Building a Church of Small Groups: A Place Where Nobody Stands Alone

This book is built on practical experience and gives the insight and skills to begin building the community of believers toward Christ-Jesus. Statistics show that if a new church member does not make friends in the church within three months they will leave the community. Willowcreek has demonstrated success in developing the community of saints. This book is well written, and experience-proven. An important text for every small group leader. -CSL

This book details the journey and challenges of becoming a church that centers its ministry around the concept of small groups. Our church is a "traditional" church that recognized its need to change. If you want to change, this book is a great help on that road. BEWARE! It will excite, challenge and frighten you as you read through the process. This is a great book that every pastor should read and pray over. The two greatest challenges will be committing to the task and being patient enough to ground yourself in the right process. This book is a gift from God. Use it well.

As a new youth pastor here in the Inland Empire area of Southern California, resourcing with our local churches has proven to be most beneficial regarding the adaptation of small groups to the ministry. I was directed by a small groups pastor in the area to read this book as a follow up to the "The 7 Deadly Sins of Small Group Ministry." Having read the prior book, it really helped to clarify what tools/ideals will work within your ministry based on the idea of a church of small groups. Great theological insights on community and doing life together. Encouraging ideas on establishing a lead director, coaches and small group leaders while looking for someone to fill in the "open chair." Greatest point - small group ministry is built on PRAYER! There is no secret to success of church growth other than hard-honest work and PRAYER! Blessings

The authors, Donahue and Robinson, have placed a superb community-building resource into the hands of the reader. This is not just another book about theory on the one hand or experience on the other. It is a book that provides the groundwork for a proper understanding of the implementation and growth of a community-based philosophy of ministry. Whether or not the reader is in agreement with the Willow Creek philosophy of ministry or not this book has great value. The principles are expressed in a manner that is not context specific. In other words I can use the principles of community-building, leadership training, etc. in a variety of contexts and apply them successfully.The authors acknowledge throughout the pages of the book that "simply copying a model is ill-fated (191)." This honest approach to small groups is what seems to be lacking in a number of similar resources. Donahue and Robinson face the readers with real-life examples displaying the diversity of methods used by churches across the nation to develop leadership and conduct small groups in accordance with biblical community."Building a Church of Small Groups," is an excellent resource for any pastor or lay-leader interested in understanding small group dynamics from a balanced philosophical and practical perspective.

In the title to this review I said that it contains everything you need to start a small group ministry. By that, I don't mean to say that this book is the last word on small groups, nor do I mean to say that it has everything you will need to maintain and grow a small group ministry. However, for those churches that are contemplating beginning small groups in their churches, I can't think of a better resource. The authors cover all the bases. The section titles of the book are: Part 1 - Making the Case for CommunityPart 2 - Pursuing Community in Small GroupsPart 3 - Developing Leaders of Small GroupsPart 4 - Leading a Church of Small GroupsThese sections provide the rationale for small groups and the basic mechanics of launching and maintaining small groups. I particularly like the practical emphasis of the book. It gives you help on building relationships, resolving conflict, and shepherding small groups. Among other things, it encourages you to have "open" groups with an "empty chair" to emphasize the outreach aspect of small group life. It covers all aspects of leadership training - although it doesn't give you an exact curriculum it gives you a process for leadership training. The authors focus more on apprenticeship and what one could call "on the job training" for leadership development than classroom training. The section on "Leading a Church of Small Groups" is especially helpful. You don't just decide one day to "do small groups." Launching takes time and is best done in steps, phasing in over time. Overall, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants a good, thorough overview of what small groups can be and do in a church.