Summary: Subscribe to the unSeminary Podcast: [iTunes] [RSS] [Stitcher] [TuneIn] // [VIDEO iTunes] [VIDEO RSS] On today's episode we talk with the Small Groups Pastor from Long Hollow Baptist Church, Ben Reed. The conversation covers a wide variety of topics around getting people connected to groups, training leaders and ensuring that groups stay healthy and strong. This episode is full of insights to help you think through how you can take your small group ministry to the next level. Ben Reed // [Website] [twitter] [Starting Small: The Ultimate Small Group Blueprint] Interview Highlights 00:53 // Ben explains his role at Long Hollow 02:00 // About Long Hollow's split 17 years ago, and more recent growth 04:27 // Ben explains Long Hollow's assimilation strategy 07:40 // Jesus took risks on leaders the church wouldn't invite into leadership 08:40 // Long Hollow's Leadership Development process 10:04 // 5-1 hour seminars called 101 through 501 11:50 // Rich explains that adult learning requires 'walk out knowledge' 12:40 // Information Transfer versus Relational leadership development 14:40 // Churches need a unified vision of what a small group is 16:39 // Churches need to define what a healthy group looks like 17:29 // First step to get groups off the ground: start your own at your home Lightning Round Highlights Helpful Tech Tools // Evernote, Wunderlist, Google Drive Book Worth Reading // Brand Against the Machine by John Morgan Inspiring Ministries // Northpoint Ministries Inspiring Leader // Bill Willits What does he do for fun? // CrossFit with his wife Interview Transcript // Rich - Well, happy Thursday everybody. Welcome to the unSeminary Podcast. Thanks so much for tuning in. This is the podcast where we talk about stuff that you know what, just normally isn't talked about in traditional ministry training environments. So today we have a real treat! A great guest on the line. I am super excited to have Ben Reed from Long Hollow Baptist Church, just outside of Nashville in Hendersonville, Tennessee. Thanks so much Ben for being on the show. Ben - Thanks Rich. Thanks for having me out, man. Rich - Now why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself, your ministry, about Long Hollow. Ben - I oversee all of our groups at 5 different campuses that we have at Long Hollow. I've been hear a little over a year. Before this we transitioned from a church plant where I had been on staff for about 5 years. So I have done the church plant world where we set up in a school every single week, and it felt very much like manual labor every single week, and…actually we were multi-campus, in two different schools, did that for 5 years and now I am in more of a traditional church, doing very similar things. Trying to get groups going, investing in group leaders, investing in the current health that we have and then trying to expand it. Been here a little over a year and loving the spot where we are at. We love middle Tennessee. We specifically love Nashville. It's a great area to live, and to raise our family. Ya, we love it here at Long Hollow. Rich - Nice. Now why don't you give us a bit of the history of Long Hollow. Give us kind of a flavor of your church. Ben - Let me get my dates right, so 15 years ago the church split and went through, actually, 17 years ago the church split, kind of a nasty thing for a while. Numbers dropped off obviously, drastically.Two years after that the pastor that is still the pastor at Long Hollow came in. His name is David Landrith, they were at a couple hundred at the time. If you have ever seen him communicate, he's just a very conversational kind of guy. We have grow from a couple hundred, now we are 5 campuses and we run about 8000 on Sunday mornings. I know it's been 15 years which sounds like a long time but really that's rapid growth in a short amount of time. That has obviously growing pains that go with it.
