Why Group Plus?
The vision and heart behind our revolutionary group booking system that could solve your May bank holiday plans AND and help you access an incredible experience where you can discover the colour and excitement of God’s Kingdom.
"Group Plus is a unique and innovative mechanism to make community happen."
For the last few years, we’ve talked about Group Plus, all about getting the gang together and spreading that group link around!
It may have flown over your head as you wonder what Group Plus is, why we do it, and what relevance it has to me. Yes, we understand! But, we are so passionate about Group Plus and the potential of getting communities closer together and generating a sense of connectedness, we want to take a quick second to share with you the heart and vision behind it.
Group Plus is a unique and innovative mechanism to help make community happen. In the early days of Big Church, we realised that people loved coming together as a group, and we wanted to make it as straightforward as possible to do just that. Our goal was to remove all the traditional mundane work of group bookings! Instead of dealing with clipboards and the heavy administrative tasks it can take to book a whole church group, we developed a simple yet completely online booking system! We took away the admin side by creating a simple link that could be shared while we handled the bookings.
While it is a wonderful benefit, coming cheaply is a secondary thing! Group Plus is there to help people and the amazing bonus is you save money as your group grows.
Big Church Festival offers an excellent opportunity for people to bring friends and we massively encourage people to do that! It’s a space where you can invite people who may be on the outskirts of the church. It’s a place where evangelism happens brilliantly and naturally, through conversations, community, and creativity. We want as many people to experience that as possible and be transformed by God’s presence.
Group Plus offers a way to make community simple to organise, and allows people to feel part of something that tries it best to break down the false stereotype that the Church is boring, colourless, and irrelevant. What better way to show those who do not know God, the beauty and wonder of faith, and being part of the Church?
We also believe that our Group Plus system allows a tremendous opportunity for church leaders! A chance to have that rare Sunday off and focus on friendship, congregations, community and building and strengthening relationships with your people.
THROUGHOUT THE YEARS AT BIG CHURCH FESTIVAL, SO MANY CHURCHES HAVE ENJOYED CANCELLING THEIR SUNDAY SERVICE AND BRINGING THE WHOLE CHURCH FOR THE WEEKEND
Historically churches have often planned Church weekends away, opportunities to grow as a community together. But it can be expensive and time-consuming. So we found that many churches use Big Church as their annual weekend retreat. They get the benefit of fellowship, fun, and worshipping together and we really encourage camping to heighten this experience.
The truth is, we can get to know people more in a weekend of intentional quality time than in a whole year of Sunday chats whilst enjoying that post-service cup of coffee!
Plus, May is a great time of year that doesn’t compete with the summer holidays making it easier to increase your group numbers and get the ticket prices down. We believe that using the Group Plus system makes the Festival as accessible as possible. The motivation to get the numbers up and ticket prices down could mean that people who are struggling financially are now able to go and have the best time with their church family…how special is that?
Or for youth groups, it allows the younger ones to grab all their mates and get as many there as possible. This will enable them to have a wonderful time in a healthy and holistic environment. This could reshape their view of the Church! Having an exciting and powerful impact on the future generations we are raising!
Anyway, we love our Group Plus system! We think that it is absolutely ace and believe that the more groups that sign up the better! So have a think, why not ask your Church leader to consider getting the whole team down, or just start up a link and share it with your friends and family?
