Help 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,…

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These 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…

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5 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…

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New 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…

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Quotebook: 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…

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Summer 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…

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New from Rick Howerton: A Different Kind of Tribe

Had an opportunity over the weekend to work my way through Rick Howerton’s newest book: A Different Kind of Tribe: Embracing the New Small-Group Dynamic.  With a central premise that “the world has changed; the way we do groups has not–but it must,” A Different Kind of Tribe is packed with thought-provoking ideas.  You may not…

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Sustaining the Groups You Start: GroupTalk Audio & Notes

Miss my May 31st talk on GroupTalk?  You’ll can listen to the recording of Increasing and Sustaining Small Group Participation right here. During the talk I mentioned several keys to sustaining the groups you start.  You’ll find additional ideas in the posts below. 5 Keys to Sustaining New Groups Thinking Strategically about the Fall Season Wash, Rinse,…

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Top 10 Posts of May, 2012

Here are my top 10 posts for May, 2012.  Actually, it’s my top 11 posts since #6 was a contest that is over. In a stunning reversal of trend, 4 of the top 10 were written in May of 2012!  So much traffic happens in the archives that it’s very common to only have one…

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