Week 3: Dream Now For Our Church

James Browning: Hello, everyone, and welcome back for week three

of the Help for Host podcast for the Dream Now initiative.

I'm your friend, James Browning, and this week we will be talking

about Dreaming Now for your church.

We're also joined by a very special guest, your friend and

mine, our pastor of Dream Now.

Groups and one of the elders here at Saddleback, Steve Gladen.

Steve Gladen: Hey everybody, it's so great you have made it to the halfway point

and James how's uh, your group doing, you know, moving into that halfway mark?

James Browning: We are doing great.

I love the, downhill momentum we've got going on and all of this,

Steve Gladen: it's actually been, really impactful.

I don't know for each one of you and in our small group,

it's just being able to dream.

I mean, obviously we've gone through dream for your life and we've gone

through dream for your family.

Obviously those have made a huge impact on, on us personally in our small group.

So it's one of those things where we're going, Oh my, what's

a, what's in store in this next weekend, dreaming for your church.

James Browning: That's right.

So again, congratulations for making it halfway.

But since we have Steve Gladen here, who is literally the guy who wrote the book

on small groups, Steve, I wanted to ask you, What should hosts start to look

at as we begin to conclude this series?

Steve Gladen: Yeah, you're asking a great question and a lot of times

we're just kind of motoring through the dream now booklet and just kind

of going, Hey, what's the next circle?

What's the next circle that pastor Andy's talking about, but this is

a great time for you as a host.

I'm just going to kind of break you up into a few different categories.

You're like, if you are an existing small group, and that's where my small group is,

we've been around for a couple of decades and motoring through life and in that.

Yeah.

But this is the time in that halfway point when you're going to start to

put the seed in the ground of just talking about, you know, what's next.

And if you're an existing small group, we have two amazing

curricula that is coming out.

One of them is What's in a Name by Megan Greider.

And it's a brand new series that we have out.

It's on the watch page.

I would encourage you to do that.

It's got a great workbook that goes with it and a video series that's there.

And another one that if you're an existing group, that'd be great is,

uh, whether you know it or not, we've been releasing the book of Mark in

a great way where you, uh, read the book, read through the book of Mark.

You get to know a little bit about the context of where you're going

to have some discussion questions.

Unfortunately, uh, I, and I say, unfortunately, because a lot of small

groups love this mark series because there's no homework and you just kind of

show up to group and you do everything in house, but it's, it's one of the

popular ones you may want to consider.

Mark one chapters one through four is already out.

We're getting ready to release mark five through eight.

And as an existing group, I encourage you to jump in there.

If you're a brand new group.

Uh, this is a good opportunity for you, Dean, to talk to your group

and to say, Hey, we have, uh, we've enjoyed this DreamNow study.

And there's two curricula that we have that are especially

designed for a new group.

One of them is called Basecamp.

It's on the Watch page.

Uh, you can be able to get that and we also have mark one through four.

Both of those are great introductory studies that your group can move

at whatever pace you want to do.

It also be great for, if you're an on, on campus group, if you've been

at a table for a while and you're listening to this and you're had that

opportunity to take it into a home, this, these curricula that we've been

mentioning would, would be great there.

The main thing is, is that you want to start to be thinking through and just

planting the seed, like saying, what if we could dream, no pun intended,

about staying together as a small group?

And one of the other things I want you to start thinking about as the host, Is,

right, it won't be too long, we'll be sitting at the end of week 5, and Andy

will have concluded the dream now, and we're getting ready to head into holy week

and then to Easter, but I want you to be considering, you know, how are you going

to be celebrating and we're going to be giving you a couple great things to talk

about when you're at your celebration that have direct correlation to each

one of the five circles in dream now.

So be looking for that excited about that.

But the main thing is that we want to talk about is just to be start to be

thinking about, you know, what is it?

That we we want in the future of our group So planting that seed of what's

maybe another curricula you want to do and talking about the celebration

James Browning: Just to follow up, Steve, if you're an existing group,

you recommend checking out the what's in a name study, which is on the

saddleback watch page, saddleback.

com slash watch, scroll down to studies and click through to find

the study and then the new upcoming mark five through eight journey

that's on the journey app, right?

Steve Gladen: Yep, it sure is.

And it's a great way for your group to, uh, be able to roll through

it real time in your small group.

Or if you want to, you can jump ahead and, you know, start to read

the those chapters and go through

James Browning: Okay, that sounds great and base camp also on the watch page

and mark one through four also a journey

Steve Gladen: Yeah, and it's very applicable for you to use it, whether

you're a brand new group, or, you know, if you're doing base camp, you can do

it as a new group, or if you're a new group coming out of the, uh, on campus,

uh, studies at any one of our campus.

James Browning: Okay.

So let's say that you are a newer group, or a group that's been meeting

on campus and you want to continue on.

What are some of the tips you would recommend for someone

who's preparing for a meeting?

Steve Gladen: Yeah, again, uh, first off, just so excited and so appreciate each one

of you as you've been just, uh, week, week on and week, weekend and week on, you've

been, you know, going through the dream now series and I just want to encourage

you to not deviate from the path that has helped you so much in your group so far.

One of them is, is that we want you to continue to preview the content,

you know, you've been reading through the devotionals, you know, make

sure that you're caught up, you know, on the study part, you know,

what is it that we're going to do?

Think through your transitions.

And then also watch pastor Andy's video.

Uh, it was in the newsletter that, uh, we sent out to you, and then

we want you to watch that video.

And we also want you just to be acquainted with the book, understand what's going

through, what are the topics of the week that you're going to be talking about.

And then this is second, but obviously, and it's just not a, you know, a church

trite statement, but we want you to be praying for your meetings, pray for your

meetings, pray for your conversations because every time your group gets

together, it's a divine appointment.

God has put, you know, a handful of souls in your care that he wants

you to help navigate and help them with be able to pray for your group,

you know, name by name, and just praying for the conversations.

I know that, you know, you as the leader, uh, you don't, you don't have

to spend a ton of time on this, but you know, your people and just spend that

extra bit of time before the meeting.

James Browning: That's right.

I know in my own small group, there's been times where I've

been praying ahead of time.

And honestly, God's kind of placed something on my heart that has

opened up a lot of discussion.

And just like we talked about in the last episode, people aren't looking for you

to be experts, but they are looking for you to be present and to be prepared.

Steve Gladen: Yeah.

So as you've been thinking about, you know, what's before the meeting,

we've kind of went through that.

Now I want to talk to you about the, the meeting itself.

And part of you want to do is, you know, after you, you may have be doing a meal

together and then going into group, you may just have a, you know, a handful

of snacks, which tend to be a meal.

At least that's what happens with my small group.

Even though they're quote unquote snacks.

Uh, this is when you're heading into this time, you may want to think of

an icebreaker and, uh, you know, in the newsletter you, we gave you a,

uh, an icebreaker or two, but also one that you, as we were talking about

dream now for your church, you may just want to ask your group, what is

it that you love about the church?

What is it that you love about the church and what brought you back to the church?

You know, when you think about Saddleback, because so often we start to take for

granted that we just go to Saddleback church, but without thinking about.

What was it that I really like about it?

And so that would be a great first question there.

Then the other thing you always want to be thinking through and

rolling back in your head is make sure you want everyone to talk.

If you've been into this for a few weeks now, if someone hasn't been showing up

or talking a lot, uh, make sure that you, you engage them and make sure you think

it through some time in the meeting.

How can I get them to share a little bit?

Uh, about what they're thinking about.

And so make sure you, you do that and make sure everyone talks.

Then another point that you may want to do is, uh, just go through and say, what,

what stood out to you in the message?

Uh, if you can remember the message and hopefully that is a positive, yes.

Uh, but you know, what stood out there, look at your notes.

They, you know, what, what stood out.

You know, the fourth thing that you may want to be thinking through during your

meeting is, you know, discuss, just ask them when you are listening to the

message, discuss with them what dreaming about the church looks like to them.

And for every person that may be just a little bit different.

The last thing I want you to jump into is, you know, thinking through as you're, and

again, as you're going through the book.

Remember, it's not just about, you know, motoring through the material

to check the box to say, I got through all the questions in dream.

Now I got through everything that pastor Andy talked about, but

be, be sensitive to the room.

And what do you think is happening in the room?

So just remember, you don't have to get through all of it.

There's been many times in my own small group that as we're going through

something, we may not get through everything in that particular week.

And we just say, Hey, we'll pick it up next week.

Uh, I know for some people that are pretty linear and you're like,

well, man, it's a five week series.

I gotta get through all five weeks, uh, but we've left a

little cushion in there for you.

So feel free if you need to, uh, either, you know, just catch up with everyone

in the following week or, you know, just say, Hey, you can study it on your

own if we don't get through everything.

But the main point is, is don't stifle a great conversation because you're

just trying to get through the material.

James Browning: Yeah, I love that and another tip that we frequently give along

those lines is if your group is larger.

I don't let the size stifle the conversation either.

Take the opportunity to subgroup.

Uh, you know, have your beginning where everyone meets and hangs out and shares

their snacks, but then maybe have the, all the men's men go to one room, the

women go to the other, or, or however your group breaks down and then have

the discussion in smaller size groups.

And at the end, bring it back together and kind of share what

you got out of the discussion.

And a lot of times this allows for, uh, opening up a lot more.

Steve Gladen: And one of the other things, you know, James, as you're

talking about subgrouping, uh, you can subgroup for the discussion sometimes too.

It may be helpful just to throw a little mix into the equation is to,

uh, subgroup for your prayer time.

Uh, be able to take your prayer requests and sometimes you can even do

the prayer requests in the subgroup.

Uh, and I always like to encourage people to subgroup by gender.

Uh, obviously if you're in a men's group or a women's group, you're going to

just subgroup by numbers, uh, with that.

But a lot of times just people of the same gender will go a little bit

deeper for different prayer requests.

And so, uh, I love what you're talking about there, James, because it's a,

it's a great way just to throw a little bit of spice into what your small group

has normally been doing throughout these, uh, first few weeks of the.

James Browning: Why don't you share something for, uh, table

leaders for on campus groups?

Steve Gladen: One of the great things I'd really want to encourage you,

and it actually in your own small group, you can do this idea too, but

especially for our on campus, uh, hosts that are leading a table, make

sure you have like an email thread, or a text thread, or a whatsapp thread.

To be able to just stay in touch with everyone throughout the week doesn't

have to be anything big but just you know It could be hey just checking in.

How's everyone doing thumbs up thumbs down But just get some engagement between

your meetings so that you just know people are alive You can always step that up

just a little bit And be able just to ask them what's a prayer request that

they have going into it, or, you know, as you know, you get the email about,

you know, Andy's video, you could even, uh, you know, Copy that, uh, URL link or,

you know, a way to watch the video for them, send it to them so that, you know,

they can watch the video ahead of time.

Again, it, it's not so much what you're doing, but you gotta make

sure that you have some type of touch point between the two meetings.

It'll help the stick factor.

It'll also help feel much, people feel much more, uh, connected.

And then also, you know, get to know each other in a special way.

James Browning: It is a great way to make a big church feel small and personal.

And that is, I think, something that a lot of people underestimate about just how

powerful that one quick message could be.

Even in my own small group, uh, this week, someone was sending out

a text message asking for prayer.

They're going through a job interview.

And so just that quick bit of encouragement is meaningful to that person

who's going through that job interview.

Steve Gladen: Super good point.

James Browning: All right, so as always, if you have any questions or stories

from Dream Now, we'd love to hear them.

We'd love to hear your dreams.

We'd love to hear how God is changing lives.

Please don't hesitate to send those to us or any questions you

have at smallgroupsatsaddleback.

com or your local small group point person, your campus small group pastor.

Steve, thanks a lot for joining

Steve Gladen: I'm super excited for each one of you as we're moving through dream.

Now, the opportunities that you'll see at our church and be able to understand

if you didn't get a chance to go to the premier night, which was just phenomenal.

I really want to encourage you to be able to go back online.

Catch the stream and just under and understand more about Dream Now and the

initiatives that God has placed on Pastor Andy's heart and where our church is going

to be going over these next three years.

James Browning: All right, we'll see you next week

Steve Gladen: Bye bye.