Where is your group's love?

by Steve Gladen

February is a month thought of as the "love" month. More flowers and candy will be sent this month more than any other month, all in the name of "love". It is a month centered on Valentine's Day, seen as a holiday about "love".

I proposed to Lisa 24 years ago on Valentine's Day. We were young and in "love". The problem with "love" is that for most people it is based on our emotion instead of our character. For our wedding that happened 16 months after I proposed in 1988, we had 1 Corinthians 13:1-8 read at our wedding. It is known as the "love" chapter in the Bible. In order to understand "love" for individuals and for groups, 1 Corinthians 13 is the right place to start.

This month I will be discussing the final principle for success. To recap, the first four principles are:

[Read full article] 

A pastor must be in a small group. You need to show your congregation that small groups are so important for spiritual growth that even you belong to one. This allows you to share about your experiences, such as how being in a small group helped you during a difficult time or how the small group keeps you from becoming isolated as a pastor. I've been a part of a small group for almost ten years.

In addition, require your staff and key lay leaders to be part of a small group. It will not only help them, but it will also show the congregation that becoming part of a small group is essential to Christian growth.

Steve Gladen is well known as the Small Groups Pastor of Saddleback Church in Southern California.  He has been at the helm of developing a ministry currently supporting over 4000 Small Groups.  Needless to say, Steve has been around the block a time or two in ministry and has the battle scars to show for it. 

I have asked Steve to spend some time with us and to share a few of the "golden nuggets" he has learned throughout his 30 years in Ministry.  Like many of us, Steve started out serving in a small church of 100.  He has served at medium-sized churches and of course has been in the hot-seat of one of the largest mega-churches in the country.

[Read full Article]

Stop ignoring the dysfunction

Many churches and ministries suffer from I like to call "terminal niceness". We just aren't very good at hard conversations.  For the most part we are polite, sensitive, and hate conflict.  So, we beat around the bush and make nice.

One of the byproducts of our "terminal niceness" can be dysfunction at the team level.  As a leader you can't afford to stick your head in the sand.  Turn on your "team health" radar and aggressively seek out the truth... even if it is hard to face.  There is too much at stake for you to live in denial.