Dennis McCallum and Gary DeLashmutt

When seeking to dive deeply into the Bible, the Inductive Study Method is a straightforward and effective method. See the steps to overview and then the 6 specific study questions for each paragraph.

Doug Patch

Does your leadership team get in needless (not to mention ungodly) squabbles when trying to make decisions? Do you feel you are successful at facilitating change by building consensus? Leading a home group largely entails making decisions, some with large impact, and some less so. We'll explore some common areas of decision making.

Dennis McCallum and Gary DeLashmutt

During recent discussions with members and each other, we have discovered confusion and possible misinterpretation of our position on leadership and authority boundaries. To avoid further confusion and to bring glory to God, we have consulted the elders and come together to compose our thoughts on this key subject. The elders have affirmed this paper as accurately reflecting our policy. It can be freely disseminated as members see fit.

Dennis McCallum

Dwell home churches are led by teams. This offers a number of advantages, but can cause problems as well. A successful home Church must maintain the unity of its leaders. Disunited teams usually can't lead home church growth and the strength of relationships among leaders directly affects meeting quality. Strong groups nearly always have skilled encouragers and visionaries on board with the maturity to work as a team. For these reasons, it is essential that home church leaders learn to deal with conflicts maturely and quickly. When working with fellow leaders, the following considerations are helpful.

Dennis McCallum

The New Testament clearly teaches that the church is to be a community of support, nurture, service, and also discipline. Admonishing one another is an important component of Christian love as depicted in the Bible, contrary to the view of our postmodern culture. We would agree with our culture that admonition based on nothing more than personal opinion would be presumptuous and arrogant. However, with the Word of God, we have a basis for correcting each other, and such correction, when practiced in a spirit of grace and acceptance, will have life-transforming power. Thus, Paul says, "And concerning you, my brethren, I myself also am convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able also to admonish one another." (Romans 15:14)

Dennis McCallum

Financial stewardship is a central area of Christian living. Authorities on scripture claim that Jesus taught more on money than any other subject. The epistles also teach often about giving, including strong language warning against refusal to give. Generous giving is presented in the same light as learning scripture, preaching, earnestness for God, and practicing Christian love: "But just as you abound in everything, in faith and utterance and knowledge and in all earnestness and in the love we inspired in you, see that you abound in this gracious work also" (2 Corinthians 8:7).

Dennis McCallum

Good evangelism is God's will for the church (2 Corinthians 5:19-20). When the church loses its evangelistic edge, the sentence is spiritual death. No amount of study, love, sharing, or serving will save the church when we have no evangelism. This is the first priority for leaders. Although we can use a wide variety of evangelistic methods, our job as leaders is to understand and teach those principles that are most suitable and effective in our home church. The following evangelistic concepts are all evident in scripture. Included under each biblical principle are suggestions for effective implementation.