How one church connected an entire congregation through small groups.
Allen White
"Connect 100 percent of your congregation into small groups."
Now that's a sales pitch.
Our church was stuck: A small number of our adults—only 30 percent—were involved in small groups. After seven long years of slugging it out the old fashioned way—raising up apprentices to birth new groups—we were headed nowhere. Only one leader started a new group. Connecting everyone in a group ...
Have realistic expectations about what small groups will be like.
by David A. Womack
Note: This article has been excerpted from the SmallGroups.com training tool called Healthy Small Groups.
After more than three decades of promotion in books, magazines, seminars, and classes, the fact about small groups is that not enough churches can testify to success. Among the reasons are:
1. We have few role models, at least in our own culture.
2. The literature on the subject has promoted the ...
How to make prayer a central part of small groups.
by Life Together
Click here to download free job description for Small Group Leaders (Word document).
One of the most powerful aspects of small groups is the opportunity to offer prayer requests, to pray together, and then to see how God follows through on those prayers. It's amazing to see how God works over three months or six months or a year. Prayers gets answered, situations change, hearts change—your group ...
We wrapped up our small group as we usually do, with a time for everyone to share their prayer requests. After we closed in prayer, Tom approached my husband and me. He was considering dropping out of our small group because he felt overwhelmed by the prayer requests. It seemed to him as though everyone's problems were insurmountable, and although we'd been praying for the same things for months, ...
Small groups can be a great place for learning lessons about life.
by Brett Eastman
Two years ago when I met with my new small group for the first time, I was so reluctant. I didn't know if I could ever find the sense of belonging and spiritual family I had enjoyed with my previous group. But they welcomed my wife and me into their lives with arms wide open, and we soon became family. This group has not replaced my other group (nothing ever will), but it has become another circle ...
Groups should consider whether their requests line up with what God is doing.
by Wayne Jacobsen
You'd have thought I'd just cussed by the way the mouths around the table soundlessly fell open. And all I'd said was "I don't think I can pray that for you."
The woman who had just asked us to pray was perhaps the most shocked of all.
My home group had just finished eating dinner, and we were sharing prayer requests. With obvious distress, Kris had told of her daughter's plan to move in with a boyfriend ...
A small group's love for two skeptics leads them to Christ.
by Life Together
Two years ago our teaching pastor, Ted, began to meet with a couple with considerable intellectual reservations about Christianity. They agreed to read some Christian apologetics if Ted agreed to read their books. While they read Letters from a Skeptic, Ted read Stephen Hawking's latest, A Brief History of Time.
...
Then this past fall we launched a new six-week small group study: "A Taste of Community." ...
Bring depth to a small group by participating in Communion together.
by BuildingSmallGroups.com
Looking for a wonderful means of worshipping as a group? Why not lead your group in sharing the Lord's Supper? If you've never done this before, the idea certainly seems daunting, but here is a simple form by which your small group can share this sacrament. Of course, churches vary in their treatment of Communion so you may need to adapt these suggestions to your church's beliefs.
Integrate your relationships to make them more effective.
by Randy Frazee
Lifestyles today make integrated and interdependent relationships hard to create and maintain. The absence of this interdependence makes us hunger for community. Most of us manage "linear relationships."
Randy Frazee, author of The Connecting Church, describes linear relationships as running "from one relational unit to another. As you exit one world and enter another, there may be some mention of ...
Use this practical tool to determine the childcare options in your small group.
by Michael Mack
Every church's small-group ministry is different. So is every small group. That's why we all need to think through the choices that will work best in our individual situations. If you plan ahead, the right childcare option can open up great opportunities for your small group instead of becoming a burden.Â
1. What is the childcare policy for your group?
[ ] No children are present except for nursing ...
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