Top 10 Articles for Small Group Pastors

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small group pastor readingMy Backstory

How am I qualified to write anything about being a small group pastor? Here's how my own story began:

I was asked to help with the college ministry at my church in 1983. I knew how to gather a crowd but had no idea how to help them grow in Christ. I learned how to make disciples from Eric Swanson, a Campus Crusade area director who spent a month at our church in the summer of 1984. I started my first small groups that fall using a study guide series called 10 Basic Steps toward Christian Maturity. The group leaders were slightly more mature college students and two young married couples served as coaches.

It's hard to believe, but I've been leading small groups and small group ministries ever since. I've led small group ministries in very cutting edge churches and in stuck-in-time churches. I've served in several of the fastest growing churches in America and in a couple that had plateaued and were teetering on the brink of decline.

I am both a student of what works and a determined experimenter at the edges. I have been called a mad scientist, but I've invented very little. I'm an early adopter and quick adapter. I am not a theorist. I am a practitioner.

I suppose if anyone should know something about being a small group pastor, it might be me. 

Here are my top 10 articles for small group pastors:

1. 5 Things Every Small Group Pastor Should Know on Day 1

2. 10 Things Small Group Pastors Should Always Be Thinking

3. Rethinking the Role of a Small Group Pastor

4. 5 Stupid Things Small Group Pastor Should Stop Doing

5. 5 Common Mistakes of Rookie Small Group Pastors

6. 5 Problems Only an Experienced Small Group Pastor Recognizes

7. 7 Skills Every Small Group Pastor Needs

8. 4 Decisions Wise Small Group Pastors Make Once

9. The 7 Biggest Problems Facing Small Group Pastors

10. 4 Obsessions of Extraordinary Small Group Pastors

Image by Kamil Porembinski

2 Comments

  1. Andrew Mason on December 15, 2015 at 10:59 am

    This is a treasure trove Mark!



  2. markchowell on December 15, 2015 at 7:22 pm

    Thanks Andrew!