Oct

19

Getting to Know You

October 19, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Pastor Paul Irwin writes in The ZoneGathering that building relationships is the best way to deal with challenging group members. He discusses ways to care for group members, especially in developing openness and closeness through a variety of types of questions, including:
Discovery Questions
In-Depth Story-Telling
Current Updates
Weekly Reports
Affirming Each Other
Great article, Paul. Challenging people are usually relationship […]

Oct

17

What Growing Christians Need

October 17, 2007 | Leave a Comment

My friend, Mary Schaller of SeekerMinistries and I were talking last week about what makes small groups successful. She mentioned a new market research study done by Willow Creek Community church that has found some fascinating information about how people grow. The study is called Reveal and is described in their online magazine and in […]

Oct

9

Reference for Small Group Leaders

October 9, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Have you ever had a group member ask a question you couldn’t answer? (If not, give it a week). Have you ever needed a Scriptural reference for a situation in your group? (If not, pay attention). I just found an interesting site through StumbleUpon. It’s called God’s Yellow Pages and is just a list of […]

Oct

4

Rules for Respect

October 4, 2007 | 4 Comments

Mary Schaller at SeekerMinistries.com lists ten Rules for Respect, taken from the book Secrets of Effective Communication and summarized by Kathy Hellman. These are amazing guidelines for maintaining appropriate boundaries with anyone—especially with members of your small group.
Especially if you have challenging people in your group, consider discussing these rules at your next meeting. And […]

Oct

2

Where are the Mature Saints?

October 2, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Gordon McDonald has an outstanding article in CTs LeadershipJournal.net. He’s talking about the sad lack of mature Christians and what he believes is the cause of it. Here are a few choice tidbits, but do take time to read the whole article. He’s right on!
The marks of maturity? Self-sustaining in spiritual devotions. Wise in […]