Faith?

In one of my previous jobs, I was required by my employer to attend a Dale Carnegie public speaking course. (See  www.dalecarnegie.com  for more information).   The class had about 40 to 50 attendees, and the instructor began the course by teaching us how to remember each other’s name.  After each person got up, they would tell us his or her name, where they worked, and what things they like to do. As each person spoke, we were supposed to remember each person, by associating their names by what they told us.   The first assignment of the class was to get up and say each person’s name from memory.  We had to remember from memory EVERYONE’S NAME!  As each attendee was called upon to stand up and say everyone’s name, it served as a review for everyone else in the class.  Amazingly, every attendee was about to quote everyone else’s name from memory including me.  To this day when I see someone from the cla...

On more than one occasion, my family has changed Churches because we haven't been able to find a small group that we liked in the time slot that we liked it. Earlier in our marriage, we wanted to attend both Church and a Small Group before 11:00 A. M. Because we liked to get up at the same time on Sundays as the weekdays, we preferred going to Church earlier.  If we couldn't find a quality early Small Group, we'd even look for one at another Church to meet our needs and change Churches.  The Church might have had a great Small Group at a latter time, but that didn't meet our needs because we wanted to attend earlier.  We'd still change. A problem that we have with Small Groups is that some Churches shrink them too small.  Sunday morning Small Groups are usually open, which means that they do not require a commitment to attend.  Therefore, people not regularly coming is a problem. If the Church shrinks them to 8 to 12, this means o...

75% to 90% of all communication comes not from what is being said, but how it is said, and who is doing the speaking. Not only does the meaning come from the inflections in the speaker’s voice, but also upon the countenance of the speaker.  Therefore, communication is a combination of words, inflections, countenance, and body language. When we attempt to teach, we need to guard against relying too heavily on logic, and think more about the psychology of learning.  Think of your message as a beverage, and yourself as the cup that delivers it. How difficult is it to take a cool sip of water from a filthy cup?  Do people struggle to accept your message because they have a hard time just getting past you? What mannerism do you have that put people off? When you are thinking negative thoughts, there are just too many none verbal clues in your face, tone, countenance, and body language to give those negative thoughts away.  For example if you’re...

New prospects will most probably attend a weekend worship service.  Since that is true, it is wise to speak to them in words & terms they understand.  I'm certainly  not  suggesting that God's Word be diluted,  but what I am saying is to communicate God's truth in words and phrases that  anyone  can understand. Jesus adapted His message to His hearers, too.  Jesus told interesting stories about farming, birds, sheep, and children. He explained Biblical truth in an amazingly fun way.  However, when Jesus was in a smaller group, He cultivated an environment of give and take.  If you read John 13-17 for example, Jesus is responding to questions from Peter, Thomas, Philip, and Judas.  He's even reading facial expressions and observing group dynamics throughout.  If you're a small group teacher like Jesus, you should create an environment of give and take, too. If you are a small group lea...

One of the best open small groups on Sunday mornings that I’ve attended, the facilitator did an amazing job relating the material and keeping it fun.  It was an open small group that averaged between 40 and 60 people each Sunday.  He did encourage input; however, he wanted the input to be brief and to the point.  He didn’t want more than one or at the most two comments from anyone, and the comments needed to be on topic. The class drew so many people that the Church instructed the visitor’s desk to direct visitors to other classes.  The other classes offered by the Church in the same time frame struggled; however, this class still prospered.  This class ran from 8:15 AM until 9:15 AM, and had great attendance for over 10 years. 1. They had a monthly class social. 2. They wrote prayer requests on a signup sheet, and passed copies to attendees during class.  (This reallocated more time from prayer requests to teaching and s...