MarkHowellLive.com

The concept of an alignment, or a church-wide campaign, (the combination of a weekend message series and a small group curriculum) is probably the most important spiritual growth development in the last hundred years.  Preaching in series allows an idea to be fully developed.  Adding the element of a small group study that complements the [...]

How hard is it to build community?   What’s involved?  Is it just a matter of using a strategy, unrolling a game plan?  Uhhhhh…no.  Peter Block says it in a very elegant way: “What makes community building so complex is that it occurs in an infinite number of small steps, sometimes in quiet moments that we [...]

You’ve probably heard of “hosting” a group.  But what does it mean to be a host?  Is there a difference between a host and a leader?  Is it just another name for a leader?  If I’m a host, will you provide the teacher?   These are questions that are asked all the time.  ALL the time.  [...]

I’ve found Saddleback’s concentric circle idea to be very helpful in explaining a number of small group related concepts.  Here’s my version. Basic idea?  The largest circle represents the community you’re in.  They are who you’re trying to reach.  The crowd represents the group that considers your church to be their church.  They may not [...]

All topics are not created equally. Know what I mean?  Whether you’re talking about a weekend message series or small group curriculum, the topic you choose determines some things right away.  If you think about it, you can see that certain topics would have great appeal to your church members but might repel their neighbors.  [...]

“Span of care” is a term used to describe the number of people being cared for by someone.  In Prepare Your Church for the Future Carl George proposed that while everyone needs to be cared for by someone, no one ought to be taking care of more than about ten.  Looking at Exodus 18:13-25, George [...]