News / Education
Saddleback pastor says small groups on the rise
LifeWay and Saddleback co-host small group events
"They haven’t been challenged in a community to grow spiritually," said Steve Gladen, small groups pastor for Saddleback Community Church, during a recent Inside LifeWay podcast. "They [interpret] attendance as being spiritual growth. People are finding out that it is all about interfacing with God’s Word, being in community.
"The last couple of decades we’ve been inundated [with] an idea of what church can be and I think we are seeing people say ‘I could care less about big and flashy; I want confessional preaching, I want to see people where they’re at," Gladen said. "I think this is true even for boomers who say we know far more than we’ve put into practice and it’s not so much about taking another [spiritual] nugget…it’s about helping people grow. That’s why we’ve got people who have been believers 30, 40, 50 years and they don’t ooze an ounce of the fruit of the Spirit."
A desire to see people grow in community and a desire to see churches strengthen that community through small groups is one of the reasons Saddleback and LifeWay Christian Resources have joined together to offer small group conferences during 2009 at four locations around the country. The conferences are designed to help churches that already have small group ministries and people and also churches looking to wade into such a ministry.
"We both have the same passion," Rick Howerton said during the same podcast. Howerton is director of events and training for Serendipity by LifeWay. "We believe the world can be changed by the power of the Holy Spirit in small groups of people coming together. LifeWay can bring event planning and Saddleback brings expertise and content."
Howerton said that some churches have focused on small group ministries for a number of years but as of late there seems to be a renewed emphasis on grouping people into small groups. Gladen said it is a healthy trend, adding that it is impossible for pastors of even small churches of 40 to 60 people to know if church members are growing spiritually. But small groups offer the opportunity for more accountability and connection.
"I think God is creating a movement," Howerton said. "It is no longer a program of the church. It is a movement that almost seems unstoppable. People who have never thought about small groups are asking how [to] get small groups started. I believe they are sensing down in their spirit there is something miraculous when a group of honest, authentic believers are getting together and asking how the Bible speaks into my life and your life and they are embracing [small groups] in amazing ways."
Gladen said that for the past three years Saddleback has averaged between 114 percent and 140 percent attendance in small groups compared to the number of people who attend the many weekend worship services. (The average church has between 40-60 percent in small group compared to worship attendance.)
"I don’t want to get hung up on the numbers," Gladen said. "…Our methodology has changed but our principles have stayed the same. People get hung up on our methodology. I could care less about that. I am more interested in delivering help to churches in a delivery system that is relevant to wherever they are."
Howerton said one of the most effective and strategic opportunities for small groups is the way the Bible can be intensely studied.
"One of the beauties of small groups is that whenever a person has a concern about their life … they are surrounded by people who are also looking at the Bible and may know more about the Bible than they do," Howerton said. "So they are drawn into God’s Word and say ‘hey, here is the answer to life’s questions.’ So the Bible becomes not just a proposition for consideration and an understanding of three or four things I didn’t know when I came in here, but people embrac[ing] each other in the Word of God."
Dates for the four conferences are Feb. 19-21 (at Saddleback), March 26-28 (Houston), April 23-25 (Atlanta), and May 14-16 (Cincinnati). Registration and other information can be found at www.lifeway.com/next09.
The full podcast can be heard at www.lifeway.com/insidelifeway. Inside LifeWay is the official news podcast of LifeWay Christian Resources.
For up-to-date news and information from LifeWay Christian Resources, visit www.lifeway.com/news.
