September 30th, 2010 
alandanielson Strange things can happen to small groups when they step outside of our normal surroundings. Jesus and his small group had their first recorded gathering in Mark 1 and it was in a strange place. They met in one of the most public venues they could find: The Synagogue. Because of meeting in this public [...]
September 29th, 2010 alandanielson This video from Renaissance Church in Summit, New Jersey cracked me up so I just had to share it with you. Great example of a bad small group and a great example of how easy it is to get caught up in (or bogged down by) hard-to-understand biblical passages. The End Times from Renaissance Church [...]
September 28th, 2010 alandanielson A few days ago I was talking with a friend who has been hurt by someone who just refuses to forgive and let things go. On top of being bitter, this person is down right vindictive. Then to make matters worse, this person is active in church and claims to be a follower of Christ. [...]
Posted in Special, Spiritual Growth 
Tags: angry, bitter, Christ, christians, facebook, Jesus, mean, rude, spiteful, Twitter, unforgiving, vindictive 
4 Comments » September 23rd, 2010 alandanielson Today is my oldest son’s 10th birthday. Taylor is a source of utter joy for me. He has a huge heart, a generous spirit, a protective nature and Asperger’s Syndrom (on the Autism spectrum). He loves anything related to the Halo video games so we’re having a Halo party for him. Below are some pictures of [...]
September 22nd, 2010 alandanielson Training new small group leaders is a no-brainer, so we have training events, create online training courses, send leaders home with resources, and provide small group coaches. Yet with all of this training it’s not uncommon for those of us in church leadership to be frustrated by the fact that there’s a disconnect between what [...]
September 21st, 2010 alandanielson I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out a very unhealthy trend in our western church culture: we often tend to neatly separate and categorize mission and discipleship. This is unhealthy because it’s not how Jesus saw mission and discipleship. To Jesus they were two sides of the same coin. Jesus said, “”Come, follow me, [...]
September 20th, 2010 alandanielson I grew up in a Southern Baptist Church (First Baptist Albuquerque, NM). My father was a Deacon and both of my parents were Sunday School teachers. Like most good Baptist children, at age 7 I walked down the isle one Sunday Morning to “ask Jesus into my heart” and was baptized. Growing up in a [...]
September 17th, 2010 alandanielson Today is my Mom’s birthday. In her honor I’m posting Helen Steiner Rice’s poem A Mother’s Love below. Thanks for being a wonderful and godly mother to me, Momma. I love you with all that I am! Your grateful and loving son, Alan ————————————— A Mother’s Love by Helen Steiner Rice A Mother’s love is [...]
September 16th, 2010 alandanielson Originally published 10-15-2009. Reposted 09-16-2010. ———————————————————————- My TV has this great feature: when I press the mute button closed captioning automatically turns on. It’s great! When I can’t hear the TV, I can at least still see what’s being said. We’ve all heard that God speaks through His Word, His Spirit, Others, and our Experiences. [...]
September 14th, 2010 alandanielson There’s a cool story in 2 Chronicles 13. The two main players are Abijah and Jeroboam. The Hebrew people had recently split their nation in two. The smaller southern kingdom was called Judah and Abijah was their king. The northern kingdom kept the name Israel and their king was Jeroboam. Jeroboam declared war on Judah, [...]
