Thursday, April 19, 2007

Memories of Turbo Groups









We just returned from vacationing in Florida where we saw our friends Greg and Susie Kazanjian (pictured on the left). Seeing them made me think about how encouraging they were a number of years ago when I first began writing training materials.

It was 1998, and I had just finished leading my seventh Turbo Group at our church (a "Turbo Group" is what I called a short-term leadership training group, designed to help train individuals to lead Christian small groups and Bible Studies).

At the time, I was in the process of finishing a manual called, "Skills for New Leaders: A Turbo Group Training Program", but was not really sure if anyone would be interested in reading it.

Greg and Susie were our neighbors, and one day Greg said to me, "Davey-boy, I'll help you get the manual printed, how many do you want to start with?"

I said, "How about twenty?"

"Twenty?" he replied with a laugh. "I was thinking of starting with five hundred or a thousand. There's more than twenty people who are going to want to use this manual."

I eventually "compromised" by having him print three hundred copies and the rest, as they say, is history. Over the past ten years, I've sold or given away nearly 3,000 copies and a number of churches have used the training to teach new small group leaders important skills for leading.

I'm appreciative of people in my life, like Greg and Susie, who have faith when I don't seem to.

More information on Turbo Groups is available at my website: www.dstiles.com

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

First Post

I’m a Christian writer, trainer and consultant. Over the years I have had the opportunity to help a number of ministry leaders with resources. This blog is designed to keep friends up to date on the latest things I’m working on.

More information about my resources can be found at www.dstiles.com