Good endings can make for good beginnings in the future.
by Randall S. Brenton
Healthy closure of any group experience is extremely important. It can help group members process and define their experience and positively set the stage for a new group. On the other hand, poor group closure can lead to barriers for a member's future involvement with groups.
Poor group closure can occur for a variety of reasons, including:
1. Lack of casting a vision for launching a new group, which ...
What should church leaders do when a group is on the decline, but no one is willing to pull the plug?
Matt Branaugh
I recently joined the leadership team for my church's small-groups ministry. During a recent Saturday breakfast, one of the church's longtime small-groups leaders (we'll call him Tim) shared an unusual, and uncomfortable, predicament.
For several reasons I'll explain in a moment, Tim's group of eight years—one so close that members actually stood bedside with him a few years ago as his wife passed ...
I'm going to attempt to paraphrase a story I heard at a small-groups conference a little over a year ago, so please bear with me. The conference was the 2007 Purpose-Driven Small Groups gala at Saddleback Church, and the speaker was Randy Frazee. The story centered on Frazee's first attempt at small-group ministry as the senior pastor of a large church in suburbs of Fort Worth, Texas.
Help Darryl decide if it's time for his group to end.
Darryl has belonged to the same small group for a few years, but things are beginning to unravel. The original group leader moved away, and the rest of the group hasn't yet recovered. Some of the group members have left; others still come but seem bored a lot of the time. One of the members has tried to step up as the new leader, but it hasn't affected a lot of positive change yet.
This Training Theme is designed for churches that have launched small-groups programs in the past, but are still waiting for the ministry to fully take root. It's also for churches that encountered a negative experience with small groups in the past, but want to try again. As a Training Theme, this download is designed ...
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