6 Reasons Our Discipleship Strategies Miss the Mark

If your church is like mine, your mission or vision or purpose probably includes some aspect of the Great Commission. Many of us have even gone a step further and proclaimed that we are in the business of making disciples and we’ll know we are succeeding when we make some amount of more and better…

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Quotebook: When Does Discipleship Happen?

“Discipleship occurs when a transformed person radiates Christ to those around her. It happens when people so deeply experience God’s love that they can do nothing other than affect those around them.” Bill Hull, The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Making Followers of Christ. Discipleship occurs when a transformed person radiates Christ to…

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Thinking Thursday: Want to innovate? Become a “now-ist”

“Remember before the internet?” asks Joi Ito. “Remember when people used to try to predict the future?” In this engaging talk, the head of the MIT Media Lab skips the future predictions and instead shares a new approach to creating in the moment: building quickly and improving constantly, without waiting for permission or for proof…

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5 Assumptions that Shape My Small Group Coaching Strategy

Quick! What goes through your mind when I say “small group coaching”? Were you thinking, “Small group coaching doesn’t work”? Or maybe, “I tried that before and it doesn’t work here?” Or how about, “It may work for some churches but we just don’t have those kind of people here!” Regardless of what you were…

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6 Great Studies for Outreach

Looking for a study that will appeal to your friends and neighbors? As you know, it takes a special topic to spark an interest in unchurched friends and neighbors. Not just any topic will do. See also, Your Topic Determines Two Huge Outcomes and Does Your Topic Connect with Your True Customer?. While certainly not an…

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5 Signs Your Small Group Ministry Is Due for a Tune Up

Most of us quickly recognize the signs that there is something wrong with the way our car’s engine sounds or feels. When our car dies at the stop light or backfires as we drop off our teenage daughter at school…we get it. There’s something wrong with the engine. We may not know what it is…

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Skill Training: How to Identify a Potential Small Group Coach

I’m frequently asked how to find potential small group coaches. In fact, it’s probably one of my most frequently asked questions. I’m asked about how to find coaches all the time. Probably most often right after I’ve spoken or written about the fact that without coaching in place it will be next to impossible to…

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