Customer Reviews

Sticky Church (Leadership Network Innovation Series)

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I knew I wanted to read Larry Osborne's new book Sticky Church as soon as I read the title. I would guess that that every pastor and every church has wrestled with the question about how to get people who visit their church to not only stay but how to get them connected. As Osborne points out we've tried just about everything but we still see too many of our people leaving through the back door.

The solution for Osborne and the folks at North Coast Church was to help people "stick" by getting them to be a part of their small group ministry. But the small groups at NCC were not your typical Bible study group or multiplying cell group. Osborne details the process that led him and his ministry team to focus on Sermon based small groups. As a result, those involved in small groups at NCC were given an opportunity to make application from what they heard the previous Sunday in the context of encouraging, accountable relationships.

I found Osborne's book to be extremely helpful in developing my own vision and strategy for ministry but probably not in the way Osborne would have imagined when writing this book. I pastor a rural church where we don't have small groups--we are a small group. I found many of Osborne's comments and principles to be very relevant to our situation and the ministry we are trusting God to develop. Osborne covers everything from preaching, to church health, to relationships, and leadership training. I imagine the principles I gleaned will be most beneficial to the way I give leadership to the local church.

My copy of Sticky Church is now marked up and well worn. My goal now is to go back through the book so I can process again the principles Osborne has shared. Let me share one principle that I found worth the price of the book (although thanks to the good folks at Zondervan I was given this copy to review for free!)

Just recently my kids have discover the joy of Legos, a toy that was a favorite of mine growing up as well. On pages 79-81 Osborne explains why we see such difficulty among people to "jell" with others when forming new relationship. The answer: people are like Legos. Like the little plastic bricks, there are only so many connectors to go around. When those connectors get filled up we find it difficult to make any new connections. When I read this and Osborne's further application (you'll just have to buy the book) I felt that both a light bulb went on and a weight was lifted at the same time. It's not so much that the church is full of cliques; it's that many of us already have our connectors filled (p.80). Brilliant!

Even if yours is not a church of small groups, or small groups are not yet on your ministry horizon this book is well worth reading. It will stay on my shelf and deserves a second read. Here's hoping that the Lord uses this book to help our churches become even "stickier".

"If the back door of a church is left wide open, it doesn't matter how many people are coaxed to come in the front door," according to this book. Healthy churches are "sticky", because they concentrate on growing people up to maturity, not just on attracting "spiritual window shoppers". The book goes on to describe North Coast Church's sermon-based small groups model.

Small groups provide the best forum for Christians to learn to stick to other Christians and to the Bible. When the subject of each week's small group meeting is the preceding Sunday's sermon, the level of attention paid to the sermon increases, and many people even start taking notes. Those who happen to miss the week's sermon are more likely to listen to it online in preparation for the weekly small group meeting. Newcomers find it easier to fit into small groups, because they can study up on the sermon before they come.

According to Osborne, the ideal group size is 8 to 12 singles or 6 to 7 couples. People need to be in a group with people they are compatible with, so purely neighbourhood-based groups do not work well. Because people have limited time, small groups need to be the main priority; other activities can be held during a season of the year when there are no small groups. There is enough new information in this book to make it recommended reading for all church leaders.

I'm on staff at a church that's been doing small groups seriously for about five years. I've read many books on small groups and have learned some important things from most of them. As all honest authors admit, no particular model is completely transferable from one church context to another, and Osborne thankfully acknowledges this reality. Rather than prescribing the North Coast model as the panacea to solve all small group problems, he seems to approach "The Sticky Church" from the perspective of "here's what we've experienced, here's what's working for us, so use whatever is helpful." I like that.

The overall premise of the book is that many churches spend too much time widening the front door (getting new people to come) and not enough time closing the back door (discouraging current attenders from leaving). As other reviewers have noted, Osborne spends the latter part of the book explaining NCC's primary solution for creating a Sticky Church, their small groups. There are two things about groups at NCC that are somewhat unique from much of the standard small groups literature.

First, their groups are primarily sermon-based, which simply means that their "curriculum" is discussing the sermon from weekend worship. This has many benefits, which include encouraging better sermon listening, note-taking, and accessing the message online or with a CD if a person missed the message. And probably the biggest value of sermon-based groups is the simplification that it creates in people's lives, who are bombarded with messages and ideas and don't need yet another thing to be pondering and studying, even if it is a good small group study. I know that I've been part of many groups when reading a random book or doing a random study of a book of the Bible simply added another layer of complexity to my life without having any transforming value. How intuitive and obvious (but somehow rare) to not only allow but even encourage groups to simply spend some time reflecting on the sermon and the corresponding Scripture passage! If we think that sermons have the potential to impact people's lives, I can imagine no better way to foster that growth than by scheduling a time for everyone to digest and discuss further what they heard on the weekend. It is so simple, yet so profound.

The second main idea of Osborne's book, which is contrary to almost every other group model that I've studied, is the celebration of long-term relationships in group. Of course, most group gurus would suggest that long-term relationships are a good thing. But the multiplication model that they espouse runs contrary to this idea. Though the pundits all provide countless tips for group multiplication (and my wife and I have led our groups through multiplication several times), the reality is that we are trying to create a group culture in direct opposition to what we have promised people that they would find in groups, which are significant relationships. Therefore, Osborne has the guts to simply say that group multiplication is a dumb idea and destroys exactly what we're trying to create.

This approach to not only allowing but encouraging essentially "closed" groups requires some serious thought. Osborne explains how they manage this unusual model, through leader development and starting new groups. But more so than any of the specific information or tips, what I love most about this book is Osborne's complete honesty. I have experienced, personally and corporately, the frustration that results from how many churches are trying to do small groups. Osborne suggests two relatively simple things (sermon-based discussion and long-term groups) that help to diffuse a lot of that tension. We're not going to mirror what NCC is doing, but we will be making some shifts in our language and our approach to small group ministry, trying to develop our groups to be places where people can actually experience significant, Christ-centered relationships. If we get that right, then we will be much closer to becoming a "Sticky Church."

This is a book that begins good with principles of retaining people. However, early into the book, the author narrows the rest of it to small group ministry...sunday sermon based groups to be exact. As a pastor who already uses a similar method, I still got a lot out of it. However, I belive that anyone considering this book should know that its enfasis is small groups...especially his method. So if you want a small group book on sunday sermon based methodolgy, this is for you; but if you are expecting a book that os broader on the subject of people retention, keep looking. Bottom line, a good book...IF you are interested in small groups.

Our contemporary church of 500 plus is on our second go at organizing church-wide small groups. This time we are doing it better than last. However, after a year, someone put the book "Sticky Church" in my hands. It is a godsend. The book helped us to see where our good start on small groups was going to stall. It helped us immediately with problems that were cropping up. If nothing else, the chapter titles themselves were helpful.

Larry writes in a manner that is easy to remember and even repeat to others. This helps when convincing other church leaders that change needs to be made. One simple improvement, for example, was the idea of a semester system. Another was to stop trying to get groups to grow and divide.

Anyway, read the book if you are a leader in a church doing small groups.

Larry Osborne has written a new book called "Sticky Church" dealing with one of the most needed ingredients in the recipe for quality discipleship--time. He writes the book in the context of his ministry, a large, multi-site congregation in southern California. There is a lot of talk about "shutting the back door of the church" so that people can come any time they want but they will never leave- a religious version of The Hotel California.

North Coast Church hasn't really shut the back door of their church, they don't appear to be that controlling and it is against fire code. But neither did they invest any money in a marketing strategy to make the front door more inviting. Instead their focus has been creating an atmosphere where people engage with others and then want to stay. The foundation of North Coast's model is sermon-based small groups.

Overall the message of this book is how a church can learn to facilitate a healthy, small group atmosphere. It cannot be controlled, managed, or manipulated. It merely should be birthed and then nurtured along. This will be a healthy wake up call for churches who have approached their small group ministry with a business philosophy instead of looking at it as an organic family.

Kudos to Osborne and North Coast for modeling a healty expression of small group ministry within a large church. The book is certainly a recommended read.

Dr. Larry Osborne, among many other gifts, is an established expert on how to help churches get 'sticky' --- that is, keeping and including the adults and families that they initially attract through programs, events and ministries.

Simply put: Nobody does it better!

Osborne is the senior pastor of North Coast Church in Vista, California (7,000 plus attend each weekend) and has led the church for three decades. Always good at drawing new people in, North Coast was not originally strong on incorporating and including.

Fast forward to right now --- North Coast does "sticky" better than any other church in North America. One key factor is a dynamic small group program that actually functions as the heart of the ministry.

In this excellent new book Osborne shows you how, step-by-step, a congregation can intentionally become more sticky and thus more effective at long-term discipleship, equipping for ministry, and thus mission.

A must-read for congregations, church boards, church leaders, and anyone interested in long-term assimilation/incorporation/inclusion of those who attend a local community of faith.

Dr. David Frisbie
The Center for Marriage & Family Studies
Del Mar, California
Author ofThe Soul-Mate Marriage: The Spiritual Journey of Becoming One

Last night, I finished reading Sticky Church by Larry Osborne. I gave it two stars from a small group guy's perspective, not a "close the back door of your church" perspective. Here are my likes and gripes...

Like: Osborne's general writing style. The book was easy to read and he was honest about how he feels about all sorts of things related to small groups and the small group movement.

Like: Osborne's illustration about people being like Lego bricks is fairly accurate. People only have time and emotional space for X number of close friends, or only so many other legos can be snapped to yours before some fall off. This is a good analogy for those who seek to be more relationally evangelistic (although he doesn't make this point in the book, that's my application of his analogy).

Like: He's a big fan sermon based small groups, which is what is done in South Korea and at Victory Christian Center in Tulsa, OK, just to name a few. This is a big distinction of his book and church... so few American churches have "pulpit groups," favoring DVD curriculum or giving each leader or group the freedom to choose their own subject matter for the Bible discussion portion of the meeting.

Like: Osborne does not see small groups as a supportive program for his church or his pulpit ministry. He has a paradigm that allows him to view weekend services as being a gathering of small groups for instruction and worship.

Gripe: Osborne speaks of small groups as one of the main things that helps his members "stick" and remain in his church. It is his church's primary method of closing the back door. As I have commented before in other blog posts and book reviews, this is indeed a value of small groups, but should be a byproduct for groups, not the main reason a church launches them... small groups of people meeting in Christ's name are the church. I truly believe the bride of Christ is being prostituted for man's glory and structures ... and her Husband ain't content with the way biblical community is being used in the Western church world.

Gripe: Osborne states that his church's small groups are formed to build relationships and apply the sermon, not encourage relational evangelism. He wrote that people just won't sign up for groups if this is a stated purpose. He commented that relational evangelism does happen, but it's not a major thrust of their groups. He maintains a "involve the consumers more" type of attitude about small groups, vs. helping people discover their ministry giftings and harness the power of biblical community to storm the gates of hell and set captives free.

Gripe: Osborne firmly writes that the Cho model will not work in America, citing that Americans are not good at obeying authority like South Koreans. He also extended this comment to other places in the world as well where highly motivated cell members reach friends for Christ and desire to one day multiply their group and lead one of their own.

Combo Like/Gripe: Osborne states that multiplying groups doesn't work in America and people hate it so they don't ever ask groups to do it at his church. They invite new people who join the congregation or visit the church services to join a new 10-week group starting up and hope it will become a sticky place for the folks, who make the group their permanent home.

Instead of what he calls "splitting or dividing" groups, he comments how the church staff approaches apprentices and asks them if they're ready to start a new group of their own. I like this because it's actually what all the cell-based churches around the world do, even though Osborne doesn't seem to understand this about these churches.

My gripe is the fact that the groups in North Coast Chruch seem to be populated through the big church services, not primarily from the hard work of the members through relationship building. He writes this is the best way to start groups and be "sticky" because unbelievers are most comfortable with a big, impersonal event compared to a scary small group experience. While this is a true sociological statement (especially in Southern California where his church is located), it completely ignores the fact that people are looking for faith through genuine relationships, not religion or spirituality.

If the members of a holistic small group are spending time with unbelieving friends outside of small group gatherings to build a genuine, two-way relationship, they will develop enough of a friendship to draw the unbeliever into the biblical community. In a relatively short period of relationship-building time, unbelievers will gladly visit a gathering in a home where they will see Christ's presence, power, and purposes manifested in such capacities that the person is brought to faith in Christ and repentance.

Petty Gripe: Osborne's frequent use of the word "pretty," used as an adverb instead of an adjective drove me nuts. Whomever edited his book at Zondervan needs to be smacked around for allowing it to remain in the final manuscript. (I remain puzzled at the ever-decreasing quality of writing I find in books published by large Christian publishers.)

Recommendation: If you desire to see your small groups develop a passion for Christ in their midst that drives them to love Him more, each other sacrificially, AND the lost through friendship and servanthood, this book isn't going to help you in that pursuit. Osborne shares his opinions about what has not worked in his church concerning holistic small groups (cell groups) because his church, like so many others, went about it all wrong... making congregational assimilation the primary goal and treating it like a program launch, not a completely different way of viewing and being the church.

This is an impressive book written by someone who has obviously tried a variety of options for small groups and found one that has stood out above all the rest. The success rate with their use of sermon-based small groups is astounding. This is a must for any church that is trying to get more people involved in the study of the word together and is also trying to close the back door. I highly recommend this as being extremely useful and stimulating.

Interested in developing sermon-based small groups? Sticky Church (Leadership Network Innovation Series, The) by Larry Osborne is packed with helpful insights.

In addition to providing the nuts and bolts of how it works, Sticky Church carefully explains the underlying assumptions and principles North Coast has used to develop their sermon-based small group strategy. Finally, you'll also find an appendix that is full of the forms, job descriptions and covenants you'll need to begin to implement the concept.

Is the strategy for everyone? No. Is it designed to do it all? No, but no approach is. Clearly designed to connect the people you already have, Osborne acknowledges that his vision is "that every Christian in our church needs to be velcroed to significant relationships." While Sticky Church is not outreach oriented, it is a great blueprint for implementing a small group strategy that will help members and attendees connect.