One of the keys to facilitating a great discussion is the ability to ask good questions. This is a skill that doesn’t come naturally to most of us, but there are many resources available to help you. Ministry Best Practices has a slide show and pdf with some great tips to help you. And don’t […]

We recently attended the California Christian Apologetics Conference in Fremont and enjoyed several wonderful speakers. One was Greg Koukl, founder of Stand to Reason ministry, whose goal is to train Christians to be capable ambassadors for Christ (2 Cor. 5:20) with knowledge (an accurately informed mind), wisdom (an artful method), and character (an attractive manner). […]

The July-August Mighty Oak Ministries newsletter featuring an article on Communicating with Empathy was mailed last week. If you aren’t on the mailing list, you can read it here.
I received an email from a friend who said, “I would have loved to see you compare examples of how not to give sympathy in a way […]

Matthew Anderson at Mere Orthodoxy suggests five strategies for setting clear expectations for a discussion. While he’s focused more on students, many of the suggestions apply to adult small groups as well. He recommends:
1. Praise good things liberally.
2. Tell people what the expectations are.
3. Be appropriately […]

The Thiagi Group offers some interesting tips on facilitating a discussion in an article “Secrets of Successful Facilitators.†This is a business model, but many of the tips can be used in Christian small groups. They offer five conclusions about effective facilitators, based on 10 years of research:
* Effective facilitators are flexible. They modify their […]