Quotes from Larry Osborne

Instead of celebrating how many people came, the most important measurement would be how many came back.

How Well Do These Match? The third key alignment question is, "How well does who you want to reach match up with what you plan to do?" Putting the two funnels together and comparing who we want to reach with what we plan to do can be an eye-opener.

What Is Your Philosophy of Discipleship and Leadership Training? The fourth key question is, "How do you think people are best trained to live out the Christian life and best prepared for leadership?" Your answer should ideally be reflected in the curriculum you choose, the way you structure your meetings, and the way you train your leaders.

The mentoring model for discipleship and leadership training is primarily focused on one-on-one relationships. It envisions every Christian having a mentor and mentoring someone else down the line.

That explains why those who join a group in which half or more of the members come from a previously existing group so often complain that the group is a bit cliquish and hard to break into. In most cases the problem isn't cliquishness. It's a differing set of relational needs, expectations, and capacities.

What is the dirty little secret of innovation? It's simply this: most innovations fail.

Sometimes the innocent suffer with the guilty. They can get caught in the backwash.

In contrast, an educational approach is heavily front-loaded. It expects people to work through a curriculum or set of experiences to be certified as spiritually mature or ready for leadership.

The apprenticeship model tends to throw people into a task and then come alongside to help as needed.

We're no longer trying to impose our will on non-Christians. We're trying to keep non-Christians from imposing their will on us—and our churches. If you haven't noticed, the culture wars are over. We lost.

The final question to ask before launching a new or revamped small group ministry is, "Who already does what we want to do well—and does it in a church we would go to if we lived in the area?

DON'T MISS THIS. Peter and his prayer-meeting friends seem to have had absolutely no expectation that God would really answer their prayers. Their doubts were so great that when God did answer, they didn't believe it. They had exactly the kind of faith that many of us have been told God won't honor. But he did.

That's what the backside of hardship and suffering does. It teaches us perspective. It takes the fear out of the things that terrify others. It

I saw one survey of over 150,000 college students where everyone—that's right, every single person—rated themselves as above average in their ability to get along with others. That means at least 75,000 of them were mildly to seriously delusional!

Asking for volunteers always surfaces a number of folks who love God but don't have the relational skills needed to lead a group. That's because when it comes to self-awareness, socially challenged people don't have any. Most think they're pretty good at getting along with others. Couple that with their high need for attention and affirmation, and you have a bunch of people who are quick to volunteer and hard to turn away.

This can be very confusing and frustrating for people who are new to a community or church. The acts of friendship send one message, but the lack of connection sends another. It's why so many people complain about churches being cliquish.

In my own profession, some surveys show that up to 80 percent of pastors rate their preaching skills as well above average.

What matters is not the size of the church or the slickness of the programming. What matters is that those who come find a ministry and relationships worthy of spontaneous word-of-mouth recommendations.

We didn't win because we had more talent than other teams. We won because we had more endurance.

We overtrained.

I believe the primary reason for our long run of spiritual and cultural setbacks is something else. It's sin in the camp.

We ask everyone to use sentence prayers (one person praying for just one item at a time). This shuts down the long-winded dominator and enables those who are new or more introverted to pray out loud much more easily. Of course, if someone doesn't want to pray, they don't have to.

And if I, as pastor, have failed to do my part to train my leaders to lead, what right do I have to complain about the way they do their job or make their decisions?

High-powered front-door programs can have the unintended consequence of sending a message that some weekends and programs are for bringing guests—and the rest aren't.