Doug Hooge

Kamloops Alliance Church has always been a very caring church and as a result there has always been some form of small group setting that people could gather in during the week. They have been called Care Groups for a long time and for the most part these were inward-focused groups. However, in fairness to members of those groups, they have had a concern for the lost, but lacking a way to reach out in a cohesive and consistent way.

All cleaned up after Big Cook for community care

Many people have written this before me but I want to emphasise it anyway – transitioning a church from a Care group or program based model to a small groups LIFE-style has to happen from the ‘top’ down. If the senior pastor and elder’s board haven’t agreed that this is the direction the church is to go, the change simply won’t happen. As it happens, the lead pastor here at KAC has worked with the cells/small groups model for most of his ministry life – so we have had a head start with our transtition process – it’s easier, but not easy! We are steering a large ship and it turns rather slowly although I think we are making fairly good headway.

In June of 2009 we had approximately 160 people in small groups. In June of 2010 we have approximately 290. Part of the growth has been the result of adding a pastor to the staff whose main role is to direct the small groups ministry. There have been 4 training sessions of 7 weeks each from September ‘09 to June ‘10.  This has not only been about developing new leaders, but also raising awareness among the congregation – although not everyone who has taken the training have become leaders, they thoroughly enjoyed and benefited from it and are better members of their own small groups because of it. And of course they will be good apprentices and future small group pastors!

Coffee break during a Cell Life Group yard-work party

We are currently in the process of establishing a coaching network – this hasn’t happened as early as it could have or perhaps should have, but sometimes in the process of transition the steps aren’t always the same for every situation. We hope to establish a coach or supervisor in each of the 9 main zones in the city and to help them develop a vision for their respective zones and ways of reaching out to those communities.

We have a long way to go but we are moving!

There is much more service involvement resulting from Cell Life Groups getting involved in various activities of service to people in the Kamloops community; helping people move, providing pre-cooked meals to people in need in the community, reaching out to international students at the university, to name a few.

This is an outward focus in the context of small group life, rather than as individuals – we have touched many more people and much more effectively in the context of Cell Life Groups. We call them royal events because they have to do with kingdom living, but are ROIL events because they are things we can do as we Reach Out In Love to our community.

And we are confident that this is impacting the growth of KAC – we currently have 3 services with approximately 750 to 800 attending.  Last year we had 2 services with about 650 attending each Sunday.

And all of this is happening because people are learning that they can in fact touch peoples lives with Christ’s love and it isn’t as difficult as they first thought. It is a result of people being equipped, edified and encouraged in their own faith as a result of learning to live in community in the context of a healthy small groups network.

Doug Hooge