Comments on: Elements of a Successful Group

By: Elemente für eine (Klein)Gruppe

Elemente für eine (Klein)Gruppe — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 10:38:18 +0000

[...] lifechurch.tv] Arbeitsmaterial [...]

By: Elemente für eine (Klein)Gruppe » Beitrag » Schrotty - think about

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 12:00:44 +0000

[...] lifechurch.tv] Tags: Gemeinde, Jugendgruppe, Kleingruppen Gemeinde, Glaube&Leben, [...]

By: Favorite Reads « Greg Peters Live

Favorite Reads « Greg Peters Live — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:02:10 +0000

[...] This one is really good about small groups. [...]

By: fall back, spring best. « The Smallworld

fall back, spring best. « The Smallworld — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 07:58:11 +0000

[...] people really think of everything these days, don’t they? (You can catch the follow-up, on elements of really great small groups too. If you’re into that kind of thing.) In all seriousness, I thought these lists were [...]

By: Bill Fingerhut

Bill Fingerhut — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 17:56:39 +0000

Small groups can be great, I am leading one currently. I am learning from my past experience from another small group, where the leader pushed every get together to become a leader of a small group. Listen LEADERS; don’t push your group to become leaders every single meeting, grow first and look for signs of good leadership within your group. Please, don’t push this down people throat, baby steps first.

By: sheriyates

sheriyates — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 20:29:20 +0000

Man, I love your Jarad’s transparency! I was leading once, but leading without much shepherding. Someone spoke up and said this, “we long to be lead, lead us somewhere.”

Ouch! But in a good way!

By: Bryan Laramore

Bryan Laramore — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 16:08:35 +0000

Judy,

Great words indeed. I agree!

By: Dana Byers

Dana Byers — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 10:34:41 +0000

I’ve been in many great small groups over the past 12 years but notice that “5. A great group births new groups” is a primary reason small groups arrive at a point of diminished returns: fewer new faces, less spiritual breakthrough, infrequent focus on serving the community. Refusing to recognize the necessity of birthing new groups and holding too tightly to today’s synergy means the group will lose “IT” in just a matter of months.

By: Jason

Jason — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 06:21:22 +0000

Thanks Craig… you answered my question from Monday :)

By: Jonathon Burns

Jonathon Burns — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 02:42:29 +0000

“could agree more” is what I meant to say

By: Jonathon Burns

Jonathon Burns — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 02:41:41 +0000

Coming at this from the perspective of being in a small group through a Northpoint Church (but not being in ministry) I couldn’t agree with all of the statements above.
Here are a couple of more:
1)Small groups need to hang out outside of their once a week meeting. It builds an even stronger bond. It also allows your non-Christian friends to see that you’re not hangin with a bunch of weirdos once a week.
2)If you’re in a married small group, split things up every once and a while so guys can be with the guys and gals can be with the gals. Lots more transparency…
3)Pray for each other outside of the group. Especially each others marriages if it’s a married group.

That’s just the two cents from a non-ministry guy that is 100% totally sold out on small groups…

By: Judy Copple

Judy Copple — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 02:32:51 +0000

I think built around God’s Word means never coming to any resolve in a small group without consulting the scriptures carefully to find what the true answer should be and would be. We can get others opinions in a lot of different directions but the truth comes from the Word of God. No group will be truly successful without connecting to Word of God to get the correct outcome.

By: Bryan Laramore

Bryan Laramore — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 19:30:12 +0000

“A great group is built around God’s word. Too often, small groups become all about fellowship. While fellowship is always essential, doing life around God’s word is what truly makes the difference.”

Would you elaborate on the specifics of this matter? I whole-heartedly agree with the notion, I’m just curious how, in your mind, “built around God’s word” is fleshed out?
Do you mean going through a book of the bible expositionally, paragraph by paragraph (btw, so many folks are biblically illiterate, I believe, because they’ve never done this)? Or do you mean systematically memorizing Scripture? Or do you simply mean finding a group curriculum that is based in Scripture?

In your experience/training/knowledge/wisdom/etc., what does “built around God’s Word” look like?

By: Samantha Krieger

Samantha Krieger — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 18:21:18 +0000

Craig/Bobby,
I was wondering if you would be interested in submitting these blog posts on small groups as articles on smallgroupexchange.com? Please email me if you are interested. Thanks so much!

By: Samantha Krieger

Samantha Krieger — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 18:18:59 +0000

A great group looks outward! That is how our small group of young married couples has truly grown closer to Christ and to each other. Serving together has taken us to new levels and gotten us beyond our own little world and into an adventure of getting “beyond ourselves.” Thank you.

By: Samantha Krieger

Samantha Krieger — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 18:14:41 +0000

Hi Craig/Bobby,
I’ve been reading through your posts lately on small groups and I was wondering if we could use some of your posts as articles on our site http://www.smallgroupexchange.com Alan Danielson has been helping us out a lot as well with training videos, etc. Please contact me at the email above if you are interested and I can give you more information. Thanks so much!

By: Jared

Jared — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 17:57:49 +0000

Agree! I think I am definitely lacking in showing leadership as the leader. I lead the group in the lesson, but honestly don’t lead it well beyond that.

Thankfully, now I realize this and can pray about it and fix it! For God’s glory!!

By: Elements of a Successful ‘Online’ Group - ChurchCrunch

Elements of a Successful ‘Online’ Group - ChurchCrunch — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 17:34:35 +0000

[...] to the RSS feed for updates!Craig and Bobby are really knocking it out of the park with their series on Community Groups. Their most recent post about “Elements of a Successful Group” is [...]

By: Mount Ararat Blog » Blog Archive » Elements of a Successful Group (Pastor Craig Groeshel)

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:54:21 +0000

[...] Elements of a Successful Group [...]

By: Patrick Fowler

Patrick Fowler — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:23:10 +0000

These posts are excellent…thanks for doing this series, Craig!

I appreciate #1 most of all. Having been in a number of small groups, I can tell you that being in a group that is disorganized can be quite frustrating. We can spend all 2 hours suggesting studies or prayer requests unless we allow someone to step up and direct the meeting.

In addition to that, in order for a group to be safe and Biblically focused, someone has to be prepared to lovingly mediate amongst the group. Someone needs to step in when gossip begins, or when someone makes a hurtful comment. And most of all, someone needs to ensure that the group resolves their conflicts according to the Matt 18 principles.