How the 40 days of purpose led to an explosion of small groups at one church.
by Life Together
Tom Mullins, senior pastor of Christ Fellowship in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, is a former football coach who uses colorful sports stories and analogies frequently in his teachings. Not one to be afraid of cutting edge ideas and strategies, Pastor Mullins and his team at Christ Fellowship recently implemented a new "game plan." And what a game plan it's proved to be.
The story of a church who found the first thing they needed to do with small groups was to offer them.
by Life Together
Three weeks into the initial launch of small groups at Church of the Resurrection in Leewood, Kansas, church leadership is still feeling overwhelmed by its members' eager response. The church was expecting to begin with 150 small groups and 1,500 participants, but ended up with 240 groups and 2,600 participants.
Debi Nixon, Director of Small Group Ministry at this United Methodist church, says she ...
Train your leaders to make your church a more welcoming and connected place.
by Reggie McNeal, Lyle Schaller, Rich Doebbler, and others
One of the most important activities of the church is to draw in people from the outside—whether believers or those who may have never been involved in the church before. This theme, Connecting Newcomers, helps evaluate how welcoming your church is and gives you tools to improve. Helpful topics include: how to foster hospitality on Sunday mornings among regular worship attenders, how to make ...
These trusted leaders can help your ministry move to the next level.
by Russ Robinson, Randall Neighbor, Patrick Morley, and others
Note: Click E-Groups to see a free article from this resource.
Discover the transforming power of small groups. Whether you are starting a new small groups ministry in your church or revitalizing an existing one, this theme offers you many valuable tools. An interview with Russ Robinson, pastor of Meadowbrook Church in New Jersey and former Director of Small Groups at Willow Creek Community Church, ...
Make sure your individual groups and overall ministry are healthy.
by Randall Neighbor, Patrick Morley, Dan Lentz, and others
Note: Click Seven Warning Signs to see a free assessment from this resource.
Just like it's important to have routine medical checkups to gauge your physical well-being, the small groups in your church need periods of assessment and evaluation in order to properly maintain ministry health. The handouts in this Assessment Pack are designed to evaluate specific dimensions of small-group ministry. They ...
First off, it's awesome that your group members are very focused on evangelism and are bringing new people to your group meetings. This is vital for groups to stay healthy and balanced, and unfortunately not all groups get to experience that.
The belief that new members actually interrupt a small group's intimacy and momentum is largely unsubstantiated and unbiblical. It is a false premise that has ...
The best answer to that question is to begin doing something about the situation before you get too big. In fact, I teach my small-group leaders to begin apprenticing future leaders from the first gathering. However, the solution is the same even if you're already in over your head. The key is to not pre-qualify who may or may not be a "good" group leader. Instead, groom and apprentice everyone to ...
Here's how to successfully "birth" a new small group from an existing one.
Eric Metcalf
First love often seems perfect in our minds—the season, the romance, the memories. For many people, their first small-group experience also seems perfect. They wonder, "How could any group be as good as this one?" That's why birthing a new small group can be a scary proposition.
For those of you who have had a child, your first birthing experience is vividly etched in your minds—crazy, ...
Alan Hirsch talks about the untapped potential of individuals and small-group communities.
Alan Hirsch
Note: This article has been excerpted from the SmallGroups.com training tool called Missional Small Groups.
Alan Hirsch is an experienced church planter and the founding director of Forge Mission Training Network. His most recent book, The Forgotten Ways, represents an contemporary interpretation of the missional explosion of the early church and the recent house-church movement in China.
No matter how chaotic things may seem at the time, multiplication is all for the greater good of the kingdom of God.
Dan Smith
The small group was meeting together for the last time. Things couldn't have been worse. Their leader was leaving, the intern was unreliable, others in the group were squabbling and vying for positions of prominence, and one member was about to be exposed for embezzlement, fraud, and disloyalty. Defeat and fear permeated the atmosphere of the room as the leader stood to speak. He said,
Printer view of these results
