A new blog series & Great Article for leaders right now

At the Summit this summer we are in the thick of gathering leader commitments for Fall ‘09 – Spring ‘10. Busy time which is part of the reason why I’ve backed off of the posting for the summer. Dont worry, back in full swing in about 2 – 3 weeks. Below is the link to an article from a small groups pastor I have recently connected with. I think it is an excellent quick overview of the “need to know” for someone getting ready to lead his/her first small group.

http://www.smallgroupexchange.com/Articles/1135/New_Leaders_Crash_Course_by_Adam_Workman

Along these lines, I will be posting a 5-7 part series over the next two weeks entitled “How to plant a small group.” This comes from a group planting seminar we did here at the Summit in late May. But before that, check out Adam Workman’s article linked above. Thanks for your partnership in ministry Adam!

Monday on the Links…East Asia driver’s ed

Ok, normally Monday on the links is reserved for good edifying discipleship materials. But today, I bring you one and only one, awesome link. actually, I am posting the text here for security reasons but they live in a large country in East Asia and just recently received their driver’s license. In case you dont know people there drive like madmen & traffic is chaos. Now i know why. Below is a series of questions straight from their test. Oh, and Mutiple Choice Question 2 is my favorite. What is yours? And I begin quote “

True/False:
1. When a head-on collision is unavoidable, the driver should free the steering wheel, raise the legs and lie sideward on the right seat at the moment of the head-on collision. This can ensure his body is not struck by the steering wheel. Answer: True

2. When making a U turn on a slope, the foot brake instead of the hand brake should be used. Answer: False.

3. When a driver senses he will inevitably be thrown out the of vehicle, he should violently straighten both his legs to increase the force of being thrown out and jump out of the vehicle. Answer: True. WHAT??????????

4. When a wounded suffers bleeding in the forearm or shank, the rescuers may place a cushion in the armpit or in the rook of the arm, crook the armpit or rook and tie up. Answer: True .

5. When encountering old people walking on the road and obstructing the traffic, the driver may continuously honk to urge them to yield. Answer: False .

6. When driving at night, the driver should reduce speed and go forward if the vehicle coming in the opposite direction fails to turn off the high beam light. This is designed to prevent an accident from happening when there are pedestrians crossing the place where the lights of the two vehicles meet. Answer: True

Multiple Choice:
1.When the engine catches fire, the wrong measure is to_________.
a. swiftly turn off the engine
b. extinguish the fire by covering
c. open the bonnet to extinguish the fire
d. use the fire extinguisher to put out the fire
Answer: C Don’t you dare open that bonnet!

2. After a vehicle falls into water, the wrong method for the driver to rescue himself is to _________.
a. close the window to prevent water from flowing into the vehicle
b. immediately use hand to open the door
c. let the water fill up the driver’s cab so that the water pressure both inside and outside is equal
d. use a large plastic bag to cover the head and tight the neck closely

Answer: A Yes, that’s right, D is one the right methods. make sure if you use a plastic bag that you “tight the neck closely”

3. When encountering a flock of sheep crossing a road, the driver should _________.
a. honk continuously to drive away the flock
b. speed up and bypass the flock
c. drive slowly and use the vehicle to scare away the flock
d. reduce speed and go slowly, or stop to yield when necessary
Answer: D

4. When causing a road accident involving only slight property damage and the basic fact is clear, the parties to the accident__________.
a. should not leave the scene
b. should report to the police immediately
c. should first leave the scene and then discuss how to solve the problem
d. should park the vehicles in the original place and discuss compensation
Answer: C

So how did you do??? You’ve gotta get 90% to drive in this country! “

Huge thanks to my friends, ummm, Chuck Norris & She-ra for their awesome contribution to my life with that blog post. Hope you laughed as much as I did. Happy Monday.

Monday on the Links…a good word

I found the article below on Leah Rade’s blog. Leah is part of a the staff of fellow local church here in the area and focuses her time on creating community in the church much like I do. Like her, I find this short word from James D. Berkley challenging.

Is there anything simpler or more natural than members of a church looking out for their own interests? We like to park conveniently. We want our pew available each week. We expect our kind of music to be sung—not that other ungodly stuff! We like things our way, to our convenience and taste.

How easy it is to make church nice and comfortable for us! And how wrong! Why? Because church isn’t meant to be comfortable. No pioneering, radical, countercultural organization has the leisure to be comfortable. A country club can be comfortable. A golfing foursome can be comfortable. A family gathering can be comfortable. But a church—that culture-shaking, eternity-changing band Jesus commissioned to turn the world upside down—doesn’t have the charter to be comfortable. It’s commissioned as activist for the kingdom of God!

My pleasure, my ease, my way are really not important. God’s glory, God’s tasks, others’ benefit—that’s the reason for the church. The apostle Paul makes clear that Christians must treat one another as more important than themselves. They are to be “put out” by the interests of others. The church is not my personal vending machine. Instead it is a lifesaving station to reach out to those in peril needing to be made safe.

How does that happen? When leaders decide their responsibility is to follow seriously the One who came to seek and save the lost. That, however, gets expensive, when the church has to add parking and pews and programs for those not yet in the church. That becomes difficult when the comfortable become discomfited by change. That becomes messy when the sacred mixes with the profane. Granted.

But Jesus emptied himself, humbled himself, and died on a cross for us—and that is to be our mindset (Phil. 2:5-11). As leaders we must proclaim to the comfortable the message of Christ. And then refocus our thinking and strategy on the outsider, so that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

—James D. Berkley

To note, I think the Summit Church is a body of believers who “gets” what berkley is saying. But we must never forget it. especially as we enter a season of growth in our small group ministry.

Monday on the Links

Its memorial day, but I returned from a full weekend of wedding stuff (Congrats little brother!) yesterday with plenty on my mind. We will start with a little monday on the links action. Today is referencing you to some good blogposts I’ve read in the recent days that I think you may benefit from as much as I have..

• On the Danger’s of Seminary (by one of our SummitLIFE group coaches Bruce Ashford): This is a great post on the local church and really isnt just for seminary students.
• On Spiritual Gifts (by Pastor Marc Driscoll) : He did a great sermon series on this a while back and has just recently put it up in easy to read blog form. Thank you pastor Marc as this is some helpful, well communicated material.
• Joy in the City (by Summit Campus Pastor Charlie Dunn): Good for group leaders as we get ready for our Hope4RDU week of hope projects this summer!
• The Devoted Themselves (By Pastor Steven Furtick) : A brief challenging thought from a pastor on discipleship for new believers.

Monday on the Links

Ok so its Tuesday, but Monday on the Links has been a helpful addition here in SummitLIFE so lets go for another round today.

Today’s topic on Monday on the links: Cool websites / blogs that have ample amounts of  articles and resources for you as a small group leader. Basically, I should have done this one first because most of my Monday on the Links content will be pulled from some of these sites. As you will notice, I am highlighting some of the same links that are always located over there on the right side of this page.

Websites:

• Small Group Exchange
• Small Groups.com
• Sovereign Grace Ministries
• CARM (Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry)
• 9 Marks
• Serendipity House

Blogs:

• Why Didn’t You Warn Me
• She Worships (Summit girl with good thoughts on discipleship)
• JD Greear (If you lead a group at the Summit, you should read this regularly)
• Serendipity House (even better than their website I think)

Monday on the links…Childcare

Took some time off from the internet last week, back in action today with another edition of Monday on the Links. Before I get started let me give a big shout out to the people of the Summit Church. Yesterday was one of our big baptism days we do once or twice a year. Those days are my favorite day of the year hands down. I baptized dozens of people and got completely sunburnt in the process. Here is a brief word from our lead pastor on the day.

Today’s links surround one of the logistical aspects of small group ministry. If you are a group leader who isn’t currently facing this issue, you will sooner or later! The goal of this set of links is to give you some help brainstorming ideas for childcare. Again, not as meaty as a normal week, but THE main barrier to entry for people with children to become a part of your group.

• Summit Church Childcare Voucher System: This page will tell you about our efforts to provide childcare for everyone at the Summit who needs it. We’ve been using this system for right at a year and really like it. Its not perfect, but its the best system for us we have tried to date.
• Solving the Childcare Problem (Article by SGX contributor Scotty Neal): A cool idea a church is trying out that one of our SummitLIFE groups is also trying out. The group here likes this model and finds it is working well.
• What about the kids? (Article by my new friend in the SG world Pat Sikora): Pat deals with the question in a great way by illuminating the importance of thinking well through the different aspects of this decision. Pat, if you read this today, your experience, wisdom, and wordsmanship make you are great resource for us all!

Monday on the Links…Bible Study

Ok boys and girls, for this edition of Monday on the Links we are looking into Bible Study. What a broad topic! Ok so we are looking at 3 facets of bible study: 1) how to study the bible /  helpful resources for bible study and 2) what materials to take your small group through.  *Some of these links are going to take you to sites where you can buy resources. Sorry, not everything is free today but I realized that you are probably quite willing to spend a little cash on great stuff.

1. How To Study the Bible
   1. Article: “Studying the Scriptures” (an article by Kenneth Boa): This is a pretty long article but rich with insight into the why and how of studying the bible.
   2. website: www.biblestudytools.net
   3. Rick Warren’s Bible Study Methods (book by Rick Warren): Very Accessible and helpful resource, but it does cost money.
   4. Living by the Book (book by Howard Hendricks): What I consider one of the best works on the “observation, interpretation, application” method.
   5. SummitLIFE Leader Training Session 1. Just a shameless plug! If you want to learn to study the bible, come lead a small group at the Summit Church!
2. Materials for your small group
   1. Life Change Series (series of book-based studies by NavPress): A great resource for a small group to use. The link I’ve provided is for the Ephesians book study.
   2. MaCarthur Bible Studies (series by John MaCarthur): Written by one of “the guys” in popular bible study, a few of our groups here at the Summit have found these to be quite helpful.
   3. BestCommentaries.com (website…of course): Nothing beats speaking with your pastor to get good guidance on a particular passage you are working through. With that said, whenever I’m confronted with the question “what would be a great commentary on (insert book of the bible)?” I now turn to this site in my search. It’s new, but good.
   4. Redeemer Presbyterian Small Group Studies: Written largely by Tim Keller these studies are deep, good, and very well priced.

Monday on the links

Ok, a little late in the day, but nonetheless here we go. In leu of an awesome Easter weekend, the theme for this week is tailored to how you and I as small group leaders can help a new Christian begin to live as a follower of Jesus. Honestly this particular opportunity is one that gets me amped. But, I often find myself going WAAAAY too fast or speaking in Christianese saying things like “dude, ready to start your ‘walk’ or ‘we are going to wean you off milk and onto some meat man.’”. Go ahead, try those out on a guy who has been a Christian for 24 hours. The only thing that will keep him from running screaming is his new found appreciation for grace. Hopefully the links below will help you develop a little bit of a gameplan for discipling a new believer.

• “Eight Keys to Discipling New Christians” (article from Christianity Today): I know, the title is cliche but this article is short and helpful.
• “Top 10 Things newcomers in your church think a small group is” (article from SmallGroups.com): Humorous list to help remind us as leaders what someone new may be thinking about an invite to our “small group.”
• “Measuring Growth in your Small Group” (Article by Summit Small Groups Team): Let me explain because putting a link to an article I wrote feels soo lame. I struggled finding a lot of good stuff that is free on this one. So, instead of re-writing here, I am linking you to an article I wrote for SGX. If you think this is lame…just keep your comments to yourself!
• “Enjoying Grace and Detecting Legalism” (Sermon by C.J. Mahaney): This is my favorite non-Summit pastor to hear preach. The guy is passionate, honest, and full of joy. I promise you will smile and be challenged by God when you listen to him.

Hopefully what you will learn from all of this is that discipleship for a new believer SHOULD not be too different from how you encourage your own spiritual disciplines. As always, if you have any good resources in this particular area, please share!

Monday on the links

Books and the internet are awesome. If you are a small group leader you likely have a dilemma: you want to be a better small group leader, but probably dont have the time to do anything but google “small group leader tips” and click on something that ends up educating you on how to facilitate a focus group in your new product line. Or, you wind up on amazon needing to buy a book to find out the answers.  Well, your small groups guy is here to help. I hope. What I am going to try and do today (and maybe every monday) is give you some targeted, always free, materials to help you grow as a follower of Jesus. Some of these will be specific to the small group world and some will be more general discipleship oriented. Sermons, interviews, book reviews, articles, blogs, and videos are all in play.

To remind you, the better version of Monday on the links is my partner in small group ministry: The Small Group Exchange, linked over on the right. Likely some of the links I give you each week will direct you to a resource on their site.

Here we go. Today I want to deal with developing an effective, gospel-centered version of your encounter with Jesus. So many people in our small groups likely have never shared their story with anyone before, and others in there may not be Christians. What I hope the resources below do is help equip a small group to train one another and encourage one another with your individual encounters with Jesus. Our small groups at the Summit are doing this exercise this week. If you lead at the Summit, let me know how it is going!

• Developing your story (resource by Summit Small groups Staff): a guide to writing a 3-5 minute version of your story.

• Experience AND Evidence (blog by Summit Pastor Danny Franks): reflection on sermon from 04.05.09 which discussed how you balance your personal story and the truth claims of christianity. His sermon is linked on that blog.
• Sharing your Life Story (article by SGX contributor Scott Vosburgh)
• Share your Journey (video by Author & Small groups pastor Bill Self): Broadens out to your life story, and gives a great challenge to small group leaders.