Author Archives: Tom Shefchunas

About Tom Shefchunas

Tom (also known as "Coach Shef" or just "Shef") is the co-founder of Uthmin.net and the North Point Ministries Multi-Campus Director of Transit, their Middle School Ministry. Tom’s passion involves working with campus directors and their teams, as well as recruiting and developing the hundreds of volunteer small group leaders it takes to pull off Transit at the five churches of North Point Ministries. He also co-wrote Lead Small with Reggie Joiner, a resource for children and student small group leaders. Tom and his wife Julie live in Cumming, Georgia, with their three children, Mac, Joey and Cooper. You can find him on Facebook and Twitter.

How Small Groups Create Momentum

by Tom Shefchunas on November 26, 2013 in Small Groups, Strategy.

As an old science teacher I couldn’t help myself but to talk about momentum in today’s post.

In the classroom, momentum is the principle that an object that is moving “wants” to keep moving in the same way. The bigger it is, and the faster it is, the more it “wants” to keep moving in that direction.

The other day I was doing a little writing and trying to uncover some of the “unstated” beliefs I have about our small group systems at North Point. It is working pretty well and I wanted to figure out why. (Actually, that would be a good post for another time: because we rarely take time to figure out why things work, we have no idea how to fix them when they stop working.)

A Favor to Ask of You…

by Tom Shefchunas on November 19, 2013 in Uthmin.

I have a favor to ask of you. But before I do, I want to give you some context.

13 years ago, I signed up to be a Small Group Leader for a middle school small group at North Point Community Church.

**On the one hand, I loved it.**

Since I spent the rest of my week as a teacher and a coach, I loved getting to be a different kind of character in a student’s life on Sundays.

I loved only having a few to be responsible for.

I loved getting to take part in the program instead of being in charge!

But I was also frustrated.

The 10 Emotional Needs of Every Leader

by Tom Shefchunas on November 11, 2013 in Leadership.

If I asked you, “What do you need?”

…you might be quick to cite physical things. Food, sleep, air, water, exercise.

…you might even go spiritual on me. Quiet time, community, prayer, Bible.

But, I think, few of you would acknowledge your emotional needs.

Yet… you were created with emotional needs.

My Only Piece of Good Parenting Advice

by Tom Shefchunas on November 4, 2013 in Parents.

I have worked with students for twenty years now. In those twenty years, I’ve had many parents ask me for parenting advice. Until recently, I used to cringe. I never knew what to say.

When I was younger, the easiest response was to shrug and say… ”I don’t know… I’m not a parent.” But then that changed, and I became a dad. Once I had kids of my own, I assumed I would eventually have a good answer. But even after 10 years of being a dad… I still didn’t know what to tell those parents.

Sure, I could have given a general “checklist” of things to do in order to be a great parent. But, I knew, unless the heart was behind it, none of that would really matter in the long run.

Strategic or Spiritual?

by Tom Shefchunas on October 28, 2013 in Strategy.

I don’t know where this comes from…

Sometimes it’s a question about the business books on my reading list.

Sometimes, after a discussion about strategy, people ask… “but where does prayer come in?”

Very few people, if any, have ever framed it this way but it seems they want to ask me…

Are you strategic or are you spiritual?

Over the years I have developed an answer to that question.