Missional & Ice Breakers

missional is a buzz-word. I recently took a crack at what it means to be missional from a small group perspective. Because if the small group isn’t missional, the church isn’t. Instead of re-posting it here, I will link you out to a couple of posts I polished up and turned into articles which sgx (small group exchange) recently put up on their site. they are over on the left in the “top 10″ list. The first one is on missionality and the second is a little more lighthearted as it talks about an icebreaker idea.

Which brings me to the comment section: I want to hear your best small group ice-breaker. Dont hold back! Comment below so all can see. I am compiling a list to hopefully put up here soon.

A Good article to read from SGX

As I mentioned in a previous post I recently joined up with some other small group pastors and leaders as a contributor to what I think is going to be a very good online resource. The site is called the Small Group Exchange (SGX) and I am becoming a bigger fan of it because they are connecting pastors and group leaders in small group settings across the country. These are not all top-teir published authors (although bigs like piper are also contributing) but they are mainly men and women in the trenches of small group ministry. Take for example this article. Its by a young guy who is a small groups director at a church in SC. The article is a little lengthy, but towards the end he hits home some really good points on what “success” is for small group leaders. Like me, this guy eats sleeps and breaths small groups so though his writing and experience are still raw, his passion for making disciples is infectious. Just one example of several pretty good articles Ive read on there. Always like to pass along good stuff so consider this my official endorsement of SGX. Their main page is linked over on the right.

my wife the champ

If I knew how to use Twitter, this would probably a tweet on that. Instead, its just a quick word to all of you who have been praying for Courtney and I since Friday morning when we headed to the hospital. They told us it would be probably 1 or 2 in the morning before Zeke would be born, meaning about 16 hours of labor. He was born at 6:48 pm after just 3 hours of labor because Courtney is a champ. Ezekiel Jones Shelton (6 lbs 13 oz 19″) is here! pictures to come. Pray for Courtney though, the trauma of the delivery has left her in pain that percacet just cant help. She hasnt slept yet and it doesnt look like she will tonight (its 1:30 am). Pray for endurance for the sheltons over the next 24 hours!! Oh, zeke is sleeping like a…baby. so thats good.

Also, if you are a small group leader you should check out a new site recently launched for small group leaders called the Small Group Exchange . I hope its going to be a pretty good, interactive site for us to learn from the experience of other small group ministries.