Have you ever wanted to start as small group ministry at your church but you did not know where to start?  Well here is something that worked at our church.  The key to building our small group ministry was to not “asking” anyone if they would like to join a small group.  Here is what I mean.

            Starting at Christmas Eve we had posters all around the church that simply said, “Special Ops… coming soon” we also had a funny picture on the poster.  No one knew what this was.  Over the next moth everyone was talking about “Special Ops” and everyone was asking what it was all about.  By the middle of January the “coming soon” changed to March 5^th at 6:12 p.m. but still no word on what it was all about.  The one piece of information that was “leaked” was that the congregation was being evaluated to find people worthy and qualified to be on a top secret Special Ops team in the church.  As you can imagine this created quite a buzz both good and bad… but people were certainly talking.  Every month in the news letter was a big article about Special Ops telling all about it without really saying anything about it.  People would read the article sometimes twice trying to find out what “Special Ops” was all about but every time by the end of the article they would not know any more than before they read the article.  By the first of February letters went out to the individuals selected to be on the top secret “Special Ops” team.  The catch was that every individual in the church received a letter.  And when I mean every individual I mean that if 5 people lived in a house each person got there very own letter.  Slowly over the next couple weeks people began to discover that everyone in the church received this letter.  But just when they thought they had it figured out they received a letter informing them of their top secret location for the meeting, which was a room in the church that would hold maybe 15 or 20 people max.  Then they wondered how this could be since the whole church received the letters.  They were lost again!  Then about two weeks before the meeting they received all the names of people in their group and were told that a couple of people in there group know everything about the “Special Ops” program.  The names of those who had this secret knowledge were not disclosed.  They had to figure out who it was and go up to them and say the secret phrase.  If they said the secret phrase to the right person then they would be told everything about “Special Ops.”  The secret phrase was “see you on March 5^th at 6:12 p.m.”  Over the next couple of weeks everyone were going up to everyone else saying “see you March 5^th at 6:12 p.m.”  The catch was that no one in the church knew about “Special Ops” so they still did not know anything. 

            People showed up on March 5^th at 6:12 p.m. and went to their top secret location.  There were about a dozen groups, including three groups of youth and children, meeting all over the church.  When they came to their room they found a circle of chairs with an envelope in the middle of the circle.  The envelope said on the front, “Do not open till 6:29.”  So as they came in and sat they looked at this envelope wondering what was inside. 

            At 6:29 they opened the envelope and were given some basic instructions.  The short version for this article was that each group was to come up with a name, meet monthly, do one fund raiser for a cause of their own choosing, and host one social event for the entire church.  Other than those requirements the group can take on its own personality.  They can be pure fellowship, a study group, or a working group.  They can be and do whatever they want as long as they fulfill their basic requirements.

            At 7:12 all the groups met in the sanctuary for a celebration.

            Obviously there were many other details to work out or this event, such as combining two smaller groups into one big group after some people did not show.  But in the end we now have, in addition to our youth and children “Special Ops” teams, 7 adult “Special Ops” teams.  The Hunger Fighters, Friendship Ops, Collective Souls, Rebels With a Cause, Breakfast Club, Dinner Club, Highly Classified.  Each small group averages about 12-15 members.  Everyone who joins the church is connected with a “Special Ops” team immediately.  When groups get big enough they will divide into two smaller groups and build up again. 

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Last modified: March 28, 2008