Posts by Mark Howell
Skill Training: Four Questions Every Coach Should Be Asking
What are you training your coaches to do? Have you trained them? Or have you left what they do and how they do it up to them? Let me suggest that certain things can be left up to your coaches. Since they each have their own personality, experience level, and skill set, it only makes…
Read MoreWhat Questions Are You Asking?
One of my goals here at MarkHowellLive is to provide answers to basic small group ministry questions. Although I provide a full range of consulting and coaching options, I’m hoping it helps to be able to find a lot of what you need online, right here, or at one of the websites/blogs in my blogroll.…
Read MoreLowering the Leader Bar
Great conversation continues to come out of the comments generated by my response to Randall Neighbor’s article over at SmallGroups.com. If you missed out, be sure and read them to catch up. Today I want to expand the discussion on a potential strategic difference that a crowd-to-core strategy brings…that is not present in the cell…
Read MoreCrowd-to-Core, Quality Control and Problem-Free
We’ve had a very good discussion here over the last 48 hours about the difference between “cell groups” and “small groups” (prompted by Randall Neighbour’s article on SmallGroups.com and my response). The comments here have been very engaging and have all had a great spirit and attitude. It’s been very fun to watch! Several of…
Read MoreThe Difference Between a Cell Group and a Small Group | A Response
Tripped across Randall Neighbour’s response to this question over at SmallGroups.com and needed to respond. Two preliminary observations need to be made: First, I think it’s critical that we all learn to recognize and acknowledge our own bias. Alan Kay rightly pointed out that perspective (point of view) is worth 80 IQ points. In any…
Read MoreHow To Implement Coaching for Existing Group Leaders
One of the great challenges in developing a coaching structure is providing care for existing group leaders. It’s one thing to connect a new leader with a coach. It’s another thing entirely to retrofit seasoned, existing leaders with a coach. This is true for at least three reasons: Survival of the fittest: Once an existing…
Read MoreJust-In-Time Coaching for Small Group Ministries
If you’re reading this article, you may not know about Just-In-Time Coaching for Small Group Ministries, my twice a month recap of the most important articles here at MarkHowellLive.com. And it may be that the rhythm of the blog suits you better. You may prefer the idea of getting everything on the day that it…
Read MoreSkill Training: Equip Leaders To Help Members Plan To Grow
When you meet with a personal trainer one of the first things they ask you is what do you wish was different? They may phrase it a lot of different ways, but essentially they’re asking, “Where do you see that you need to change in order to be healthy?” What if you taught your leaders…
Read MoreExponential Thinking: The Power of Adding a Zero
One of the amazing stories that came out of the development of 40 Days of Purpose was how the HOST strategy came to be. Ever heard this one? It’s pretty crazy. It’s also a window into the kind of thinking that needs to happen in order to produce exponential results. This is 1 part legend…
Read MoreTop 10 Articles of 2009
Did you miss any of these articles? These are the most popular posts in 2009. (I actually included the top 20) Looking for a New Church Wide Campaign? How To Launch Groups Using a Small Group Connection 5 Keys to Sustaining New Groups What’s The Best Way To Launch New Small Groups? The Exponential Power…
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