3 Things I Learned about Church Growth from Church Planting
There’s something amazing and terrifying about planting a church. I remember having trouble sleeping the night before Velocity began- terrified that no one would show up the next morning. I was pleased to find that people did and the church slowly grew. But, as the years wore on and the church became self-sufficient, I remember lead pastor Scott and I revisiting some of the principles that helped the church grow in the beginning. We would say things like, “Remember how desperate and hungry we were in the beginning”? These discussions were used to spur on areas of growth for the ...
How Wins Build Momentum
If you lead a team, of any sort, winning is important! Last week we talked about how to determine what it looks like for your team to win. Now, let’s talk about building wins! Wins are the fuel that keep your group going and your people excited. Wins build momentum like a wave as it heads toward shore. As your team wins, it will build excitement and buy-in from the people on your team. They’ll then be willing to give more and invest more, because they know it’s worth it and it matters. But, the question is, once you know ...
Is Your Team Winning?
Winning? I admit it, I like to win. My wife makes fun of me for turning everything into a competition. A few of the bigger fights we’ve had in our marriage revolved around her amazing ability to beat me in most games (I’m looking at you Settlers of Catan). As you can imagine, being competitive is not always good, and I’m working on it (hoping to become the least competitive of all my friends). But, there is a good side to competition. Winning teams change the world. A winning team of doctors may keep you alive. A winning team of ...
4 Steps to Using Your Past for God
The R.E.M. song is true- everybody hurts. Everyone has a story of some storm they’ve been through in life. I’m on a team teaching a class right now called GIFTED and this past week we talked about how God can use our experiences. Everyone worked though an exercise where they charted their biggest life experiences. (I’ll share the exercise in another post.) As people sat there, examining their life on paper, we explained that God can use your life experiences. Your greatest passions probably stem from the biggest moments of your life, this includes your moments of joy, but also ...
The Best Part of Leading a Group
I remember this past fall, peering around the room at my new small group. I wondered how well this group was going to go. Yes, I’d been through this many times before, but sometimes you wonder if this is the group that just won’t click. Connection was slow the first few weeks, but people consistently came. Everything was fine but not necessarily great. That is, until the night we began to talk about family. As I asked a question about how our family has influenced who we are today, one of my group members took a deep breath and said ...
7 Simple Questions to Begin a Small Group (with free download)
As we began our yearly preparations for small group to begin about a year ago, I began to feel bad about how many times I had to e-mail our leaders for their group info. It felt like I was bugging our leaders- which I never want to do. Finally, I decided to sit down and figure out all the info I needed so I could ask them in one easy step. After I received their info, I made a simple excel sheet to find out where there are holes and could easily follow up. As I'm working through this process ...