2010’s Most Popular Articles
The conversation has really grown here over the last 12 months. If you missed any of these articles (or if you joined us in progress), you might want to go back and take a look at what you missed. Here are the most popular articles in 2010:
- Top 10 Reasons Saddleback Has Connected Over 130% in Small Groups. If you’re a student of small group ministry, this is a must read. In many ways, what is happening at Saddleback is a model many small group practitioners are looking at for inspiration, so it’s good to understand how they are doing what they are doing.
- How to Launch Groups Using a Small Group Connection. This is part one of a 5 part series and although I wrote it in 2008, it remains one of my most popular articles.
- Add 5 to 10% More Hosts with This Jedi Move. Although this article has a quirky title, it got picked up by Rick Warren’s Ministry Toolbox and had a ton of page views. If you didn’t read it, this strategy has the details on an important secret ingredient for any church-wide campaign.
- 5 Keys to Sustaining New Groups. This is another article from 2008 that remains very popular for good reason. Launching new groups takes a lot of energy. All of us want to try and sustain what gets started.
- Looking for a New Church-Wide Campaign. Still another key article from 2008, this one remains very popular. I update this article at least twice a year to try and keep the content fresh.
- About Mark Howell. This is a little weird to me, but my “about” page always gets a lot of traffic.
- 10 Essential Small Group Leader Skills. This article is actually the anchor page to a 10 part skill-training series. Each article is intended to be used to train small group leaders on an essential skill. As always, you have permission to print them and use them for training provided you attribute the content to me.
- The Exponential Power of a Church-Wide Campaign. Although this article was written in 2009, it remains very popular and provides a good overview of some of the keys to planning a church-wide campaign.
- Subscribe to Mark’s Blog – Three Methods. I don’t know what it says when one of your most popular articles is your subscription page. You’d think there was some kind of prize offered there!
- What’s the Best Way to Launch New Small Groups? Another article from 2008, this one integrates the “no problem-free idea” and looks at the problem sets of each of the most common ways of starting new groups. It always stays near the top of the list.
- Groups Interactive’s New Version Takes a Big Step in the Right Direction. Right after I posted this article, Max Lucado tweeted the link. Huge traffic…the power of influence.
- How to Choose a Small Group System or Strategy. This post is both a list of 9 of the most common small group systems and some advice on how to choose the best fit for your church.
- Reading List. Hundreds of readers take a look at my reading list every year.
- Host: What Does It Mean? You’ve heard of a small group leader. You might have heard of a host. But what is a small group host? Is it the same thing?
- What’s the difference Between a Cell Group and a Small Group? This article was actually a response to an article that Randall Neighbour contributed to SmallGroup.com. I didn’t agree with him then and I don’t agree with him now.
- Consulting, Coaching and Speaking It’s amazing to me, but this page is very popular.
- Top 10 Articles on Small Group Coaching One of the toughest challenges for almost everyone is building an effective coaching structure.
- DVD Driven Curriculum One of keys to launching and sustaining new small groups is an easy-to-use curriculum.
- Santa Went Down to Georgia Another of North Point’s very creative openers, this one really got a lot of traffic.
- Top 10 Fantasies of Churches WITH Small Groups This is the anchor post for a series of articles on each of the 10 fantasies.