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 ...
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,
Don’t do it all yourself—here's how to delegate the work.
Stan Lubeck
EPHESIANS 4:11-14 - "It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no ...
When your group number goes down, should you disband or revamp?
Michael C. Mack
The following article is excerpted from Discipleship Journal, "DJ Plus," Issue 88, 1995.
In Issue 86 we introduced Jeff, whose small group had shrunk from 12 members to four. This left him wondering whether to disband the group or keep going with the faithful few.
David Colburn of Lexington, Massachusetts, believes there are options other than just disbanding the group. First, Jeff and the others need ...
How church structure can limit the success of your small group ministry.
David Limiero
Introduction: Growth Barriers and Small Group Plateaus
One of the most significant contributions of the Church Growth movement has been the identification of growth barriers. First identified by C. Peter Wagner of Fuller Seminary, growth barriers are specific sizes at which churches tend to get "stuck" and growth often plateaus. The most common barriers are found when a congregation reaches 200, 400, ...
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