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The Saturday morning for the first small group meeting came, and on the fly, I tried something for the first time that became known as the "small group connection" process. The men gathered into pairs, then fours, and then groups of eight, according to where they lived. This process simply allowed people to traverse down a spiral of questions. The group moved from icebreaker questions to deeper spiritual conversations. It allowed each group to identify and select the relative spiritual shepherd and co-shepherd in the circle and have them host a 6 week starter group.

My prayer was simply, "Lord, let these men connect with one another. And by the way, don't let me lose my job. I have five kids to support; my wife will kill me."

Did it work?

That morning, we launched 32 groups, with almost 300 men, total. It wasn't all roses, but the process planted a seed for future campaigns. If you'd like more information on a free audio description of this process, click on www.lifetogether.com.

At first, only 50 percent of the men stayed connected to their groups. I felt terrible about that. But Rick said, "Hey, at least 50 percent stayed connected." I really needed the encouragement.

We kept at it, and developed a more sophisticated approach to the leadership training system. After only a few years, we connected almost 8,000 people into off-campus small groups. We kept working on the process and the Leadership Training system until we were able to successfully connect 72 percent of those who came to a connection event.

So the process worked for other affinity groups?

It worked for men's, women's, couples, and singles groups. The core idea was that leaders did not need to be recruited and trained before groups were launched. Instead, in essence, we trained leaders on the fly. So we didn't use the apprentice model. We asked people to host a group in their home for six weeks.

The breakthrough, though, came when we aligned the launching of new small groups with the weekend services at Saddleback. We added what we called the "Rick Factor."

Only one church has the Rick Factor!

The secret weapon in any church for recruiting new leaders is and always will be the Senior Pastor.

In one weekend, we signed up more than 1,500 people to join a small group. A year later it was 2,000, and then 2,500 the following year. From our past experience, we knew that up to 30 percent would not stay connected, and we discovered that "weekend alignment"—aligning the teaching of the weekend service with the launch of new small groups—was big. Very big.

How much does the senior pastor need to believe in small groups for them to succeed?

Rick had done spiritual growth campaigns for years, but we began to realize that small groups were vital, if not the driving component, in helping to transform lives and motivate one's next spiritual steps. If the senior pastor believes in small groups, that ripples throughout the congregation.

How did Rick support the small group process?

Rick agreed to be videotaped as he taught a Bible study on the book of James. The congregation loved it. We used that as the basis for the small group curriculum. People viewed the taped and discussed it in their small groups. Finally, ordinary members could be leaders because they didn't need to possess the teaching and facilitation skills and knowledge of Scripture that Rick did.

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