Posts by Mark Howell
Design Your Ministry for Results
Small group ministry struggling to meet the objectives you’ve set? Ending the ministry year and falling short of the goals that have been set for you? Although there are a number of possible explanations, the most likely reason is that your ministry isn’t actually designed to accomplish the goals and objectives you’d like to reach.…
Read MoreTransformational Discipleship: How People Really Grow
If you’re looking for discipleship resources that will give direction to your approach, Transformational Discipleship: How People Really Grow by Eric Geiger, Michael Kelley and Philip Nation ought to be on your reading list. A research driven project, the book is based on the discoveries of an extensive research project launched by Lifeway in 2010 “to survey…
Read MoreDilbert on Feedback
Ever get sent to gather feedback?
Read MoreHelp Your Groups Become People of the Second Chance
Looking for a simple study that can help your small groups take a big step? A few weeks back I noticed that my friends over at People of a Second Chance had produced a DVD-Driven study based on founder Mike Foster’s powerful little book, Gracenomics. They provided a review copy for me to check out,…
Read MoreThese Aren’t the Droids You’re Looking For
Sometimes a line develops an iconic stature. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve said, “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.” Even waved my hand just like Obi-Wan Kenobi. Always draws a smile or a look of recognition. Doesn’t have to fit exactly. I’m rarely challenged to defend its meaning. Serves as a cultural bridge…
Read More5 Keys to Avoiding a Church-Wide Campaign Disaster
Want to connect more people this fall than ever before? Start a big wave of new small groups? Reach your community? Take your congregation on a faith-deepening journey? Maybe you’re already thinking this way, but there is nothing more powerful than a well-conceived, well-executed church-wide campaign. Nothing else even comes close. Nothing. Still…not every church-wide…
Read MoreNew from David Platt: The Radical Small Group Study
One of the most challenging books in the last several years has been David Platt’s Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream. What made it so challenging? Radical began with a great question, “What if Jesus actually meant what he said?” When the dust cleared on the book, readers had been challenged “to…
Read MoreQuotebook: Irrelevance
I have a love/hate relationship with these two paragraphs from Marketing Myopia, Theodore Levitt’s classic 1960 Harvard Business Review article. Noting Detroit’s struggles (in 1960) he wrote: The industry has hitched its fortune to the relentless requirements of the annual model change, a policy that makes customer orientation an especially urgent necessity. Consequently, the auto companies annually…
Read MoreSummer Reading List 2012
What are you reading? Got your reading list together? I’ve found that summer sometimes offers the occasional window of opportunity to catch up on some essential reading. Summer also offers a chance to read outside of my field. Here’s my list of 5 of the best I’ve read lately: These are clearly different times. How…
Read MoreNew from Kenny Luck…Sleeping Giant: Men’s Ministry in a Box
Looking for a way to jump start (or re-energize) a men’s ministry? You need to take a look at Sleeping Giant: No Move of God Without Men of God. Published with the tag line, “Men’s ministry in a box,” I believe that might be the understatement of the year. There are some extremely powerful ingredients…
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