COMING UP | Home Groups

The most secretest thing we do at DOWNTOWN CHURCH needs to get told on.

Home Groups don't live in the shadows because of a carefully coordinated clandestine operation to keep people clueless and if they do find out, to make them feel left-out. I think that nobody knows that 120+ people meet in ten Home Groups all over the city every other week because we're scared.

Our Home Group historians will remind you that the earliest iterations of the Home Group at DTC was scary. They might have even been haunted. Six years ago the first groups were formed on a wish, a prayer, a bunch of favors, and some Field of Dreams woo-woo about if we built it they would come.

Well, the woo-woo worked. We built it and they came. But they did not stay. The groups formed and then faded like a cheap pair of dress socks after two washes. Those early groups were brimming with optimism and abounding in hospitality. They were just missing people. There is no I in team.

Six years later we can laugh about it. But back then, checking in with a Home Group leader could ruin your week; as a pastor, it doesn't get much worse than an email with a subject line like "re: nobody came....again".

Thankfully, somebody was bright enough to not let the failure go to waste. After tending to our wounds, we asked our leaders and the participants who signed up only to eventually quit attending, why?

We quickly learned how important it was to identify the right kind of leaders, support the leaders, set clear expectations for participants, and write our own material for group facilitation. Our Home Groups are still imperfect and they will be as long as humans are involved. But they are living longer and they are more vital.

This fall, open enrollment for Home Groups will begin on August 5 and end on September 2.

The secret is out. For everything you need to know about what makes Home Groups at DOWNTOWN CHURCH unique, strange, and worth all the work we put into them, read the introduction to groups.