Roy Mansfield here – Pastor of Spiritual Development at Northstar Church in Panama City, Florida, Senior Pastors Coaching Network Alumni and regular guest on Nelson’s blog. Quick post for you today about how to handle an awkward and difficult situation that occurs from time to time in your small groups… What would you do if someone in a mixed (men & … Read More
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
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
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
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
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
How to Activate Your Small Groups in the Suburbs
Ever since Kerrick Thomas and I wrote the book Activate: An Entirely New Approach to Small Groups, we get a lot of questions from readers wondering if the Activate (semester-based) small groups system will work in their setting, whatever that setting may look like. Perhaps the most common of these questions is “The Journey is in New York City, but … Read More
Should You Identify Small Groups by Age?
This is Kerrick Thomas here, Executive Pastor at The Journey and co-author of Activate: An Entirely New Approach to Small Groups. Nelson asked me share today about another one of the questions that people ask regularly when setting up their Small Groups System – the question of whether or not to identify small groups by age, or to ask it … Read More
How to “Activate” Small Groups in a New Church Start
This is Kerrick Thomas – I’m the Executive Pastor at The Journey Church and co-author of “Activate” with Nelson. He asked me to address a question today that we receive regularly about when and how to start Small Groups in a new church plant. We’re often asked if the Activate small groups system will work in a small church plant, … Read More
How to Involve Your Full Staff in Groups
Adam Bishop here, Small Groups Pastor at The Journey. Nelson asked me to post today about how to get your full staff involved in Small Groups. In Activate: An Entirely New Approach to Small Groups, Nelson and Kerrick mention that The Journey has a scalable structure for our small group system, including “Coaches.” Sometimes we’re asked who makes up that … Read More