David Whiting Live

"Banning Bible Studies" @ Northridge Church

OK - that title is a bit sensational, but it the title of a blog post by one of our volunteer heroes @ Northridge, Brad Files. We have a particular purpose for our small groups and it isn't to have a Bible study. Bible studies are great and small group Bible studies are wonderful, but that isn't the purpose of our small group ministry.

What follows is Brad's post on the topic. You can see the original HERE. (And I'm hoping this pressures Brad back into blogging regularly again...)

Banning Bible Studies

I remember that “Aha” moment clearly. Small Groups are not Bible Studies!

If you’re old, like me, you remember how Christians used to get together – we organized Bible Studies. Many today, especially the older saints, assume Small Groups is just the newer name for Bible studies. My friends, Christian and Shelley, were the first to sit me down and talk this through. “Brad, I really love your teaching. It’s great. But … it’s not really what being a Small Group is about. Small Groups are about people’s lives changing, mostly just from being in the group. As they hang out, interact, discuss, react to and apply the Bible, their lives just change.”

Early on in my Small Group experience we recruited hosts, a worship leader, and a teacher. Of course the great teachers in those House Fellowship Groups were mostly seminary students and many of them are leading churches today. So where do we look when we don’t have a seminary close by or a good supply of Bible teachers? More importantly, is that who we should be looking for? We had a hard time early on recruiting Small Group leaders (SGLs) because they all assumed they had to be good teachers. The irony is that some of our best teachers don’t really make very good SGLs. Why is that?

The ratio of good Bible teachers to the general population in a church is at least 100:1; awesome teachers, probably 1000:1. Yet we find the ratio of great SGLs to the general population is closer to 10:1. So what’s the difference?

        Content

• Bible teachers study and prepare new content to share.

• SGLs use content created by others (like the previous Sunday’s sermon along with a published set of questions) or published curriculum (e.g. listening to a teacher on DVD) and coordinate the reaction to and application of that content.

        Flow

• Bible teachers operate in broadcast mode, beacons of nifty insights, sharing new content which all groups members receive. (One to many.) Often no response from the group is necessary other than the occasionally whispered, “Dude, they should make a video of you!”
• SGLs prompt and cultivate the sharing of current life concerns with an eye towards how the sermon, teaching, etc. might speak to it. Everyone in the group is heard and anyone in the group may be offering insights, encouragements, challenges in response. (Many to many.)
  

        Role

• Bible teachers have a unique role (gifted unlocker of Biblical mysteries) that always keeps them separate from the group. Sometimes the group may have a continuing identity but treat Bible teaching as a necessary service to secure. “Who are we going to get to teach us this quarter?” Teachers may come and go but the group remains.
• SGLs have a more humble, peer approach to the group. They share their role, encouraging others to contribute in every meeting and even getting others to lead the group from week to week. They are more like gardeners, preparing a healthy environment for growth, pulling weeds, and getting out of the way of good things happening.
  

        Gifts

• Bible teachers have a clear gift of teaching. Given the ratios I mentioned above, groups who seek teachers to lead their groups will just be frustrated by third string talent. Groups lucky enough to snag a good teacher will be stuck with him. He won’t be able to share his gift and he will not be easily replaced. This is all besides the point that groups are not best used for teaching, they are best used for growing. The inevitable flow of sharing from the teacher to the student is not easily reversed.
• SGLs use gifts of exhortation, mercy, administration and helps to great advantage. They are truly pastors, shepherds who care for their groups. Groups are the place where we drop our defenses and do open heart surgery on each other, sometimes without anesthetic. Gifts like mercy and helps encourage that.

Until your church embraces this paradigm shift, your groups will struggle, probably without knowing why.

Brad is one of our small group coaches. He helps small group leaders lead better. I constantly count on his input and feedback. Thanks, Brad for your leadership!

How Far to the Nearest McDonalds

I came across this map. it shows how far you are from the nearest McDonalds:

That's amazing to me. I've never met anyone who thinks McDonalds is a "great" restaurant. People like it because it is fast, convenient, and "known" when they travel. Although there are some that are very devoted to their french fries.

But it makes me wonder - what if we made a similar map based on this question: "How far are you from the nearest Church that is fulfilling the Great Commission of Jesus?" How many churches would there be on that map? Why does McDonalds have a successful restaurant "planting" plan, but 90% of church plants fail? Can we do something about that? If so - what?

Our 16:5 conference is about helping churches grow deeper in maturity and larger in numbers. We haven't figured it all out, but we have learned a lot and look forward to sharing it with other pastors, church leaders, and key volunteers.

Make sure you sign up at www.Acts165.com.

 

Advent Conspiracy - We Want to Hear Your Story

Our church gave over $45,000 to our Advent Conspiracy projects. We are planning on doing something similar next year. What would be very helpful to us would be to hear your story. Could you share the impact Advent Conspiracy had on your family?

Perhaps you could answer the following questions:

• What did you do for Advent Conspiracy?
• Why did you choose those items?
• How did the process impact your family?

You can hit "reply" if you receive this by email. You can leave a comment on the blog. Or you can send me an email with your story at dwhiting@NorthridgeRochester.com.

Thanks for considering sharing your story.

Help Northridge Church Choose the Topics for a Coming Sermon Series

Beginning in mid-February we plan to begin an F.A.Q. series (Frequently Asked Questions). We would like you to take a brief survey of potential subjects for the series.

Each person should only take the survey once to insure the fairest results. Also, please only take the survey if you regularly attend Northridge or listen or watch online or through the podcast.

Thank you! Take the survey HERE.

Christmas Weekend @ Northridge (a bit more info)

Christmas is closer than you think! For a child, Christmas can never come quickly enough. For adults buying presents and pastors preparing Christmas services, it always seems to be coming too quickly!

Here are some things we are thinking about these days with Christmas Eve/Christmas:

• Reminder: we are doing three services over two days (4:00 and 6:00 on Christmas Eve; 10:00 AM on Christmas morning).
• We really need people to serve at these services.  Will you consider attending one and serving one or two others? Let us know through the Connections Card on Sunday.
• Did you know that Christmas has now surpassed Easter as the most likely Sunday someone who doesn't know Christ will visit a church service? Why is that? As our culture grows more secular, fewer and fewer people grew up going to church on Easter, and our culture hasn't turned it into the "event" that Christmas is. So more people are likely to come at Christmas now than Easter.
• Therefore, more of the people you long to reach for Christ will be willing to come! Who are you planning to invite? Please BE BOLD and invite people! I will do my best to present the hope of Christ is a clear yet brief way (most of the service will be music).
• As mentioned, we will be asking people this year to get tickets for the service they are planning on attending. This will help us to better accommodate the crowds that are coming and give you something that you can give to a friend as a tool for inviting them.  Of course the tickets are free, but we are asking that everyone please get tickets to help us better serve every single person who will show up.

You can reserve your tickets online through our website (NorthridgeRochester.com) or you can directly go to the ticket website (Christmas.NorthridgeRochester.com).

If you reserve your tickets online, you can pick them up at a table in the lobby on Sunday (the "will call" line, you could call it). Or you can stop by the same table and pick up tickets. It will be faster for everyone if you reserve online - as we will have them ready to give to you.  But whatever way works best is fine with us.

If you pick up tickets and your family or friends decide not to come, you can always return tickets.

 

Get Your Tickets for Christmas Eve & Christmas @ Northridge

Just a reminder that we need everyone who is coming to Northridge on Christmas Eve or Christmas to get tickets.

Just go to our website (click HERE), or straight to the Eventbrite page (click HERE). Once you reserve your tickets, pick them up at the table in the lobby on Sunday. You can also just pick some up at the table on Sunday, but it would be quicker if you reserve online.

You may wonder why we are asking people to reserve tickets. Here are some reasons that I will expand on in a later post:

• It helps us make sure we have seats for everyone to invite their friends and family.
• It helps us determine when we need to offer more services.
• It makes it easier for peopel to invite their friends.
• It communicates something special is going to happen.
• IIt communicates these services are open to the entire community.

Northridge Advent Conspiracy Catalog online

I wanted to let you know that the Advent Conspiracy Catalog is now on our website. In case you lost your catalog or missed picking one up last week. So go to our website (NorthridgeRochester.com) and take a look at the catalog.

They are also available at the Information Desk at church tomorrow. Tomorrow we also will be giving out the envelopes that people will use to turn in their Advent Conspiracy gift.



Parking Lot Prayers

The parking lot is well under way (you won't be able to miss the cleared lot on Sunday). You can notice the photos below. But what we really need is prayers that God might allow us to finish what needs done in the next few weeks so we don't have to park off site all winter. We really need some good weather for it to get done in time. Please pray and until it's finished - park far!

The lot was cleared.

The playground was relocated by volunteers and saved the school over $10,000!

And don't forget to move your clock back one hour today.

We Need Your Prayers TONIGHT!

Tonight we are making a presentation at city hall to City Planning Commission to request a variance that would allow us to add 168 parking spaces to our property. We already are beyond the allowance for parking (one spot for every four seats). The problem is, we average less than two people per car (1.9 average per car the last six weeks).  It also will take us over 50% on the green-space regulation, but that is a later variance we will need to pursue with another city group.

Tonight's meeting is only to request a variance to add the 168 parking spaces. I will be presenting the need for the additional parking along with our representative from Marathon Engineering - who will handle the technical issues and questions.  Please pray for a board that is open to our needs and that they might rule in our favor.

Yesterday, we had our second highest "non-special" Sunday ever.  And during the second service, we had over 100 cars parked off-site and we still only one had one open spot in our main lot. Logically, we can "prove" we need more parking.  But that doesn't necessarily mean a lot in these situations when requesting a variance.

To avoid going to three services, we really need this parking. Please, please pray!

Here are two drawings that will help you understand where the parking will be, if approved.  The first one shows it finished.  The second one may be easier to tell what is current and what will be additional parking.

Thanks for your prayers.

 

New Pastor @ Northridge - Nate Miller

A couple of weeks ago, the Oversight Team hired a new pastor.  For those that don't know Nate, I wanted to introduce him more fully here.

Nate & Emily met as freshmen in high school, but didn't begin dating until college.  They began communicating through IM (Instant Messenger) - which gives you an idea of how young they are. When Nate first asked Emily out, she said 'no' (you can ask for more details on this one).  They finally began dating at the end of their first year of college.  They both graduated in 2005 and were married the same year.

Nate taught in a Christian school in Lancaster, PA for two years and then joined the staff of Campus Crusade for Christ in 2007 (now called Cru). In 2008, they moved to Rochester to work with college students through CCC. They were excited to be placed in Rochester because it is where both their families live and because they wanted to be part of Northridge Church!

As they have worked with CCC, they have also volunteered heavily at Northridge and as Nate & I talked, we both discovered that this could be a great fit for Nate's gifts. Through this process (of leaving a ministry they love to join another ministry they love) the verse that God has brought to their minds over and over is Psalm 37:4, "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." Nate & Emily love Northridge Church and the impact it has had on their lives. And they are excited to be part of that impact on others.

Here is a picture of their family. Olivia is 18 months old.

Nate's role will be the Pastor of Spiritual Development. He is responsible for all baptisms, membership, counseling, and anything at Northridge that helps people take their next steps of their spiritual journey.

We are so glad to have Nate & Emily join our team!