Allen Kleine Deters

Greg,

I've sat through and been a part of a number of ministry associate candidacy exams and found them to be nearly as difficult as as MDiv candidacy exam.  Generally if you're solid on personal spiritual practice, Reformed Theology, the key parts of scripture and some wise practical knowledge and understanding of ministry and the denominational stances on issues, you'll be all set.

All the best.

Just came across this resource recently.  I've been reading M. Scott Boren's blog lately and happened upon this gem.  If you are not familiar with his two books, Missional Small Groups and one he cowrote Introducing the Missional Church, get them and read them.  They are exceptionally valuable.

Here's the gem.  Scott has a website of FREE stuff including video teaching via You Tube.  If you have Real Player Pro and something similar with the ability to capture online video you're set to burn them to DVD for your groups.  And Scott gives permission to do this.  

A couple of great studies to check out are The Journey Together: Training Groups for Effective Group Life.  This study is not just training for leaders but the whole group.  It is an excellent study for a new group.  It's similar to Zondervan's ReGroup: Teaching groups to be groups, but is more extensive.  Each person brings something different, both good and bad, to the group.  The Journey Together helps the whole group understand its function and dysfunctions and how to work together.

Another study goes along with the book Missional Small Groups and leads the group toward a more practical understanding and commitment to making a difference in one another's lives and their community.

Here's the link to the FREE stuff on the site. Click Here

Free awesome curriculum?  Who can pass that up?

Enjoy!

Some good thoughts and ideas for transitioning and the use of organ.  I have a wonderful organist in my church who is 83 and is commited to the transition.  She is innovative and willing to stay in the back by padding and playing bass notes with the organ then piping in with some accents during other verses.  Other times she sits at the keyboard.

The truth is that most contemporary music is not organ friendly, especially guitar led pieces.

Mike,

Sorry for getting to this so late.  The forums were incredibly slow for awhile so I haven't been back for awhile.

To answer your question.  Yes, we do sermon-based small groups. Larry Osborne's book, "Sticky Church" is a big help here.  But the truth is the pastor is the one who knows the best questions to ask. I tend to write out questions as I'm prepping and studying a sermon -- especially questions that would take people further into the text and especially particular to personal life application.

Another source that I frequent is the Serendipity Bible which is the small group leaders' best friend. It has good discussion questions for every pericope in the bible.  Get one -- you won't be disappointed.  I use it to fill in gaps for each lesson.  And since I do a lot of my sermon study on Logos 4 I can make the handouts for discussion right there with the "handouts" app.

Works great.

Hope that helps.

Allen

WOW, how did it take me this long to read this post?  My apologies livingcrc.

If you read my blogs in this section of the CRC Network, you will certainly find that I believe very strongly that the the primary calling of the church is to make disciples who partner with God in his mission to redeem the world.  Of course the primary calling of the pastor is to equip the saints to works of ministry.  But as a pastor I very much believe that part of the equipping is discipling others.  But of course we must all primarily work within our giftings, that is to say discipling another person(s) may not be our passion, but it is still a calling for all Christians.

I am always mentoring one or two people at different levels in their discipleship journey.  I believe that every small group plays a part in the discipling process for every member in the congregation because everyone must be a disciple.  Too many people are locked into a "Bible Study" and know a lot about the Bible but have never lead someone to Christ nor ventured into  serving outside of their comfort zone or the four walls of the church.  I do not believe that is partnering in the mission of God.  So yes, I am out their doing it and modeling it for my congregation.... as best I can.

BTW, did those elders get the groups going?  Be sure to look at the resources on the small group page here for articles on starting groups, coaching leaders etc.

Let me know if there is a particular resource you are looking for.

Certainly.  Now that I am a Network guide, I will check it a number of times during the week.

:-)

I appreciated it. But you're right, some folks were a bit inappropriate at times.

I'd like to see a link where you can go and watch the proceedings while a chat window is on the side. I've been able to attend online conferences like that. On one I logged in via my Twitter account and another I had a special registration sign in. Nonetheless, we had some great discussion happening while the speakers were on ... something you can't do when you're at the event listening, but would sure like to.