What Am I Thankful For? What Are You Thankful For?
“What is one thing your church does really well?” An easy question to answer, you would think. But I had to think about it for a while when I was asked it by a friend during a recent Salt Lake City huddle. I struggled with this question because too often it is not the good […]
5 Takeaways from The Lobby Gathering
It’s November and I am still thinking of my very first experience, eight months ago, at the Lobby Gathering. I attended not really knowing much about the Small Group Network, what the Lobby Gathering was or even what all I’d do once I arrived. Just in case you are interested in attending but are in the same […]
4 Keys to Hard Conversations
Hard conversations can be challenging. They are never fun. And truthfully most of us would rather not have to have any hard conversations. However, sometimes they are necessary. Maybe there is a Small Group leader who is teaching something contrary to the church’s core values. Or maybe a Small Group member is using their group […]
5 Small Shifts to Transform Your Small Group Ministry [Podcast]
[podcast src=”https://html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/5944744/height/26/theme/standard-mini/thumbnail/yes/direction/forward/” height=”26″ width=”100%” placement=”top” theme=”mini”] Have you ever wished that there was a miracle formula for small groups ministry? A silver bullet that would guarantee that everyone in your church would be in a biblical Acts 2 kind of small group where people would grow to love God deeply, where lives would be radically […]
Small Groups On Mission
One of the greatest seasons of joy and growth, both spiritually and numerically, I’ve experienced in ministry is when our small groups really embraced the idea of being Small Groups on mission. It took vision, direction, intentionality and many tough conversations to take the idea of small groups on missions from a cool catch phrase […]
3 Reasons to Fight for the Right to Party
As groups point people,we all have grand visions and hopes for what happens in those groups; things like accountability, service, knowledge, community and transparency. We even have tools to get those results, including Bible study, sermon discussions, video content, service projects, and prayer times.While all of these tools are clearly important, sometimes we forget one […]
12 Keys To An Effective H.O.S.T. Ask
The H.O.S.T. Ask can be a “game-changer call-to-action” for churches desiring to connect every person in their local body in biblical community. It’s a signature move reserved only for the Lead Pastor during a weekend service. If executed strategically, it can draw in willing vessels who are hidden in crowd. This one move can supercharge […]
3 Things I Wish Someone had Told Me
Oscar Wilde said, “experience is simply the name we give to our mistakes.” Having been a Small Group Point Person for a number of years now, I have accumulated lots of that type of experience. My hope is that by sharing what I wish someone had told me when I was first starting out in […]
4 Advantages to Using Social Media for Small Group Point People
Social media is a crazy world. Each day as I jump on Facebook, I have to prepare myself to weave through the political rants, embarrassing-too-much-information posts and cat videos to find my way to the Small Group Network page or SGN group (#shamelessplug). Social media can be a toxic place but there is so much good […]
3 Reasons to Highly Anticipate Steve Gladen’s New Book
With almost 20 years of leading small groups at Saddleback, when Steve Gladen (the founder of the Small Group Network) speaks or writes, we are wise to listen. Many of us have greatly benefitted from his wisdom whether through his previous books, through the Small Group Network, or through the conference he and his team […]
