Faith?

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...

Small Groups with less than 10 members tend to really struggle if they meet on Sunday mornings.  An open Small Group is a Small Group where people are not required to make an attendance commitment, and are open to prospects to visit at any time.  These types of Small Groups usually meet on Sundays.  It is not uncommon for the Children's Department to visit these Sunday classes and plead for adult help right now!  I've seen 50% of the class get up during the class and run down to the children's department to work, leaving the class almost empty and the adult teacher frustrated.  It is extremely discouraging for a facilitator to prepare a lesson, and then half of their class to be recruited as they start.  It's also common for the other church's departments to recruit adults from their Sunday Small Groups, such as the Student's ministry.  If you attend a church that is not continually encouraging their attenders to get involved...

It is amazing how quickly a beautiful day can be over taken by a violent storm.  After my car was severely damaged in a recent hailstorm, I found myself pulling up Doppler radar in the early afternoons to check for approaching storms.  One Friday, we invited all our prospects over for lunch. We set out a couple of 10 by 10 canopies to grille out.  Everything was going well until my wife called from home to tell me that a violent storm was fast approaching.  I ran out of my office to pull down the tents and park the prospect’s vehicles in the warehouse in case of hail.  When I started doing this, it was still beautiful outside, but we barely got finished before the storm hit. Emotions are little bit like that spring storm. Everything seems fine, but before you know it.  You've been sucked into another person's emotional storm.  Their facial expression, demeanor, tone, and subject matter pull you into their storm....

One BIG key to relationships is do you live life from the inside out, and do you live it from the outside in?  In other words, are YOU allowing your rejection from other people (the outside) cause you to react, or are you allowing your heart (your insides) to lead you around and through the rejection that you face?  To better understand what I’m talking about, let use an acrostic of the word - ASK (An acrostic uses each letter of the word such as ASK to spell out another word to help us remember). ASK (Ask + Seek + Knock = YES) Ask (ASK) We face rejection a lot in attempting to builder relationships. When you are rejected, the relationship will ultimately remain closed or eventually open based upon your reaction.  If you respond to the rejection in a warm and friendly manner, usually the person rejecting you will experience a tinge of guilt, which will eventually work out to your favor.  Responding to rejection in a friendly manner allows the...