67 E. Algonquin Rd., South Barrington, IL 60010, (312) 382-6200.

Small Groups Director: Mark Weinert.

The Value of Small Groups in Our Church: "If our church did not have small groups, it would almost be poisonous to our ministry. What can happen to young believers who come to Christ but never have a spiritual foundation built into their lives? They can dry up and blow away just as quickly as they came to the Lord. The evil one's influence on someone's life can be so powerful and devastating. Some of the saddest stories I hear are about people who used to attend a church maybe even were active in inviting others—but who are no longer walking with Christ. Based on our experience, those are the people who never had a chance to have someone get close to them and invest in their lives and really build them up. That is the value of small groups.

"Obviously no one reaches complete maturity in Christ. But it is in our small groups where people are best challenged and encouraged to take those steps along the way. We encourage our people to always be in a relationship where they are discipling someone or being discipled by someone.

"We also realize, as a ministry, that if we don't have a continual discipling process, we are going to have a tremendous shortage in leadership. Our small groups produce most of our leadership."

A Snapshot View:

• Sunday worship attendance: "We have three services each weekend—two on Sunday morning and one on Saturday night. Combined attendance right now is about 12,000."

• Church growth: the church began with fifty people in 1975.

• People involved in small groups: "Approximately 2,500 in formal groups, plus many oth ers in informal and social fellowship groups."

• Size of groups: "Most of our groups are limited to eight people. Few of us can really build in-depth relationships with more people."

• Frequency of group meetings: We meet three out of four weeks for a two-year duration. (In the fourth week each group leader meets with three other leaders.) In order to reach our objective—maturity in Christ—we're convinced that our groups need to meet this often. Otherwise, it is difficult to build discipleship into people's lives.

• Name for small groups: "We simply call them ‘small groups.' That's by design. We could have called them ‘discipleship groups,' but discipleship is such a Christian buzzword. To many new Christians it doesn't mean a thing. In fact, it may scare some people away."

• Study materials used: "We are in the process of writing our own materials. Our two-year curriculum deals with four major areas: ‘Your Walk with God,' ‘The Life and Person of Jesus Christ,' ‘Understanding, Identifying, and Using Your Spiritual Gifts,' and ‘Impacting Your World for Christ.'"

• Small group evangelism: "Our groups are not designed for evangelism per se. Instead, the primary emphasis during our weekend services is on reaching the lost. (Our Wednesday night service, called The New Community, would be somewhat like a contemporary Sunday morning worship service.) But our small groups have one very clear and primary purpose: to disciple people. Our small groups are designed to bring people to the point where they're complete in Christ (Col. 1:28)."

Mistakes We've Made: "In the beginning we assigned people to groups by geographic area only. But we learned that people will naturally spend more time with one another if they have as many things in common as possible—more than just where they live. Our small groups are so specialized today that someone will say, ‘Can you place us with someone else who has a two-year-old and a four-year-old?' We do everything we can to put people together whose lives will overlap naturally. In the interviewing process we consider things like hobbies, backgrounds, and professions.

"People can be obedient and develop relationships with almost anyone. But the reality is that each of us will probably spend more time with those whom we really like and share many things in common. Since our people spend at least two years together, this has become a priority . . .and it has worked very well for us."