Stronger Together: Recent Episodes
Luke Yetter
This podcast series from the team at Relational Discipleship Network explores ways to get more people into small groups at church. Hosted by Luke Yetter, we asked church leaders from the network to share their best tips and ideas to grow small groups in their church.Sit back, relax, and enjoy some fresh inspiration from churches that share your passion for small groups.
In today's episode Tevin shares helpful tips like:
We don't make villians out of people who aren't able to get in a small group. I understand that maybe margin or other circumstances in an individual's life prevent them from joining our groups that run throughout the semester. If they're not able to get in a group, we don't make them feel guilty. I think a small group can be an excellent vehicle for building relationships, receiving care, growing in faith, and processing the sermon. But if someone can't join for whatever reason, we find other ways to serve and connect with them.
In today's episode Charlie shares tips like:
It's fun to watch people on a Sunday morning saying, "Hey, you've got to come to my small group." That's the conversation we want our people to have on Sunday morning. We mention small groups in the message, the announcements, and every bit of our Sunday morning communication. We're saying, "If you're just coming on Sunday morning, you're missing 95% of what we're about as a church. You're missing the real meaning of, of not just going to church, but being the church."
In today's episode Joel Owen share tips like:
We'll have Life Group Sundays, at least twice a year, where we say, "Hey, we're going to dismiss church early today. Our leaders will be in the lobby area, and you can meet them. You'll find out about their groups. They'll tell you where and when they meet. They'll share with you what it's like to be in their group. This creates an experience that our people can share with group leaders to find a group that fits them. We have found that helping give a space for people in our Sunday morning gatherings to find out information about life groups and join a life group in that setting has been helpful.
In today's episode Derrick shares tips like:
One of the ways we do this every Sunday is in our announcements. When we're going through our connections card, we make sure we drive people to our small groups wall. Even at the end of the service, we bookend it encouraging them to stop by our small group wall. We have small group leaders who handle that wall, so there's a personal presence at the greeting area.
In today's episode Sue shares helpful tips like:
We want these groups to be places where people can engage with scripture, engage with each other, build relationships. It's not a place to sit and have a lecture. It's a whole different ideology and culture that you're creating that is opposite from a classroom-type experience; it's a community, it's the picture of the early church in the New Testament, where they came together and broke bread together. They ate together; they prayed together; they did life together. And that's what they can expect in these groups.
In today's interview Scott shares helpful tips like:
We're from Seattle, which Seattle has this cultural tag called the "Seattle Freeze." It represents a stigma in our city that people are not relational. When we offer relational discipleship to a culture that's not relational, they experience something different. I believe that people are created to be in a relationship. We see that in the book of Genesis and throughout scripture. What happens is that people in our city discover that they're created to be in relationships. At our church, we emphasize authenticity. We're full of grace, love and point people to Jesus. We're committed to that. So when people come in, and they experience that, it's different than what they experience in their daily interactions.
In today's interview Matt Roberson shares helpful tips like:
We see our facilities through the lens of disciple-making and relationship building. We might've renovated a facility differently if it was all about Sunday morning. But there's a couple of critical areas that we set aside for fostering small groups. Because of that, our lobby looks a little different than it's ever looked before. We're about to engage the community with a community center, and we're planning that space to be friendly to small groups as well. We don't focus on creating a hip and trendy aesthetic. We work to create places for people to sit down and be together. We're asking, can small groups meet here on Wednesday nights or Thursday nights, or Saturday mornings? We needed to go back to the drawing board and rethink that because this is why we are who we are.
In today's episode Brandon shares tips like this:
Every small group leader training that we do, we equip our small group leaders to be connectors. We want our whole church to feel a sense of responsibility to connect new people to a small group, whether a neighbor who doesn't attend our church or someone who visits us on a Sunday morning. We are constantly reminding them to help us connect new families in the small groups through our training events..
We begin our first episode with Jim Putman, the senior pastor of Real Life Ministries in Post Falls, Idaho, one of the fastest-growing churches in America. He gives us an in-depth look at his strategies for inviting the people in his church to join a small group. Every journey starts with a first step, and this podcast series starts with incredible wisdom that you'll want to put into practice at your church.