FAQs Denominational Slant of ABF Philosophy
I'm about to start into an ABF at my local church and I'm curious as to your denominational slant within your materials. I looked at your "Philosophy", and it sounds good, but does not reveal any denominational bias or direction in your biblical interpretations. So I'm curious how your views gel with orthodox Christianity. That’s it thanks, John in Oregon
RESPONSE:
Thanks for your interest in the ABF philosophy of ministry. As you can from surfing the ABF Resources website that the Adult Bible Fellowship philosophy of ministry is built upon Biblical principles (see ABF Philosophy link), but this philosophy does not associate itself with a denomination of any kind.
This midsize group philosophy and structure is more of a method, the same as a “small groups” or a men’s or women’s ministry. Any church can grab one of these methods and make it work for them.
I have been an adult ministry pastor at three evangelical churches in over 20 years of ministry. My current church, (www.hope-church.org), as with the other two, is a conservative, Bible-based ministry.
Steve Lizzio
Director of ABF Resources
Multi-Generational vs. Affinity/ Life Stage Midsize Groups
I have one teacher who, after being in this (ABF ministry) for awhile, is opposed to age appropriation. Is there another way to reshuffle people, or are age groups the best? I honestly did it that way because that's how I saw most ABFs structured. Matt in Indiana
RESPONSE:
Yes there are a few godly people who think affinity groups by life stage or life-situation are not biblical (This structure goes against the older teaching the younger issues). The problem is that MOST people want to be with other people of their age group. "Like attracts like" is a common church growth principle. Who are your closest friends Matt? They are probably people in your life stage for the most part. Many people leave small churches to attend medium size and large churches in part because there are more kids of their children’s ages, plus more adults of their age.
I have also noticed within any life stage midsize or even small group that there still might be a wide variance of ages. In a small group in Chicago that my wife and I were a part of, we noticed that even though most of us were within a similar age range we had some in their middle thirties and others touching 50! Some still had pre-schoolers in the home while another had one child in college. My point is that even in affinity based groups there can be a wide range of ages. Another aspect is the wide range of spiritual maturity within a group. Even though people might be in the similar age range there can be a wide range of spiritual maturation and growth, from seekers, to young believers to veterans of the Faith.
At Hope Church here in Cincinnati, they actually started all of their midsize communities with a geographical flavor around 1999-2000 (i.e. Southern Community - south of the church). They were all multi-generational by design. BUT, as time went on most of the groups struggled with ongoing relationships. (People do not want to be forced into this, they would rather choose it!) Eventually the church combined geographical groups (into two multi-generational groups) due to dwindling attendance, and began birthing new life stage groups (Parents with young kids, Empty Nesters, etc.) These groups have taken off with strong group identities.
I was watching a reality show recently that had moms switch homes for 2 weeks and they changed the “house rules” for that time period. One home schooled 11 year old boy had to go to school for the first time in his life. When they interviewed him, what he really enjoyed at school was getting to spend time with and play around with lots of kids his age. I thought that was interesting.
All churches should consider having some multi-generational groups
We now have two multi-generational groups (Connections and Faith Builders), plus several life stage groups. We have other mixed age communities such as our worship ministries community and our Cross Trainers community for children’s workers.
I would seriously consider that your church start a multi-generational group. Let your one teacher help lead it! Every church should offer at least one or more multi-generational groups if there main strategy is life stage groups.
Plenty of inter-generational ministry is already happening in our churches
Another issue worth mentioning in this debate is that there is already plenty of ministry happening that is inter-generational in all of our churches. For example, we worship with all ages in our services. Also, pretty much no matter where people serve (outside of ABFs) they serve with adults (and teens) of all ages. Also, if we are in men's or women's ministries activities and Bible studies they are almost always with people of a variety of ages.
My point is that we get plenty of interaction with other ages in our churches. Just because people fellowship on a regular basis in midsize and/or small groups we cannot assume that they do not have inter-generational connections or even strong relationships with younger or older folks.
By the way, here at Hope Church we also have marriage mentors and one-one-one discipleship matches to help the older with the younger.Check out this article by Church Solutions magazine in winter of 2008 where I share my insights that multi-gen ministry works best when people choose it. Go to http://www.churchsolutionsmag.com/articles/navigating-the-generational-groove.html
Steve Lizzio
Director of ABF Resources
Singles Ministry
Hello, we are looking to start up a singles ministry here at Grace. Do you have any guidelines, resources material, etc. that may help us? Thank you. Elise
RESPONSE:
I worked with a College & Career ministry (we called it the Lighthouse Fellowship) for several years during my first pastoral ministry at Hydewood Park Baptist Church in North Plainfield, New Jersey. As a matter of fact a lot of my philosophy of ABFs was tested and lived out in that ministry. It is important to build a "group" atmosphere with a strong group identity early on. Pick a name for the group, develop a logo and get the word out. Everything still rises and falls on leadership so it is of utmost importance to build a strong infrastructure.
The first thing would be to appoint a Point Leader who is passionate, capable, committed and teachable. Second, would be to build a leadership team of singles to oversee the ministry with the Point Leader. Third, recruit capable speakers/teachers/Bible study leaders depending on your philosophy of the group meeting. A singles ministry should run just like any other ABF/midsize group - it will just have unique features and feel geared to singles.
Look on my website at www.abfresources.com and go to Idea of the Month and click on"View Past Ideas of the Month" for short articles on Building a strong Group Identity, Building Leadership Teams, etc. My manual, The ABF Class Leader Training Course has tons of great info that would apply to building a Singles Ministry.
A Great Singles Ministry Resource
I would recommend a website to you at http://www.singlesmall.com/sam_menu.html (cut and paste). There are all kinds of resources for singles ministry including a list of Singles ministry leaders email addresses. Email some of these leaders for advice and see what you come up with.
A writer and speaker who helped me back in my C & C ministry was Terry Hershey. He has a book on Young Adult Ministry that I believe has been revised. He taught me the "group owns the group" principle which helped me to early on get more singles involved in owning their group.
One final thought, because our group did not meet on Sunday mornings we were able to encourage singles from other like-faith churches to join us. We encouraged them to enjoy the fellowship with other singles at our church and still be faithful to their own church for attendance and ministry.
God bless you as build a group that experiences "community" and makes a difference for Christ!
Steve Lizzio
Director of ABF Resources Continuity of Names
In developing names for the various ABF's is it more important that there is continuity in the names among the groups (i.e. lifebuilders, homebuilders, etc.)or that each group has ownership of the name that they have? Tom in Missouri
RESPONSE:
Very few churches attempt to keep a continuity or sequence to their ABF group names for different reasons. Actually I can't think of one church that sticks out to me right now. One reason is it limits options.
I would put the emphasis on groups choosing a name that reflects their group in some way either by the group make up, their mission (My current ABF Community is a parents of teens group called GPS [Growing in God, Partners in Parenting and Strength in Community]) or just a cool, fun or Biblical name like (Belayers, Synergy, Inter@ct, Emmaus, etc.)
(SEE Idea of the Month – February 06 for a list of potential names)
Steve Lizzio
Director of ABF Resources
Categorizing Groups
My question is, currently our ABF's are divided by age: 30-39, 40-49 etc. What are some other ways ABF's can be categorized? A list would be helpful as I am seeking to ensure that our Sunday school ministry is truly meeting need. I will be sharing your material with our ABF leaders shortly after the first of the year. Don in West Virginia
RESPONSE:
I am listing below four unique ways that ABFs organize. In my surveying of churches most use the life stage designations of some kind. Some would say that “Age Span” descriptions like your church is doing would also be affinity based since it is encouraging people from similar ages to be connected in community. But, there is a difference. Churches that use “Life Stage” descriptions need to make adjustments to the group descriptions as groups mature (get older!). For example, a parents of teens group will eventually no longer be made up of parents of teens. They will need to change either their name or their emphasis. Obviously, so do “Age Span” groups. The Harvesters group in our Chicago church was a 30’s & 40’s description when I came. We soon added “50’s” (30’s, 40’s & 50’s), then a few years later took away the “30’s”. In a few more years they will have to add the 60’s. That will sting!
Some groups use the age span description permanently. They never change the age of 30-39. When people hit 40 they are kicked up. This is an old Southern Baptist traditional model. I DON’T LIKE IT! Most people hate being kicked out of a group. I would rather let the groups grow up and old together rather than alienate people.
Some churches also use age ranges, but do have names for their group. They are known by their age range. When I came to Hope Church in Cincinnati we had two multi-generational groups with one meeting at 9:00 a.m. and the other at 10:40 a.m. I told them, “It must be exciting to invite your friends to your 10:40 multi-generational community?” Ouch! They needed names! So the 9:00 a.m. group became “Connections” and the 10:40 a.m. group chose the name “Faith Builders”. I am a strong advocate of building strong group identities. See my ABF Class Leader Course in Section Three for a full explanation.
Some churches (like mine in Cincinnati) have a variety of ways we organize their midsize groups. We have several life stage groups, plus some mutual interest groups (multi-generational and a task/interest group which is our Worship Ministries Community). Check out our names and descriptions on our website at www.hope-church.org and go to “Communities”.
I hope this helps!
Steve Lizzio
Director of ABF Resources
Curriculum Options
Can you recommend some resources for curriculum?
Dave in Texas
RESPONSE:
Adult curriculum materials are plentiful, but depending on what you are looking for, options could be limited because of cost, your theological perspective, the style of the curriculum and/or depth of the teaching level. If teachers have the know-how to customize by adding to the curriculum or taking away then more options will be available.
There was a day when most churches used a store bought curriculum such as the International Bible teaching material that had a systematic schedule of covering the whole Bible in several years. Today, many churches have their teachers planning and developing their own Bible lessons. These teachers are just looking for tools and resources to build their studies.
Sunday School Curriculum Publishers
If you are looking for a prepared curriculum, many of the traditional Sunday School publishing companies are still publishing new curriculum for adults such as David C. Cook, Gospel Light, Group, and Standard Publishing. For good prices and a price listing of some of their studies you can check out Next Step Resources at www.nsresources.com and go to Sunday School. It lists these curriculum companies offerings, plus others. The common complaint with these curriculum’s are their generic look at doctrine because they are attempting to sell their curriculum to a multitude of denominations and churches. They tend to be weak or nuetral in this area so individual churches/teachers need to beef the material at points.
Lake Pointe Curriculum
Lakepointe church in the Dallas, Texas area has been writing their own materials for their Adult Bible Fellowship classes for years. They now make this curriculum available for churches to purchase and customize and reproduce. It is not cheap, but I have heard some great things about the curriculum. Go to the archive section at Idea of the Month and click on Dec 03 for an overview of the curriculum and also go to their website at www.lakepointe.org or www.ministrypoint.org
Josh Hunt Bible Lessons
Josh Hunt at www.joshhunt.com , author & speaker, has a website with free Bible Lessons that are worth considering.
Life Connections Series by Serendipity House
The Life Connections Series by Serendipity House www.serendipityhouse.com is designed for midsize groups. Midsize groups range from 15 to 50 people. They operate with a master teacher format with the students divided into subgroups of 6 to 8 for small-group interaction. The Master Teacher enlists facilitators to lead these subgroups. These types of groups are often found in Bible study structures like a Sunday School but are also used in non-church settings. Life Connections gives you large-group energy combined with small-group dynamics. This is a great strategy for incubating new leaders and new groups.
Copy and Paste: (http://www.serendipityhouse.com/customerservice/faq.aspx)
Standard Lesson Commentary (International Sunday School Lessons)
Every lesson is includes verse-by-verse explanation of the Bible text, complete and detailed lesson backgrounds, activity teaching ideas, etc. Go to their website at www.standardlesson.com
Websites for Purchasing Books used for Curriculum Series
www.nsresources.com
www.cbd.com
www.buy.com
www.amazon.com
www.allbookstores.com
Websites for Curriculum in Different Areas
Answers for Life www.reasons.org - Resources on creation, evolution, science, etc.
A few of my Favorite Topical Series
Great Characters of the Bible by Dr. Allen B. Stringfellow
Hensley Publishing ISBN: 1-56322-046-6
Boundaries in Marriage by Henry Cloud www.henrycloud.com
Boundaries with Kids by Henry Cloud Curriculum Structures
Do you have a curriculum structure or sequence of courses you teach in your midsize groups?
RESPONSE:
Another important issue when dealing with curriculum is what curriculum structure a church uses. I have identified six different structures in my book, the ABF Teaching Course. The structures range from a “systematic” approach through the Bible to the other end, what I call an “independent” curriculum structure where churches give classes and/or teachers total freedom to teach whatever they choose.
I like the “balanced” curriculum structure where each community or class strives for a balance between Old Testament, New Testament, Doctrinal and Topical. My ABF Teaching Course explains this curriculum structure in detail.
The bottom line is that it is the supernatural Word of God that changes lives, even more effectively when believers are dwelling in “community” together! In our ABFs we are striving to build a balance between “good group life” and a “good teaching ministry”.
I hope this helps and if you have any suggestions for curriculum options please let me know so I can add it to this answer for others!
Pastor Steve Lizzio
Director of ABF Resources
Teaching-Focused Electives vs. Community-Based midsize groups/ABFs I would like to respond to several inquires concerning electives in relation to midsize groups.
RESPONSE:
Electives are helpful in that they can provide specific teaching and/or training in a variety of areas for a congregation. As a result, adults receive the benefit of a choice of topics to pursue (and some taught by specialists in their fields). Or people can just follow their favorite teacher from topic to topic. Also, electives offer a more concentrated teaching segment since most or all of the time is dedicated toward the teaching ministry. Some teachers love this!
The weakness of electives as the main structure for adult discipleship is that they do not provide a caring and ongoing relational and ministry base for the congregation. People attend for the topic and not as much for other people, which is fine, but when someone drops out there is usually no follow-up. Follow-up doesn’t really matter anyway since electives are usually short-term studies up to three months in length, then the classes dissolve and new ones form. As a result, any relationships that develop are incidental.
Attrition Tends to be a Challenge with Electives
One good friend in a Virginia Beach church would have 1,200 people attend the start of their elective course offerings, but by the halfway mark attendance would normally drop to between 600 and 400. Attendees would initially get excited about a topic, but many would fizzle out and as mentioned above, there was no structure to follow-up absentees or to provide care if needs arise. Also, social activities and ministry opportunities were minimal to non-existent.
I once received a call from a church in South Dakota that used electives. This pastor was struggling with the lack of connection of his people for care and ministry within the classes. As a result, he said that all needs filtered back to the pastoral staff. They had no real system to empower their people to lead and shepherd one another. (I must admit it felt good to tell him that I had received maybe two phone calls on a Saturday night over 15 years, because of a teacher emergency. Each of our midsize communities established a built in system for substitutes.)
We Teach People, Not Lessons
In my manual, the ABF Teaching Course, a big deal is made that “We teach students not lessons”. The goal of teaching is to challenge people toward spiritual growth and maturity in Christ (Colossians 1:28, 29). This means some of the most effective teaching takes place when the teacher knows the students as Jesus demonstrated (John 10:27). The teacher has an idea where many of the students are on their spiritual journey. Illustrations are planned and communicated in ways they know will connect with the hearers. There is a temptation for teachers in any setting to teach lessons, rather than students, but especially for “elective-based” teachers who have no ongoing spiritual responsibility to disciple their flock through the Word.
If you study the early church in the book of Acts and survey the “one another” passages in the New Testament (i.e. pray for one another, be devoted to one another, confess your sins to each other), it is obvious that the ministries of teaching, prayer and serving revolved around relationships within house churches and other settings.
In today’s busy culture relationships tend to be superficial and lack the desperately needed accountability between believers to follow Christ passionately. There are so many potential idols, temptations, etc., and when people attend anonymous, “attractional” worship services and then participate in information-oriented Bible studies, they can be missing out on the relational strengths of doing life together in Christ.
Electives can be a Great Supplement
I believe electives are a great supplement within churches that have a foundational base of midsize groups/ABFs, small groups and other adult ministry structures. But, I do not recommend them as the main system of connecting and discipleship of adults within a church. Community based midsize groups with built-in leadership teams that help give the groups identity, purpose and organized to meet needs within the group can be dynamic. When small groups strategically form within the midsize group, then even a greater level of accountability and fellowship can take place.
One final thought. When things get tough at a church, whether it is over pastoral issues, disagreements over church decisions, people offences, etc., many times it is a “people groups” and strong relational ties that keep our people from leaving the church. Churches over 150 people must be strategic in building these types of relational groups and ministries for the overall health of the church.
Pastor Steve Lizzio
Director of ABF Resources
Have a question? Submit your question to steve@abfresources.com and either Steve LIzzio or another midsize group strategist will take a crack at it!
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