Question

Photo of Herb Parsons

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Groups - Basic for a Small Church

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I'm having a bit of a struggle applying some of the RockRMS "concepts" to our small church. It's obvious that the system is designed to accommodate large churches, and most of the documentation seems to be geared for that (and I understand that completely), but taking in some of this stuff is like trying to take a sip of water out of a fire hydrant. I need a garden hose.

So, on to my question. Our church is small (about 60 people right now; pre-covid it was about double that).  Currently, our "Groups" consist of the 6 Sunday School classes (Adults, Adult Spanish, Young Adults, Teens (jr & sr high), elementary, and pre-school). The tech crew and worship team do pre-service prep during the SS time, so that's probably another "class". We also have 4 teaching classes on Wednesday,  aimed at 4 age levels. Once every few months we have a new member class which also meets on Wednesdays. We plan on, sometime in the next 12-18 months, implementing at least 2 small homegroups.

So what would be the "Rock Way" of setting this up? Would Sunday School be a "Group Type", with each class being a group? Similarly, would Wednesday classes be another group type, as well as Small Groups being a group type when we set those up?

What would be some recommendations from some of you on how this would be set up for a small church, hoping to expand to small groups soon, and planning on expanding membership (we really do believe our numbers are going to be going up, which is why we're setting up Rock)?

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

  • Photo of Jason Harvey

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    Hey Herb,

    This can be tricky to answer because it's all about the details and preference. Here are a few things to keep in mind, though:

    • Generally, you will want to have the fewest number of group types possible. From what you described, that might be Classes, and Small Groups. However, When a group of groups has unique needs that is when you create another group type. So, for example, we don't have 1 group type for classes because the check-in needs for our elementary classes are unique from our Nursery classes, etc. So, in your context, you might benefit from something similar. i.e. Small Groups, Nursery, Elementary, Middle School, Highschool, (or just Students), Adult Worship, etc. Then you would place the proper groups underneath those types
    • Each class/group will likely be its own Rock Group - An exception would be if you have a 4th-grade class that meets on Sunday and a 4th-grade class on Wednesday, you could set those up using one group that is associated with multiple schedules/ check-in configurations. 

    Let me know what other questions you have

  • Photo of Jason Harvey

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    Also, if you have not heard about the Chat Community Rock has, this would be a great thing to hop into the General Discussion Channel and get some good ideas over. This is the link to that channel: https://chat.rockrms.com/channel/general