I remember one Sunday leaving a church service and asking a close friend for feedback on my preaching. The friend said, “Maybe you’re called to teach instead of preach.”  My friend was only confirming what I knew. The sermon didn’t go well, and it was my fault.  

Launching new groups is one of the most impactful ways to cultivate a disciple-making culture within the church. As we strive to create environments where people grow together in faith, we need to think strategically about how and when new groups are formed. Group launch days provide churches with the perfect opportunity to help members not currently involved in small groups find a place to belong and grow.

Pastor Joe McKeever shared about an experience his friend Ralph Bethea had while distributing Bibles in Russia after the fall of communism. Bethea visited an older gentleman who talked of abandoning communism and returning to his mother’s faith.

What drives you to your knees in prayer? A pastor friend said, as I was listening to him describe a remarkably difficult time in his pastorate, that this event was certainly causing him to pray, and in his words, “anything that makes you pray is a good thing.” 

I was helping train the staff of Canton Georgia’s First Baptist Church at a retreat center in Peachtree City when our session was interrupted by an unknown lady with a terrified look on her face, saying, “New York City is under attack.” A passenger plane had crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.