Pastor Russ Winn
Living Water Community
Bonita Springs, FL
2002—30; 2003—210, a 600% increase
What led to the faster growth of your Sunday School in 2003?
2003 was a unique time for Living Water Community. Our ministry dynamics changed; we outgrew our facilities. The church moved into a school while new facilities were being built. We had to do ministry differently. We knew we needed to become stronger in discipleship. In the old building we had a couple of adult Sunday School classes. Our space in the building was challenging for setting up any more adult Sunday School classes.
What caused the discipleship growth to take off for 2003 was the Purpose-Driven Life® series. In October, Rick Warren’s book received some positive press locally. Even prior to that, we had decided to do the “Forty Days of Purpose.” The dynamics of that series is heavy-duty small group participation. We opened up to the small group concept. To our surprise, our people jumped on it. We set up home groups in different parts of town and handpicked our leaders. We had 18 homes and over 200 participated in that 2-month period. After “Forty Days of Purpose” finished, we continued the small groups. People loved it. The adults liked the fellowship dynamic. The groups offered pastoral care. Going over God’s Word with open dialog created the discipleship element. We were also surprised that out of those small groups came an evangelistic dynamic. People came to the home groups. Our church grew through the back door of what was happening in the small groups. We stumbled on that by accident. A number of times we found people on Sunday morning as a part of being involved in small group. Visitors would tell us, “We stopped in at the home group and enjoyed it.” I guess you could say the growth in 2003 was an accident because we had to make things work in a strange environment with different facilities.
Considering what happened in 2003, I now believe it’s important to step out of my comfort zone. We were not used to small groups. Small groups kind of made me nervous. Our building situation opened my eyes to the healthiness of getting people into the small group. A small group could be in your church. A small group can be anything outside of the Sunday morning worship setting where people can dialog and share and open their lives up a lot more. Personal ministry can take place in those settings. That kind of ministry is limited in the Sunday morning service. Small groups add a more personal touch. We want to kick off a whole new small group emphasis in the fall.
What role does Sunday School play in discipleship of your church?
It’s an absolute necessity for any healthy, growing church to have within its structure a small group ministry going. It’s huge. I saw it personally. Talk about the five purposes of the church—worship, evangelism, fellowship, ministry, discipleship. All five take place in a very dynamic way in a small group setting.
Any church that wants to grow to the next level needs to include small group ministry in Sunday School and other settings. As we grow numerically, pastoral care becomes more challenging. Yet pastoral care can continue to be effective as people plug into a small group somewhere. In small groups they get that sense of community that the New Testament talks about. As you grow and God blesses you, you realize you have to look at Sunday School or some kind of small group ministry. Otherwise you’ll hinder your growth.
The key is church health versus growth. Numbers are good, but what about the health of the church? Concentrate on getting your people spiritually healthy. There will be natural growth in a healthy church; the challenge is trying to fine-tune that. I still feel the challenge of “Man, we’ve got to do it better.” We talk about discipleship a lot in staff meetings. Spiritual health has to be a priority.
Our conviction is, let’s have small groups throughout the week any way we can, whether it’s at the church or if it’s at a home. We have Sunday School classes that function as small groups. Thursdays work better for some. Tuesdays work for topics of interest, like building your marriage. I’m at a point of doing ministry whenever I can. The doors are open. Get into a classroom or whatever it takes to grow your faith. The culture is so different today. Methods today are definitely not what I was used to growing up. I grew up in the Assemblies of God when you had traditional church times—Sunday mornings, Sunday evenings, and Wednesdays. With hectic schedules today, people are so busy. Whatever it takes to get them involved in a discipleship setting, offer it.
