On site at the NEXT 2009 Saddleback Small Groups Conference

Reporting LIVE from Victory Church in Norcross, GA

by Dan Lentz

Here are some images from the NEXT 2009 Conference (Atlanta). I just took these pictures of the main session, workshop, and even the SmallGroups.com booth that I skipped out of for a few minutes to give you an update.

While I'm no where to be found in these shots, there are a several hundred folks here taking in a variety of training and round table discussion opportunities. Last hour I sat around a table with fellow small group ministry practitioners as we discussed what was working and what was not working well in the area of small group outreach and small group coaching, among other things.

Here's one thing I'm hearing more often all the time, particularly in medium to larger church settings; hiring part-time paid small group leader coaches to coach 25-100 group leaders each is a coaching model that is working. Not that there isn't volunteer coaching system that are working, but part-time paid coaches have been filling the gap for many churches where volunteer coaching systems were not. Part-time paid coaches have more accountability, more enthusiasm, and more impact on their volunteer small group leaders according to churches who have tried both.

How about you? What have been your results with small group leader coaching?

Also, if you happen to be reading this and were in attendance at this conference, feel free to post a comment of your thoughts about anything you experienced at the conference.