One of the most significant findings from my research involving over 4000 small group leaders is that praying leaders have faster growing groups. I’ve always been intrigued by this. Why does something that no one sees—the leader’s personal time with God and their prayer for their group—impact a small group’s growth so significantly? I think […]
Archive | Pray
3 Keys to Turn Around a Struggling Small Group
A few months ago I was discouraged and struggling as a small group leader. I love leading groups and have led many over the last 36 years. But the one that my wife and I launched last fall has been our most challenging in all those years. Not too long ago the group seemed dead in the […]
The 4 Keys to Growing Your (American) Small Group
What makes an American small group grow? Some of you are familiar with the groundbreaking research that Dwight Marable and I did on small group growth that was published in our 2011 book Small Groups, Big Impact. (If you don’t have time to read that short book, you can find a free summary of our […]
4 Surprising Discoveries about Small Group Growth
Realizing that small groups make the most difference in a church’s quantitative and qualitative growth (Schwarz, Natural Church Development, p. 32), Dwight Marable and I have done extensive research to discover the key ingredients for small group health and growth. Statistical analysis of over 3000 small group leaders in more than 200 churches revealed these […]
The Best Small Group Curriculum
By Jim Egli on February 22, 2013 in Discipleship, Pray, Small Group Leader Resources, Small Group Meetings, Small Group Pastor
Over the past 35 years I have used lots of great books and curriculum in leading small groups and discipleship groups—some of them written by me. Thinking of all of the good material I have used, my favorite small group curriculum now is The Good & Beautiful God, by James Bryan Smith. My friend small group […]
My Favorite Small Group Curriculum
By Jim Egli on September 22, 2012 in Discipleship, Pray, Small Group Leader Resources, Small Group Meetings, Small Groups
My favorite small group curriculum right now, the one I find myself recommending over and over to small group leaders, is Sacred Rhythms by Ruth Haley Barton. I love it. It’s a six-session DVD curriculum on how to connect with God through simple spiritual disciplines. There are two reasons I love it so much. First, the […]
Make Disciples Who Make Disciples
I’m a small group enthusiast and always will be, but the longer I have done ministry the more convinced I have become that the heart of it all is making disciples who make more disciples of Jesus. Last Sunday my wife Vicki and I took a group of our pastoral interns and visited a church […]
10 Practical Principles for Knowing and Living Out God’s Will for Your Life
How can you know and live out God’s will for your life? Here are ten practical things I’ve discovered that have made a big difference. Put first things first. What is God’s will for your life? First of all, it’s that you love him (Mark 12:29-30). That’s a simple principle, but it took me a […]
Slow Down (and Accomplish More)
Last Sunday evening I visited our church’s School of Kingdom Ministry which is a weekly three-hour program that trains people in supernatural ministry like healing and prophecy. As usual, the first half of the class was teaching and the second half was practice. At the end of the teaching portion of the class I spoke […]
Fasting & Feasting
Last night my small group spent the bulk of our meeting just sharing testimonies from the church’s 21-day fast which ended on Sunday. It was a rich time, people really opened up and shared deeply with each other. Almost every adult in the group participated in the fast. There was a lot of variation in […]