small groups conference

I'm looking forward to the Saddleback small group conference next week. It will be my first trip to the west coast. I'm sure there will be lots to learn. Steve Gladen is the groups guy at Saddleback. They have about 3000 groups. That's pretty good. More in groups than in attendance. Truthfully, I'm still being sold on the idea of campaigns. Campaigns are a way of getting people into small groups. You set the bar pretty low for leadership and try to start as many groups as possible then when the dust clears you see who sticks. Early on in my small group journey I found this method pretty attractive and tried to sell the idea to the leadership of my church at that time, NewSpring but we went for another model and it worked pretty good for that season. Since coming to Highlands I've been trying to tweak a plan that includes the best of both models. I've been curious to see the campaign plan working at Saddleback and to see how they manage so many groups and keep up with who is sticking and who is ditching. Anyway, My sister lives about 45 minutes from Saddleback so I'm looking forward to seeing her and my neice. I usually see them about once a year. I leave on the 19th.