Over the years I’ve surveyed over 4000 small group leaders to uncover the key elements that produce vital, growing groups. I’ve consistently asked the leaders how long their meetings are. But I’ve been too busy looking at other things and actually never analyzed how the length of small group meetings impacts their growth. I finally […]
Archive | Children in Groups
A Simple Format for Including Children in Small Groups
Over the past 34 years, my wife Vicki and I have led a lot of different small groups. Most of those groups have been intergenerational groups that included adults and children. How do you include children in small groups? There’s lots of different ways to do this and the best approach varies a lot depending […]
Too Many Children?
For the last 15 years my wife Vicki and I have been in or led a kid-friendly small group. I love groups that include children. When a group involves them, the children are blessed and are a blessing. Right now, for example, we have a 9-year old in our group that comes up with a […]
Starting a New Year as a Group
Last night was our first small group meeting of the new year. My wife Vicki and I wanted several things to happen as we began the new year. First, we wanted to make any adjustments that we needed to to the group. Second, we wanted small group members to step up to the plate and […]
Communion, Kids, & Small Group
Should kids be able to take communion? I am sure a lot of profound stuff has been written about this over the last couple thousand years. What has been written and said? I am not sure. But my wife thinks we should include the children, so that sounds good to me. (She’s close to God, […]
Serving Others as a Group
Small Group is a lot more than a meeting. It’s people caring about one another and reaching out to those beyond the group. I want to see our small group reaching out in two ways—first, praying and loving those that don’t know Jesus and, two, doing things for those less fortunate than us. As a […]
Timing My Small Group Meeting
I want to blog about timing a small group meeting. A 90-MINUTE SMALL GROUP MEETING I like a 90-minute small group meeting. Most group meetings that go longer than that are too long. (I think young adult groups can go longer perhaps. You young guys and gals maybe have more time.) You can do a […]