Small Groups and Big Nights | an interview with Pastor Chris Smith
SMALL GROUPS AND BIG NIGHTS | an interview with Pastor Chris Smith
Georgia Student Ministry Network: How long have you been serving at People's Church?
Chris Smith: 3 ½ years
GSMN: What does a Wednesday night experience at Epic look like?
CS: Doors open at 6:30 pm, Experience starts at 7 pm. At 7 pm our Jr. high and high school students are together for worship (we do 3 songs, 2 fast, 1 slow), offering, announcements (we do video announcements), rules (done by video but sometimes verbally), then we have a meet and greet time where we also release our Jr. high students to community groups. When the jr highers are gone we have a message (15-20 minutes) for the high school students and then they break into community groups (25-30 minutes. Our experience ends at 8:15 pm and then all students must leave by 8:45 pm.
GSMN: What made you decide to make Small Groups a part of your Wednesday night experience?
CS: We tried home groups a few different ways and they always failed. The greatest success we saw was 20% of our students in groups and 80% were missing out on meaningful relationships and were strangers. I also felt like I was banging my head against a wall trying to get students to a group on an off night and getting homes and leaders all over OKC. I finally thought to myself all of my students and my leaders are here on Wed, why not simplify things and do groups on Wed? We immediately made the change and never looked back.
GSMN: How has making that change impacted your group?
CS: We are seeing students discipled and connecting with one another in a greater level and 100% of our students are in these groups!
GSMN: What is the most effective thing Epic has done to reach students?
CS: Our talent show, students love to see and support other students. We also always have food with our outreach, we will do free food over and I-pad giveaway any day. If you feed them they will come!
GSMN: Tell us a little of the idea behind Big Month?
CS: Totally got this idea from Kevin Moore who is youth pastor in Visalia, Ca. We did a few awesome big nights and that’s all they were was one big night and then we dropped back down to normal attendance with maybe a small growth. So we decided to spread out our resources and do a big month instead of a big night. We have greater retention when we get students to come to our ministry 2 to 4 nights a month instead of one night. Basically instead of putting all of our eggs into one night we spread them out through the month.
GSMN: How has Big Month impacted Epic?
CS: It has been amazing, the last two falls our youth ministry has doubled with doing a big month.
GSMN: Who has influenced you the most as a leader?
CS: My senior pastor and no I’m not paid to say that J he has stretched, corrected, challenged, taught me a ton in the last 3 years. I encourage you to follow him on twitter and check out his blog, herbertcooper.com. He is the most driven person I have ever met in my life and I’m a better husband, father, leader and youth pastor because of him. Outside of him, I’ve really been influenced by Andy Stanley’s teachings, podcasts and books.
GSMN: What resources have had the biggest impact on how you do ministry?
CS: Some books that have had the biggest impact on me are Seven Practices of Effective Ministry by Andy Stanley, Five Dysfunctions of a Team/Death by Meeting by Patrick Leoncioni, Thriving Youth Groups by Jeanne Mayo and Volunteer Revolution by Bill Hybels. As for podcasts Andy Stanley and Perry Noble’s leadership podcast are money! I also love connecting with youth pastors and learning from everyone. Whether they have 10 students or 1,000 I’m always trying to learn from other youth pastors. I also listen to great communicators, some of my favorites are my senior pastor Herbert Cooper (if I was a senior pastor I would steal all his stuff, he does great practical teaching), Kevin Moore (he has awesome illustrations), Perry Noble, Judah Smith, Jud Wilhite and I listen to comedians (the blue collar comedians are my favorite).
Chris is the Student Ministries Director at People's Church in Oklahoma City
with Pastor Herbert Cooper. In 2010, People's Church was listed as the
No. 4 Fastest Growing Church in America by Outreach Magazine.
Chris was born in Belgium, grew up in Indianapolis, graduated from
Central Bible College and has been doing student ministry for 10 years.
He spends his time relaxing with his family, traveling, and watching
sports, particularly the Colts, Yankees, Buckeyes and the OKC Thunder.
He lives in Oklahoma City with his wife Jamie, 3 year old son Jace and
their 2 month old daughter Cali. Follow Chris on Twitter for more info.