Fall 2024 Digital Playbook for Group Bible Studies

Here's what I did for Fall 2024...

I’ve written about the importance of an onboarding strategy to get people involved in group Bible studies before. This time I want to talk about tools we are using for our Groups ministry this fall.

List of Tools

1. Text messages/email

2. ChMS system for groups

3. FTC Institute

4. Surveys

Text Messages and Email

Yep this one is boring, but you better believe it is important. I’m sending/receiving about 30-50 messages a day with my group leaders, new attenders to groups, etc. God created humans as social beings and even though I like being outside and alone, ministry requires relationships.

I use (and encourage the other groups to do the same) text and email in several different ways to encourage discipleship.

1. Purposeful Group Thread - I know being held hostage by a group thread is painful. But, a group of men are on a text thread with the purpose of discussing a podcast and it really works. Throughout the week guys are chiming in with long messages, and responding as they have time. It’s kinda like the old forum board websites used to be. We’ve been encouraging each other for about a year in this way and I really have enjoyed it. We only share things that are on topic.

2. Prayer Requests - Each week, after group, my wife sends out a text to our Group Bible study so that everyone has a list of prayer requests. We all pray for them throughout the week. Since we started this simple habit people have started asking each other about prayer requests more frequently.

3. Announcements, Business - I send these to Group Leaders. I’ll send them things like reminders to take attendance, or ask how group went, or whatever. You know the drill. I use text for short stuff, and for monthly updates I’ll use email.

4. Scheduled Content - I use our ChMS system (We currently use Elexio but it definitely isn’t perfect) to schedule text and email messages to go out to leaders at certain times. I can hit them with a message right before group time so that they are more likely to remember to announce something going on at church. It’s also a great way to distribute resources for leaders. I can send everyone a link with a brief description so that they have a tool to use later.

ChMS System for Groups

I talked above about sending messages through my system, but in this section I want to talk about how we use our system for managing groups.

1. Digital Groups Finder - You can usually create a groups finder page using your ChMS system that can show up on your website. If you do, then people can find information about that group and message the group leader through the page. It’s pretty helpful for streamlining communication.

2. Attendance - If all of my leaders (me included) were to take attendance each time, then we would have an accurate picture of who was involved in discipleship, and how, etc. Realistically I get attendance every 2 or 3 out of 4 meetings. It’s still really helpful. I can tell how many unique people are attending groups, and compare that to Sunday Worship and see what percentage of people are actually in a group - being discipled. Then, I can measure whether that trend is increasing or decreasing or flat. That trend is one way I evaluate my own job performance.

3. Leaders Managing Groups - Once I created a video to walk leaders through how to do a few tasks like add people to the group and take attendance and even send group messages, my leaders are more effective at managing their group. They tend to ask people for their name and phone number so that they’ll have it on their phone through the app. It’s great because then I (and the church) have that info too!

FTC For The Church Institute

This fall we are trying something new. We are utilizing a free learning system from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary that they have created. This system includes pre-designed classes! You can setup a cohort for your church and enjoy this all for free!

1. Lead a Cohort - I have a couple of people leading the group that will do this, and they have a group of 12 going through the material with them. The website contains video teaching and group discussion questions. We have worked on our own questions to add, which the FTC system will let you put right in there with their stuff!

2. Educate Group Leaders - My hope is that once we see some adoption of this at church this fall, group leaders and church attenders will make use of it even when we aren’t doing an on-campus cohort.

Surveys

Yes I make use of surveys, and I include them on a list of discipleship tools. I had a great lunch conversation with another Discipleship Pastor (Nathan at Paradox Church) and he convinced me of the usefulness of surveys. So I setup a few of my own (maybe I’ll share in another post).

1. Check Member Involvement/Commitment - I have a survey that automatically goes out to people after they have been members for 3 months. It allows them to anonymously tell me whether they are involved in our core values (I have questions designed for each). Spoiler, those values are the purposes of a church. So, I can get a picture after 3 months of whether a person has taken any steps past simply joining.

2. Encourage Specific Practices - By asking questions about Bible reading, attending group Bible studies, and outreach - I can imply that the person ought to be doing these things. It’s a tiny step of encouraging people towards obedience.

Conclusion

My goal in all of this is twofold. First I want to encourage people to grow in faith and obedience to Jesus. Second, I want our large church to make use of technology that can allow us to provide a similar level of care that a smaller church can provide. That’s why I’m using these digital tools in my playbook this fall.