GroopBlog

On Friday night, we packed ourselves into American flight 1508’s seats 22 E and F, with just enough elbow room to continue to pinch ourselves, still wondering if all the blessings that had been packed into last week were for real. We can’t begin to say enough good about Saddleback Church, their campus, their attention to detail, their friendly volunteer staff, and their very knowledgeable yet humble pastoral staff. This was Groopik’s first conference ever to attend as an exhibitor, and I believe Saddleback’s warm welcome spoiled us for future events.

We were so blessed by all the people we met. We got to know some great people from other ministries that were close to our booth. It was great to mingle with others who are also passionate about small group ministry - Dan from SmallGroups.com, thanks for all the great advice. Phil from Serendipity, thanks for the great restaurant recommendation. Pete and Kristi from Excellerate, thanks for the frappuccino and the fun. And Sam and Cory from Christianity Today, thanks for the tip on the Camtasia software that will allow us to finally produce the quality tutorials we’ve been striving for.

It was also great to meet pastors who are in the trenches, excited to build community in their churches. We met pastors from all over the States, and some from Brazil, Austrailia, Spain and others as well. I, the “Gringa” who grew up in rural Illinois was so proud to be able to enthusiastically greet the Spaniards with my “what-I-thought-was-fluent” Spanish I had learned as a missionary. I was immediately humbled as I realized my Spanish was fluent for general conversation, but not for web application terminology. Luckily, Cristian the Chilean bailed me out, and I kept my Spanish to myself the rest of the day.

Other exhibitors commented that this conference’s attendees seemed more hungry than usual to find the right tools for their small group ministries. We thoroughly enjoyed listening to their specific situations and receiving the input from them that is only going to make our product better. We’re already making a few tweaks based on the input we received. We came home with one overriding conclusion though, which is also based on the feedback we received from pastors at the conference, and that is, we are really proud of and excited about what Groopik has to offer. There is other small group management software out there that does not have the connection tool that Groopik has for every member of your small group ministry. Likewise, there are a gazillion social networks out there that help people connect. (Unfortunately, they help you connect to a few things you never wanted to connect to…) Groopik is the perfect union of the two, helping pastors manage, and helping small group members connect within the accountability that their church’s small group ministry provides. We are honored to be a tool that connects the body of Christ, and we are excited to see just how God is going to use us.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 26th, 2007 at 5:27 pm and is filed under Small Groups 2.0. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.