Rely on your call to leadership when you fear how things will go.
by Life Together
The emotions ran so high for that first meeting of my small group. Who would show up? Would the personalities mesh? Would everyone be friendly, or would I have a member that would require "extra care"? And what if I was asked a question that I couldn't answer? Would God bless the group with immediate spiritual growth and spiritual fruit?
God wants to free us from money's bondage and help us put it in its proper place.
Money can put us in bondage. God wants to free us from this bondage and help us put money in its proper place by considering it his rather than ours. This six-session course will challenge the way you see money.
Session One
Money Belongs to GodOnly by recognizing where money comes from can we be free of its power. Psalm 24:1; Mark 4:14–21; 10:17–31; 1 Corinthians 4:7 God wants to help us ...
This four-session course emphasizes that joy comes from pursuing God wholeheartedly, giving ourselves away, and learning to dwell on the good.
We live in a world that constantly offers ways for us to achieve happiness by improving our circumstances. Unfortunately, such happiness is always fleeting. In contrast, the apostle Paul retained his joy in the midst of difficult circumstances, because he understood that true joy comes from gospel-first relationships, goals, desires, and conduct. This four-session course emphasizes that joy comes ...
Use this 12-session course to learn how to see yourself as God does.
Seeing ourselves as God sees us can be a challenge. This 12-session course is ideal for your Women's Sunday school quarterly curriculum or to use in your small group. It covers such topics as self-worth, stress, confidence, friends and hearing God's voice.
Week 1
Where Do We Get Self-Worth? In a culture that idolizes physical beauty and physique, where do we find our personal worth?
Some ways to help you evaluate what's important by the perspective of loss.
Sue Skalicky
Group Outreach
I just returned from taking 20 high school journalism students to Nashville, TN, for the JEA/NSPA Fall National High School Journalism Convention. For the past three years, many of these kids have attended this convention during which time they have been awarded a prestigious place in the list of the top 10 high school newsmagazines in the nation.Last year, in Chicago, they took first ...
The walls around Jerusalem were broken and needed mending. The same could be said for the lives of God's people. Nehemiah was sent by God to repair both problems. When Ezra read the Law of the Lord to the people, their first response was open weeping and mourning as they realized how far they were from God's moral standards (Nehemiah 8:9, 10). But Nehemiah instructed them that this was not a time ...
Fostering fun within a group is a little like growing a plant.
Aaron Acton
What do baseball games, barbecues, circuses, proms, and the neighbor's house with the swimming pool, all have in common? People go to them for one reason - Fun! People will go out of their way to have fun. They'll travel further, pay more, and stay up later to have, what they consider, fun.
But, here's the real question: how many of those same people would go to the same effort for the same activities ...
Ask the right questions before you begin or relaunch your small group ministry.
Rick Lowry
Here is a common scenario in small group ministry…
Your church tried small groups a few years ago. Â It was a disaster. Â You know you ought to try again, but church members are resistant when they recall the previous attempt. Â How can you be successful this time around?
Learn from Experience
First, assess what went wrong last time. Â Assemble your team and discuss the factors that hindered the ...
Small GroupsMoney TroublesWhere small groups fit in a tough economy.Reid Smith
SmallGroups.com recently had a chance to sit down with one of our favorite authors: Reid Smith. In addition to serving as one of our Q & A experts, Reid serves as Community Life pastor for the multi-site Christ Fellowship Church in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
We asked Reid how the current economic situation was affecting the small-group ministry at Christ Fellowship, and what the church has done to adjust.
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