In 1992 I joined a team of people at Willow Creek Community Church to help the church become “a church of small groups” as we moved from a one-size-fits-all model of groups toward group life as a way of life. After leading the Couples Ministry through this transition I began to focus on leader development and support.

In 1998, after seeing our vision become reality with about 19,000 people in groups, I shifted my work toward the Willow Creek Association. At that point about 20% of my efforts were channeled to the church but the bulk of my time was given to other churches. Writing, speaking and contributing to the worldwide small group movement became my focus. It has been a great 10-year run.

Over the last three years, after an evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the Neighborhood initiative at Willow Creek Community Church, the church decided to return group life to the core of Willow. There were some positive experiences from doing the Neighborhood initiative, but Willow decided that the model had limited success. (For an evaluation, see my previous blog postings on this).

After taking a fresh look at what really constitutes biblical community, and learning from strengths and failures of the various expressions of group life for the last 30 years, the church has plunged headlong into a fresh expression of group life that encompasses the strengths of the past while trying to avoid the mistakes. And I have been asked to help.

My primary role will be to design the leadership development and support structure for this new era. With a variety of group sizes, purposes and formats, leaders will require a broad spectrum of experiences and services to guide them along. And with leaders who have anywhere from zero to decades of group leadership experience, it is clear that the support we provide must be readily accessible, customized, decentralized and use both face time and technology.

I will keep you posted on how our strategy develops and will invite your input.