(This post first appeared at http://national.2030s.org/?p=58)

Our 2030s group in Atlanta is modeled off what I call the incubator model.  Here are five tenets to an incubator group:

  • An incubator group focuses on regular fellowship first to build community before focusing on programming.
  • An incubator group is radically welcome, constantly on guard against cliquish mentality while building community.
  • An incubator group realizes that people will come and go.
  • An incubator group lets ideas bubble up naturally and fall away naturally.  An incubator group also lets leaders bubble up naturally and fall away naturally.
  • An incubator group helps get folks comfortable with the congregation so they feel comfortable branching out into different areas of the congregation.

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Let’s look at each of these a little closer.

Tenet #1 – An incubator group focuses on regular fellowship first to build community before focusing on programming. 

Not what you typically think of when you think, “church group.”  You don’t need to start off with a covenant group or a mind blowing RE class.  You’ll often get bogged down into planning those details, and by the time you’re done the energy and enthusiasm has long since gone.  In our experience, folks in their 20s and 30s already know there’s church programming at church – that’s why they go to Sunday services.  You don’t need to start off trying to compete with the Sunday Service.  Start off with “fellowship” or “community building.”  Aka, go out to lunch, chat, have parties, go to movies, etc.  Once you’ve built a group of ten to twenty folk who are coming for the community and social aspect, then you can think about internal programming.   Not before.   Get folks feeling like they know other folks.  And that’s what will keep them coming back.  Pay attention to “regular” – there needs to be a set schedule that everyone knows and that is easy to remember – third Sunday of the month?  Second and fourth Saturday mornings?  Make it regular.

Tenet #2 – An incubator group is radically welcome, constantly on guard against clique mentality while building community.

You have to always be willing to welcome in someone new.  Not just welcome, but not treat them like a visitor.  Don’t fawn – this can be off putting – but casually let others in their 20s or 30s know the group exists and invite them along to the next lunch.   And make sure they know where to meet up after the service.  And it’s actually the right place.  Building a community together can be tough, especially when you’re on guard against cliquish mentality.  There is nothing more off putting to someone new than inside cliques: who hangs with whom but not with whom, the inside stories everyone knows but the newcomer.  When you have a group, especially a large group, you have to watch for internal cliques to begin to form.  And them purposefully break out of them.  Need an easy way to start this process?  Make sure folks sit next to different folks during lunches or during the service.  Go to a restaurant that has smaller tables and force smaller tables to chat with each other.  And then mix it up in the middle of lunch.

Tenet #3 – An incubator group realizes that people will come and go.

People come and go – folks, especially in their 20s and 30s, tend to move.  It happens.  You don’t need to go into mourning each time someone leaves, because of its nature young adult ministry is transitory.  Come into this realizing that people will come and go.  If you come in with this realization, the group is much less likely to completely fall apart when a member moves.  Or stops coming to church for awhile.

Tenet #4 – An incubator group lets ideas bubble up naturally and fall away naturally.  An incubator group also lets leaders bubble up naturally and fall away naturally.

This is related to Tenet #3.  During 2030s Atlanta’s most rapid growth – there were no formal leaders.  None at all.  If folks wanted to lead something, they sent out an email saying, “hey, wouldn’t this be cool?  Anyone else want to do this with me?”   It built up an internal culture where anyone can start an event, and that it’s up to individual folks to start the programs they want to see.  And when those programs started to taper off, they died a natural death.  If an event is that important, someone else will step into lead it.  If no one does, the event isn’t that important.  We had no central programming authority.  We had no central leadership.  This is tough for a lot of groups to get past.  And while the whole no central leadership thing bugged our congregation for a little while (because they didn’t have a central contact person – we ended up asking for a volunteer) it worked magically in terms of building up leadership ability within our members.

Tenet #5 – An incubator group helps get folks comfortable with the congregation so they feel comfortable branching out into different areas of the congregation.

Saved the biggie for last.  An incubator group is first and foremost a part of the congregation.  It is not a separate entity.  We see our role in helping get folks in their 20s and 30s comfortable with the congregation so they feel comfortable getting involved with other groups.  We still come together to socialize and for fellowship, but we also sit on committees, ministry teams, you name it.  We want folks to get comfortable then go out and be an active member of the congregation – not just an active member of our group.