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 […]
Archive | Outreach
Planning with Your Core
I think every healthy small group has a core of people who are closer and more committed than most of the members. Jesus’ small group did. He had twelve close followers, but if you look closely at the Gospels, sometimes he is just with his core—Peter, James, and John (i.e., Mark 5:37; 9:2; 13:3; 14:33). […]
Pray, Invite, Eat, Repeat
How do you grow a small group? I think it comes down to four simple actions: pray, invite, eat, repeat. One reason why I want to write on this is because growing our own small group this year took persistence in these principles. We started strong with three committed couples. Then three other individuals joined […]
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 […]
Food & Small Group Growth
This week everyone came to small group! Why? Because we were doing a potluck. People show up for food! It reminds me of a potluck we did in our last small group. So many people were there that evening that a new member asked me if we had invited another group to join us. I […]
Caring—The Heart of Leading
I was reminded this past week, by my wife’s actions, that small group leading is all about caring about people not simply leading a meeting. As I related in a previous blog, one person—let’s call her “Mary”—recently visited our group a couple times and then graciously let us know that she wasn’t coming back. Obviously, […]