What Is A Holistic Ministry Model And How Can It Improve Your Small Group Ministry?

Holism and holistic thinking has the possibility of unlocking some serious opportunities in your small group ministry and your church as a whole. Not because it is so radically different, but because for most of us, it just reveals a lot of low hanging fruit that was hiding in plain sight. Holism is quite literally, learning to see the forest AND the trees. 

(listen to a podcast discussion of this article)

Defining Holism and Reductionism

But before looking at how to include holistic thinking and what are some quick and easy steps include holism, let’s define what holism is and isn’t. In this particular context, holism is NOT referring to “holistic lifestyle” practices or alternative medicine. Rather, I’m referring to the interdisciplinary idea that systems (in this case groups, small group ministries, and churches) can be greater than the sum of their parts. Holism is often discussed in physics, biology, and even linguistics. The contrast to holism is known as reductionism. Reductionism is an extremely popular way of thinking in physics in particular and the general broad idea is that systems are equal to the sum of their parts (as opposed to greater than). That means in order to understand things, you need to understand, measure, and examine its component parts. Reductionism is responsible for much of the scientific advances that we’ve made over the past several hundred years because humanity has had a greater and greater understanding of how elements behave and physical properties interact with each other. A physicist would suggest that with enough understanding of the basic building blocks of matter and the universe, and enough processing power, someone could predict this very article from the beginning of the universe. 

Reductionism

Reductionism has been so successful in physics and other sciences that it has bled into organizational and ministry thinking. Businesses and churches have increasingly granular data on each individual in their church or organization. This is why church databases are big businesses now. And to some degree this idea of reductionism has been good and helpful. It has enabled us to scale to larger and larger church sizes and still have some knowledge and understanding of most of the people in the congregation. For example, if someone at our large church were to reach out to me and ask to have coffee, there is a good chance that I might not know this person, and it is also possible that those in my immediate circle might not know this person. But I can look them up in our church database and know that they have been attending for 2 years, have attempted to join a small group but were unsuccessful, and lost a spouse around that same time. I am now equipped to meet with that person, and theoretically equipped to pastor them. Reductionism for the win, right?

Holism and Emergence

Holism is the idea that a system or group can be greater than the sum of their parts. A holistic environment or model allows for something called “emergence.” Emergence happens when a system becomes sufficiently complex enough, new behavior or activity can “emerge.” A classic example of this is consciousness. A biologist could theoretically understand every fundamental physical and chemical element that occurs in the human body, but would still never be able to predict that if you put all of those pieces together in exactly the right way that consciousness would occur. Yet despite that if you are reading this, you are conscious (assuming I haven’t bored you unconscious yet). 

Holistic Metrics

One of the key differences between holism and reductionism is how each is measured. Reductism measurements get more and more granular and require greater and greater processing to understand them. But with holism, it is impossible to only measure the individual components because they will never equal up to the sum of the whole. Instead the only way to measure holistic systems is to measure how they interact with their environment. For example, a possible holistic metric for a church would be how it impacts the city or neighborhood it is located in, possibly the number of people fed through a pantry program, or if a church were able to help lower homelessness in a given area. 

Many physicists dislike the idea of holism because it implies an intelligent designer, If you were to create a mosaic made of hundreds of little pictures, and collectively your mosaic created an image of a kitten, it is extremely unlikely that you arrived at that image of a kitten by chance, it is far more likely that someone intentionally arranged those component images to create a picture of a kitten. But we as believers all say that our local churches collectively make something greater than ourselves that we refer to as the body of Christ. We believe and rely on God to make our family, or small group, or ministry, greater than the sum of its parts. This is the whole idea of spiritual gifts. But from an organizational standpoint, and managerial and leadership approach we often only rely on reductionist thinking and approaches. We divide our congregations up into age groups, we create programs that get more and more granular, our ministries are often siloed and interconnected on paper only. 

Emergent Environments

The biggest problem with emergence and holism is that emergent behaviors can’t usually be directly manufactured. Instead the only thing we can do is create the environment were emergence can occur. This can be especially frustrating for church leadership because it removes direct success from our hands. But even this is biblical as well. We believe that a sovereign God is ultimately responsible for success and failure and that obedience is the only part we are able to directly be responsible for. Many have abused this idea in order to absolve themselves of responsibility for mismanagement or failed leadership. But this too is a balance. We are called to the highest levels of obedience and not just mindlessly checking boxes and turning widgets. This high calling is what many would call leadership development and what I would call personal discipleship.

It may sound like I’m going back and forth on whether reductionism is good or bad. On one hand, I’ve already stated how reductionism has allowed churches to scale larger. But on the other hand, I’ve said that it is at least partially responsible for our siloed ministries and programs. Reductionism isn’t good or bad, it is just half of the toolset we have available. Holism is the other half. For example, if you wanted to build a large bridge, you would want a physicist or engineers with solid understandings of the properties of each of the parts to build that bridge. You would need reductionist thinking. But if a bridge were to fail, those things would be the same for a bridge that worked just fine vs a bridge that failed. An engineer would need a holistic approach to understand why it failed. That engineer would need to look at how the bridge and the environment interacted to know that the bridge failed because of high winds, frequent temperature swings, and unusually high amounts of weight all combined to create a failure. That same engineer would need both reductionism to build the bridge, and holism to make sure bridges don’t fail. I believe that churches also need both reductionist and holistic approaches. 

Limitations of Reductionist Thinking in a Church Context

I suggest a framework for understanding the limitations of reductionist thinking, particularly its emphasis on breaking down complex systems into their individual components. Applying these insights to a church context, especially within a multi-site structure like my church, reveals potential pitfalls:

• Missing the “Whole” of Community: Reductionism, applied to a church, might lead to an overemphasis on individual members or programs, neglecting the vital emergent property of community. The sources emphasize that a system’s “whole” often exhibits qualities not present in its isolated parts. A church thrives on the interconnectedness of its members, forming a living, dynamic entity with shared values, purpose, and experiences. Focusing solely on individual growth or specific ministry goals, without nurturing the overall sense of belonging and shared faith, risks missing the essence of what makes a church a vibrant community.
• Overlooking the Spiritual Dimension: Reducing faith to measurable outcomes or quantifiable actions can lead to a shallow understanding of the spiritual dimension. Just as reducing consciousness to neural activity ignores the subjective experience of thoughts and feelings, reducing faith to mere attendance numbers or program participation misses the transformative power of belief and the profound impact of spiritual connection. Strong emergence suggests that higher-level phenomena, like consciousness or faith, may possess unique qualities and causal powers that cannot be fully explained or predicted by lower-level physical processes.
• Limiting the Potential for Transformation: A solely reductionist approach to church leadership could stifle creativity, innovation, and the dynamic process of spiritual growth. A church that embraces a more holistic perspective encourages diverse perspectives, experimentation, and bottom-up initiatives, fostering an environment where new ideas can emerge and the Holy Spirit can work in unexpected ways. Overly rigid structures and top-down control, on the other hand, can limit the church’s ability to adapt to changing needs and fully express the richness and complexity of its faith.
• Fragmentation in a Multi-Site Context: In a multi-site church, reductionist thinking could exacerbate the challenges of maintaining unity and connection across locations. If each site operates as an isolated unit, solely focused on its own metrics and goals, the sense of being part of a larger body can be diminished. A holistic approach recognizes the need for both: fostering strong local communities while actively cultivating a sense of shared identity and purpose across all sites.

A holistic approach to church leadership involves:

• Nurturing Community: Prioritizing relationships, fostering genuine connection, and creating spaces where members feel a sense of belonging are vital for cultivating a thriving church community.
• Honoring the Spiritual Dimension: Recognizing faith as a complex and multifaceted experience that goes beyond measurable outcomes allows for a deeper and more meaningful engagement with the spiritual journey.
• Embracing Complexity and Change: Encouraging diverse perspectives, empowering bottom-up initiatives, and adapting to evolving needs creates a more resilient and vibrant church.
• Fostering Unity in a Multi-Site Context: Intentionally cultivating shared values, purpose, and connection across locations helps maintain a strong sense of belonging to a unified body.

By moving beyond the limitations of reductionist thinking and embracing a more holistic perspective, a church can create an environment where individual growth, spiritual transformation, and the power of community can flourish.

Practical steps and benefits of incorporating a holistic approach

First Steps In Adopting Holism

As mentioned above, holism does and can coexist with an existing reductionist approach to ministry. Just like the engineer mentioned above, in most cases, it is wisest to have both. Neither do most churches need to change their small group ministry model. While there are certainly some opportunities to adapt or tweak an existing model to include holistic approaches, you don’t even need to go that far initially. For many churches, the first steps to including holism is with their metrics and analytics.

Holistic Metrics In Small Group Ministry

The easiest first step is to add some new metrics to your analytics report. As mentioned above, the challenge with holism is that it is very difficult to measure component parts, and works best when measuring its environment. But this can include both the external environment of a small group or small group ministry, but can also involve measuring the qualitative elements of a group itself. 

External Environmental Metrics

Engagement Metrics: in adopting this at Saddleback, we looked how how individuals who were in a small group engaged with Saddleback versus individuals who were not in a small group. Specifically we looked at the following:

• Giving
• Volunteerism
• Email Open Rate

At our church we made some pretty incredible findings:

• We found that those individuals who were in a small group were significantly higher in each of these areas than those individuals not in a small group. 
• Giving was higher both in frequency and amount. 
• Someone in a small group is significantly more likely to volunteer and they volunteered for longer. 
• In fact we found that on average, someone who volunteered with someone else they knew (whether a fellow small group member, friend, or family member) volunteered twice as long on average!
• Mass email open rate was nearly 50% higher among small group members.

As we began this study, I pitched the idea that our calls to action might benefit from being more group oriented vs individualistic. Specifically, instead of recruiting individuals, we should consider recruiting families or small groups to serve. The immediate pushback was that groups are not typically “homogenous” in their giftings and abilities. For example, one person in a group may enjoy serving in children’s ministry, but another person would not. 

So we went back and looked at the number of groups that had at least two people who were already serving together in the same ministry. And we found that 71% of all of our small groups had people who were serving together already. We are continuing our research but as of the time of this writing, it appears that while small groups are not typically homogenous, they are typically complementary. This implies that a call to action to groups vs individuals is more likely to succeed, not because 100% of the group is likely to volunteer in the same ministry, but because someone in that group is highly likely to encourage others in the group to serve in that person’s area of gifting. 

We have found that groups are not only an ideal environment for people to discover their gifts, but also the ideal environment for people to use their gifts. Most of us learned our own gifting because someone who knew us well told us what they had seen in us. It turns out that when someone we know well also suggests a place to apply these gifts, we are significantly more likely to listen. Additionally, fellow members of the group are most likely to encourage us to keep serving, pour into us when we are burned out from serving, and even fill in for us when we can’t make it.

Most of this is common sense and intuitive, yet we keep speaking to individuals and treating groups as a program (meaning a destination) rather than the engine which propels us corporately to a destination. Metrics are the first step in looking at the significant impact the most engaged members of your church have on the church as a whole. A healthy small group ministry will mean that each other ministry in your church will also be healthier. An unhealthy groups ministry will be a drain on your church’s resources and impact as a whole and leave both groups and individuals disconnected. 

Internal Environmental Metrics

In a reductionist model, this is the primary thing we measure. Attendance, frequency of contacts, number of people in a group, etc are all familiar metrics to most of us. I am not proposing that we get rid of these metrics, nor do I suggest that we deprioritize them. But I am suggesting that we consider some qualitative metrics to measure each group’s environment for health and opportunity for emergence. 

• Quality of Relationships: Assessing the depth of connection, trust, and vulnerability within the small group. This can involve observing group dynamics, gathering feedback from members, and analyzing the nature of their shared experiences
• Application of Biblical Principles: Evaluating how individuals integrate biblical teachings into their daily lives, decision-making processes, and interactions with others. This might involve analyzing personal stories, observing behavior changes, and assessing the impact of faith on their overall worldview. This could be done by using assessments through the ministries that group members are volunteering in. This would require strong partnerships with other areas of ministry.
• Group Cohesion and Purpose: Measuring the sense of unity, shared goals, and collective identity within the small group. This can involve assessing group participation, evaluating the effectiveness of leadership, and observing the group’s impact on the broader community. But at the bare minimum, tracking groups’ member turnover rate and frequency of meeting can be a start.
• Emergence of New Ministries: Recognizing and celebrating the development of new initiatives, outreach efforts, or service projects that organically arise from the small group’s interactions and shared passions. This also has some powerful secondary benefits that allow you to become aware of community involvement and involvement of your members in areas and ministries that aren’t owned by your church. When this tracking is fully developed it gives you a much clearer picture of the secondary (and often greater) impact that your church as a whole is having on your community. It also gives you early and ground level insights into areas that God might be moving that wouldn’t normally be on your radar. 

Qualitative metrics are by definition harder to track. And most of these also would come from having a personal relationship with the individuals and pastoring each person. This is why maintaining some reductionism is vital to ensure that the least served individuals in your church don’t fall through the cracks. 

Beyond Metrics: Establishing Community and Identity in a Holistic Church

A holistic church can cultivate a strong sense of community and a distinct identity by integrating principles observed in online communities, establishing meaningful traditions, and fostering open, natural communication. Most small groups are already doing these things to some degree. The only meaningful shift is in intentionality. Shifting from the group being the destination to the primary vehicle for discipleship and transformation means that the goal begins with getting people into groups, it does not end there. We are attempting to build an army to conquer the forces of Hell, not merely send people to bootcamp and calling it a day. So if we are creating an environment for emergence, that we means we are building communities, a colony of Heaven, or a divine diaspora.

Leveraging Principles from Online Communities

• Shared Platform and Purpose: Like successful online communities, a holistic church should establish a shared platform—a physical space or a digital hub—where members can connect and engage. The church’s core values and mission, as articulated in sources like Galatians 5:22-23 from our previous conversation, would serve as the unifying purpose, drawing individuals together and providing a foundation for shared identity.
• Active Participation and Contribution: Encourage active participation from members, moving beyond passive attendance to creating opportunities for individuals to contribute their unique talents and perspectives. This echoes the concept of “shared leadership” from our previous conversation, empowering members to shape the community.
• Moderation and Facilitation: Establish clear guidelines and processes for interaction, ensuring respectful dialogue and addressing conflicts constructively. Designate individuals or teams to moderate discussions, facilitate activities, and maintain a healthy community environment.

Establishing Meaningful Traditions

• Rituals and Practices: Develop unique rituals and practices that reflect the church’s values and resonate with its members. These traditions, serving as tangible expressions of shared beliefs, can be inspired by biblical examples like the Lord’s Supper and communal prayer described in Acts 2:42, 46.
• Storytelling and Shared Narratives: Cultivate a culture of storytelling, encouraging members to share their personal faith journeys and experiences within the community. This aligns with the suggestion from our previous conversation to “embrace storytelling and testimonials” as measures of success in a holistic model. The collective narrative that emerges can become a powerful source of identity and inspiration.
• Celebrating Milestones and Achievements: Regularly celebrate individual and communal milestones, acknowledging achievements and reinforcing a sense of shared progress. This can be as simple as recognizing acts of service or marking significant events in the church’s history.

Building Strong Natural Communication

• Open and Transparent Communication: Create channels for open and transparent communication, encouraging honest dialogue and feedback among members and leadership. This fosters trust and a sense of ownership in the community’s direction.
• Embrace Multiple Communication Modes: Utilize diverse communication methods, catering to different preferences and learning styles. This could include online forums, in-person gatherings, visual media, and artistic expressions.
• Active Listening and Responsiveness: Foster a culture of active listening, where leadership genuinely seeks to understand the perspectives and concerns of the community. Demonstrate responsiveness by adapting practices and addressing feedback in a timely and transparent manner.

A Holistic Church in the Community

A holistic church that embraces these principles will stand out in its community. Its outward focus and community engagement, as discussed in our previous conversation, would make it a visible force for positive change, attracting individuals who resonate with its values and mission.

The strong community bonds and shared identity, forged through meaningful traditions and open communication would create a palpable sense of belonging, setting it apart from more conventional, hierarchical churches. The church’s adaptive and emergent nature would also allow it to respond effectively to the evolving needs of its community, ensuring its continued relevance and impact.