Join ALL ACCESS! ([ Ссылка ]) Are you ready to unlock your ministry's potential? Our ALL ACCESS ([ Ссылка ]) plan includes

courses from Steve Gladen and leading small group pastors from across the country.
workshops
quarterly coaching
premium articles
live digital events.

All for the price of $49 a month or $490 annually.

You even get half off in person events like the LOBBY and ACCELERATE ([ Ссылка ])

And to make it an even better deal, that one low price is a churchwide license. Everyone at your church is included. PLUS your WHOLE team gets half off the events. Meaning with this plan, your church can SAVE money and get your whole team trained and equipped.

Check it out today at [ Ссылка ] ([ Ссылка ]) ... your community, unlocked!


Steve Gladen, Global Small Groups Pastor at Saddleback Church, pulls from his 20+ years of small group ministry experience to encourage and equip listeners to lead more effective small group ministry.




In this episode, you will hear an audio recording of Rick Warren talking to the Saddleback church staff about his 10 Principles of Exponential Thinking. Steve Gladen will then breakdown how you can apply these 10 principles to your small group ministry. The following is what will specifically be covered in this show:




First – exponential growth is possible.

Second – exponential growth is the New Testament model.

Third – exponential growth brings honor to God.
Fourth – exponential growth captures the attention of the unbelieving world.
Fifth – exponential growth is caused by God.
Sixth – exponential growth is the result of God’s blessing on your life.
Seventh – exponential growth makes God smile…in fact, He rewards it.
Eighth – the only barrier to exponential growth is our own unbelief.
Ninth – the secret of exponential growth is believing God for big things.
Finally, Tenth – exponential growth begins with exponential thinking.

Choosing Growth over Control
The Book of Acts is one of the best resources we have to understand the growth of the church during its formative years. A brief read through of this section of Scripture can quickly show us that the church preferred growth over control as they would preach to thousands and then baptize them shortly afterward. As witnessed throughout Acts, explosive growth was a good problem to have, for it established a foundation upon which its teachings could stand upon. Similarly, we too must be okay with the mess that new small groups may create. Instead of focusing primarily on if a new small group leader is maintaining sound theological discourse within their very first meeting, we are challenged to celebrate the fact that Jesus is being discussed at all and that members are coming together to form community. But doesn’t bad theology and misinformed teaching create more complication for the kingdom of God? Yes, however just as we see in the Bible, doctrine and teaching was provided shortly after Acts through the writings of the Epistles. Just as how Paul conducted “on-the-job” training via letters to the churches he was mentoring, we too can choose growth first and then later practice the approach of surgically addressing any theological concerns through a consistent roll-out of bite-size trainings.

A Culture of Groups
While we all wish our congregants would be fully devoted followers of Christ who are consistently serving, attending a small group, and in-the-know of the church calendar at all times, the reality is that many of our churchgoers only step foot onto church grounds for Sunday service (or online for virtual Sunday service). In other words, Sunday morning may in fact be the only shot we have to help promote small groups and/or explain the benefits of small groups. If our churches only mention small groups twice a year at the times when there are coordinated group launches, then this means that the typical church attendee only will hear about small groups 4% of the year (even less if they miss one or both of those two services!). If the church’s leadership agrees that small groups are one of the most important ministries within the community, then we become challenged to display the fact that small groups are indeed a part of our church’s DNA. To help execute this, some strategies can include: (1) head pastor buy-in (where the senior pastor becomes one of the most vocal proponents of small group ministry and even attends a group themselves); (2) Church calendar events that strategically funnel individuals into newly created groups (and/or church events that don’t interfere with the weekdays on which small groups typically meet); or (3) Consistent small group promotion from the pulpit (Not every message needs to be a small group sermon, but every message can contain a shout-out or a 30 second tie-in to small groups).

Lowering the Barriers
In a post-Covid...

свернуть