We are all busy, so making it to a weekly face-to-face small group can be tough. How can we leverage technology and other creative ways to keep our groups alive?

Build your confidence, and skill level, in using this simple path to getting your people unstuck and on their way.

Caring for people who are suffering is immensely important.  Often, it is also very hard.  In fact, it may be one of the areas of life where we most keenly feel the distance between our desire to help and our actual ability to do so.  Sometimes that inability stems from our unhelpful compulsion to change or to fix.  Sometimes it results from our choice to be silent and passive.  So how can we show Christ's love to people who are suffering?  Join Chrissie Steyn as she uses her vast experience and expertise to guide you through some powerful principles and practices.

Gain valuable insight into the unique purpose and value of the coaching role. Learn how to develop essential coaching strategies and apply key skills as a Small Group Coach.

Learn to create a shared vision and values with your group members. What do you see and feel when you picture your ideal group meeting together?  How is your role in that ideal scenario different from the current reality?  What is needed to set a course for that desirable destination?  This workshop explores two significant agents of purpose and direction: a clarifying vision and a set of guiding values.  As importantly it, you'll explore how to create a vision and set of values that are shared throughout your group.  How empowering to have a group who have all taken ownership of the same picture of their ideal group!

Vision and Values worksheet

We have all felt the impact of someone undermining a conversation. Awkwardness, frustration and distrust often follow. Why is that? Part of the explanation may be that we begin to question the purpose and safety of the interaction, and perhaps, of the relationship. These styles of communication become particularly challenging in a group context.  So how can a group leader respond well? Join Mandy Burbank as she draws on her wealth of expertise and experience. She explores many of these challenging styles and explains powerful ways to respond.

In Caring Enough to Hear and Be Heard David W. Augsburger says that, "Being heard is so close to being loved that for the average person, they are almost indistinguishable."

Are there people who listen to you in this way?  Do the people in your community feel heard by you and each other?  As we learn to listen ever more attentively and perceptively so we learn to communicate Jesus' love to others. Join Jason and Erin Feffer in this interactive and rewarding workshop as they explore holy listening and listening groups. 

In this episode of the Discipleship Monthly Podcast, we sit down with Steve Carter to talk evangelism.  It seems to us that the holiday stretch from Thanksgiving through the New Year is a time when many people are a little more open to the big questions of life, and we wanted to get Steve's perspective on how we can maximize that time.  The insights and strategies we talk about in this conversation apply to individuals, groups, communities, and everything in between.  

In the second episode of The Discipleship Monthly Podcast we sit down with the "venerable" Bill Donahue to talk about what makes for real community, and what gets in the way.  Have a note pad ready, because Bill's bringing wisdom every leader needs.

In our initial Discipleship Monthly Podcast we're talking to two ministry veterans, Ashlee Eiland and Cindy Blaski, about who was instrumental in discipling them and what advice they have for those who are serious about helping others grow in Christ.