How to Get Someone in A Small Group to Stop Talking

Roy Mansfield here – Pastor of Spiritual Development at Northstar Church in Panama City, Florida, Coaching Alum and regular guest contributor to Nelson’s blog… The only thing worse than failing to get “undertalkers” in your small group to start talking is failing to get “overtalkers” to stop talking. Here’s a few tips on how Jesus might have helped someone in … Read More


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Free Download! The Journey Church Growth Group Catalog – Spring Edition

I woke up this morning feeling generous! Our South Florida location is about to celebrate it’s First Birthday this Sunday and I thought I would give YOU a Birthday present, a copy of our 2012 Spring Growth Groups Catalog! Many churches have benefited from the Semester-Based “Activate” model of Small Groups. Each semester, we allow the people in our church … Read More


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How Do You Minister to Youth through Your Small Groups?

This is Kerrick Thomas – Executive Pastor at The Journey Church and co-author of “Activate” with Nelson.  Nelson asked me to address a common small group question today on the blog. The question is “How can we minister to youth through the Small Groups System?” When it comes to youth and semester-based Activate small groups I’ve seen it work effectively in two ways: 1 … Read More


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Do Ministry Teams Compete with Small Groups?

This is Kerrick Thomas – Executive Pastor at The Journey Church and co-author of “Activate” with Nelson. Nelson asked if I would take a moment today to address a common small groups question – the apparent “competition” between Small Groups and Ministry Teams. Recently, I’ve received two questions about this same issue and I wanted to answer each of them: … Read More


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Small Groups and Childcare – What to Do?

Since my small groups book Activate came out, I’ve gotten lots of questions about small groups and one of the most common is about childcare: How should we handle childcare for our small groups? I’ve written about this several times in the past – and the short answer is… you shouldn’t handle it! You should allow parents with children to … Read More


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Small Groups Pastor Wanted @ The Journey Church in NYC

I’m looking for just the right “A” player to fill a key pastoral position here at The Journey Church! We’re looking for a Groups/Teaching Pastor to join our team – Don’t apply unless you love semester-based groups & my book Activate! However, if you’re passionate about groups and willing to devote yourself to “giving the people of New York City the … Read More


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How to Use Small Groups to Raise the Evangelistic Temperature of Your Church

One of the best aspects of offering semester-based small groups like I teach in my book  Activate is that you have the opportunity to lead your people through a wide range of topics. We have groups that study everything from prayer and spiritual leadership to honoring God with your finances. And one of the most helpful topics for small groups … Read More


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How to Measure Your Small Group Attendance

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know that I’m a believer in measuring things. In fact, we like to keep track of all sorts of measurements at The Journey – from Connection Card completion rates to how many first-time guest books are given away each week. So, it seems natural that one of the questions I’m frequently … Read More


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How to Use “Play Groups” to Connect People to Your Church

In Activate: An Entirely New Approach to Small Groups, Kerrick Thomas and I lay out a proven system of semester-based, free market small groups that you can implement to see 80, 90, or even 100% participation in small groups at your church (we regularly see well over 100% of our weekly attenders involved in groups). However, we also employ a … Read More


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Top Tips for Transitioning to Semester Based Small Groups

Some of most commonly asked small group Questions come from those who are interested in (sometimes in the middle of) transitioning their existing traditional small groups to the Activate, semester-based groups system. We’ve asked Roy Mansfield – Pastor of Spiritual Development at Northstar Church in Panama City, Florida – to share what he has learned through the process of transitioning … Read More


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