Comedy at Group Life 2008
Session starts with a hilarious rendition of a small group experience through the eyes of the Wizard of Oz characters (ala Mystery Science Theater 3000). That was HILARIOUS.
Read MoreGroup Life 2008
And so it begins. Bill Donahue warming up the crowd. Telling the story of how it all began 10 years ago. Good times. I always wonder about any conference where they’d have me do a breakout, but this a.m. was a lot of fun. Wish you’d been here. If you want to follow along with…
Read MoreCommunity and Social Media
Here for Group Life at Willow? In a few minutes I’ll be walking over to join the discussion in a pre-conference experience (love that word), Community and Social Media: FaceBook, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter… is it possible to experience "virtual" community without ever meeting face-to-face? (Does iChat count as face-to-face?) Not sure how qualified I am…
Read MoreMeet Up at Willow!
I mentioned earlier this summer that I’ll be doing a breakout (Getting to There: Building a Dynamic Small Group Ministry) at Willow’s Group Life conference. It’s this week. You can read more right here. Are you going to be here? Be sure and Email Me. It’d be great to have coffee one morning.
Read MoreThe Tangible Kingdom
My cool friend Bryan Doyle gave me a copy of The Tangible Kingdom the other day and it caught me right away! You won’t find a more engaging book about incarnational community. The story of Hugh Halter, Matt Smay and Adullam will grab you by page 3. When you get to the chapter on the…
Read MoreSimple Small Groups
Looking for leader training ideas? Simple Small Groups, newly released by Baker Books and written by Bill Search, a veteran small group practitioner, is a great new resource designed to make effective small group ministry simple. Rather than over-complicate the subject, Search isolates three simple and essential ingredients that every effective group must have, identifies…
Read MoreThinking Strategically…about the New Year
When do you start thinking about January? Are you already there? One of the most under-appreciated habits is looking ahead. Do you have that one? If not, you need to develop it. I believe it is at the heart of what separates success from failure many times. Why? Like an Indy car driver who never…
Read More5 Keys to Sustaining New Groups
“We’ve launched 25 new groups. How can we help them continue to meet?” With the development of the HOST strategy it is not hard to launch a wave of new small groups. Very easy to do. But like I always say, “There’s an upside and a downside to everything.” What’s the upside? They’re easy to…
Read MoreWhat About Alcohol at Group Meetings?
Great question this morning in my email inbox: I don’t know how to address the issue of alcohol that is being served at small group meetings. Do you see alcohol consumption, in moderation, as a problem at small groups? I’m not coming at this from a judgmental standpoint. I don’ t have a problem with…
Read MoreHow Does a HOST Become a Leader or Shepherd?
We recruited HOSTS to open their homes for six weeks, serve a few refreshments and tell a few of their friends…but how does a HOST burn into a leader? Isn’t that more than they signed up to do? Ever asked that one? It’s a great question and one being asked everywhere that the host idea…
Read More