How a Fire Pit Revolutionized My Coaching Strategy
No matter how many groups you have, what group model you use, or what part of the world you are in, one thing is true in all of our ministries: group leaders need coaching! Throughout my time hanging around the Small Group Network in our local huddle and at the Lobby Gathering, I’ve noticed that […]
Small Group Leadership: Starting From Scratch
I’m new at this. I took on leadership of small groups at my church in early 2017. Immediately, I signed up for The Lobby – my first small group conference experience! It was exciting – and a bit intimidating, to be honest. I felt like the new kid in school. But I came home feeling encouraged, equipped, and motivated to […]
4 Influencer Imperatives in Small Group Leadership
Bill Hybels in his 2005 Global Leadership Summit address “These Things We Must Do” gave four points, imperatives, we as leaders must do. He implored us to: Keep the vision clear Keep the people engaged Make your meetings memorable Pace yourself for the long haul This is a great list. It is simple and doable. It can […]
Revolutionize Your meetings With These Easy-Peasy Tips By Steve Gladen
What format have you found most effective when holding a staff (team) meeting? The staff (I prefer the word team) meeting is one of the most critical and sometimes not thought through part for the supervisor leading the team. As stated before, I prefer the word “team” over “staff” because I want them to feel […]
What’s On Your Dashboard?
No one questions why we should collect metrics on how our small group ministries are performing. These measurements tell us how well our ministry approach is working, and they can be useful for everything from planning next year’s activities to justifying programs and budgets. A common way to view metrics is to use a dashboard, […]
Women in Leadership: Practical Issues Affecting Both Men and Women in Ministry [Podcast]
[podcast src=”https://html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/5260253/height/26/theme/standard-mini/thumbnail/yes/direction/forward/” height=”26″ width=”100%” placement=”top” theme=”mini”]What does it take for women to flourish in ministry? If you or anyone on your team are asking these questions, then you’ve come to the right place! Host Carolyn Taketa interviews Awana CEO and SGN Lobby Conference speaker, Valerie Bell on her insights based on decades of ministry in various […]
Accelerate! Your Ministry
I’ve been to a lot of conferences. I love them. I love the whole experience of getting outside of my normal environment, focusing on ministry, dreaming, and hearing from speakers I don’t normally get to interact with. I grow as a leader when I intentionally carve out time to be a part of conferences. I’m […]
How to Prevent Small Group Meltdowns
I worked in construction one summer break when I was in high school. It was hard work, I got a great tan, and I was sporting some serious muscles when school started up again. But I also learned a valuable lesson, called “measure twice, cut once.” While this lesson was about cutting wood, the universal principle was that […]
The 1 Thing Your Leadership Development Pathway is Missing
When we talk “leadership development pathway,” I’ll bet you think about all of the cognitive steps leaders need to take to develop. You start to map out the markers all along the way, from trainings to gatherings to curriculum. But there’s one primary aspect of development you just might have overlooked. You can’t grow […]
6 Quick Questions to Value Volunteers
I love sports and believe that it teaches great things like teamwork, overcoming adversity, and how to deal with success and failure. These are all super important and I believe worthwhile reasons for my children to play. I value our town rec league. It provides me an opportunity to support our local community and meet […]
