Budget Reboot

I figured that since I was leading a life group on Finances, I ought to take a good look at ours and make sure everything added up (literally).
I’ve prescribed to the envelope budgeting system over the years, using “virtual envelopes” in a computer rather than real ones, but there haven’t been many (any) good tools [...]

Grace was (and is) Given

Last night was the fourth week of a financial life group that I’ve been leading. It has been going well. People have been committed and come every week, the discussion has been good and they seem to be getting stuff out of the teaching.
For me, it has been nice because the preparation time has been [...]

Back in the Saddle

I started up our life group again, but in a new form.  You may remember my struggles with low attendance.  We took a break from life group over the month of December, and then I decided to make a change.
Last fall, we had Crown Financial Workshop at our church, and there was a need for [...]

0 for 2

I’ve been leading a small group since the beginning of the year. It started out pretty good, and then we slowed down to one meeting a month during the summer and then have tried to pick things back up to 2 meetings a month in the fall. But it has been a struggle.
In September [...]

Cooling Off

We had trouble with our A/C yesterday, the very same day that the temperature topped out at 102 deg. in our fair city.   By the time I got home from work, our family room thermostat was reading 88 degrees.  Oh, and we had our life group meeting at our house as well.
As my wife headed off [...]

To the Praise of the Glory of His Grace

This phrase comes from Ephesians 1:6 where Paul is talking about our adoptions as God’s sons. This is part of the passage that we covered in our life group last week and I had a question written down in my notes to discuss with the group:
How do you praise the glory of God’s grace?
I think [...]

Back to Ephesians

We had our Life Group this week (tonight), and so I’ve been busy getting ready for the group.  We’ve scaled back to once a month over the summer, so the commitment has been somewhat lessened. We’ve not been going through a book or anything–it has been topical.  But, not having a set agenda makes it [...]

Another Meeting

We had our first life group meeting in a month (reasons are not important), and I was dreading it earlier in the week.  In some ways, I enjoyed the break, and it was hard to start thinking and planning for it again.
Every time I start to prepare, I start to try to do it in [...]