5 Things Wrong with This Church Sign
I’ve been driving by a particular church sign for the past few weeks that's been driving me crazy. Every time I pass I consider my issues with the sign. I’ve finally decided to sit down and write them all out. Here's the Church Sign Abraham walked by faith- do you? There are 5 main issues I have with this sign. I know this is a deep dive into something that may seem trivial. However, as a follower of Jesus, we should consider carefully the impact of the messages we share publicly. Those messages reflect on our individual church, the Church ...
MEMO: Proposed Change in Bedtime
How do you know when it's time for bed during quarantine? Similar to all companies, Thorne Inc. is continuing to pivot during the quarantine. It has come to our attention that a new bedtime may be necessary to ensure the health, safety, and sanity of every Thorne Inc. employee. Therefore, we sent out the following memo. CHECK OUT A FEW OTHER THORNE INC. POSTS https://davidthorne.online/the-easter-candy-contract/ https://davidthorne.online/exercise-room-closed-due-to-wall-hole-at-thorne-inc/ TEXT OF THE MEMO To:All EmployeesFrom:CEO Date:March 30, 2016Re:PROPOSED CHANGE IN BED “TIME” Due to recent employee unrest during the workday, and in order to ensure employee safety, a new bedtime committee will be investigating alternate bedtime solutions. Presently ...
Dunbar’s Number and Church Plant Success
church plant success Church Plant Success In the back of my mind I'm always wondering why some church plants take root and grow while others are forced to close their doors. Closed church plants impact lead planter families, community relationships, newly gathered congregants and supporting churches. Church plant success matters. I recently compared around 20 open and closed church plants, comparing size of congregation on launch Sunday and results of the lead planter's Ridley Assessment scores. (Ridley Assessment measures pastors ability on a 5 point scales for 13 identified abilities for successful church planting. I have not found where the ...
8 Great Small Group Promo Videos
Here are 8 great small group promo videos. Hopefully these will give you some ideas for your own promo videos. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMZsMCeFIUA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6qHTiNO68A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDV9-5aW0fg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pz1sXoScxXE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjhoo2n6UYM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZayHALkHUA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUFINog_c88 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSRkCr56u24
Emotional Bank Accounts Changed My Life: Part 3 (Family, Friends, Work)
I'll finish up the discussion on Emotional Bank Accounts by talking about how they matter to family/friends, and at work. If you missed the first two posts, you can read them here: Emotional Bank Accounts: Part 1 Emotional Bank Accounts: Part 2 Emotional Bank Accounts Matter with Friends and Family! Family and friends are those people in your life who don’t go away. You may be mad at them, but usually, you’re pretty stuck with them. There’s nothing worse than having family or friends take your relationship for granted and continually overdraw their emotional bank account (take, take, take, but never ...
6 Different Types of Small Groups
I’ve been thinking a lot about discipleship recently and looking at how different churches develop their people. At the core of most churches discipleship program is some sort of small group. So, I’d like to briefly go over 6 different types of groups churches use to disciple their people. To make sure we’re on the same page I’ll define “small group” as any group of less than 50 that meet for the purpose of discipleship (becoming more like Jesus) and relationship. 6 Different Types of Groups: 1. Ongoing, multiplying: The goal of these groups is to grow and eventually multiply ...
Seven Ideas for Your Group to Serve This Summer
In Cleveland, people tend to hibernate during the winter. Every year there’s one spring day where that “bright orb in the sky” reappears and myself and all the neighbors wander outside, stretching and yawning. We greet each other like long lost friends and ask how the last few months have been. But, as it continues to warm up, people want to spend more and more time outside and become active. That means it’s a great time for your group to be active too. Spring and summer are excellent times to encourage your group to serve. (If your group doesn’t meet ...
You’re not a robot: 7 ways to experience God
You are not a robot! Sometimes we believe the lie that there's only one way to connect with Jesus. We're supposed to love being around people and music and quiet Bible study. But, the truth is, God didn't create an army of robots- he created individuals; and not one person is like another. That means because of everyone's backgrounds, personality, giftings, and passions, we're all going to relate to and connect with Jesus differently. Understanding these differences are very important as a follower of Jesus and as a group leader. A few years ago, Bill Hybels adapted Gary Thomas’ book ...
Things I Learned from Group Evaluations: Part 1
At the end of our fall semester, I had all the participants of our various Fuel Groups give some feedback about how their group went. I would honestly have to say it’s one of the best things I’ve done for groups. As I read over the evaluations I feel there were two big things that mattered to people that stood out to me. Connection Matters. Over and over again the people who rated their group the highest commented how connected they felt to the other people in their group. They related to the other people in the group and didn’t ...