Hopped a train from Albany to NYC this morning in order to hang out with Nelson Searcy and Kerrick Thomas at The Journey Church's Manhattan headquarters and learn some of their small group insights in their Activate Seminar. This was the first in their new series of small group seminars, which centers around four components or steps to planning and implimenting a successful small groups ministry in a local church setting; focus, form, fill and facilitate. Nelson and Kerrick outlined this strategy, which is also available in their new book, "Activate:an entirely new approach to small groups." The Activate Seminar is or will be available on CD. Check out their Church Leader Insights website for further information.
The CORE Church is at the point of launching small groups. In fact, we have started our first, which has been meeting at the home of one of our church members for several weeks now. The vision and prayer for us is to reproduce. Small groups are necessary for giving church attenders opportunities to connect with one another, outside of the larger weekend gatherings. There are quite a few successful small group strategies to draw from, but I was intrigued by Nelson's challenge to get 100% of my church involved in small groups. Attending the Activate Seminar was worth my time and money. The CORE Church will soon impliment this strategy.
