Help! My small groups are all over the place
A lot of church leaders that I coach ask for help because their small groups are all over the place. The issue, essentially, is central control of groups. To what degree can the leadership get all of the groups on a similar track? Can/should they create a consistent...
Don’t Give Up on Your Small Groups Ministry
Your small groups ministry may be struggling post-pandemic but don’t give up. If you want healthy church growth, you need small groups. It’s as simple as that. In a small church, the pastor gets to know and care for everyone. As the church grows, it...
Small Groups: Guidelines and Norms
Every group has norms, whether they are stated or unstated, examined or unexamined. If you are overseeing small groups in your ministry, I would suggest there are significant advantages to be had by stating, examining, processing, and reinforcing small groups...
How can I get people to move from visitor to participant?
Assimilation. That’s the key issue here. How can we get people to “stick” to our congregation and move from visitor to engaged participant? It’s easy to come up with a lot of wrong answers to this question. Better music. More inspiring preaching. Cool new...
Spiritual Gifts: Empowerment for the least of these
An incredible aspect of spiritual gifts is that they are completely equitable. The Holy Spirit bestows gifts to all of God’s children in every location, demographic, and circumstance. God empowers equally— everyone has worth and a contribution to make. To...
Living Life as God Intended
Last week in my blog I wrote about the role process groups can play in local churches as a supplement to more traditional small groups. Today I want to share with you a free five-week process group I created about ten years ago called Living Life as God Intended. I...
Small groups or process groups? What about both?
Most churches have small groups of some kind. They can be called missional communities, fellowship groups, community groups, etc. These groups are most often essential to the life of the church. They are where people gather to be known, prayed for, challenged, and...