Posted by: Frank Chiapperino in Untagged on
Jun 29, 2007
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Sorry for the late post as it is Tuesday now! Even though I missed my normal Monday night post I wanted to make sure I got a reccomended resource up this week. The resource choice this week is Garry Poole's, Seeker Small Groups. If you are interested in using your small group as a method of evangelisim than this is a book you want to spend some time in. Garry talks about a few strategies he has used. One I found particularly interesting was a technique on a college campus and it actually worked! He ended up with a room full of non-Christians willing to talk about Jesus. Very cool.
Book Description
This Silver Medallion Book Award and 2004 Christianity Today Book Award of Merit winner provides a detailed, step-by-step process for launching seeker small group strategy in a wide variety of settings.
From the Back Cover
Principles and methods for effectively launching a seeker small group.Best-selling author and evangelism expert Lee Strobel describes seeker small groups as “One of the most powerful and effective tools in evangelism.” A seeker small group is facilitated by a Christian leader, but group members are seekers—non-Christians investigating Christianity. The group provides a safe context for seekers and believers to ask questions and dialogue about faith.This highly transferable model can be implemented by all kinds of ministries with a wide range of evangelistic styles and strategies. As believers complete evangelism courses such as Becoming a Contagious Christian, they are motivated to reach out to others but often feel they lack opportunities to interact with non-Christians. Seeker Small Groups is the missing evangelism tool churches need to fill the gap between evangelism training and real-life opportunities for engaging seekers in life-changing spiritual discussions.The book presents a detailed, step-by-step process for launching seeker small groups strategy in a wide variety of settings. The groups are for seekers whether or not they are attending church. Numerous stories and illustrations provide inspiration and encouragement so readers are not only equipped but also motivated to launch their own seeker groups.
</p>.jpg" hspace="4" vspace="4" width="140" height="127" align="right" />Does your small group ever breakdown into smaller disscussion groups? Or how about splitting up for activities? Recently the women in my group got together while the men stayed home with the kids. From the sounds of it the ladies didn't miss us much. After my wife (Shelli) got back from the meeting I actually thought that they might birth a women's group from ours and leave us guys hanging!
Anyway, after spending some time with the guys a couple of us are going to read a book together and meet one morning per week to discuss the book till we are done. I am looking forward to the experience with these guys since I rarely see them without their wives.
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Brian Kruckenberg at LifeChurch.tv recently wrote on the topic of conflict. He is their groups pastor at their campus in Mesa Az.
Here is what he had to say...
Capitalizing on Conflict
Whenever you get a group of people together to do anything, one thing is certain: there will be conflict. As a leader, you have to become effective at dealing with conflict, or as I have begun to think about it, you must learn to capitalize on it. No more “conflict management,” okay? And, let’s be clear: conflict in and of itself is not bad. Conflict can lead to innovation and breakthrough. Non-constructive conflict is what we most often think of when we hear the word “conflict” and that’s the junk we need to overcome as leaders.
Here are some quick thoughts for you to ponder and comment on:
Vision and passion trump most non-constructive conflict. If you cast a strong vision, write it down and reinforce it, group members who want to be negative will be run over by the vision.
You must uncover the real reason behind the conflict. Often the stated issue isn’t really the issue at all. You must dig deep as a leader but to dig deep requires trust.
Once you’ve found the real issue, you have to be willing to confront it. Again, if you don’t have trust, this is difficult to do. But, to be an effective leader, you have to ask the hard questions.
Which brings me to this: ask questions. One of the best ways to confront conflict is to ask the right questions. You’ll get a lot farther by helping people uncover a potential problem area in their life than by showing them the problem yourself. Help them discover it.
! Bob, who is becoming a good friend of mine, is a gentleman I met at our church about a year and a half ago through friends at church. Everyone who had spent some time with him said that I had to meet him because he might be a great Home Team (small group) leader. After spending some time with him I learned he had a wealth of experience I could learn from. Plus after getting to know Bob I quickly found out that he wanted to be used by God in our church as well. He had previously been a pastor for 15 years, worked for many years with the
Navigators, and is now currently serving with
Prison Fellowship. There are people in our churches that have spiritual gifts, talents, and great amounts of life experience that we can draw from. We just have to spend some time getting to know the people that God has placed around us.
I am conducting this Sunday at our church. We are going to be exploring the answers to the following question: How do we ensure that people have a meaningful experience in our small groups?
I asked one of my co-workers (Terri) the question and I agree with her answer. She said, "In my group we aren't afraid to say what is on our mind, we speak truth to one another."
Basically, authenticity is a key ingredient. Recently
Church Marketing Sucks did a poll on what keeps people in churches and authenticity of the church was the TOP response.
You can read the article here.In your opinion, what are some of the key ingredients to a meaningful small group ?
