1. Make your group all about you. When you first looked for a small group, you may have done so in the same way you shopped for a new car or a new refrigerator. You looked for features you wanted,...
Tag: goals and plans
Small Group Leaders
Seven Ways Your Small Group Can Celebrate the Incarnation This Holiday Season
What is your small group doing over the holidays? "Many groups struggle with meeting and studying over the holidays, and this can be detrimental to the health of your group," I wrote in my November column in The Christian Standard...
Ministry Leaders
Top 10 Small Group Ministry Launch Failures
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...
Ministry Leaders
It’s Not About Small Groups!
Recently, I was commenting on a discussion on the Small Group Churches site about why small group ministries sometimes fail in churches. The author of the original post, +Andrew Mason, suggests three very good reasons this happens, but I believe...
Facilitating Discussion
Hanging Out with Fellow Small Group Ministry Practitioners: August 2013
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...
Small Group Leaders
Reconciliation: the Heart of Small Groups
Do you remember the first time you were invited to a small group? I do. I had visited Centerville Christian Church in Dayton, Ohio, and met a few people my age. (I was 28 and single at the time, and was...
Small Group Leaders
How and When to Launch a Small Group: The Role of the Holy Spirit, Prayer, Laundry Rooms, Swimming Pools, and Game Nights
Right after Heidi and I got married, we moved into a forty-unit apartment building. We wanted to start a small group to reach out to the people who lived there who did not have a relationship with God, but we...
Discipling, External-Focus
When Our Definition of Discipleship Keeps Us from Making Disciples
The church has redefined discipleship into churchmanship. Living as a disciple takes intentional effort and, according to Jesus, requires us to make costly decisions. It means more than just sitting in a row in a church building or in a circle...
Spiritual Life
God Is Calling You to Something New Today!
We love brand new things, but most of us settle for the same old thing. Sing a new song to the Lord! Let the whole earth sing to the Lord! (Psalm 96:1, New Living Translation)Today is a new day.This is the beginning of...
Small Group Leaders
What does your small group(s) do over the summer?
I'm writing my monthly Christian Standard small groups column for May, and I have this question. I'd liove to hear your response!What does your small group (or the groups at your church) do over the summer? Any great ideas I...