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Small group leaders, pastors, and more discussing strategies for growth and community in church groups. The Small Group Network is an international ministry that equips churches to engage in deeper discipleship and community.
Louisa: Hello!
And welcome to S G Squared.
Pastor Steve Gladen pulls from over 25
years of small group ministry experience
to encourage and equip listeners like
you to lead small group ministry.
So let's listen, and learn, together.
Speaker 8: Welcome to SG Squared,
Steve Gladden on small groups.
Derek here, fighting a little
congestion, under the weather, but
I'm with the man of the hour, the man
whose very initials stand for small
groups, that is the Steve Gladden.
Steve, how are you, my friend?
Speaker 9: Dude, doing a lot better
than you, and you know, thankfully-
um, my, my brother coughed everything
out before we, we went on the air here.
So, uh- ⦠that, that saved you guys
a little bit of gross activity that
I'm still getting over the trauma.
Speaker 8: Yeah, you guys should have
seen, if you're watching on video, the,
the grimace Steve made with his face
when I, uh, did my last cough there.
But I can't believe we're,
we're in the depths of fall.
And, uh, Steve, we're talking about three
areas for your longevity in this episode.
How is your longevity now that you
are, uh, a, an Ohio State guy living
in the Deep South in SEC country?
Speaker 9: Uh, I, I f- I feel a
little hunted, uh, but that's okay.
You know, I, I love the, I love
the opportunity just to shine
the light into dark areas.
And so, but I, I must confess, I
am following my two Mississippi
teams a little bit closer than I
ever have in my lifetime, watching
Mississippi State and Ole Miss.
And, and my goodness, they're, they're
both in a raucous 3-0 start, so
it's, uh, it's fun.
I, I love college football.
You love college football.
Uh, I never thought I would be sitting in
the SEC country, but you know, woo, baby.
They, uh, they know, they
know how to bring it.
They know how to bring it.
Speaker 8: Yeah, it's probably good that
you've got those two, uh, Mississippi,
Mississippi teams to follow, you
know, kinda after Ohio State tanked
there in that game versus Texas.
It's probably good to have some
other teams that are winning- ⦠and
you can, you can follow.
Speaker 9: You sound like
my SEC friends, you know?
Thank you so very much.
You-
You are sick.
Take a little bit more medicine
and let's get to the show.
Speaker 8: Well, it sounds like
you've got a public service
announcement to make before- Yeah
we get into the meat of this.
Speaker 9: Thanks for the reminder.
Hey, everybody, you know, I, I don't
think I've ever done this on the show,
but we were, uh, going back and looking
through some stats, and when you look
over the last three years, our highest
amount of downloads in a month was just
right around close to 6,800 downloads.
And, but we only have 110 of you that
are subscribing, so when you look
at those odds, it's pretty painful.
So, hey, real simple, subscribe to the
show, like it, leave a five-star thing.
Rarely do we ask you, it doesn't
cost you anything, but it sure helps
us out a lot as we're trying to
get to other small group pastors.
So if you could subscribe to the
channel, dude, we, we should be
able to take that number up a hun-
100%, um, from what it is right now.
So appreciate all those of you listening
and downloading from the newsletters
and from the website and all that stuff.
But if you could subscribe, just
go, click, hit subscribe, and we
will love you a little bit longer
and, and your longevity will last
even longer, thus sayeth the Lord.
Speaker 8: There you go.
If you love Steve, all you
gotta do is hit subscribe.
Yeah.
And that is your public service
announcement for this episode.
So we're talking about three areas
for your longevity, and we're
talking in the context here of
ministry and small group ministry.
So kinda set this up for us, Steve.
Speaker 9: Yeah.
So, uh, there, you can almost
think through how you are doing
is gonna be equal to how your
small group ministry is doing.
And part of what, there's the old
phrase, speed of the leader, speed
of the group, uh, when you're
talking to small group leaders.
But i- in this, with a slight twist,
the better your longevity, the better
your small group ministry is gonna be.
And the things that we're gonna talk
about here, uh, as I have gotten older,
I've had more people ask me, you know,
"How did, how did you last in ministry?
How have you done small group
ministry almost 40 years?
How have you done ministry
for over 40 years?
And, and what, what are the tips to that?"
And so there's definitely some things that
would help you in small group ministry,
and I've written enough books on that.
Derek and I have done
enough podcasts on that.
But I wanna take a little time out as
we have gotten into fall, how, as you've
focused on the small group launch, as
you've, you've worked on those pieces.
A lot of times this is a time after
launch to be able to, be able to go back
to yourself and say, "How am I doing?"
And what I wanna do is I
wanna go through three areas.
I wanna unpack them a little bit,
because when you are healthy, when you
are strong, when you are in alignment
with God, it is in direct proportion to
how your small group ministry is doing.
And especially as I've taken the role
down at, uh, Pine Lake, uh, Church, uh,
in Mississippi, and as I'm working in the
South and working with the church, things
are so similar it, it's, it's silly.
And, and so there's the piece
that where I have to take a little
bit of a sharper look at myself.
So as I'm talking to you about
all these points, they are
100% aimed at me, not at you.
However, if the Holy Spirit is leaning
into you a little bit as we're talking
through some of these points, it's
gonna be super important that you
go, "Hey, I need to check on that.
I need to work on that.
I gotta, you know, talk
about these things."
Because where you are gonna be is
gonna be in direct proportion to where
your small group ministry is gonna be.
And so that's why I'm
passionate about these areas.
So I wanna dig into 'em and, uh, make sure
that we're, we're all on the same page.
It's also not a, an inclusive list, but
my goodness, if you need a starting point
and you can nail down these three areas,
it, it'll get you rolling and going
Speaker 8: I like that what you just
said, where you're at spiritually is
directly connected to with where your
small group is gonna be spiritually.
So three areas for your longevity.
Let's start with checking
your vital signs.
Break this down for us, Steve.
Speaker 9: Yeah, so part in, in this
area is that, you know, also as we've
been getting older, it's funny, you go to
the doctor a little bit more often, but
they're always looking at vital signs.
They're checking up on you on different
things like that, and, uh, recommending
things that you should do to, uh, you
know, take down certain numbers or bring
certain numbers up or all that stuff.
And so often we're not looking
at our own personal vital signs.
And, and I wanna talk about four
warning signs that you may wanna be
looking at, and they're, they're top
of the, uh, the list right here, but
you can go much deeper But I wanna
talk about some of the things here.
One of them is, uh, a, a vital sign that's
talking about a disease called apathy.
And when you're looking at
that, this is when you start
to get callous about miracles.
And when youâ¦
If you're looking in your church, and
you're, you know, going through your
day-to-day activities, and you're seeing
the overall church, if you're starting
just to, to get into the grind of coming
in, going out, and stuff like that, or
if your church is celebrating salvations
or celebrating baptisms or milestones
or things like that, that may not have
to do with small group ministry, but
you find yourself being very apathetic
to it, that's a warning sign that maybe
some of your soul care is getting low.
And part of what each one of
these four are gonna be looking
at is, is, is your soul.
We're gonna focus a little bit on the soul
side in this particular part of longevity.
But the disease- Mm-hmm ⦠of apathy is
something that you've gotta watch out for.
If you find yourself just getting ho-hum
about some of the miracles in the church.
If, you know, at Pine Lake this
past weekend, uh, they just
baptized, uh, 817, I think it
was, uh, across the five campuses.
Speaker 8: Wow.
Speaker 9: And part of, you know, what
we're, we're checking my own heart
was, am I as passionate about all of
these changed lives as I need to be?
And it's important for each one of us,
whether it's one baptism, one salvation,
whatever it is, one person getting into
a group, one person getting their life
straightened around through recovery.
Whatever it is, check your heart and say,
"Are you as passionate about that as you
were when you first became a believer?"
And just check on the apathy.
The other disease that can be
there is arrogance, and this is a
super slipperdy s- slippery slope.
So we talk about being callous
about, uh, callous about miracles.
This is when you get careless,
uh, I mean, casual about sin.
And when you're casual about sin,
this is where you've always gotta
be working on the purification side
of who you are, and being able to
say, "If something is creeping in,
you have got to shut the door."
There, there are so many proverbs
that are about this, so many tragic
stories and psalms about not doing
this, that it's important for you
to understand that if you get casual
about sin, that is a, a slippery slope.
I've always said that nobody gets
into a spiritual hole with a backhoe.
It's always with a spoon.
It's just one little scoop
here, one little scoop there.
The enemy has all the time in the
world for you just to bury yourself.
And what you've gotta do is not get
casual about sin, so making sure you're
doing some of the readiness things,
uh, that we're gonna be talking about,
uh, in the next part of longevity But
you just also have to say when the Holy
Spirit pricks your heart about something,
figure out what is it you need to do.
Do you need to get off social media?
Do you need to not watch
certain type of programming?
Do you need to, uh, you know, just
figure out w- what you're gonna be doing?
But you've gotta see what are the things
that start to erode my spiritual life.
Because when you get casual about sin
and just go, "Oh, well, it doesn't bother
me," you know, here and there, when
you start to see that it's affecting
your life, you gotta take mandatory
things to jump in very quickly.
It's where accountability
helps out in your small group.
This is where these are some of the things
that you know what you need to safeguard.
We all know that, you know, everything
is gonna hem- stem off, you know,
certain, certain little sins that
have been, you know, throughout
history, what Jesus was tempted
with, uh, in the desert for 40 days.
These are the things that are gonna
play into our lives, and so we gotta
watch out about being casual about sin.
The third, uh, little warning sign of your
soul and, you know, sometimes diseases
that your doctor, spiritual doctor may
pick up, and that is defi- divisiveness.
And, uh, sadly, I've seen this play
out way too often, but this is when you
get cynical about staff or leadership
And when you get cynical about staff
or leadership, that is a, that should
be a surefire thing in your spirit to
say, "My soul is getting a little dry.
My soul is not, you know, as health-
healthy as I s- thought it was."
Because what's happening is every
time you criticize staff, whether
they're above you, on your same
plane as your peer, or below you,
that is hurting the body of Christ.
Same thing with leadership in your church.
And depending on what it is, you
may have to handle it a little bit
different, but the important thing
is, is you need to say in your own
heart and mind, "I'm starting to get
a little cynical about where I'm at."
And so part of that is, you know,
do you need a course correction in
your own life to say, you know, "Hey,
God, I gotta figure out things"?
Or maybe do you saying, "Is God
loosening my roots and, you know, I'm
disagreeing with staff leadership, and
we're, we're starting to drift apart?"
Whatever it is, you gotta
handle it biblically.
Every church that is practicing, you
know, all the fundamentals of, you
know, what we believe in our tenets of
faith, they are part of God's bride, and
you gotta make sure you don't harm the
bride, which, you know, when you, when
you cast down a staff or leadership,
you're hurting the bride of Christ.
So pay attention to that one.
The last little part, uh, on this thing on
vital signs is laziness, and this is just
when you get careless about disciplines.
Y- y- you know, it was shocking.
I was, uh, reading a study, and I was
gonna play this out in a different point,
and I'll probably bring it back up again.
But there was a study that's done that,
uh, evangelical Christians spend about
three and a half minutes in God's Word and
about six hours, uh, through some type of
screenplay, whether that's TV shows- Mm
whether that's, uh, sadly
to say, football games.
As I looked at my Saturday evaporate
on four time slots of foot- football
games, which, uh, you know, maybe
isn't bad, uh, but maybe it is.
Um, it could be, you know,
through social media.
It could be on your phone, your
iPad, many different screens.
But whatever it is, there
is a vast disproportion.
And I'm not saying that you have to
give up screenplay or whatever you're
doing, you know, if you're gaming or
anything like that, or watching, you
know, a football game here and there.
But what I am saying is that Look at
the proportion of how much time you're
spending in the disciplines of what God's
given us so that we can do our ministry
better, stronger, faster, better, and also
with what you're doing not in that zone.
And, uh, I get there, there's a bit of
relaxation, different things like that.
So here, here the nugget I'm trying
to help you understand, you know if
you're getting careless about the
disciplines, because those are the
things that are gonna be important.
Matter of fact, in the next
step here, we're gonna talk
about some of those disciplines.
But there's, there may be a litany
of disciplines you wanna do.
Understand that when you start to get,
uh, careless about the disciplines
that God's given us to do, thoseâ¦
That's another warning sign.
So just really quick, if you're
callous about miracles, which is
apathy, if you're casual about sin,
which is, can be arrogance 'cause you
think, "Oh, there's no way I'm gonna
fall," and we see that oh too often
in the news about people falling.
Cynical about staff is u-
divisiveness, and careless about
disciplines, which is laziness.
Those are four warning signs about vital
signs I want you to be able to look at in
your own life when you're thinking about
longevity for you, how is it gonna go?
Speaker 8: So in our three areas
of longevity, there is your
first area, vital signs with Dr.
Steve.
And he is bringing the medicine today.
Wow.
Okay, moving to our second
area, and that is, uh, being
battle-tested or battle-ready.
Break this down for us.
Speaker 9: Hey Derek, you're being
battle tested right now, you know,
as you're, like, like, barely,
barely coherent on this, on this
show, but thanks for jumping on.
But yeah, we're gonna talk about battle
readiness, and, and I, and I label it like
that for a reason because in Ephesians,
when you look at the armor of God, it's
all on the front part of your body because
you're supposed to confront the enemy,
you're supposed to confront the things
that are the wolves that are coming after
the sheep and the things that are being
corruption that's, uh, leaking into the
church, and you need to be battle ready.
And I know people, when I talk about
battle readiness, you kind of, you kinda
hive off in a couple different camps.
If you're a peacemaker, which believe
it or not, I, I tend to side with that
a little bit more, sometimes you can
go, "You know, I'll let somebody else
handle the battle," and stuff like that.
There's some of you that are so
battle ready, you're, you're gonna
pick up the sword and you go, "I
think Peter should have cut the
dude's head off, not just his ear."
Uh, so you know, you go to
different places with that.
But with that, there is something
about Ephesians 6 that does prompt
us to say, "Take courage and
know that the Lord is with you."
And sometimes we don't wanna do battle
with things that are eroding the
church or coming against the kingdom
of God, but we're called to that.
And so part of the things I want
you to do is w- think of some
of the giants, spiritual giants.
I know the analogies I just gave
were, you know, physical things
that come after the church.
But where I'd wanna take in this part of
being battle ready- ⦠is being ready,
battle ready to go after some of the
giants that kinda get us off center.
And when you're off center,
once again, then your small
group ministry is off center.
One of them is busyness, and sometimes
our schedule doesn't ⦠Our schedule runs
us instead of us running our schedule.
And part of what you've gotta do
is look at the area of busyness.
Matthew 6:33 talks about "Seek
ye first the kingdom of God and
everything else will play itself out."
And part of being, um, busyness
is what I'd focus on this one,
what the Lord was showing me is
just that in the area of prayer.
And I just wanna encourage you to, I
know Paul talks about praying without
ceasing, uh, and so there is part of
that where you're praying all the time,
but there is something too about taking
some steady times of focusing on prayer,
whether that's solitude, whether that's
a prayer walk, whether whatever it is.
There's a part about making sure your
life is not so busy, and this culture only
breeds into busyness, that you're so busy
that you just miss the very fundamental
part about what God wants us to do.
And part of being battle ready is focusing
on prayer first, and I wanna focus on
this just a smidge longer because when
you look at all the stories in the
Bible And when I look at my own life,
sometimes when I'm going up against
something big, I go, "I've gotta pray."
And what I'm trying to work on in my
own life, and what I would encourage
you to do, is saying, "How do I keep
my prayer life up so that I don't
have to go call myself to prayer
when something big is coming up?"
And when you look at, like, Daniel
in the lions' den, and there's many
stories, you can look at this all the way
through the Old and the New Testament.
He didn't have to pray
going into the lions' den.
He was prayed up that he
could just call on God.
And so part of what I'd encourage you
this is don't be so busy that you miss
the fundamental piece in spiritual warfare
that you need to have, and that is prayer.
Second thing And it's you gotta
slay the giant of materialism.
And, uh, we focus, uh, a lot in
the church about, you know, you
know, that God owns everything.
And part of what Iâ¦
And I 100% agree with that, and I'm
thanking God that He only required us
to give 10% and not like, you know,
uh, 50%, uh, something like that.
But part of what I want you to see
is that in this particular one of
materialism, the only way to battle
it is to, the antidote is to give.
And I would say if you're not
tithing to your church, 100%
I wanna say to you right now, not 100%
tithe, but 100% in, in your battle
readiness, I want you- wanna challenge
you is that you need to get your life in
order because God is not gonna bless you
if you don't walk through that discipline
of battling the giant of materialism.
And this, you know, and some of you
go, you know, "Well, is it a sharp
10% or is it 10% on gross or on net?"
Uh, you know, my dad used to say,
you know, "If you don't tithe on-- If
you tithe on the net, that's gross."
Uh, which, you know, at that
time I was growing up, that
was a s- a slang slang, butâ¦
Slang slaying?
A slang saying.
But, but part of what I would encourage
you to do is just look at your, look
at your checkbook and just be able
to say, or your checking account, and
saying, "Is God in control of that?
Do I trust Him as much as
I trust everything else?"
Because part of what you're gonna
have to understand is that trusting
in God is where everything is at.
And I'm telling myself that as much
as anybody else, because our, our
move to Mississippi was a, was an act.
We're trusting God.
It doesn't make sense, but I'm trusting
God of what He's calling us to do.
And the same thing in this slaying the
giant of materialism, this is something
we all gotta get under our belt.
Third thing is isolation,
slaying the giant of isolation.
And whether you're an introvert or
an extrovert, what happens is that
we, we tend to, the longer we're a
Christian, and if we're married and
have our family, we tend to focus not
on having others that are in our lives.
And part of what you see all
throughout the New Testament is
the importance of the one anothers.
All of the one anothers
can't be done in isolation.
You have to be in community.
And, and as small group point people, all
I can say is, if you're not buying what
you're selling, God is not gonna bless it.
And I, you know, we know
testimony after testimony.
My own small group has
just been powerful to us.
Tonight we're getting together as we're
taping this show, and we're gonna,
we have our Thursday night time of
being together, and it's just one of
those pieces where they pour into us,
especially in this time when we're
gonna be separating from them in just
a few short months as we, as we move.
But it's one of those pieces of
being able to say, "That's 25
years of a relationship that we're
gonna have to find someplace else."
But the point is here
is don't be isolated.
Slay that giant.
The fourth thing is, is
the, the giant of ignorance.
And a lot of us, uh, going back to
that stat that I talked about earlier,
we're spending less than three and
a half minutes in the Word of God.
And I just wanna encourage you, whether
it's audio playing over you to hear the
Word of God, whether you're reading it,
however you're doing it, if you're not
doing it at all, start with one verse and
build up to two and just go from there.
But start to get into God's Word.
Sometimes we're just
ignorant of all that God did.
And I just wanna encourage you,
there's a bazillion reading plans out
there if you wanna jump into that.
Uh, if you're just starting
out, you know, go on YouVersion.
They have a scripture
of the day every day.
Start with that.
Take it as deep as you
can and go on from there.
But the point is, sometimes we're
ignorant of the very thing we're
talking about, which is God's Word.
So start with those, those four.
Be battle ready.
Slay the giant of busyness.
Slay the giant of materialism.
Slay the giant of isolation.
Slay the giant of ignorance so that you
and your small group ministry can be
as strong and as healthy as possible
Speaker 8: Be battle ready,
I think is the point, huh?
Speaker 9: Yeah, that's
it, man, 'cause it coming.
It coming whether we like it or not.
Speaker 8: And last but not least,
the third area for your longevity
Uh, has to do with rhythms.
Yeah.
What's that mean, Steve?
Speaker 9: So part of this simple one, and
we'll wind, we'll wind up the show with
this, and it's pretty, pretty simple, but
you gotta get into some daily rhythms,
and structure is always what we're
wired into and however we're doing it.
My structure is probably at the lowest
it's ever been because I'm flying back and
forth between Orange County and Jackson,
Mississippi, and things are all crazy in
my life, and I'm living in two places, and
my wife's coming with me sometimes and not
others, so it's pandemonium in my life.
So this point is, again, one of those I
just got to draw, drive into my own heart.
But they're very simply, I'll, I'll say
them real quick and then I'll unpack them.
It's divert daily, it is withdraw
weekly, and it's abandon annually.
And what I would say to you is,
uh, that in the divert daily,
this is just your quiet time.
Find some time to be able just
to hive away and, and again, um,
start small, you build it up.
You got your whole life in front
of you, but spend some time
alone with God getting direction.
How am I doing?
Where am I at?
You know, divert daily just for a, a
section of time, whether it's early in
the morning, late at night, afternoon.
I know everyone, you know, is preaching,
you know, do it early in the morning.
Uh, if God made everybody
the same way, that'd be okay.
But, you know, what can I say?
Sometimes he doesn't.
And so the point is, it's not so much
when you divert daily, it is that
you divert daily in figuring it out.
And so sometimes people talk about
doing it early in the morning
because it can slip away super
quick from you and your day, and
you come home and you're exhausted.
But divert daily.
The withdraw weekly is your Sabbath.
And as much as we talk about tithing
your 10%, that God can do more
with your 90% than you can do with
your 100%, the same thing is true.
God can do more with your six days than,
uh, you can do with your seven days.
And, um, as I am working, you
know, helping rebuild a small group
ministry, it's so important for me
to echo those principles that, you
know, Sabbath is super important.
And I know when my to-do list feels,
like, insurmountable, I know that God
can do more with my six days than I can
do with seven, and so it's important
that, you know, you withdraw weekly.
And then abandon annually is
just getting away for a retreat.
And I would just encourage you, uh,
many times in order to think on your
small group ministry, you gotta get
away from your small group ministry.
And it doesn't mean you have to
go to Hawaii or to Florida or to,
you know, some northern city that
you, you love or wherever it's at.
It doesn't mean you have to spend a
lot of money, but it does mean that you
gotta get out of your bubble, whatever
your bubble is, and just retreat.
Retreat someplace that
can-- you can get away.
And so, you know, just being
able to abandon annually will
help you, will help your soul.
So as you're, as you're looking at the
rhythms of your life, ask yourself:
How am I doing diverting daily?
How am I doing, you know,
uh, withdrawing weekly?
How am I doing abandoning, uh, annually?
In each one of those and to say,
"What do I need to improve on?"
So as you look at these three areas of
longevity, I pray that, you know, they
could be like a diagnostic test for
you to say, "What do I need to work on?
And maybe what is strong, and maybe
how can I help others in my ministry
work on the things I'm strong in?
And then what do I need to
take away and w- take a step
in something that I'm weak in?"
Speaker 8: And there are your
three areas of longevity with Dr.
Steve Gladden, your small group
doctor, uh, your ministry, uh, doctor.
And Steve, um, you know,
really what- Derek's on
Speaker 9: drugs, so we'll just,
we'll give-- we'll forgive him as
he's about ready to pull off the
gl- rubber gloves and put them on.
Speaker 8: My hope and prayer
is that, you know, these key
areas that you shared, that-
Speaker 9: Yeah
Speaker 8: the Ohio State Buckeyes take
these and cultivate them this season
Speaker 9: I'm glad you took
such spiritual depth out
of me pouring out my heart
I will count that up to
your drug usage right now.
Speaker 8: No, seriously, that was
a great- No ⦠uh, three areas.
And to everybody watching and listening,
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Speaker 9: All right, brother.
Dude, go to bed.
I will startâ¦
Well, I'll start on with my day
and everything like that.
And I will sign us off.
And for everyone that's
listening, we appreciate you
so much, and, uh, stay tuned.
And if you haven't subscribed to
the newsletter, jump into that, too.
Go on smallgroupnetwork.com,
and we will service you as best we can.
And to that, I will sign off for
me and Derek because he's getting
loopier as the, uh, time goes on.
So see you later.
Speaker 8: See you guys.
Louisa: Thank you for listening!
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