Tonight we interviewed David
Kennard. He is the Mills Site Pastor and
Adult Ministry Pastor at Riverside Community Church. There were other people who came with him
(pastors and ministers in training) who are part of a small group he is in,
even though they may work in other ministries.
We began by asking how he defined discipleship. At Riverside, they have
an equation that for discipleship. It
is:
D = R + I
Discipleship = Relationships + Intentionality
However, this is more about
process. This could apply to
anyone. After Professor Reese pointed
this out, David clarified that the discipleship process is in the “intentionality”
part. Discipleship is about being who
Jesus wants them to be. His church uses
an approach called, “Free Market Small Groups.”
FREE MARKET SMALL GROUPS
This type
of small group philosophy equips people to become small group leaders, they go
through a training process, and then start an intentional small group based
around something. The small groups vary
per who is leading and who is involved; a Bible study on 1 Peter, hunting,
knitting, etc. This type of small groups
enables people to become small group leaders, and the small groups are
functioned around what the people involved want. This has proved very valuable, as people have
come to these groups based off of their interests and then get plugged in. We received a booklet from him in class that
helped define this better.
A small group: is an opportunity for
people to connect weekly as they journey through life together. Spiritual, emotional and relational growth
takes place as everyone shares in the everyday experiences of life.
Characteristics of “Free Market”
Small Groups:
1.
They meet regularly (preferably weekly)
2.
They have three or more people attending,
including the leader
3.
They develop and identify an assistant leader
4.
They model our core values by striving to Revere
God with their worship, Connect with each other for their growth, and
Contribute to God’s plan for humankind.
5.
Unless specified they welcome new people into
the group anytime during the semester
6.
They are supported by section and zone leaders
7.
They develop group members into future leaders
8.
They encourage group members to invite people
who are outside of the church
9.
They complete their topic by the start of the
next Sign-Up Rally
10. They
grow
FACTS, NUMBERS, STATS
Around 80%
of their congregation of 700-800 people are involved in small groups. About 80 people are involved in their small
groups who do not attend the church. The
worship team, church board, etc. are all viewed as small groups as well and do
things together in this capacity. This
church seems to be completely based around small groups! All of the small group leaders get together
once a month, and their church also does a lot of community projects.
The small groups are semester
based, from September to the first week of December, a month off, and then
January through May. They almost all
meet once a week, and they have noticed those bear the best results. He said when they miss a week, they miss a
month. People are out of each other’s
lives when this happens.
OTHER NOTES & QUESTIONS
We talked
about holiness in these small groups and bringing people to a more godly
lifestyle. In their small groups, they
talked about the balance of truth and grace.
One of their conclusions was that more truth can work better with
believers because they are on the same “playing field” as they all adhered to
Scripture. This is less effective with
non-believers, but obviously both truth and grace must always be together!
They use
the “Follow” book by Daniel McNaughton.
They have a Follow Booklet that they actually have at the altars, which
is an introduction step. They have two
campuses, one of them meeting in a mall.
We saw the history of the mall site, and it’s pretty cool how God kept
having them grow to bigger facilities in the mall.
It’s interesting how they do the
preaching, they use a system called “Streambox” to stream the video. David sometimes does preaching live, maybe
about three times a year. He collaborates
with the lead pastor about what they are preaching, and gets the notes Saturday
night to preach the next morning.
David said he liked the “Follow”
material because it has so much content, and is really based on Jesus and His
disciples rather than other Bible characters most discipleship material is
based off of. This provides the content
in a way that the spiritual coach does not have to have all the answers, which
encourages people to become spiritual coaches.
MY CONCLUSION
This church
is a well-oiled machine. Small groups
are key to what they do, yet have 700-800 people attending! Between their materials (Follow Jesus
booklet, Small Group Catalog, church introduction video, etc.), small groups,
locations, etc. they have a very clear idea of what they are doing, why they
are doing it, and where they are going with it.
It sounds
like they have a great idea of discipleship.
Their process is very well defined, which actually gives me mixed
feelings. I think it is very effective,
especially from the way he described the church. Sometimes I am wary of church becoming too
much of an “organization” and less of an “organism,” but that’s not the sense I
get from this church. They seem to have
effective results, and I don’t think the focus is only on process. I guess when you have a church of this size,
process is just something you have to focus on a lot. I appreciated having David and his small
group in class with us, and feel like I gleaned a lot of valuable knowledge
from this.
David also recommended these to us:
Susan Cain’s TED talk
Dog Training, Fly
Fishing, and Sharing Christ in the 21st Century
By:
Ted Haggard
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