Seeker Small Groups

Upcoming Events in 2008

I am actually on vacation as I write this, (so much for staying unplugged when there are internet connections wherever you go - even if you don't take your own computer!), but I wanted to wish you a happy new year and briefly tell you about some things that are happening in 2008 in the SF bay area.  Mark your calendars and/or tell your friends about these upcoming events:

Thursday, January 31 from nine to noon in Fremont - There will be a bay area seeker small group leaders planning event for those that are interested in helping in the upcoming year with this ministry.  It will be at Thorton Ave. Baptist Church.

Friday, February 29 and Saturday, March 1 all day in Menlo Park - Register for the Conversational Evangelism Conference at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church to hear from some great leaders on how to effectively engage your unchurched friends and neighbors in significant faith conversations.

Saturday, March 1 at noon - Seeker Small Group Leaders lunch with Garry Poole, held during the Conversational Evangelism Conference from noon to one.  Location TBD.  More details to follow.

A Saturday in April (TBD) - An all day Seeker Small Group Leader training with Garry Poole.  This is a better venue for those that know they're ready to launch a seeker small group.

Stay tuned for more details on all of these events.  In the meantime, I hope and pray that one of your new year's resolutions is to be more intentional in reaching out to those that are far from God with the love of his son, Jesus Christ.

I will be on vacation until Monday, January 14th.  There will be no more posts until I return. - Mary

Important News!

Merry Christmas to you! I wanted to give you an update on what has been happening with seeker small groups in the bay area. It was only a year ago that God gave a group of us a vision and call to launch ONE HUNDRED seeker small groups in the San Francisco bay area. As I write you a year later, there are over ONE HUNDRED FIFTY seeker small group leaders that have launched or are planning to launch a group that is specifically designed to meet the needs of spiritual seekers in the bay area from THIRTY different churches. We are receiving stories from many of you that indicate the fruitfulness of these groups in bringing people into a relationship with (or closer to a relationship with) Jesus Christ.

Shortly after the training conference in March 2007 with Garry Poole in which many of you said you would become ONE of the ONE HUNDRED seeker small group leaders, I met with another ministry that has a similar vision for reaching unchurched people through the self-discovery small group process by the name of Neighborhood Bible Studies (NBS). Throughout the rest of 2007, Garry and I have gotten to know this wonderful 47-year-old organization that is based in Dobbs Ferry, New York. We were astonished at the similarities that we found in their method and ideology. Here is their mission: to mobilize and empower followers of Jesus Christ to introduce and multiply small group discussion Bible studies among their neighbors, co-workers and friends so that participants can encounter God, grow in faith and pattern their lives after Jesus.

Within the last month, NBS and Garry have determined that there are significant benefits to both parties in forging a partnership that provides new direction and life into each ministry in reaching the unchurched with small groups for spiritual seekers. NBS has asked me to be their new CEO, based on this new partnership with Garry Poole, and I have accepted. Our vision is to grow NBS into a well-known resource for unchurched people to find a relationship with Jesus Christ through the self-discovery, question-asking process in a small group. And all of you in the bay area that are leading (or getting ready to lead) this kind of a group are part of that vision! Somehow, we are all finding ourselves in the middle of a movement that is sweeping through the bay area and to some degree, through our increasingly secular national culture. We all have the privilege of walking alongside and partnering with this established godly organization that is beginning a new chapter of Kingdom building. NBS has Bible studies that are a natural follow-on to SSGs for those who find a relationship with Jesus! It is exciting to see what God is doing with this form of outreach. - Mary

Dennis Kang's Story

Dennis Kang is a member Waypoint Community Church in Davis, California. Here is his story:

"The Seeker Small Group experience this past year has been both exciting and a good learning experience. Last year during the winter time I got a chance to start our church's first college Seeker Small Group at UC Davis. It was an exciting time when one of my freshmen friends invited a lot of his friends to try out a SSG. Our first meeting was amazing as there were about eleven college students! The time together was fun and the college students seemed to have enjoyed it. As the rest of the school year went on, the numbers fluctuated depending on their schedules and interest. Yet as we ended, we got a chance to talk to another 10 students. To my surprise, as the school year was ending, two other SSGs started without much effort on our part. We really felt God was indeed doing a great work through these small groups where these students could talk about religion, faith and purpose in a safe environment.

As the second school year started, I was looking forward to starting the SSG again, yet things didn't pan out as there was a lack of interest. School started to really get busy quickly for the college students so that they didn't have time. I started feeling discouraged at their lack of interest, but I know that during this time, God was teaching me some important lessons. His first lesson to me was to be faithful in the lives of these students as it wasn't about numbers, or even about having a thriving SSG, but it was about each individual person drawing closer to God, and this could only happen when those strong bridges were built. These students needed to know that, on a person level, we really cared for them. Hence, I realized God was telling me that His work in people's lives was going to be done at His timing and in His way, and what I needed to do was be faithful in investing in these students by loving them and by praying for them.

Another important lesson that I learned was that I needed to open my eyes to the work that God was doing in the other SSGs that started last year. One group in particular seems to be really growing and the students are really developing spiritual interest. I see that God was reminding me that this was an amazing work and that I needed to really rejoice in this. He was reminding me that His work was happening all around me and that I needed to stop having tunnel vision and looking at the thing that I was involved in only, but rather I needed to be encouraged at the work that He was doing all around me. And when I finally got to see that, I couldn't help but marvel and praise God at the work that He was doing in the other SSG as well." - Dennis Kang

Bill Weir's Story

Bill Weir is a member of New Hope Peninsula Church and also serves on my SSG prayer team. Here's his story:

"I was brought up in a Christian home and have been a Christian for most of my adult life. I always understood that the gospel is to be shared in conversation and in our actions, but I was too concerned with what people would think about me and stayed quiet. In recent years, encouraged by my experience hosting small bible study groups with other Christians in my home, I started running the Alpha course. Alpha is an honest explanation of the basics of the Christian faith in a video presentation format. Sessions typically start with a meal and include conversation about the material covered in the video. The format emphasizes discovery through community. One particular guideline for Alpha leaders is to avoid preaching, allowing seekers to find answers themselves. As someone who was uncomfortable preaching I was profoundly relieved that I didn’t need to know all the answers. The Spirit was a very good group leader! In fact, things went better when we prayed for God to work, stepped back and watched him work.

Many of the people who attended these Alpha courses were already church goers and after several rounds I became thirsty to reach people who were earlier in the path of discipleship. Under Mary Schaller’s mentorship I committed to run a group for seekers. It took a long time for the pieces to fall into place. I couldn’t find a co-leader and I didn’t have anyone to invite! Finally the Lord provided a group of men who were interested in attending, and Pastor Ben Pierce to help lead.

We’ve been meeting now for several months. Conversations are very honest and open. Several of our members share similar experiences in our background so the sense of community is strong. One ongoing difficulty we have is how to manage the balance between following study materials and letting the members ask questions they have. We agree it’s best to have some form of guided discussion but as soon as we ask questions everyone gets off into their own experiences and questions. I pray for ongoing guidance and have confidence that God can move us all in the right direction. I’m excited to see where we end up. I’m particularly hopeful that people will see their self-identified longing for spiritual meaning satisfied in the person of Jesus Christ. Witnessing that day of meeting will be a dream come true." -Bill Weir

Abe Orozco's Story - It Keeps Getting Better!

Here's another story to complement and expand on Jerry Shen's story by Abe Orozco at Great Exchange Covenant church in Sunnyvale:

"I was introduced to Garry Poole’s seeker small group methodology at a Willow Creek Group Life Conference in September of 2006. I was deeply inspired to start my own, so I spent the next few months building stronger relationships with non-Christian friends and other seekers who attended my church. I also recruited one of my Christian friends, Jerry, to be my co-leader. In January we started with five non-Christians meeting at my apartment. In March, one of the non-Christians, Gary, accepted Jesus into his life even as his mom was battling cancer. It was amazing! Then in June, after a month-long break, another non-Christian in the group, Norna, dropped a bomb on us that she had accepted Jesus as well! Word started to spread at church that seeker small groups were worth a try.

When I caught wind that Garry Poole was coming to the Bay Area to do a seeker small group workshop for potential leaders, I recruited a dozen friends from church to attend. After the workshop several of those who attended began getting ready to start their own seeker small group. In order to sustain this energy I knew that I needed to create an infrastructure to support the enthusiasm. I called a meeting of those who attended the training day in March in order to brainstorm ideas for a new ministry.

We came up with THE SEARCH.

Our vision statement
To see lay people lead missional lives.

Our mission statements
(1) To offer training on how to start a seeker small group.
(2) To offer support for current seeker small group leaders.

Since the time we became an official ministry, we have offered two training days, started four seeker small groups, and have multiplied the number of seeker small group leaders to nine people. Our leaders meet up at least once a quarter for mutual encouragement. And the biggest news: so far a total of three individuals have given their lives to Jesus, and we trust that there will be more. I provide pastoral support for THE SEARCH. Jerry, my former co-leader for our first seeker small group, is now the lay leader for the ministry, and Ruey, currently my co-leader for my new seeker small group, is a core member for the THE SEARCH.

Please pray that THE SEARCH is able to sustain and reproduce itself!!! We’re praying the same for all of your seeker small group ministries!" - Abe Orozco

Jerry Shen's story

Jerry Shen is a member of Great Exchange Covenant Church (GrX) in Sunnyvale, CA. His is a story that should inspire all of us. It sure inspired me. It reminds me of the power of just taking the next step that God leads us to take. As we do that, He shows us another, and then another. First, Jerry got involved in launching a seeker small group in the Sunnyvale area. Then, several months later, others became encouraged by his story and wanted to launch their own group. Jerry has decided to encourage and support them by meeting with these new leaders regularly as a volunteer heading up this new lay led ministry at GRX. Here's his story:

I remember my first experience leading a seeker small group very vividly. It was my freshman year of college, and I had been praying for God to open doors for evangelism. After an outreach event put on by my fellowship, God delivered and brought several people to a seeker group that I started with another friend. That first time was one of the most nerve-wracking experiences I’ve ever had. I felt as if I couldn’t answer anyone’s questions, and left feeling like I was ill-equipped for kingdom work.

Fast forward 5 years, and I am given another opportunity to start a seeker small group at GrX. I discover that Abel Orozco, one of the new pastors, shares my heart for seekers. He also gave me Gary Poole’s book on seeker small groups. After reading it cover to cover, I was blown away by his methodology. I led seeker groups throughout college, but my goal was to always answer any question that came my way. Gary’s method of not answering seeker questions, but encouraging open dialogue, came as a revelation to me. I was admittedly burned out from leading seeker small groups, thinking I always had to come up with the right answer. Gary’s method, however, reinvigorated me and gave me a fresh passion for seeker groups.

Even though we were both excited about leading seeker groups, it was a rocky start. Attendance was inconsistent, as many people showed up once and did not come back. There were even some Christians that came and tried to play the role of bible answer man. However, amidst the chaos, God was working. Even though many were inconsistent, there were a few who made it nearly every week. The amazing thing about leading this seeker group was that we could see transformation happen right before our eyes. One particular woman was hostile to the idea of religion when the group started. A few months later, however, she openly warmed up to Christianity and even began to agree with a lot of things we showed her in the bible. Another seeker who came consistently actually gave his life to Christ! Now, he is plugged in to a regular small group and serving at the church.

As our seeker group ended, Abel and I decided that we wanted to make this a ministry at GrX. Instead of just having one seeker small group, we decided to train others so that they could lead their own. After holding some training sessions, and talking to individuals who were interested, we started 4 seeker small groups at GrX. Abel and I are currently leading 2 separate seeker groups so that we can train up others. There are also several people that took the initiative to start their own. As much as Abel and I would love to take credit for this multiplication, it was clear that this was a work of God. Throughout the year, God was giving GrX members a heart for seekers. Now, my role has changed from that of a seeker leader to a ministry leader. Even though I still lead a seeker group, part of my role is to also train up and support other seeker small group leaders. It had been a tremendous experience just seeing what God has been doing at GrX, and I hope and pray that this ministry can reach out to many more seekers in the Bay Area. - Jerry