Just Thinking – Notes from the GroupLife Conference

I attended Willow Creek’s Group Life Conference on Saturday and it was amazing. Every talk in itself was worth the price of admission. Here are some highlights from a few sessions with some of my thoughts sprinkled in. Maybe one or two will hit you where you live.

David Johnson, Senior pastor at Church of the Open Door in Maple Grove, Minnesota, spoke on “Real Transformation for Real People.” Is real growth possible? Can we be and live like Jesus in the 21^st century? More importantly, can the people in my small group really grow and change?

David gave three necessary ingredients to experiencing transformation in small groups. We need to be authentic, we need to be courageous, and we need to be grace-filled.

He said, “The unspoken motto in inauthentic groups and churches is this: How things look is what matters here.” This spoke to me in a big way. Groups need to know that this isn’t a show. If the Word of God is going to impact our lives it must intersect who we really are and not who we want to be. This takes authenticity…and yeah, it’s messy. How deeply are people revealing who they are in your group? David Johnson went on to say:  “To authentically live in the light of what’s true about you and me is the most courageous thing you and I will ever do.” Wow. Tell that to your group.

Mindy Caliguire, Founder of Soul Care, a spiritual formation ministry serving church leaders, spoke on “Leading from a Healthy Soul.” Real growth, real change in a small group starts with the group leader. Leaders don’t need to be perfect, but they do need to be working on their own heart and life in order to help others do the same.

Mindy started off by asking: “What are the most important qualities to leading a group?” Take a second to answer that question then read her answer.  She listed a bunch of qualities that she used to think were most important, and then she said, “They need to be leading from a healthy soul–a deep internal place of well-being.” She developed the idea that over time it is easy to neglect our souls.  “Leadership can be dangerous, because leadership gets us moving. Too much activity too fast can damage our soul,” she said. Leading others toward authentic transformation requires us leading, not from perfection, but a healthy soul. You and I are responsible for the care of our souls.

She led us in an exercise that I thought was great. She asked everyone to write down the kind of person we were when we were in an unhealthy place with God. The list contained things like anxiety, stress, a judgmental spirit, being critical, fear, etc. She said that all those things are signs of soul neglect. After that, she asked us to write down the kind of person we were when we were in a healthy place in our spiritual journey, regardless of the circumstances in our lives. Descriptors in that category were things like faith-filled, courageous, giving, kind, forgiving, humble, purpose driven, etc. She asked, “Which would you like to experience regularly? We are always voting for one of these.” Then she said, “Only you can choose to incline your heart in the direction of God.” The most important thing we can do as leaders is to lead ourselves well.

My favorite quote of the day was from Heather Zempel. She’s on staff at National Community Church in DC. Her talk was called, “Flawed is the New Perfect.” It was brilliant. She developed the idea that community is messy because community requires people and people are messy…that includes you and me by the way. So, as leaders do we just throw up our hands and give up because things get messy? She referenced Jesus healing the blind man in John 9 and pondered how many times did God have to spit in the dirt to make enough mud to cover this man’s eyes. He probably had to spit a lot. It was messy. Then she said this, “Jesus said, ‘Go make disciples’, not, ‘Go find disciples.’” That’s good stuff! Disciplemaking is messy, but it’s what Jesus did and what He commands us to do. If there were no mess there wouldn’t be anything to transform.

Hey, I hope this was encouraging to you in some way. You are doing an important task, and don’t ever forget the special promise of God’s presence that Jesus made to those who are making disciples. “I am with you always.” Matthew 28

One last thing, I have been blown away by the number of groups who have fully embraced “Deploying our Gifts to Serve the World and the Church.” I am asked on a regular basis, “Where can our group serve together?” I love the passion that I am seeing in groups to be a tangible expression of Christ’s love to the world around us. With that in mind, you’ll notice at the top of this page a new tab entitled “GroupServe Opportunities.” If you hover over that heading you’ll see some links appear. Follow those links and the content is self-explanatory. We’ll be adding to more serving opportunities in the days ahead.

With you!

Adam