Jun

25

Creating Other People

June 25, 2010 | Comments Off

I’ve been reading a great book called SuperCoach: 10 Secrets to Transform Anyone’s Life by Michael Neil. The book is full of  helpful hints for successful living. I especially liked his chapter on “Listening” in relation to my interest in challenging people. He says, We’ll nearly always hear what we’re listening for. This creates a [...]

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May

13

American “Millennials” Are Spiritually Diverse (Part 2)

May 13, 2010 | 1 Comment

Today we’re presenting the second part August 2009 LifeWay Research study of a national, demographically representative survey of 1,200 Millennials in the United States.  The first part of the study is reviewed here: Here is how Millennials respond to a series of doctrinal statements: God, Satan, sin and salvation * “God is a real being, [...]

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May

11

American “Millennials” Are Spiritually Diverse (Part 1)

May 11, 2010 | 1 Comment

Two-thirds of American “Millennials” – those born between 1980 and 1991 – call themselves Christian, but far fewer pray or read the Bible daily, attend weekly worship services, or hold to historical positions on the Bible and its teachings. These findings, which will affect how we lead our churches and small groups, are from a [...]

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Mar

30

Christian Beliefs a Bit Mixed Up

March 30, 2010 | 4 Comments

Did you every wonder why it’s so hard to lead a group, pastor a church, or disciple a new believer? Consider these religious “mix and match” findings of approximately 4,000 U.S. American Catholics and Evangelical Protestant adults from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life and reported in The Washington Post and the February [...]

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Jan

27

Valuing the Unlovely

January 27, 2010 | Comments Off

Do you have challenging people in your small group? People who don’t fit in anywhere? I love this quote from S.D. Gaede in Belonging: Our need for Community in Church and Family (Zondervan: 1985). “More than anything else, community in the modern world depends on our willingness to emulate the Samaritan’s choice—on our willingness to [...]

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Oct

26

Care for the Fragile During This Season

October 26, 2009 | Comments Off

If you have challenging people in your group or church, this could be a difficult couple of weeks for them. Most Christians don’t understand the spiritual realities of the Halloween season and therefore, don’t understand how fragile some wounded people can be.  There is a definite correlation between how severely a person was wounded in [...]

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Oct

22

Let’s Take Another Look at Halloween

October 22, 2009 | Comments Off

Christians are confused about Halloween. No wonder. When many of us were growing up, Halloween was a favorite holiday. We loved dressing up and parading through the neighborhood in search of the ultimate thrill–a bag full of candy! We squealed with delight when our favorite neighbor feigned fear or pretended not to recognize us. Few [...]

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Jul

27

Is Your Group Changing Lives?

July 27, 2009 | Comments Off

The Bible was not given to increase our knowledge, but to change our lives.” ~Dwight L. Moody Is your small group using the Bible to change lives or to simply increase knowledge? Are your members growing in godliness? Are they better able to navigate the rough waters of life since being part of your group? [...]

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Dec

7

Ministering to Gen Y

December 7, 2008 | Comments Off

Chris Brogan has a fascinating post by Theresa Wu on Generation Y in the Workplace Explained.   While this is aimed at the workplace, it seems to me that it also informs the way we do small groups for the younger generation. How do you incorporate these factors into your small groups?

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Jan

13

How Do Unchurched Americans View Christianity?

January 13, 2008 | 1 Comment

The Christian Post reports on a survey of the “unchurched” in America. The study found that most are willing to hear what people have to say about Christianity but a majority also sees the church as a place full of hypocrites. LifeWay Research studied 1,402 adults who were unchurched – those who had not attended [...]

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