Living Room Events

At Great Oaks, we've adopted the Foyer-Living Room-Kitchen strategy from Northpoint as a way of moving people from our weekend services to our small groups. As we've been talking lately, we realize that the Living Room component of our Vision is unfulfilled at this point.

Essentially, our Living Room events are "connection events" where people can begin to meet new people and form relationships. During each of these events, we will be encouraging people to get plugged into small groups as their next-step.

Our plan is to increase the frequency and variety of these events in the coming months and years. These events will each have a specific target audience (men, women, families, etc) and will be varied in style (workshops/seminars, family movie nights, coffeehouse events, sporting events, etc). Here's my question for you...

What kind of Living Room events would you love to see the church offer?

Remember that it has to be relationally-driven, have a specific target audience, and be something that has the potential to draw in a lot of people. (Sorry...but we won't be offering a Living Room event for men who love to re-enact the Civil War.)

Share your thoughts by clicking on "Comments" below...

What I've Got So Far

On Tuesday afternoon, I wrote about having a job where I get to spend time daydreaming about the future of small groups at Great Oaks. (This is code for "developing the Vision for small groups.")

All day yesterday, I walked through Scripture (you always start here!) looking for instances of community, leadership/shepherding principles, etc. I'm nowhere near completing this walk-thru, but here are some things that jumped out to me as I went through some of the Old Testament...

• Genesis 28:3 - Isaac's blessing of Jacob - "May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples." The small groups at Great Oaks are to be a "community of peoples." This implies there is unity and shared vision & direction.
• Exodus 3:5 - Moses standing before the burning bush - The small groups at Great Oaks are to be places of "holy ground" where heaven meets earth...where God meets men & women where they are and propels them to His purposes for their lives.
• Exodus 18 - Jethro's advice for Moses to designate leaders of "thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens" - Some small group leaders at Great Oaks will be able to lead more people than others. It's only natural.
  
• Numbers 27:12-23 - Joshua to succeed Moses - Small group leaders need to identify apprentice leaders to prepare for the future.
• Deuteronomy 5:1 - Moses teaches the people the Law & commands of God - Small group leaders and small group members must know the Word of God! Throughout Scripture reformation/revival is always seen when people come back to the Word of God.
  
• This is also seen in Joshua 8:30-35 (Joshua reads the Law to the people) & 2 Chronicles 34:29-31 (Josiah's reforms) & Ezra 7:11 (description of Ezra as a "man learned in matters concerning the commands and decrees of the Lord.")
  
• Joshua 24:1-27 - Leaders remind people where they have been, paint a picture of their current reality, cast a compelling vision for the future, and lead by example.
• 1 Samuel 8:1-5 - Small group leaders must not sacrifice the leadership of their families while leading the church family.
• 1 Samuel 16:7 - When identifying small group leaders, I cannot rely on the outward appearance.
• 1 Kings 19:9-18 - Small group leaders must remember they are never alone in their leadership.
• 1 Chronicles 12:32 - Small group leaders should be people who "understand the times" (see also Esther 1:13)

All day today I spent time researching other churches and networking with Small Group Pastors from around the country. I've learned from and/or connected with churches in...

• Washington D.C.
• Williamsport, Pennsylvania
• Bloomington, Illinois
• South Barrington, Illinois
• Naperville, IL
• Cartersville, Georgia
• Mount Pleasant, South Carolina (this one might require a field trip to learn first-hand from them)
  
• Las Vegas, Nevada.

I've seen some things that might work for our context and some things that definitely won't work for our context. We've got to discover what God is calling our small groups to be... at Great Oaks. At the end of the day, no matter who we learn from and what we see, we've got to run it through the filter of who we are and what God is calling us to accomplish. We don't imitate... we adapt and personalize to fit our context.

This is an on-going process, so keep tuning in to see who/what is influencing the development of the Vision for small groups at Great Oaks!

What We Don't Do

During our Leadership Community this past Saturday, we talked about our Vision for the church. A couple of things that I communicated to our leaders about the Vision included...

• We are a simple church with a strategic vision. We intentionally keep things pretty simple so that we can focus all of our time and attention and resources on the few things we feel called to do. Less is more...

• If we are to make our vision stick in the minds and hearts of our people then we have to say "No" more often than we say "Yes". There are a lot of great ideas out there, but we have to run them through the filter of who Great Oaks is and what God is calling us to accomplish. This means that we have to protect the Vision and the focus of the church by being ruthless in our simplicity.
  

All of this to say...there are numerous other churches out there with a similar philosophy. Here's a post from a guy I have never met in a church I have never heard of before, but I resonate with what he has to say about keeping it simple. (And here's a similar post from a church I do know and a pastor I have met...)

Did you read those other posts? If you attend Great Oaks or are a church leader somewhere around the world, you seriously need to take the time to read those two posts. Don't worry...they aren't links that are going to take you somewhere weird. Trust me...just read them.

Next Step

We had an all-day Leadership Retreat yesterday during which we reviewed 2007 and discussed our strategic plan for 2008. One of the changes we made was a re-write on our mission statement for the church. The old mission statement was good but not memorable. It was also limited in its focus. The new mission statement - "helping people take their next step towards God" - is simple, memorable, and active. It is also unlimited in its focus; everybody has a "next step" to take in their faith.

Bill introduced it this morning during the first Sunday of our vision series called Foundations. I have been blown away at how many people are talking about this phrase. It came up in numerous conversations during the morning, and it was a key discussion point during small group tonight.

People are truly resonating with this phrase. There is some definite buzz happening in the church today. I am excited to see how this small but significant change affects the church!

2008 Goals

I'm not one for resolutions, but I believe strongly in setting goals. And there is something powerful and convicting about writing them down. So, for 2008, here are some of my goals...

• Write a book
  
• Establish regular Father/Son Mentoring (FSM) times with Ethan
• Read 30+ books
• Establish a leadership development small group at GOCC
• Experience 20 things I've never done before
• Travel internationally - for work or pleasure
• Study Islam for myself
• Take two multi-day wilderness trips
• Increase my regular giving beyond the tithe
  

Strategic Alignment

"Achieving strategic alignment is a major undertaking for any organization, but it is worth the effort."
- Jim Bolt, founder, Executive Development Associates

This is a quote from a recent article in Fast Company. This is a great magazine for leaders to capture an overview of current best-practices in business & leadership, future trends, and rising leaders/companies to watch out for.

As a new employee at Great Oaks, I have been working hard to obtain a global perspective of the church by understanding each area of ministry, the relationship between various strategic components, and the vision for the future. I think this is vital before implementing new programs/efforts in the area of Adult Ministries.

I am looking forward to our upcoming Leadership Retreat on January 5th when the pastors and key volunteer leaders will spend several hours making sure we are all on the same page with our strategic plan, assimilation path, and vision for the future. It is a major undertaking, but it will be worth the effort!

2008 at Great Oaks

After the conference was over yesterday afternoon, Bill and I sat down outside of a Starbucks for a couple of hours to reflect on the conference and to dream about the future of Great Oaks. We put our heads together on some upcoming teaching series and special events and walked away with some God-sized plans for Great Oaks in 2008.

We'll share in more detail in the coming weeks/months, but I'll give you a sneak peek on some things...

Teaching Series

• In January, we're talking about who we are and the vision of the church.
• In February, we're talking about sex!
• In March, the whole church is going to spend "21 Days with God".
  
• In June, we're going to the movies.
• In July, the whole family is going to worship together.
• In September & October, we're spending 40 days together.
• In November, we're going to learn how to become generous with our time, energy, and resources.

Upcoming Events

• Three MarriedLife Live events!
• Local, national, and international efforts (i.e. community service projects, mission trips, etc)
  
• Cross Training for kids
• Student conferences and retreats
• Men's & Women's Retreats
• Quarterly gathering of leaders & key influencers for vision-casting, leadership training, and fun
• Willow Creek Leadership Summit

Strategic Planning

• Intentional focus and programming built around "Foyer...Living Room...Kitchen" strategy
• Redeveloped leadership structure
• Consistent language and branding
• Greater emphasis on teaching people how to feed themselves
  

I hope you're as excited as I am!!!