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.

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.

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.

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 ...

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?

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.

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.

Built to Stand: One Man’s Call A Novel Inspired by the True Story of Marvin McKenzie He rode bulls before he could drive. He climbed steel beams hundreds of feet in the air. He stood behind pulpits with fire in his bones. But Micah Carson’s greatest strength wasn’t in his back or his fists—it was in his call from God. Born in a dusty timber town in 1958, Micah’s early life was a storm of broken promises and broken people. When his parents’ marriage collapsed during his grade school years, Micah learned to survive on grit and independence. Then Dan McGraw came along—his rough-...

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 ...

Multiplying Missional Leaders Like Jesus -- EVEN if you have never led a group before Don't know how to lead a group? Want a step-by-step plan that's PRACTICAL? Need a strategy for training leaders that your leaders will copy with others? Ever wish you could lead like Jesus did? Leadership is a huge need in the missional church today. The problem? Most groups are following business models rather than the method Jesus gave us. The secret to effective leadership is following the greatest leader of all time -- Jesus. In this guide, Training Radical Leaders, you'll get a ten-week blueprint that...

Hunting for Hope: Trusting God Through Trials A novel inspired by the faithful life and ministry of Pastor Kim Earhart In the rugged quiet of Montana’s wilderness, where the winters are long and the hearts of men often guarded, one preacher learns to follow God’s call the hard way. Caleb Harding was raised in the shadow of the pulpit, the son of a faithful Baptist pastor. After Bible college, he returned home to serve under his father, with every expectation—his father’s and his own—that one day, he would step into the pulpit as pastor. But when his father died suddenly, the ...

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.

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.

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 ...

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.

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 ...

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.

Can a small church bring big hope to a struggling rural community? In Restoring Buildings, Restoring Lives, veteran pastor and visionary leader Rev. John E. Miller shares a bold, faith-filled blueprint for how rural churches can lead transformational ministry through the power of compassionate outreach. Set in Walton, West Virginia — a small town marked by poverty, addiction, and spiritual need — the story of HopeWorks Walton is an inspiring call to action for churches, leaders, and partners everywhere: ✅ Restore broken places ✅ Serve hurting people ✅ Model the love of Christ ...

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.