How to improve what you know about discipleship progress in your church

Posted by Boyd Pelley on 3/12/24 2:00 PM

Let's welcome our new friends from Exponential last week.  Some of you joined James and me Wednesday for our lunch discussion on the topic of "How to measure the immeasurable parts of discipleship." 

I love this topic and it was amazing do it with James.  We not only shared, but also asked questions and listened to the experience of others.  I have reflected on all of it quite a bit since then, and thought it might be worth it to capture and share some of those thoughts.  So, here are five ideas on how to improve what you know about discipleship progress in your church.

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Tags: Groups

Three reasons groups are the best way to organize and manage your church

Posted by Boyd Pelley on 2/6/24 1:00 PM

A long time ago, there was a buzz in church leadership, administration, and discipleship circles about becoming a CHURCH OF GROUPS not just a church with groups.  As a church administrator and discipleship pastor I read, went to conferences, and asked questions to figure out what this conversation meant practically for our church and my responsibility to help manage it.

My take-away was that everything we did in church life should be organized as if it were a small group.  So, groups included not only what we generally thought of as small groups; but also children's classes,  volunteer teams, all events, discipleship classes, assimilation steps, registration forms, and anything else that involved more than one person. 

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Tags: Church Management Software, Groups

Joy and patience were the top results from last week's Growthfinder assessment

Posted by Boyd Pelley on 9/19/23 2:40 PM

In case you missed it, last week I re-introduced Growthfinder with a couple of upgrades.  So far 25 people have responded and 18 took the assessment.

Originally I hadn't planned to share the report summary.  But, when I reviewed it, I thought you might be interested in seeing it. 

It gives you an idea of the value of a discipleship assessment tool like this.

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Tags: Groups

How to measure discipleship.  Take the FREE, NEW look Growthfinder assessment.

Posted by Boyd Pelley on 9/12/23 2:30 PM
Does the vision of your church revolve around making disciples?  If so, you may have a clear definition of what one looks like; but what about a way to measure how well you are getting the job done?
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Tags: New Release, Groups

How to track TRUST to diagnose the health of small groups

Posted by Boyd Pelley on 2/7/23 2:00 PM

A few weeks ago, coinciding with the new year, I started a series of blogs related to the difference between tracking something to achieve a goal and tracking something as part of an ongoing relationship.  So far we've looked at demographic data and guest follow up tracking.  In this article we look at tracking adult small groups.

Most pastors encourage adults to be in small groups as an important step in their spiritual growth or discipleship process.  However, once the data comes in and pastors realize that small group enrollment has a direct effect on giving and worship attendance then there's a temptation to make small group tracking a goal to achieve rather than a spiritual formation relationship to develop.  I know this because I lived it.

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Tags: Groups, Reports

How to interpret data to shepherd well and measure trust in a group.

Posted by Boyd Pelley on 8/23/22 3:00 PM

Trust is foundational to every relationship.  

In an article on building trust for Focus on the Family, Dr. John Townsend tells us that successful marriages are built on trust.

In his book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni makes it clear that a lack of trust on a team is foundational to every other team problem.

Proverbs 3:5,6 makes it clear that our ongoing relationship with God has to be founded on trust.

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Tags: Groups

How to collect small group data and then use it to pray.

Posted by Boyd Pelley on 8/16/22 3:00 PM

Last week we looked at lessons we've learned for helping connect people to groups.  Once people are in groups, though, how do you pray for and shepherd them.  We learned that an effective data capturing system can be used for attendance and much more.  

Before we start, it's helpful to realize that there are different perspectives on taking attendance.  Here are a few.

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Tags: Groups

Ten lessons from the school of hard knocks that improved Groupfinder.

Posted by Boyd Pelley on 8/9/22 2:15 PM

Churchteams started out in 1999 as a tool for making disciples and building teams. A year or so later we were referring to it as a small group software.  Within a couple of years it started gaining traction with churches all over the country. 

I was a small group pastor at the time and had been for almost a decade.  I wasn't new to the challenges of starting and building a small groups ministry, I was exhausted trying to do it.  When I understood cloud computing for the first time, I had a hunch this was the answer.  And, I had a friend who was willing to pioneer this idea with me using his skills as a software architect.  Mark and I have been doing that for 23 years now.  

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Tags: Groups

New! How to use color coding to spot discipleship signs at a glance.

Posted by Boyd Pelley on 8/17/21 9:00 AM

If you haven't stayed up with recent blogs, check out the Tracking Discipleship Signs series.  In these posts I had a great time relating scripture application to data.  Then using this data to provide analytics that give you feedback on your discipleship effectiveness as a church.

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Tags: Groups

How to use data to track discipleship signs of leadership

Posted by Boyd Pelley on 8/3/21 2:00 PM

"To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said,“If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  John 8:31-32

Here is another place that Jesus makes it clear what His disciples look like. 

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Tags: Groups

How to use data to track discipleship signs of serving

Posted by Boyd Pelley on 7/27/21 11:00 AM

"Then he said to them all: 'Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me."  Luke 9:23

Here is another place that Jesus makes clear what he expects of his disciples and thus what you and I should expect of them. Our first sign in this series was commitment or surrender.  This is self-denial. The next expectations from this verse are cross-carrying and following.

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Tags: Groups

How to use data to track discipleship signs of love

Posted by Boyd Pelley on 7/20/21 1:15 PM

"A new command I give you: Love one another.  As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”  John 13:34, 35

This is one of those times Jesus makes crystal clear what his followers look like.  This quality is so outstanding that people don't miss it.  Love.

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Tags: Groups

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