GUEST POST by Joel Comiskey, Ph.D., president of www.joelcomiskeygroup.com. *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *   I really wanted John to replace me as the small group point person. He was knowledgeable, talented, friendly, and likable. He was a good friend and always positive. But he was the wrong guy. Why? He just wasn’t FAT. Or better, he …

In my ministry over the years I’ve seen many blunders as churches launch small groups. I’ve made my own share as well. Later, people in the congregation say stuff like, “See, small groups didn’t work here,” but that wasn’t really the case. Here are the ten mistakes I most often see. These can have a devastating effect on any future …

The topic for our August 1 Small Group Ministry Practitioners Hangout was “Training leaders to be shepherds to their little flock.” How do you train them? What do you teach? Great discussion; we all learned a lot from one another. +Jay Daniell, +Josh Hunt, +Emil Kerekes, +Jonathan Jordan, +Adam Workman, +Brandon Boyd, and I participated this month. Here are a few highlights. We started by discussing …

Are you being a good steward of your small group? I’ve written about this before in reference to how you are discipling and shepherding the group God has put under your care (1 Peter 5:2). That’s vital to leading a healthy small group. But there’s even more to it than that. How are you using all the gifts and abilities …

This morning I received an email from a potential leader who stated she does not know if she’s the “right person” to lead a small group. This is a common response to being called to lead. I find the issue basically comes down to one or both of two factors. A person’s confidence level will depend on their personal sense …

When you as a leader look around your spheres of influence, you’ll probably notice that the opportunities usually far outweigh your resources. So what do you do? The Best Leader Ever made it simple: “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”  – Matthew 9:37-38 For …