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 ...
Churches all over the nation are recognizing a need to get small groups going in their congregations. As people sense a desire for deeper relationships within the body of Christ, interest in the movement is rising. But getting small groups started in a church and keeping the groups healthy are two completely different jobs.
As head of Touch Outreach Ministry, my job is to look at churches that have ...
Okay, so that may seem obvious, but one of the critical roles of a small group leader is to shepherd the people in your group. Does the word "shepherd" scare you? It shouldn't. God has provided you with the gifts and abilities to care for those in your small group.
In a healthy small group, the members, as well as the leaders, must be "healthy." In fact, I would ...
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 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.
How to keep your small groups from turning into cliques.
by Brett Eastman
You've seen them walk by. The "cooler than thou" group. The group that everyone in the church wants to be a part of and everyone outside of the church blames as the reason why they don't come.
Most of us became aware of cliques in high school: the preps, the jocks, the high-achievers, and the rockers, to name a few. Ancient cliques included groups like the Pharisees, Sadducees, and the Hellenists, ...
Multiplying small groups can be difficult, but the rewards are worth it.
by Randy Frazee
Many groups are resistant to the idea of multiplication. It's difficult to break up an existing group for the sake of reaching out to new people. Having babies—creating new communities—is painful, but the trade-off is better than remaining evangelistically barren. How do you keep a group focused on the gospel's command to be outwardly focused? Here are a few principles for fostering an environment ...
Encouraging people to start new small groups is a key to getting everyone connected.
by Stacie K. B. Maslyn
In Luke 14, Jesus tells a parable of a man in need of guests for the elaborate banquet he had prepared. To get these guests, he sent his servants out into the streets and alleys of the town to bring anyone they could find to his table. He told them, "Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full."
Pastor Kerry Shook shared this vision on a videotape given ...
Small group health depends on preparing for success.
by Brett Eastman
When I first joined the staff at Saddleback Church. Rick told me he reserved seats for over 800 men on 7 different 747s headed to Washington, DC for Promise Keepers. I suggested we recruit leaders from some of the existing men's groups to launch a few more men's groups from the 800+ men going to the event. Over 300 men said they wanted to join a group, and half dozen men agreed to lead them.
Follow these six steps to help your leaders grow spiritually.
by Brett Eastman
When my daughter Michelle was diagnosed with a form of cerebral palsy, we thought she'd never walk. But one day she started getting up on her haunches and crawling. The next minute, she was pulling herself up on furniture and trying to walk, but she didn't look like she would ever stand sturdy on her legs. After we put her in a little walker that allowed her to cruise around the house, she went from ...
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