Our church has been doing multisite (MS) ministry for a little over three years and we now have five campuses. Because we are the MS church with the most number of campuses in our denomination, we field a lot of questions from other churches and leaders. In my discussions with others I’ve realized that people […]
Formats Archives: Standard
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 […]
10 Reasons Why We Should Plant Churches in Small Towns
In the last three years our church has started campuses in three smaller towns in east central Illinois. We have been surprised at how rapidly these new churches (sites of our overall church) have grown. It’s been very rewarding to see the many lives changed and marriages saved as these communities are served in significant […]
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 […]
Amazing Results in Unexpected Places
Jesus often perplexed his followers. Perhaps the most befuddled we find them is in John 4. In that story, the disciples leave Jesus alone near an out-of-the-way town in backwoods Samaria in order to go grab some lunch. When they return they are startled to find him crossing religious, gender, and racial barriers to converse […]
The Worst Icebreaker Question Ever
It all started innocently enough. I had gone to the dentist and later that day went to my small group. I happened to mention my dentist visit before the meeting itself began and people started telling dentist horror stories. So I said, “Let’s make that our icebreaker question this evening, ‘What’s the worst experience you […]
The Best Small Group Resource Ever
I’m excited to be blogging again. I plan to blog one to three times a month about small groups, discipleship, and doing multicampus church—all of it so that more people can experience Jesus’ power and grace in life-changing ways. Some of the entries will be about my favorite resources because I know small group leaders […]
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 […]
Pray Weekly, Eat Monthly
Our small group’s outreach is going exceptionally well right now and I thought I’d share with you what seems to be working. It’s pretty simple, really. We pray weekly for our friends that need God and we do a cookout or potluck each month. Pray weekly: This is really very simple and doesn’t take long […]
Discipleship thru Mini-Groups
How do you release spiritual growth in small groups? How do you help people move through barriers into the fullness that God has for them in Jesus? A big part of this is mini-groups. I love small groups and I also love mini-groups. What is a mini-group? It’s two to four guys or two to […]