United Nerd LifeGroup
During this week’s United Nerd LifeGroup I had the opportunity to share what God has been speaking into my heart and life intensely for that last year. It is something that is Kingdom minded and movement structured - and if you watch the whole video above you will see my passion randomly walk us through what the beginning of this movement will look like.
The main challenge was that the United Nerd LifeGroup is shifting into becoming a community individuals who are passionate about Jesus, and being a leader of an online lifegroup - of lifegroup leaders.
I encouraged those that were considering continuing to be a part of this (now) movement to take the next week and really pray about it. I also outlined what the main foundations / DNA of this movement were going to be:
1. Extraordinary Prayer (James 5:16 and Psalms 5:6)
No major movements of God have been done in the void of extraordinary prayer by its leaders. This movement will start, live and finish through prayer and placing everything into God’s hands. Prayer isn’t just about tapping into the power of God, it is a reminder of who is in control (God) and who isn’t (us).
2. Passion for Jesus (Psalm 69:9 and Romans 8:37-39)
This will be a movement of people who are passionate about Jesus. Our Rally Cry is a love for Jesus, and you need to have gotten over being called a Jesus fanatic to fit in.
3. Passion for God’s Word (2 Timothy 3:15 Psalm 1:2 James 1:22-23)
This Bible and only the Bible is where we find the authority in our own lives and in our leadership of our groups. If it doesn’t match scripture, it doesn’t belong.
4. Reaching People and Investing in their Lives (Mark 16:15 Luke 24:47 Matthew 24:14)
This is a people based movement, not a ministry based one. There will be many different ministries represented and/or feeding into this movement. But we are about reaching groups of people with the love and life changing power of Jesus and his Gospel. And then investing in their lives to challenge them to reach more.
I also want to add in two more foundations and elements to this DNA that I mentioned in our meeting (again you can view it above) but didn’t list with these when I finished at the end.
5. Rapidly Reproducing Groups
There are a ton of small groups everyone can belong to that are focused on fellowship. This is not one of them. We have plenty of fellowship in our group, but this is a movement with a mission focus of reaching people. So, every group is expected to have the fruit of new groups 12 weeks after it starts. The pattern is obvious below, and individuals who need more time to make a decision are obviously okay to do so. But the target of this movement is to find people with a passion to invest in the lives of others. And to do so at the level of their own ability. So, some groups may only be a group of 5 leaders, others might be a group of 200 leaders. The economy of the internet allows the meeting times to require the same amount of work regardless of size which works to our advantage. The group size is dependent on each leaders ability, not a fake number requirement.
6. Bring in, Buildup, Train, and Send Out (in a 12 week pattern)
The audience of this movement is people who have their passion awakened by its rally cry to reach and lead a group of people online. Consider the initial paradigm we started with the United Nerd LifeGroup that is in progress now. We started with a 6 week study that identified with a certain group of people and had a study specific suited for where they would benefit (brining in). Now, we have set forth a challenge that if you want to continue to be apart for another six weeks you need to be willing to try leading an online LifeGroup for just 6 weeks. And to help we start with 6 weeks of training on how to do so the very next week (build up). Then, at the end of the training the new leaders start their LifeGroups to reach a group of people they identify with, while still being able to come back to their main group for community, prayer and study. (send out & community)
This schedule is HIGHLY strategic and intentional. First, because six weeks is enough for it to not be too long, but is long enough to start to know people in the group. Second, because six weeks is just enough time to prepare a leader with what they need to start (they learn while they act during the next 6 weeks to be good enough to finish).
Summary:
Man, I know there was more we talked about, but I wanted to get this post (and page) up so you guys could go back through and review all that we talked about on Tuesday. For those of you in the United Nerd LifeGroup we start our first week of training this next Tuesday November the 25th at 9pm Central. We are now using Mogulus.com at this url http://mogulus.com/opensourcelovemovement and not the ustream channel.
I will be working on and releasing more community features for us to interact through in the coming days. But first you can leave a comment on your thoughts, what this experience has meant to you so far, and your prayers below. For your feedback, strategic thoughts and to have a voice into the DNA you can click here.
Love you guys!
