As a senior pastor of Real Life Ministries and a board member with the Relational Discipleship Network, I am passionate about the importance of a relational environment to making disciples of Jesus. Small Groups are one such relational environment that works well when trying to create a culture of disciple making in your church. Because…
Spiritual maturity should be the goal of every Christian, but we need to be sure we are on the journey ourselves before we attempt to help the body of Christ become more mature. Some people will “check out” of church because they will not get what they had hoped or expected. They will think of…
With the rise of technology and social media platforms in the past few years, people now have a 24/7 window to look into the lives of those around us or in our world at any given time. Because of this, the temptation to compare our lives to others is one that is hard to avoid.…
For many years now – Churches in general have struggled with what is called the 80/20 rule. The rule in its most simple form, says that 80% of effects come from 20% of the causes. The way we have seen it played out in church is that 20% of the leaders in the congregation are…
James 5:14–15 asks, “Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will…
Some good friends just left our small group. And they aren’t coming back. It’s been a little over six months since we invited them. Over that time we have had them in our home, barbecued together, and vacationed together. We celebrated together and walked through difficult situations together — taking our turns at both…
Fifty-four inches of rain fell on the Houston area in 48 hours. Our little church plant put aside business as usual and assembled “mud out” teams to go help families in our community. At the first house my team was sent to, I met Greg, Laura and their three daughters. They were sorting through the…
When we talk about the 5 different stages of spiritual growth in a disciple as found in the Discipleship Wheel, we use terms that correlate with basic physical stages of growth. The 5 stages are Dead – Infant – Child – Young Adult – Parent. When we are looking at spiritual growth, the difference between…
Mileposts on a pathway may not be the ultimate destination, but they are very important. Mileposts remind us we are on the right path. They also help us stay on the path and headed in the right direction. They serve to help us determine the location of the people we are discipling. When we hear…
The word accountability has been subtly stolen from us by our enemy. He’s happy to distort accountability by either of two errors. Many call their small groups “accountability groups”, but all they do is share their struggles. They don’t do anything to help one another change, usually because they don’t know how and they don’t…