Posts by Mark Howell
Win 2 FREE Registrations to re:group: North Point’s Groups Conference
This contest is over! Watch for our next giveaway! Join Andy Stanley and the North Point Groups team for re:group, one of the very best small groups conferences I’ve ever attended! October 21st and 22nd at Buckhead Church in Atlanta, Georgia. You’ll be inspired and equipped with the nuts and bolts of building a small…
Read MoreTrying to Figure out How to Market Your Small Groups?
Trying to get the word out about small groups in your church that are open to new members? I think there are some precautions that you need to think about as well as some steps you can take to make connecting easier. Here are a few precautions you might want to keep in mind: First,…
Read More5 Non-Negotiables That Define True Small Group Ministry Success
What’s really a win in your small group ministry? What are you really going to call success? Have you ever actually declared a BHAG (big hairy audacious goal)? I’ve seen plenty of statements like: We want to be a church of groups (helpful but really more of a philosophical aspiration) We want to make disciples…
Read MoreDetermining the Minimum and the Recommended Dose
I was on a coaching call with several staff members from a church wrestling with a number of foundational grouplife issues. A fairly common situation, they had been following the conversation here and were not sure what their next steps were…so they set up a call to pull a pair of fresh eyes into their…
Read MoreChoosing What Not to Do
If you’ve been in on very much of this conversation, you are probably becoming very familiar with this diagram. I use it for all kinds of discussions (you’ll see many of them right here), but I’m not sure we’ve ever talked about choosing what not to do. Choosing what not to do is very near…
Read MoreThe Importance of Discipling People with Wisdom
Ever feel any responsibility for the spiritual development of the group members in your church? I do. And I bet you do too. I had an opportunity this week to ask Eric Geiger a few questions about the importance of discipling people with wisdom, one of the key benefits of LifeWay’s new Bible Studies for Life…
Read MoreQuotebook: Dallas Willard on Following Jesus
When I think about the objective of making disciples, I am reminded of Colossians 1:28: “He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ.” For me, a big part of my objective is to present everyone fully mature in Christ. What would that look…
Read MoreNote to Self: Don’t Forget to Pray for Your Church-Wide Campaign
You’ve done everything you could to ensure that you’re ready for a powerful church-wide campaign. You’ve carefully prepared, planning the weeks leading up to the campaign, the campaign itself, and the series that follows. You’ve chosen a great series for the campaign. You’ve recruited coaches to help sustain as many new groups as possible. Can…
Read MoreTop 10 Posts of July, 2013
Miss a day? Here are my top 10 posts of July, 2013. Pretty cool to see that I had readers from 68 countries around the world! Thanks for stopping by! Top 5 Keys to Starting New Groups…Lots of New Groups (July, 2103) How to Launch Groups Using a Small Group Connection (May, 2008) New from Beth…
Read MoreDon’t Miss These Two Huge Barna Findings for Small Group Ministries
I tweeted the link to Barna’s July 31st report yesterday. I’m not going to go into the whole report here, but I wanted to point out two huge findings in their latest research. The report compares “Americans’ descriptions of themselves from the early 2000s until now, illuminating how much American life has changed in the…
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