Small Church Ministry

Small Church Essentials is for leaders of smaller congregations. It encourages them to steward their role well, debunking myths about small churches while offering principles for leading a dynamic, healthy small church. Based on the popular six-hour lecture that Karl Vaters delivers to church leaders across the country, Small Church Essentials will affirm small church leaders and show them how to identify what they do well and how to do it even better.

Jesus is real. He is with you. He is for you. He is your pastor. And he wants to be the pastor of your church. These statements might seem obvious, but what if we all took them seriously? Aaron Gerrard did just that in his journey to plant a church in Ancaster, Ontario, Canada. In a new book, Quit Pastoring Your Church, he tells the story of a small church making Jesus their pastor. Gerrard candidly shares his journey to start a new kind of church by allowing Jesus to be the guide, and it radically impacted the story of this new congregation.

Based on a large-scale research study of small group pastors, leaders, and members, Leading Small Groups That Thrive gives church leaders both what they want - practical, straightforward, actual small group member voices and experiences, and compelling guidance on how to build transformational groups complemented with real-life examples and data of successful small groups - and what they need - substantial, challenging insights and a data-driven model grounded in the latest research on church small groups.

This book explores how God has used small groups throughout church history, specifically focusing on the early church to the present time. God not only established the early church as a house to house movement, but he also has used small groups throughout church history. This book chronicles the small group or cell movement from Jesus all the way to the modern day cell explosion.

What if I told you that you were only one step away from unlocking new levels of maturity and growth in your church? The myth of the silver bullet still exists because we desperately want it to. We all prefer quick fixes and bandage solutions to the long, hard, slow work that produces real change. What if the solution isn't a new model or a complicated strategy but a shift in perspective? What if you could keep your church's current vision, values, and model and simply make a few microshifts...leading to macrochanges?

The premise of serving as a small group leader sounds simple: Invite people to join you in studying the Bible. But the real-world implications of that role are incredibly complex. Today's small group leaders are asked to function as semi-experts in theology, psychology, evangelism, worship, apologetics, counseling, education, and nutrition—all in service to God and His church. The Field Guide for Small Group Leaders provides basic training and support to help small group leaders succeed in the critical mission of leading others toward spiritual growth and transformation.

Church Revitalization guides current and future leaders through the often-complex process of bringing a church to a place of vibrancy. This book demonstrates how the overarching goal of seeing people come to faith in Christ and develop into Christlikeness can—and must—inform the most foundational to the most fleeting aspects of revitalizing a struggling church.

If you're like most small-group leaders, you often feel overwhelmed by the task of finding study material each and every week. Former small-group pastor Ryan Lokkesmoe is here to help. This book has all you need for 16 small-group meetings exploring the concept of biblical community. Each study includes icebreaker questions, key Scripture passages, discussion questions about the text, and a guide for leading your prayer time.

Home Cell Group Explosion (2023 version) is the most well-researched and practical audiobook ever written on cell group evangelism! Joel Comiskey traversed the globe to find out why particular churches and small groups are so successful in reaching the lost. He shares the answers freely within this volume.

Why do some small groups thrive and grow while others struggle and falter? The authors have surveyed over 3000 group leaders in more than 200 churches. Their findings will place practical, applicable principles into the hands of small group leaders and pastors. This book also includes access to additional resources from the author's website.

First-century Christians knew what it meant to live in vital community with one another, relating with a depth and commitment that made "the body of Christ" a perfect metaphor for the church. What would it take to reclaim that kind of love, joy, support, and dynamic spiritual growth? Listen to this book and find out.

She wants to get out of his friend zone and into his heart. After breaking up with his girlfriend, Levi Theroux meets the woman of his dreams, but she won't give him the time of day in his tale of unrequited love. His best friend, Maggie Jacobs, tries to help him in every which way she can to pursue his dream date, without revealing to him that she is secretly in love with him in her own Cyrano de Bergerac story. Will these two best friends find a Christmas breakthrough and their own happily ever after at the Christmas Village where they work? Lonesome Levi is looking for the best partner ...

Reluctantly, Chef Isaac finds himself working in the kitchen of his nemesis, Chef Piper Peyton. Why would he want to cook his way into her heart? To save a landmark family restaurant in Savannah, two chefs must put aside their twenty-year-old feud and cook together. Can they at least try to be kind toward each other without digging up old hurts? I can’t wait for you to read Piper’s story. Fans of my Savannah Sweethearts and Coastal Sweethearts Christian coastal romance series might recall that Piper is profoundly deaf. Here comes Chef Isaac, who does not speak American Sign Language at ...

God created us as a tripartite, having a body, soul and spirit; but most importantly He created us to be relational – with Him, and with others. In His Great Commission, found in Matthew 28, He instructed us to “Go Make Disciples”; and the best way to do that is not in the ‘rows’ of churches, but in the complementing ‘circles’ of Small Group Ministries within and outside of the church. This book is designed to introduce you to the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How of Small Group Ministries – starting with the WHY. Whether you are just forming your Small Group Ministry, or ...

Este libro es una crónica sobre el Grupo Pequeño o Movimiento Celular, partiendo de la época de Jesús hasta llegar a la explosión celular en los tiempos modernos. Comiskey destaca las fortalezas y debilidades de estos movimientos históricos de grupos pequeños, y aplica estos principios a la iglesia actual. Crecerás en gratitud y en entendimiento de los valores clave de las células a causa de aquellos pioneros que allanaron el camino.

Although the largest churches in the world are cell-based, many have questioned whether the model will work in North America. The Church In Many Houses: Reaching Your Community Through Cell-Based Ministry makes the case that the cell model will work— if key assumptions about spiritual growth and the nature of the church are reexamined and renewed. By drawing on scripture, research, and insights gained through personal experience as the pastor of a growing cell church, Steve Cordle identifies the four pivotal philosophical shifts necessary for the cell approach to work. These are mindset ...

Martin Luther would have written a glowing recommendation of this book if he were alive today. In part one, Beckham explors the traditional church paradigm and the history that drives it compared to a cell-based model for church life. In part two, Beckham explains how the structure of a cell-based church reflects God's nature and embraces both Christ's transcendence and immanence. In the third part of the book, Jesus' revolutionary design for the church is explored. The Second Reformation: Reshaping the church for the 21st century is a thinking man's guide to the cell-based church.

This book outlines the history, calling, and ministry of Lorna Jenkins to children. Lorna Jenkins has implemented a new kind of ministry to children, integrating small groups (cells) with the larger Sunday service (celebration). Ralph Neighbor calls Lorna "the global expert in forming Inter-generational cell groups." But how did she gain that knowledge and what steps did God use to make her that global expert? This book explores how God has prepared and used Lorna to have an extraordinary influence on Christ's church through the development of children's ministry.

Cell-church specialist and pastor Dr. Joel Comiskey studied the world's most successful cell churches to determine how they effectively make disciples who make disciples. These churches have embraced specific principles. Conversely, churches that do not embrace these same principles have problems with their groups and therefore are not as effective in making disciples.

A low moan penetrated Merrill’s illness-and-antihistamine-befogged dreams, pulling her from a deep sleep. Squinting through sleep-glazed eyes at the unfamiliar room, she recalled where she was. The bedroom walls of her new home seemed to be vibrating with the deep bellow of a fog-horn. When high-pitched whines and squeals followed the low rumble, she blinked and sat up in alarm. Small town secrets can lead to big trouble. When Reverend Merrillanne Bishop accepts leadership of the First Baptist church in the picturesque seaside community of Bannoch, Oregon, she doesn’t know what to ...