LAUNCHing Pods with a purpose
How can you launch pods with so many other demands on your time? Providing a place for people to be in a web of friendship is just as significant as providing an online or in-person worship experience.
If you are too busy or want to raise up additional leadership, ask yourself, who would have the heart and the “push” to ask people to join pods and or lead a pod launching team?
Pod thinking means if you get one pod launched that while rejoicing in its existence that your major mental focus is who and how to get the next pod going. This is why ideally there is a Pod Ministry Team whose leader and members have only one focus, the launching and sustaining of pods with a purpose. The more effective they are, the more people who are loved and who are encouraged to love and serve their Lord!
Re-think your church website
Many church websites are virtually identical to their pre-pandemic format with the exception of information about online worship. People want to connect, so make their opportunities to connect through pods or other groups very clear!
Pods after Online Worship
Immediately after online worship is a great time to offer pod groups to people. Online platforms such as Zoom make this very easy. After worship pods are a great way to allow church people to connect personally and grow in faith and to provide entry points for new people. An upside to pods directly after online worship is that the people aren’t getting in cars and going to their next endeavor. They are still sitting in their homes and have the time to connect more personally in a pod.
After online worship, some congregations offer offer classes using Zoom type online platforms. Typically classes involve some lecture and some dialogue. There may be a word of prayer at the end. Shifting to the Word-Share-Prayer format of the discipleship triangle (see the section POD DESIGN) that pod’s use can strengthen the interpersonal connections among the members and enhance their growth in faith.
New Pods Through Addition
Adding new pods is one way to increase the number of pods in the life of the church as they are organized one by one or as a part of a congregational series.
Here are three ways to add pods with a purpose:
Seven Week Congregational Spiritual Growth Series
Invite every existing group to study a Book of the Bible or a resource book or video using the Word-Share-Prayer format of a pod meeting.
Invite anyone not in an existing group to join a new pod during this congregational spiritual growth series.
Growth series pods meet at the same time or on their own schedule.
At the same time. Invite everyone to join in a large group gathering for 45 minutes of teaching and encouragement. This is easy to do with Zoom and other online video platforms. Then send everyone to their pod for another 45 minutes of Word-Share-Prayer.
On their own schedule. Invite every pod to decide its own seven-week meeting schedule.
Use 7 Meeting (5 + 2) Format
People are often wary of commitments that appear to have no limit. So, offer pod opportunities that last for 7 weeks such as a study of the Book of Philippians or the fruit of the Spirit or use some study book or videos. At the fifth week, after people have had a chance to bond, ask pod members in personal conversation if they are enjoying the group. If they are, ask if they would like to keep the group going when the seven weeks are over. Typically, many will want to continue. Do affirm those for whom the original seven weeks is their stopping time.
Turn existing groups into pods with a purpose
Invite existing groups such as classes, circles, ministry teams and committees to function as a pod – with the Word-Share-Prayer-Send pattern of a pod meeting.
New Pods Through Multiplication
New pods through addition typically adds pods one at a time to the life of the congregation. Pod multiplication occurs when the pods themselves create new pods.
This amplifies the significance of the “open chair” meaning the pod is open to new people. When the pod grows to 10 to 14 members, then the pod decides to become two groups and they “send” each other to their own meetings.
Key to such multiplication is the pod value or agreement that we will “send” new pods as we grow. Otherwise people, out of comfort and familiarity with their pod, will resist the idea of sending anyone, even if the pod grows too large. However, when that happens, a good solution is to convert the pod into a Discipleship Learning Community (DLC) (see below).
Pod addition relies on a pastor or church leader with the sustained initiative to recruit people and pod leaders and get each pod going. Life’s demands may easily neutralize such organizing leaders and growth in the number of pods stagnates.
Pod multiplication depends on the enterprise of pod leaders and pod members and enables a broader sustained initiative to take place, even when some leaders or members are neutralized by life’s demands. Pods multiply in at least three ways: sending, lending, and tending
Sending
The pod leader encourages pod members to invite guests to fill the empty chair by inviting others to pod meetings. When the pod grows to around ten or twelve members, the pod leader takes five or six people and the pod “sends” them to become a second pod. The apprentice leader now becomes the pod’s new leader. Notice the use of the word “to send,” which in scripture typically means sent to serve, and not the word “divide” which carries a negative connotation for some.
Lending
If no one is willing to lead a new pod created from within the original pod, then the leader asks someone to be “lent” temporarily to lead a new pod and once it’s feet, to return to her or his original pod.
Tending
If the pod members are uncomfortable with sending or lending people to new pods and therefore losing the opportunity to see them regularly, one solution is to create a Discipleship Learning Community (DLC). A Discipleship Learning Community (DLC) is a pod of pods. The master pod meets for 30 to 45 minutes. Someone teaches from scripture for a while, announcements and personal minutes for witness are offered. Then the master pod shifts to the individual pods immediately meeting for another 45 minutes. This is a powerful ministry paradigm because it enables large group teaching and encouragement and small group intimacy and discussion.
The Discipleship Learning Community (DLC)
A Discipleship Learning Community offers large group – small group balance. It’s a principle we see vividly in Acts 2:46, “And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes.” The large group enables a teaching platform along with the opportunity to lead in worship or other church opportunities as appropriate to the DLC. The small pod groups enable spiritual challenge, personal friendship and mutual encouragement.
Classic small groups in church life typically remain under 14 members because once that number is exceeded, the group is no longer “small.” By “small” we mean everyone both welcome and free to speak up. Once a group exceeds 14 members, there will be some who simply will not talk, even though they know they are welcome to do so. However, small congregations and sub-groups of large congregations may swell to 80 or more participating members.
A Discipleship Learning Community (DLC) is a pod of pods. The whole group meets for 30 to 45 minutes. Someone teaches from scripture for a while, announcements and personal minutes for witness are offered. The full length of the church worship service may be viewed as this master pod meeting. Then the master pod shifts to the individual pods immediately following for another 45 minutes. This is a powerful ministry paradigm because it enables large group teaching and encouragement and small group intimacy and discussion.
When the “large group” is the worship service, the individual pods may meet directly after the worship service ends or at other times during the week. With online worship, it is easy to use platforms like Zoom to shift people from the large group into their pod meetings.
Other examples are a DLC that meets at 10:00 a.m. on a weekday morning for teaching as a large group followed by the pods meeting from 10:45 until 11:30. Or an evening DLC that meets from 7:00 pm until 7:45 for teaching and then from 7:45 until 8:30 for the pods.
Imagine the Many Ways to Design Pods with a Purpose
Prayer Partner Pods - Pods of two or three who meet weekly by means of an online platform or socially distanced for Word-Share-Prayer with a focus on their prayer lives
Mission Team Pods - Pods that meet online or socially distanced for a brief time of Word-Share-Prayer followed by the planning and their involvement in some kind of service to the church, community or wider world.
Existing Groups and Classes as a Source of Pods
When there are existing groups and classes of 14 or fewer members, they may shift to the Word-Share-Prayer format. However, there is no value in forcing that format on groups that show little interest. On the other hand, especially for larger groups and classes that are meeting using an online platform, the willingness to allow people to meet in smaller pods at the end of the large group meeting greatly enhances the depth of the webs of relationships in the church.
Get together and Get going!
Don’t wait. The concept of a pod is simple. Think of a person or two who could lead or or be in one and pick up your phone.
