Small Groups and Church Planting
In church planting contexts, community groups can be the best way to reach the unchurched, build strong community, and identify future leaders. Over the past fifteen years, I have had the privilege of leading community groups in four new congregations, including the one I now serve as lead pastor (Trinity Community Church in Columbia, MO). […]
Practicing and Maintaining Healthy Group Multiplication
Over the last few articles, and in my short book Life-Giving Groups: How to Grow Healthy, Multiplying Community Groups, I’ve been trying to establish a biblical vision for healthy group multiplication and practical steps for carrying out that vision. Here, I hope to describe some of the action steps that enable healthy group multiplication in […]
Preparing for Healthy Small Group Multiplication
Most of the Scriptures come to us in the form of stories. There are two essential marks of a great story: A great story draws you in—into the character and the plot. And a great story sends you out—you immediately want to retell it. But it’s not just common life to be “drawn in” to […]
Multiplying and Planting New Small Groups
The first community group I ever led was a struggle. We had multiplied out from another group that was not entirely healthy. The multiplication process was a bit rushed and our members didn’t feel like the previous leaders had cared well for them. As brand-new leaders, only 23 years old, we over-corrected to the previous […]
How Small Groups Can Embrace Fellowship and Hospitality
As Christians, we should recognize that discipleship should happen in community. Remember, we can only grow as Jesus shaped disciples in community. We can’t do this alone. We have been created in the image of a Trinitarian God—he has eternally existed in community. To be fully alive then, we must pursue Christ in the context […]
How Small Groups Can Embrace Word and Prayer
When Jesus spoke, people listened. He didn’t come to put an end to the Old Testament law but instead to “fulfill” it—to bring it to completion and fullness by rooting God’s ways in the hearts of God’s people. In our community groups, we can encourage one another in a number of spiritual rhythms—Bible study, confession, […]
Rhythms of Healthy Small Groups
In this short article series, I hope to help cultivate—or, perhaps, restore—your hope for biblical community and your heart for local church small groups ministry. (In these articles, I’m using the phrases “small groups” and “community groups” interchangeably.) I want to do this by helping you answer two questions for your context: (1) How will […]
Small Groups Are Hard—and So Worth It
I’ve been on a long journey with community groups and have arrived at a strong conviction: Community groups are the best place for us—as relational beings—to become mature disciples of Christ. I have spent fifteen years leading and hosting community groups, including seven years of serving as a community pastor at Sojourn Community Church in […]