Book review "Making Small Groups Work"

I think I've had this book for about ten years, but I've only just read it now. And I'd like to recommend it to others. The author's will be familiar to some because of their series of "Boundaries" books, which are also highly recommended. This book has a different focus, but some of their skills shine through. The book is "Making Small Groups Work" by Drs Henry Cloud and John Townsend.

It's easy to read with 55 short chapters divided into six sections.

What this book will teach you is how to deal with some of the people and issues that come up in leading a small group. These can be planning issues like 'what will this group be?', 'who will this group serve best?', and 'how should this group be structured?' But more than this, you can also learn how to deal with the person who won't say anything, and the person who won't stop!

What this book won't teach you is how to teach the Bible better, now how to prepare a Bible study. As that is not the main aim of the book, that's ok. There are other resources that can help with this.

That being said, those who believe that the best thing we can do in our groups is to study the Bible and see how it applies to our lives will still learn a lot from this book. In fact, I would even suggest that reading this would greatly help your group to be a more interactive group and stop you turning it into a lecture. 

Here is one quote from the chapter on Discipleship that helps to show the direction of the book:
"Sometimes people are confused about the nature of a group: Is it recovery? growth? discipleship? Often, terms such as  recover and  healing refer to the process of addressing broken parts of a person's life, while growth and discipleship are used more in the context of moving toward maturity. . . However, in any type of healthy group, these lines become a little blurry. A group of people who want to become disciples of Christ must also deal with their hurts and injuries." (p112) I would put an emphasis on the last sentence.

More than mortality

On Sunday I received a phone call to let us know a dear friend had died. It wasn't a surprise. Roy was over 80, was suffering with dementia and had cancer. But I am still sad. 

He is Christian, and so I believe the promises of the gospel of Jesus Christ are being fulfilled for him even now. Death has no victory, the grave has no sting. I believe that. And yet I'm feeling the sting of death. The man I knew as strong and loud and determined became confused and sick and forgetful. The last time I saw him I spent an hour talking with him, but he didn't know who I was. Even though we had shared precious times together over twenty years, he didn't know who I was. That makes me sad, and I can't even begin to imagine what it is like for people when it is their own father or mother who doesn't recognise them.

I am sad that a life has ended. I am sad for the way this life ended. I am sad that I didn't get to see him before he died. I am sad.

Yet within that sadness I hold on to the promises of the gospel. Death has no victory. There may be a sting, but it will not last. Nothing, not even death, can separate us from the love of God. 

Roy, I know you can't read these words now, but I'll write them anyway. Thank you for being our friend. Thank you for caring for me and Anne and our boys when they were so little. Thank you for letting them play in your backyard. Thank you for fixing our bathroom and putting a fence on the verandah. 

We will miss you.