Are they competitors or team members?
by Daphne Kirk
When I speak at conferences or seminars, I ask people to write down the areas of ministry they are involved in and then prioritize them. Sadly, the majority of people never list one of the most important ministries entrusted to them by their Heavenly Father: their own family. It's the ministry of raising our sons and daughters (and even grandchildren) as children of the most-high God.
(Read the full article HERE)
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Confessions of a Small-Group Leader
A lay leader tells what he'll do differently the next time around.
by Joe Higginbotham
My first experience in small-group ministry is now over—sooner than I expected. But I still believe in the concept. Even though I made so many mistakes, I intend to go out and try again. In fact, I'm already involved in a second small group, and I've taken steps to safeguard against the problems I'm about to describe.
The first group started after my Sunday school class complained that 45 minutes wasn't enough time to do the text justice. I suggested we meet on some weeknight in addition to Sunday morning.
One couple volunteered their home, and before long, their living room was filled with young adults we never could have coaxed out of bed for Sunday school. More important, the teaching enjoyed an efficiency over tortilla chips and cola that somehow had hit snags coming over a pulpit or lectern. The church had given me a license to preach, but the small group gave me license to minister.
We made some serious blunders, however. What were they? Here are several.
(Read the full article here)
by Joe Higginbotham
My first experience in small-group ministry is now over—sooner than I expected. But I still believe in the concept. Even though I made so many mistakes, I intend to go out and try again. In fact, I'm already involved in a second small group, and I've taken steps to safeguard against the problems I'm about to describe.
The first group started after my Sunday school class complained that 45 minutes wasn't enough time to do the text justice. I suggested we meet on some weeknight in addition to Sunday morning.
One couple volunteered their home, and before long, their living room was filled with young adults we never could have coaxed out of bed for Sunday school. More important, the teaching enjoyed an efficiency over tortilla chips and cola that somehow had hit snags coming over a pulpit or lectern. The church had given me a license to preach, but the small group gave me license to minister.
We made some serious blunders, however. What were they? Here are several.
(Read the full article here)
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
E-Groups
Sometimes, the ideal small group doesn't have all its members in the same room.
by Marilyn A. Yocum
My ideal small group would have included three good friends: Lynn, Margaret, and Susan. But I figured it could never happen. They were all busy people. We saw each other in church on Sunday and exchanged e-mail through the week, but the last thing any of us needed was another weekly meeting to attend.
The four of us operated in different spheres with little overlap. Lynn was a young mother of three in a world of playgroups and preschools. Margaret, 50, was an administrator at a local college, single, with a master's degree. Susan, 28, led an active parachurch ministry on campus, so her hours aligned with those of college students.
Seeing no convenient time or place for us to meet, I nearly abandoned my dream of forming a group. Then early one morning I turned on my computer to retrieve my e-mail. My inbox contained three messages: one from Lynn, one from Susan, one from Margaret.
At that moment, I saw a possible solution. Our meeting place had been right in front of me all along. Why not form an e-mail small group?
(Read full article here)
by Marilyn A. Yocum
My ideal small group would have included three good friends: Lynn, Margaret, and Susan. But I figured it could never happen. They were all busy people. We saw each other in church on Sunday and exchanged e-mail through the week, but the last thing any of us needed was another weekly meeting to attend.
The four of us operated in different spheres with little overlap. Lynn was a young mother of three in a world of playgroups and preschools. Margaret, 50, was an administrator at a local college, single, with a master's degree. Susan, 28, led an active parachurch ministry on campus, so her hours aligned with those of college students.
Seeing no convenient time or place for us to meet, I nearly abandoned my dream of forming a group. Then early one morning I turned on my computer to retrieve my e-mail. My inbox contained three messages: one from Lynn, one from Susan, one from Margaret.
At that moment, I saw a possible solution. Our meeting place had been right in front of me all along. Why not form an e-mail small group?
(Read full article here)
Nine Ways to Support Your Support Group
Follow these foundational steps to get your groups off to a great start.
by Randy Christian
I watched the TV screen scroll through the public-service announcements, finally seeing the one I'd been looking for: "Divorce Recovery Group," it read, with information and the name of our church below. In the past year I have received dozens of phone calls regarding this group, and more about others we sponsor. It's one way our church is responding to the needs around us.
More and more churches are offering divorce-recovery, addiction-recovery, grief, cancer, pregnancy, parenting, and retirement groups, among others. These support groups give a forum whereby people can stand by one another, support and encourage one another, and receive, in the process, the very comfort of God (2 Cor. 1:3-7).
Many churches, however, hesitate to start a support group because they simply feel unqualified. Yet the process isn't as intimidating as it sounds. Here, for example, are the steps our church takes in forming support groups.
(Read the full article here)
by Randy Christian
I watched the TV screen scroll through the public-service announcements, finally seeing the one I'd been looking for: "Divorce Recovery Group," it read, with information and the name of our church below. In the past year I have received dozens of phone calls regarding this group, and more about others we sponsor. It's one way our church is responding to the needs around us.
More and more churches are offering divorce-recovery, addiction-recovery, grief, cancer, pregnancy, parenting, and retirement groups, among others. These support groups give a forum whereby people can stand by one another, support and encourage one another, and receive, in the process, the very comfort of God (2 Cor. 1:3-7).
Many churches, however, hesitate to start a support group because they simply feel unqualified. Yet the process isn't as intimidating as it sounds. Here, for example, are the steps our church takes in forming support groups.
(Read the full article here)
Thursday, January 25, 2007
How to keep your small groups involved in discipleship
by Steve Gladen
Today, all around the world, people will join with other people in homes or restaurants or workplaces to study God’s Word and grow in Christ together in a small group. In many cases, however, the results may be less than what Jesus desires.
Jesus said, “Go into all of the world and make disciples.” But as Dallas Willard’s book, The Great Omission, points out, the Church doesn’t always have a plan for doing that. It’s as if the Great Commission had read, “Go into all of the world and make church members.” That’s certainly a worthy goal, but it stops far short of what our Savior commanded.
Community is belonging together, joining as part of the Body of Christ for the biblical purposes that Jesus charged us with keeping. And since small groups are also chartered with keeping the purposes, how do we turn them into small groups centered around God’s purposes? And as a part of that, how do we ensure they’re growing in discipleship?
Clearly, there are some things to be mindful of.
(Read the full article here)
Today, all around the world, people will join with other people in homes or restaurants or workplaces to study God’s Word and grow in Christ together in a small group. In many cases, however, the results may be less than what Jesus desires.
Jesus said, “Go into all of the world and make disciples.” But as Dallas Willard’s book, The Great Omission, points out, the Church doesn’t always have a plan for doing that. It’s as if the Great Commission had read, “Go into all of the world and make church members.” That’s certainly a worthy goal, but it stops far short of what our Savior commanded.
Community is belonging together, joining as part of the Body of Christ for the biblical purposes that Jesus charged us with keeping. And since small groups are also chartered with keeping the purposes, how do we turn them into small groups centered around God’s purposes? And as a part of that, how do we ensure they’re growing in discipleship?
Clearly, there are some things to be mindful of.
(Read the full article here)
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Men Don't "Need" Christ
by Patrick Morley
There is a basic flaw in how many of us go about reaching men. This flaw is based upon the presupposition: “Men need Christ.”
When we assume “men need Christ” we just can’t understand why they don’t respond. You’ve had that bewildered feeling, right? Maybe you’ve even been angry about it!
Of course, men do have a “real” need for Christ more than for anything else. But men don’t need Christ in the way they need food, water, gasoline, a haircut, or a paycheck. Those things are necessities for sustaining life. However, a man can live quite comfortably without Christ.
(Read the full article here)
There is a basic flaw in how many of us go about reaching men. This flaw is based upon the presupposition: “Men need Christ.”
When we assume “men need Christ” we just can’t understand why they don’t respond. You’ve had that bewildered feeling, right? Maybe you’ve even been angry about it!
Of course, men do have a “real” need for Christ more than for anything else. But men don’t need Christ in the way they need food, water, gasoline, a haircut, or a paycheck. Those things are necessities for sustaining life. However, a man can live quite comfortably without Christ.
(Read the full article here)
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Relationships are essential for spiritual growth
by Rick Warren
Your people will not grow on their own.
In fact, we can’t fulfill any of God’s purposes on our own – and spiritual maturity isn’t an exception. Trying to help your congregation become more Christ-like without developing the relationships within the church is like fighting an impossible battle.
Unfortunately, our culture’s idolatry of individualism has influenced even the way we think about spiritual growth. So much of the teaching on spiritual formation is self-centered and self-focused, without any reference to our relationship to other Christians. This is completely unbiblical and ignores much of the New Testament.
(Read the full article here)
Your people will not grow on their own.
In fact, we can’t fulfill any of God’s purposes on our own – and spiritual maturity isn’t an exception. Trying to help your congregation become more Christ-like without developing the relationships within the church is like fighting an impossible battle.
Unfortunately, our culture’s idolatry of individualism has influenced even the way we think about spiritual growth. So much of the teaching on spiritual formation is self-centered and self-focused, without any reference to our relationship to other Christians. This is completely unbiblical and ignores much of the New Testament.
(Read the full article here)
Monday, January 8, 2007
A Resolution to Consider
Written by Kelly Boggs
According to a poll conducted on USA Today’s website, 80 percent of Americans will make at least one New Year’s resolution. But research indicates that many of those setting New Year’s goals will have broken them by March.
Even though most of us have a history of breaking our New Year’s commitments, year after year we continue to make them. Why? I think it’s because deep down we really want to improve.
Among the most popular resolutions are commitments to lose weight, reduce debt and break a bad habit. These are noble aspirations and, if kept, would certainly have positive results. However, there is one area of life that is usually overlooked and one that will not only help us keep our resolutions, but also will impact virtually every area of our lives.
What is this important aspect of life that is often ignored? Attitude.
(Read the full article here)
According to a poll conducted on USA Today’s website, 80 percent of Americans will make at least one New Year’s resolution. But research indicates that many of those setting New Year’s goals will have broken them by March.
Even though most of us have a history of breaking our New Year’s commitments, year after year we continue to make them. Why? I think it’s because deep down we really want to improve.
Among the most popular resolutions are commitments to lose weight, reduce debt and break a bad habit. These are noble aspirations and, if kept, would certainly have positive results. However, there is one area of life that is usually overlooked and one that will not only help us keep our resolutions, but also will impact virtually every area of our lives.
What is this important aspect of life that is often ignored? Attitude.
(Read the full article here)
It Could Happen to You!
Small group success isn't just for mega churches.
by Brett Eastman Founder and CEO, Lifetogether
I can remember it like it was yesterday. I had only been on staff at Saddleback Church for a few weeks when I learned that over 800 men from our congregation were planning to attend the Promise Keepers rally in Washington, DC. I suggested we try to launch some new small groups among the men going to the event. Over 300 said they were interested, but I only had half a dozen men to lead them—the story of a small group pastor's life.
I got to game day, where everybody showed up to get into a group, and I tried something called the "small group connection" process. People gather into pairs, then fours, and then groups of eight according to where they live. The process simply allows people to traverse down a spiral of questions. The group moves from icebreaker-like questions into deeper spiritual conversation. This allows them to discern the relative spiritual shepherd (not leader) in the circle. This model follows the Acts 6 example, where the disciples encouraged the people to select from among the church seven people to serve tables.
We launched 32 groups that day with almost 300 people. We saw some disasters, but we also had a seed of an idea that helped to serve the church-wide small group campaigns for years to come. No longer did we have a problem finding leaders. We were providing the living rooms of every ministry with pre-qualified leaders.
(Read the full article here)
by Brett Eastman Founder and CEO, Lifetogether
I can remember it like it was yesterday. I had only been on staff at Saddleback Church for a few weeks when I learned that over 800 men from our congregation were planning to attend the Promise Keepers rally in Washington, DC. I suggested we try to launch some new small groups among the men going to the event. Over 300 said they were interested, but I only had half a dozen men to lead them—the story of a small group pastor's life.
I got to game day, where everybody showed up to get into a group, and I tried something called the "small group connection" process. People gather into pairs, then fours, and then groups of eight according to where they live. The process simply allows people to traverse down a spiral of questions. The group moves from icebreaker-like questions into deeper spiritual conversation. This allows them to discern the relative spiritual shepherd (not leader) in the circle. This model follows the Acts 6 example, where the disciples encouraged the people to select from among the church seven people to serve tables.
We launched 32 groups that day with almost 300 people. We saw some disasters, but we also had a seed of an idea that helped to serve the church-wide small group campaigns for years to come. No longer did we have a problem finding leaders. We were providing the living rooms of every ministry with pre-qualified leaders.
(Read the full article here)
Thursday, January 4, 2007
The Art of Group Prayer
Making your small group prayer time meaningful.
By JoHannah Reardon
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, it didn't seem as though anyone's life was getting any better.
Tom's comment was a wake-up call about the way we handled the prayer time in our small group. My husband and I did some soul and Scripture searching to find out what we might be doing wrong. Nowhere in Scripture did we find prayers for Sally's arthritis, Mark's unruly children, or Bonnie's rotten work conditions. The prayers in the Bible were powerful and life-changing, full of God's power and glory.
Consider Paul's prayer in Ephesians 1:16-23. In fact, read it aloud with feeling:
I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
Wow! Such a prayer puts arthritis, unruly children, and rotten work conditions in perspective.
So should we ignore our problems and pretend they don't exist? Not at all. Instead, we should transform them by putting them into the bigger context of what God wants to do in our lives. We can still take the prayer requests, but consider praying for them in the following ways.
(Read the full article here)
By JoHannah Reardon
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, it didn't seem as though anyone's life was getting any better.
Tom's comment was a wake-up call about the way we handled the prayer time in our small group. My husband and I did some soul and Scripture searching to find out what we might be doing wrong. Nowhere in Scripture did we find prayers for Sally's arthritis, Mark's unruly children, or Bonnie's rotten work conditions. The prayers in the Bible were powerful and life-changing, full of God's power and glory.
Consider Paul's prayer in Ephesians 1:16-23. In fact, read it aloud with feeling:
I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
Wow! Such a prayer puts arthritis, unruly children, and rotten work conditions in perspective.
So should we ignore our problems and pretend they don't exist? Not at all. Instead, we should transform them by putting them into the bigger context of what God wants to do in our lives. We can still take the prayer requests, but consider praying for them in the following ways.
(Read the full article here)
Cyber Pastors
Our small-group follow-up is faster and more frequent.
by T. R. Robertson
Our weekly small-group Bible study has been over for nearly an hour. The last of the lingerers has just pulled out of the driveway to head home. I'm picking up the popcorn bowls and coffee cups. My wife is already logging onto the computer, preparing to send quick e-mail messages to several of the young women she has just been talking to.
E-mailing someone she has just spent an evening with may seem odd, but for the young married couples in our small group, it's a vital connection. Some of them will be eager to get home, not to go to sleep, but to log on and see what Karen has sent to their inbox.
Friday morning, I'll be at the computer myself, sending a longer e-mail to a young man who asked a complicated doctrinal question during the evening's discussion, a question that would have derailed the whole study if we had tried to explore it fully at the time. But the next day I can compose a well-thought-out explanation and include links to Scripture references or other online resources for further study. By the time I see him again Sunday morning, he will have had a chance to read it all, and I'm sure he'll be ready to hit me with follow-up questions.
Ministry E-fficiency
In our ministry with college students and young married, we have discovered that a strong sense of personal connection is vital, and intimate relationships are fostered by combining face-to-face and e-contacts. Their expectations for immediacy, heightened by technology, have made our use of the Internet more important. Our contacts now are only only more immediate, they're more frequent.
Small-group ministry is no longer a once-a-week event. It's often daily.
(Read the full article here)
by T. R. Robertson
Our weekly small-group Bible study has been over for nearly an hour. The last of the lingerers has just pulled out of the driveway to head home. I'm picking up the popcorn bowls and coffee cups. My wife is already logging onto the computer, preparing to send quick e-mail messages to several of the young women she has just been talking to.
E-mailing someone she has just spent an evening with may seem odd, but for the young married couples in our small group, it's a vital connection. Some of them will be eager to get home, not to go to sleep, but to log on and see what Karen has sent to their inbox.
Friday morning, I'll be at the computer myself, sending a longer e-mail to a young man who asked a complicated doctrinal question during the evening's discussion, a question that would have derailed the whole study if we had tried to explore it fully at the time. But the next day I can compose a well-thought-out explanation and include links to Scripture references or other online resources for further study. By the time I see him again Sunday morning, he will have had a chance to read it all, and I'm sure he'll be ready to hit me with follow-up questions.
Ministry E-fficiency
In our ministry with college students and young married, we have discovered that a strong sense of personal connection is vital, and intimate relationships are fostered by combining face-to-face and e-contacts. Their expectations for immediacy, heightened by technology, have made our use of the Internet more important. Our contacts now are only only more immediate, they're more frequent.
Small-group ministry is no longer a once-a-week event. It's often daily.
(Read the full article here)
New Blog with Small Group Leaders in Mind
There are literally TONS of resources and articles geared towards Small Group Ministry. It can be quite a maze to navigate as leaders and volunteers trying to find all they need for their individual groups.
I receive about 50 emails, 10 magazine articles and 20 book recommendations a month just in small group ministry. So I decided to start this blog in order to help provide our small group leaders (and their members as well!) with a one-stop-shopping for different articles and resources that I think is well worth their precious time to read and see about using in their groups.
And who knows... maybe I'll start writing my own articles from time to time as well :)
If you would like me to add something to this blog to share with other leaders please don't hesitate to send it my way.
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