The captain of the ship doesn’t hang out in the engine room checking the gauges. He has an engineer for that so he can drive the boat. Moses was the captain and needed to cast the vision and lead the body. Third, when you do all the work yourself, you never develop leaders. Jethro challenges Moses to develop leaders and trust God by giving away

Repentance here starts with rejoicing in our salvation. It is gratitude and thankfulness for God’s holiness and mercy. It looks like compassion for our dying neighbors. Repentance is living with a passion for Jesus and a desire to see people worship him. If we can kill indifference, we will remove another barrier to transformational community.

One of the keys to developing opportunity-based community is shepherding your group to be self-organizing. One mistake that leaders often make is that they feel obligated to attend or plan every event. Not only will this fry a leader, but it also makes it difficult for members of the group to develop any sense of ownership. A leader may have to get

When it comes to leadership, never take a risk on character. If you have concerns about one’s character, then this person should not be considered for leadership. It will take a long time of consistency in the right direction before that person should get the green light. Leaders reproduce themselves. When you take a risk on character, you put the

With that said, when we only exist in the fellowship space, we have a problem. When we do this we form what Driscoll calls “holy ghettos.” No one but the most religious would dare to venture into such spaces. People will take the long way to avoid that block.

Small groups will thrive when they become the place where we experience life-giving transformation.

Keys: Be Christ centered and devoted to Scripture. Be intentional and authentic. Be grace filled and truth telling. Avoid the “holy ghetto.”

In the end we may be able to sustain a pulse, but it is hard to call it life. It is artificial and plastic. People gather in small groups for discussions, but lives are not transformed by the gospel. Real life begets more life. It changes lives and transforms cities. I want us to have that kind of life. That is the life that is promised through

This is how many of us see sin, as a mischievous puppy to be managed, as if we can control it with a firm tone. The problem is that sin is not a puppy but a small fire. Spurgeon posits that managing sin is like setting a small fire and attempting to control it with the sound of your voice.18 Sin that is not destroyed will set the whole house on