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| A Newsletter to Help You Build a Healthy Small Group Ministry Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Featured Download:Sermon-Based Small Groups After graduating from college, I took a job with my alma mater for a couple of years while I figured out what I was supposed to do with the rest of my life. It was a good time of transition, and what I liked best about the arrangement was the chance to take several graduate-level classes in "Christian Education and Spiritual Formation." What made these classes so beneficial is that I was also working as a part-time staff person for a church. So when I learned something new in one of my classes, I was able to test it out almost immediately in a real-life situation. That was my introduction to the lecture/lab model of education, and the effectiveness of that intersection between learning and doing made a deep impression on me. In fact, that experience more than any other has influenced the way I continue to teach and learn today. That's why I'm such a big fan of the sermon-based model for small groups. That's also why I'm excited to introduce this week's featured training resource: a practical guide for setting up Sermon-Based Small Groups in just about any church. The content in this download ranges from practical advice for writing discussion questions, to tips on creating sermon-based DVD curriculum, to sample bulletin pages and discussion guides that can be adapted to your church. Much of the content was produced by our friends at North Coast Church in Vista, California. They have been successfully running sermon-based small groups for over 20 years, so you can feel confident that they know what they're talking about. Also new online this issue:
  Sam O'Neal Managing Editor, BuildingSmallGroups.com E-mail: BuildingSmallGroups@ChristianityToday.com product announcement
When Is a Small Group Just Another Meeting? And what should you do about it? I'm going to attempt to paraphrase a story I heard at a small-groups conference a little over a year ago, so please bear with me. The conference was the 2007 Purpose-Driven Small Groups gala at Saddleback Church, and the speaker was Randy Frazee. The story centered on Frazee's first attempt at small-group ministry as the senior pastor of a large church in suburbs of Fort Worth, Texas. | Finish this article |
For more new training and courses, visit here.
Seven Advantages of Sermon-Based Small Groups The lecture/lab model is great for both small groups and Sunday mornings. At North Coast Church, where I serve as senior pastor, we've had a long and interesting journey with small groups. We had no groups when we first started out. But after a while, I began to realize that our congregation was more of a crowd than a living, breathing community. So we launched small groups, and things began to change immediately. | Finish this article | 
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Leading Life-Changing Small Groups, Revised
Walking the Small Group Tightrope
Small Group Leadership as Spiritual Direction
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