MarkHowellLive.com

In the last couple weeks we’ve been talking about using technology to enhance grouplife in your church.  Blogs, Facebook and Twitter and eNewsletters all can make communication with your leaders easier.  Using a web-based survey tool can help you understand needs and next steps.  Here’s a little bit on why it makes sense, which tools [...]

How are you communicating with your small group leaders, co-leaders, hosts, facilitators, etc.?  Are you able to go straight to all of them?  Are you mailing a newsletter?  Are you limited to the ones you can personally call?  Or are you relying on a “pick up a flyer next time you’re in the lobby” strategy? [...]

One of the most important cultural trends right now is the widespread use of social media.  And before you think it’s only for teens, a February 2009 report showed that the fastest growing segment on Facebook was women over 55.  A March 2009 report showed that the biggest growth by segment was users over 35 [...]

Once you’ve built your blog you need to take advantage of three services that will really boost your awareness of who is reading what you’re writing.  Best of all…they’re all free! Clicky Clicky is a free service that allows you to easily track blog usage during the day.  It’s not hard to set up and [...]

What’s the easiest way to make information available to the leaders in your system?  I think you’ll find that a blog is an easy to start resource that’s always-available, makes it easy to share, and offers some huge advantages over almost every other method. Easy-to-Start It’s easy to get started.  Just follow the outline below [...]

What are you using to communicate with your small group leaders?  What are you using to train your leaders?  If you’re not yet using a blog or e-newsletter to communicate you’re missing a great opportunity.  What about Facebook and Twitter?  If you’re still relying on centralized, come-to-the-church meetings for training and encouragement…you’re not in step [...]

What technologies are you using in your small group ministry?  Website page?  Blog?   Facebook?  Twitter?  Data management system (like Churchteams or GroupsInteractive)? Or are you doing the things according the the KJV?  You know…the old fashioned way.  Printed catalogs?  Phone trees?  Sign up forms? The times are achangin’ you know.  Today your leaders can [...]

What are you using to manage and grow your small group ministry?  As I’ve mentioned previously, 24/7 access is a very important detail.  Whether you have 10 groups or 100, the ability to find out what groups are available, how to contact the leader, and when and where they meet are almost an essential ingredients.  Reporting [...]