A new way of doing small groups is sweeping around the world. Instead of focusing on learning and talking about the Bible—as we have so often done in the past—the Discovery Group format focuses on listening to and immediately obeying the Bible. The change is subtle but powerful and brings wonderful results. The simple Discovery […]
Tag Archives | Small Group Meetings
How to End Your Small Group
I hate to break it to you, but your small group is going to end. Every small group, even the very best, is going to close someday. Jesus is no longer meeting in person here with his twelve disciples, and you are not going to do life indefinitely with the wonderful people in your current […]
A New Small Group Method for Making Disciples Who Make Disciples
A simple but revolutionary way of doing evangelism and small groups is sweeping the globe. It started in India but it’s rocking the world. In suburbs of San Francisco, slums of South America, and Muslim tribes of Africa, the lost are being won, disciples are being mobilized, and churches are multiplying. It’s called the “Disciple-Making […]
The Next Big Thing in Small Groups
Ka-Blam! My concepts of how to do small groups, evangelism, and discipleship, just blew up. I thought I knew a lot about these things. I’ve been a pastor, small group writer, and small group consultant for 30 years. I even did my Ph.D. research on what makes groups grow. But recently my paradigms of small […]
The 10 Best Icebreaker Questions
When people come to your small group their hearts and minds are all over the place. Maybe they are afraid of losing their job, maybe they just had an argument with their spouse, perhaps they are concerned about a wayward teenage child, or they are just excited about their favorite sports team winning a crucial […]
4 Powerful Questions to Engage Your Small Group in Any Bible Passage
Helping your small group respond to God as you dig into the Bible together is largely a matter of asking the right questions. The most common mistake that group leaders make is to ask too many questions. If you ask too many questions, you don’t delve deeply into any of them and the same two […]
7 Great Icebreaker Questions to Use When Launching a New Group
Last month I started two new groups—a men’s discipleship group and an advanced leadership training group. When I launch a new small group, class, or training group, I like to ask several icebreaker questions the first meeting as well as casting vision and outlining expectations for the group. Asking a few icebreaker questions builds community, opening […]
A Curriculum for Christlikeness?
By Jim Egli on October 19, 2014 in Curriculum, Discipleship, Small Group Leader Resources, Small Group Meetings, Small Groups
My favorite curriculum for small groups and smaller discipleship groups are the three books by James Bryan Smith entitled The Good & Beautiful God, The Good & Beautiful Life, and The Good & Beautiful Community. I have gone through the first book with five small groups and the entire series of all three books with […]
4 Great Vineyard Small Group Worship DVD’s
By Jim Egli on June 14, 2014 in Small Group Leader Resources, Small Group Meetings, Small Group Worship, Small Groups
You don’t need a guitar player to have great small group worship, all you need is a DVD (or CD) player! I’m writing this post to alert you to a new Vineyard small group worship DVD, which joins several great ones that are already available. The new DVD, the first of its kind from the UK Vineyard […]
How Long Should Your Small Group Meeting Be? (I think you will be surprised by the research results on this one!)
By Jim Egli on December 7, 2013 in Care, Children in Groups, Eating Together, Small Group Meetings, Small Groups
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 […]