Posts by Mark Howell
Try This Simple Exercise to Identify Next Steps
Need a little push in order to get moving? Try this simple exercise to identify some next steps. It’s based on this great Andy Stanley line: “Your ministry is perfectly designed to produce the results you’re currently experiencing.” The exercise? There are two steps. First, make a list of all the individual components in your…
Read MoreFaith Limps: Trusting a Good God in a Broken World | New from Lifeway
Spent some time this weekend with a relatively new study from LifeWay. Faith Limps: Trusting God in a Broken World, featuring Michael Kelley, is DVD-driven study that will help your group members wrestle with some of life’s most challenging questions. There are several very important aspects to Faith Limps. First of all, the back story of…
Read MoreThe One Thing That Changes Everything…and How to Get It
What changes everything in small group ministry? What’s the one thing that makes the biggest difference? I’ve written about this many times in the last several years, but it’s clear to me that the one thing that changes everything is senior pastor support. To be clear, I’m not talking about moral support. I’m not talking…
Read MoreTodd Engstrom’s Update on Austin Stone’s Missional Move
About 18 months ago I had the opportunity to interview Todd Engstrom, Austin Stone’s Pastor of Missional Communities about a strategic grouplife move they were making. After almost a year of meaning to get an update, I finally had the chance this week to get the latest on a very interesting story. MH: It’s been 18…
Read MoreWhat Are You Doing about the “Mortality Rate” of Premature Spiritual Babies?
Here’s the set-up: I reread a fascinating story today in Steven Johnson’s Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation. It was the story of how a Parisian obstetrician named Stephane Tarnier stumbled across the way baby chicks were being cared for at the Paris Zoo. Curious, he wondered if the simple chicken incubators…
Read MoreSupercharge Your Ministry Impact with These 5 Questions
Need to take your ministry impact to a new level? So often we find ourselves in meetings or planning sessions that could move things in the right direction, but it’s almost like we’re the guy who shows up with a knife to a gunfight! What can move things in the right direction? Sometimes the right…
Read MoreNew from Rick Warren and Saddleback: What On Earth Am I Here For?
I took some time this weekend to preview What On Earth Am I Here For?, the 2013 version of 40 Days of Purpose. Before I say anything else, let me just say…Wow! So powerful! Whether you’ve never done 40 Days or it’s been several years, you’re going to want to consider taking your church through…
Read MoreDilbert on What Not to Say to Your Senior Pastor
We can learn a lot from Dilbert. Here’s what not to say to your senior pastor:
Read MoreWould You Rather: Connect More People or Make More Disciples?
Ever been caught up in a crazy game of “would you rather?” with your kids? You know what I’m talking about, right? Would you rather be 3 feet tall or 8 feet tall? Would you rather be rich and ugly, or poor and good looking? Would you rather eat a handful of hair or lick…
Read More5 Keys to a More Dynamic Group Experience
What makes for a dynamic small group experience? Most of us know it when we see it. While most of us have been in groups that were just painful to attend, we’ve also been in groups that had a different quality and went well beyond the ordinary. The groups we’ve been in that went well…
Read More