If building a small group ministry is your personal mission, you’ve probably made it your business to know about the small group ministries in churches that are hitting home runs.  If that’s you,  you’ve read Building a Church of Small Groups and attended the Willow Creek GroupLife conferences back in the day.  You’ve also read Creating…

When are you willing to pull the plug on a strategy?  How many times does a strategy need to have the exact same results before you conclude that it is the wrong strategy? When are you willing to rethink an assumption?  How many times are you willing to profess confusion when the outcome is not…

I’ve written about the importance of providing next steps that are easy, obvious, and strategic (see Think Steps, Not Programs and Making GroupLife On-Ramps Easy, Obvious, and Strategic).  I’ve pointed out that we need to build strategies that feature next steps for everyone in your ministry and first steps for their friends.  And I’ve ranted about…

I probably shouldn’t call it a secret.  But did you know that a tiny little detail can add vast new understanding about which strategy will connect the largest number of people?  In fact, I’m beginning to think that misunderstanding this little detail leads to more connection misfires than anything else. What’s the detail?  If you…

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.…