Craig Groeschel from Lifechurch.tv posted this blog about small groups. I am a firm believer in doing small groups in a church and this post is a great reminder on what not to do.
Tons of churches have attempted small groups only to abort shortly after takeoff. I’ll share the top 10 ways to ensure the failure of your group.
Today we’ll cover the first 5 and finish the others tomorrow.
1. Make sure the senior pastor isn’t in a group. If small groups aren’t modeled by the pastor, they won’t have much of a chance for success. (Amy and I host two small groups in our home.)
2. Make sure the senior pastor doesn’t talk about small groups. If small groups don’t ever find their way into a sermon, it will help reduce the likelihood of success.
3. Make sure small groups are not staffed or resourced properly. To guarantee your groups fail, don’t staff them, buy them curriculum, announce them, or get your best volunteers involved.
4. Make sure small group leaders aren’t trained. When you do get some small group leaders, don’t train them. Let them figure it out on their own.
5. Make sure the church doesn’t address childcare needs. Pretend like all small groups don’t have any child care needs. Don’t open the church one or two nights a week to provide child care. Don’t pay for childcare like I’ve heard North Point does. Ignore childcare needs completely.
Have you seen churches that are handling these issues effectively? If so, how?
Filed under: Leadership, Uncategorized , craig groeschel, lifechurch.tv, ministry, Relevant Church Charlotte, Religion, Small groups
December 3, 2008 • 8:01 am
Here is a great post from Craig Groeschel of Lifechurch.tv
Question: What do you do when you realize you are lukewarm?
Answer: You do something drastic!
If some small change would have made the difference in your spiritual life, you would have made the change a long time ago.
You might:
- Start a seven day fast and devote extra time to seeking God.
- Take a sabbatical and pray like you haven’t in years.
- Confess to your spouse, your elders, or to trusted friends and ask for help.
- Seek spiritual counseling from another pastor or counselor.
- Take the week off and go to a hotel alone with no cell phone, no computer, and no books but the Bible.
- Read a children’s bible and pretend like you’re hearing the gospel story for the very first time.
- Repent to your family for your lack of spiritual passion and leadership.
- Tell your church honestly that you are struggling and invite them to pray for you.
- You might turn off your computer now and go somewhere and cry and repent deeply.
Whatever you do, it should be drastic and you should do it before another voice talks you out of it.
Filed under: My Journal, Uncategorized , Bible, craig groeschel, God, lifechurch, lukewarm, spiritual apathy, spiritual life
November 9, 2008 • 7:50 am
Here is a great leadership blog from Craig Groeschel at Lifechurch.tv.
Team Dynamics
In the early stages of ministry, I suggest you never make anyone a
permanent member of a leadership team. Things change too quickly.
Determine limited time periods for a leader to serve. You can always
ask her to rejoin easier than you can ask her to leave.
When you’re building a team, you have to remember a team takes
time to build. (When you determine you have a “wrong”
player on the team, you must remove him sooner rather than later.)
You must be willing:
- To fight together. A team that can’t work through conflict will never be a team.
- To be loyal to the death. Even though you can fight behind closed doors, you ALWAYS stand together publicly. Disloyalty is never tolerated.
- To be transparent. If you can’t be brutally honest about everything, you don’t have a team.
- To care for each other. A team that is “all business” will eventually deteriorate. A ministry team must become a family.
- To have fun together. I always know a team is not healthy when I don’t hear them laughing often.
Filed under: Uncategorized , craig groeschel, Leadership, lifechurch.tv, team, working together
October 30, 2008 • 11:54 am
Recent Comments