MarkHowellLive.com

How can we start some new groups?  We have 14 (or 34, 78, or 103) and we’re stuck on how to add new groups.  What’s the best way to do it?  What are some ways that we’re not thinking of? This is a very frequent question.  And it’s a good one because it’s rooted in [...]

How will your hosts add members to their groups?  After you’ve chosen the church-wide campaign you will use and recruited hosts, determining how you will recruit members is a very big decision.  Along with the first two questions, this one has a lot to do with how effectively your campaign reaches into the crowd.  It [...]

Looking for a sample message that casts vision for life in community?  You can download the audio of a great example by John Ortberg right here.  Here’s a link to the transcript. Given in preparation for Menlo Park’s 40 Days of Purpose experience in 2004, this message provides a look at how Ortberg encouraged a [...]

Inspired by the Grammy Award winning song recorded by Tim McGraw, and developed by a group of incredible church-wide campaign experts, Live Like You Were Dying offers a great experience for your congregation. Designed to help your congregation wrestle with how to live life to the fullest, this church-wide campaign has everything you need to [...]

What if you had one month to live?  Think you’d make any changes in the way you spent your time?  Would you spend more time with family?  Would you tell friends what they really mean to you?  Would you take steps to seek or give forgiveness?  What would you do differently if you found out [...]

When NASA prepares for a shuttle launch, there are certain steps that are a given.  There is a sequence to what they do.  When anything unexpected happens during the launch preparation (mechanical issues, weather change, etc.) it isn’t unusual for NASA to restart the sequence. In much the same way, when you’re preparing for a [...]

Do your members even know their neighbors?  Do you know your neighbors?  Why not take the first step this summer and begin or deepen relationships with the folks on your street?  It’s not hard, they rarely bite, it honors God, and exponential outreach depends on connections beyond the circle. Here are our 10 best ideas.  [...]

Have you heard about Life’s Healing Choices, Saddleback’s newest campaign?  You can hear Rick Warren talk about the study right here.  Looks like a great new resource on a topic that’s been a home run for many churches and is clearly on the easy end of the easy/hard continuum. An 8 week church-wide study based [...]

Many effective strategies are multi-component strategies.  That is, there are multiple essential components to the strategy and effectiveness and impact are a result of these components working together.  HOST, often used in conjunction with launching a church-wide campaign, is an example of a multi-component strategy. Remember that in the HOST strategy, the “T” stands for [...]

While there are some key steps to launching a church-wide campaign that lead to greater participation, higher  follow-through, broader community interaction, and deeper values integration…there are also some devastating missteps that cause campaigns to miss the mark.  Here are my top 10: Selecting a topic that doesn’t engage the crowd, from the hard end of [...]