Today is the first day LCCC’s Fiscal New Year – the 2011-2012 Ministry Year. In honor of that, here is the last year, plus, of Lake City Small Groups in review.

Five Year Plan

Has it really been five years since we set out to become a “church OF small groups” rather than just a church with small groups? Before reflecting on last year alone, browse this list of landmarks we have set over the last five years.

• Defining “Church OF Small Groups”
• Understanding Christ’s bi-fold design for His Church gathered and scattered
• Creating leader qualifications and job description
• Establishing the priority of relationships
• Training leaders
• Developing personal, written and web-based tools for leadership, communication, spiritual growth, outreach, and much more.
• Starting many new groups
• Recruiting always needed new small group leaders (and when I say “always needed,” yes, I mean we need more new leaders right now! J)
• Building a support structure
• Creating an atmosphere of excitement about small groups in the entire church
• Streamlining with other ministries
• Unifying Small Groups’ vision with the church’s vision
• Celebrating God’s work at checkpoints and victorious testimonies
• Growing outward as well as inward (outreach, supporting missionaries, praying for the lost, living missionally)
• Becoming increasingly intergenerational focused
• Equipping families

Contact me if you’re interested to know more about any of these. Or better yet, come to the Small Groups/Family Summit on Saturday, September 17, from9AM—1PM – a half day of equipping for the 2011-2012 year of ministry.

Last Year

Now on to the report for the last year of ministry.  In preparation for the new Saturday night service which began last October, we knew more would be needed than just community promotion and staff scheduling changes. We needed to build an adequate infrastructure of discipleship and community for the growth we anticipated. The need for new small group leaders became greater than ever. We expanded our prayer efforts and implemented some new strategies. And God affirmed our requests! We increased our number of groups from 20 to 23, holding steady at over 300 total group members.

Let’s take a moment to recognize those who had a part in leading Lake City Small Groups this last year:

2010-2011 Small Group Leaders:

David & Kris Adam, Monty & Sue Bakken, Tim & Linda Bartlett, Bonnie Bundick, Jeremy & Jodi Durr, Chet & Eunice Ellis, Andrew & Nikki Gray, Bob & Wanda Hayes, Dennis & Michelle Hewitt, Charley & Chris Higbee, George & Cathy Hills, Clint & Tami Johnson, Tharon Kirby, Earl & Sue Kolb, Tung & Debbie Le, Dorothy Miner, Terry & Judy Olson, Tony & Niki Oury, Reg & Sarah Overstreet,   Karen Perz,  David & Kelli Pritchard, John & Shari Schock, Mike & Roxy Shaffer, Rick & Judy Smedley, Adam & Sharalyn Stenberg, Duane & Helen Williams,  Russ & Laurie Williams, Jason & Stephanie Woods

 Small Group Leader Support Team:

Reg & Sarah Overstreet, Russ & Laurie Williams, Pat & Larynda Kern

Thank God for these faithful men and women. It is an increasing joy to work with these ministry partners and friends; to mature together as leaders; and to see the fruits of their ministry in the lives of our church brothers and sisters.

The Future

God is graciously bringing together clarity, unity and perfect timing for our work this summer creating vision for the next five years. What’s it going to look like? Well, in short, it involves an ever increasing focus on the surrogate family qualities of Christ’s church; strengthening natural families; and growing in the Spirit’s power of transformation, Christ’s love for His Body, and the Father’s heart for the poor and the lost. Experience it all, by God’s grace, this fall, only in Lake City Small Groups!

Thank you beloved Ministry Partners and Church Family,

Reg Overstreet

Pastor of Small Groups and Adult Ministries