Tag Archives: small groups

Three big questions for your small groups

Resource Talk, Sola Panel

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In recent months, Col Marshall and I have been running some workshops based on The Trellis and the Vine, and during the workshops we spent a bit of time talking about small groups—about why we have them (or don’t), the part they normally play in church life, how we train our leaders (or don’t as the case may be), and so on.

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Windex for ministry

Resource Talk, Sola Panel

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Of the many funny and endearing things about the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding, one of my favourites is Gus’s habit of solving every problem with Windex. Pimples, backaches, grazes, smudges, stains—according to Gus, there’s very little that a squirt of Windex won’t fix.

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Factotum #8: Pitfalls for small groups

Everyday Ministry

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Our last ‘Factotum’ examined leadership in small groups. In this edition, we continue to focus on the ministry done in small groups, this time looking at some of the problems that can arise. Most of us have been in small groups at different stages of our lives—youth groups, prayer cells, focus groups, Bible studies. We will also have experienced some of the challenges and difficulties that these groups generate. You might like to use this edition as a way of assessing the small groups that you lead or participate in. Are you avoiding the pitfalls? Or are you stumbling headlong into them?

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Factotum #7: What is a leader?

Everyday Ministry

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Leadership is one of the pressing issues of today, and not only in the church. Time magazine recently had a special on the ‘leaders of tomorrow’, highlighting the need to prepare for the future or face a world that has little direction and little security.

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Factotum #4: Praying in small groups

Everyday Ministry

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If there is one sure-fire prayer point in small groups, it’s praying that God will make us more prayerful! Everyone believes in prayer; everyone recognizes that we need to pray more, but everyone has trouble making it a priority. Put it down to the bustle of 90s life, or simply to sinful, independent hearts—either way, we can always find something which is more pressing a task than speaking to God in prayer.

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