Simple Small Groups: A User-friendly Guide for Small Group Leaders [Paperback]

Looking for leader training ideas? Simple Small Groups: A User-Friendly Guide for Small Group Leaders, newly released by Baker Books and written by Bill Search, a veteran small group practitioner, is a great new resource designed to make effective small group ministry simple.

Rather than over-complicate the subject, Search isolates three simple and essential ingredients that every effective group must have, identifies them with a single word, and then proceeds to explain the role played by each of them. The best part? He goes on to flesh out the nuts and bolts of how it works.

There are a number of really helpful sections. My favorite aspect is that each section concludes with a diagnostic set of questions to help determine what your next step is in the development of each essential component. I can easily see this getting a lot of use!

If you're like me, you're looking for resources that are about how it can be better. Simple Small Groups: A User-Friendly Guide for Small Group Leaders is one of those.

I serve at Our Savior's Baptist as a second-chair leader with significant responsibility for guiding our small group ministry. I am thankful for Mark Howell's recommendation to read Bill Search's Simple Small Groups. I appreciate Search's micro emphasis on what happens within a small group rather than on a macro emphasis of developing an entire small group system. In fact, I would like to put a copy of Simple Small Groups in the hands of each of my small group leaders! Why? Well, because it's so simple! In broad strokes Search describes three functions of every small group: to help people connect, change, and cultivate. He very wisely describes each as be a continuum rather than a destination.

The connect continuum includes meet, commit, and belong. To move people along that continuum he suggests that we can help people get connected when they meet by conducting a good meeting, sharing leadership responsibilities, and praying for each other. Leaders can help people increase their commitment to the group by hanging out together and meeting in sub-groups. He suggests that going on a retreat or vacationing together helps people move toward belonging because it helps create common life stories.

The change continuum includes learning, growing, and transformation. Search asserts that groups foster change through honesty, applying the Scriptures, and listening. Of particular interest and insight here is his description of the importance of the relational bridge on p. 84:

My friend Mike loves to say, "You've got to build the relational bridge strong enough to hold the weight of truth." I love that metaphor! Imagine that a group is a series of relationships that create the foundation of the bridge,the piers, the cables, girders, and finally the roadway. Every time the group meets or members interact they add to the bridge. They secure a cable. They fasten a relational bolt. They pour cement. The more the bridge takes shape, the safer it becomes.

Along the first segment of the change continuum (learn) Search suggests that groups learn together, memorize scripture together, and pray together - always keeping it simple. Along the grow segment of the change continuum groups will discuss the Bible - including the context, background, and personal application. And then there's what he calls "mirror time." He defines mirror time as "..what we need are friends from our group who will hold up the mirror and simply ask, "Do you like what you see?" And we need to be willing to prop up the mirror for our friends and be willing to ask them the same question. (p.98) Getting groups to the final segment of the change continuum (transform) includes setting personal spiritual goals and confession.

True to form Search identifies three segments for the cultivate continuum, too: exploring, applying, impacting. Cultivating is establishing a missional pattern in the lives of each group member. It may include a group activity but perhaps more frequently takes the form of helping group members live missonally.

At the end of each section where he describes the three major components (connect, change, cultivate) Search includes a very insightful series of group evaluation questions to help groups plot their progress. And unless you are tempted to focus on just one of those three components he addresses the importance of balance.

There are three good reasons to pursue all three patterns:

1. If a group doesn't help each member connect, it will end quickly.

2. If a group deosn't help each member change, it will end within a year.

3. If a group doesn't help each member cultivate, it might last a long time but it will eventually become very dissatisfying.

I highly recommed Simple Small Groups! It is an essential volume for the library of any small group leader, coach, or pastor.

A short time ago I learned of Bill Search's "Simple Small Groups". Described as 'A User-Friendly Guide for Small Group Leaders' it delivers. There is no shortage of books that promote a specific model for doing small groups - this is not one of them. Instead he distills some essential elements of healthy group-life, and describes how to foster these elements no matter what model you use for your small group ministry. The author does a great job of keeping things simple - but the material here is very insightful, not shallow.

Connect. Change. Cultivate. These are the three patterns that lead to a healthy small group.

Connecting is the growing sense of relationship between members of a group.
Changing is the "spiritual and relational renovation that transforms us into the likeness of Christ." It's goes beyond the intellectual or simple behavior modification.
Cultivating is missional lifestyle. Not just service. Not just evangelism. It's both. It's an outward focus that engages hearts into action.

These three patterns are not rules. They're not prescriptive, but descriptive (a concept discussed further by Joseph Myers in Organic Community). A welcome and distinctive feature of the book is that it doesn't hold up intimacy as the only valid form of connection. People have a real need to relate in a number of spaces: public, social, personal, and intimate (The Search to Belong). Small group systems that promise intimacy seldom deliver. Instead, seek to create a safe relational space that encourages connecting without trying to force it.

There are three aspects to the book that I found particularly helpful. The first is that Search drills down into each pattern and considers the continuum in which every group falls. For each he considers three different stages, and how to take a positive step wherever the group may be. The second benefit is that each section also contains a "Nut and Bolts" chapter with a lot of stories and tips on how to put these ideas into practice. This makes the book very practical and easy to read. Each pattern also has a simple tool to help assess where your group is at. The third key to Search's approach is that it recommends a harmony between the three patterns, not balance or equality. It's ok to have groups that are not trying to do everything. One group might for a time focus 80% of its effort on developing community, and 10% on the other patterns. The focus may shift over time, according to the needs of the group and the leading of the Spirit.

Relational Pattern (Connecting Continuum) : Meet - Connect - Belong
Growth Pattern (Change Continuum): Learn - Grow - Transform
Missional Pattern (Cultivate Continuum): Exploring - Applying - Impacting

The book concludes with an appendix of Scripture references highly appropriate for each pattern. Overall I really enjoyed reading the book and it has given me a lot to think about - for myself, my small group, and coaching other small group leaders. The concepts here tie-in very nicely with key principles from other books I've been reading, such as Jim Egli's Small Groups, Big Impact, or the Up-Out-In paradigm described by Mike Breen, Scott Boren and others. The Relational Pattern is IN, the Growth Pattern is UP, the Missional Pattern is OUT. Again the key isn't to set unrealistic goals of perfection, but to be intentional about (and celebrate) small steps forward in each pattern.

Simple Small Groups is an excellent resource for small group leaders, and is a must-read for small group coaches and pastors.