lay led, rather than staff led. On the other side, the mid-size community functions as the church – sort of like a house church model, with a monthly celebration where all the mid-size communities come together for corporate worship. There is also another spectrum that runs parallel to the above spectrum, let’s call it the missional engagement spectrum. On the one side, there are mid-size communities with a shared mission. On the other side, there are mid-size communities of missionaries.

I don’t know if it’s because I’m Canadian and I love to keep peace, but after all of my research on mid-size communities, I wanted to see if there was a model that embraced the both/and. What would it look like if we created a model that drew from the strengths of small groups and the strengths of medium sized gatherings? Using questions like this one, I developed a different model where mid-size communities would meet every other week, and smaller groups of individuals would meet in the off weeks.

[Read more…] about Disadvantages of Moving Away From Small Groups (Part 3 – SG or MSC)

Transitioning Away from Small Groups (Part 2 – SG or MSC)

By

Back in May 2013, I was featured on Rick Howerton’s Blog with NavPress for a four day interview on “Small Groups or Mid-Size Communities?” He has since joined the staff at Lifeway, and thus the previous posts have gone away. Here’s the second post:

2. When you met with your leadership team, especially your senior pastor to consider the move from small groups to mid-size groups, what questions arose (and/or what conversation took place) that drove your church to move to mid-size groups?

Well, first of all, I try not to use the phrase “mid-size groups,” since most people like to create acronyms and this movement would become…well, let’s just say that the Asians would like the flavor of it. But getting back to your question, my senior pastor and the leadership team knew about the problem, as I mentioned in the previous post. The statistics showed that our small group system was good, but not great. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, our small group system was so successful, that we even hosted our own small group conference with Willow Creek’s Bill Donahue. This conference happened even before small group conferences were popular. However, as our church continued to grow, the percentage of individuals in small groups didn’t. There were spikes here and there, but no sustained growth.

Since the senior leadership knew about the problem, they were open to suggestions, but the ideas had to be well thought-out and processed through before any trigger could be pulled. After all, small groups had been such a powerful part of many our church members’ spiritual journeys.

The change management process was long and arduous, but it was well worth it. I could have done my research, written up a proposal, and brought it straight to the senior leadership, but I decided to take the better approach. This approach involved praxis, extensive conversation, and collaboration amongst staff, key lay leaders, and the unconnected in our church.

[Read more…] about Transitioning Away from Small Groups (Part 2 – SG or MSC)