Leading Small Groups with Purpose: Everything You Need to Lead a Healthy Group

by Steve Gladen

For the new small group leader, the seasoned leader who feels their small group lacks purpose, or the leader who is itching to move their small group to the next level, Leading Small Groups with Purpose is the road map to follow. Steve Gladen, author of Small Groups with Purpose and pastor of small groups at Saddleback Church for more than a decade, takes small group leaders step-by-step toward a healthy, dynamic group with focus and purpose.

Every chapter includes ideas that small group leaders can implement immediately as well as ways to shape their small groups over time. Gladen helps leaders define success clearly, develop a personal leadership plan, invite members into the group, and shepherd members through fellowship, discipleship, ministry, evangelism, and worship. He also includes a chapter devoted to addressing problems proactively and using them as opportunities for growth. Includes a foreword by John Ortberg and a free small group assessment tool ($12.50 value).

Genres: Leadership, Church

232 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2012

Reviews

[Caleb Lankford · Rating 2 out of 5]

I approached this book for help in preparing to launch a new area or my church’s small groups ministry and long story short I was incredibly disappointed.

I’m sure there are aspects of this book that are helpful for someone out there. However, for being a pastor for over 30 years this book is absolutely riddled with proof-text after proof-text and poor exegesis of scripture that very vaguely connects to the topics the author attempts to tackle. Not only so, but you can count on one hand the number of resources the author recommends that aren’t written by either him or another pastor at Saddleback church. And it’s not even close, his own material gets 3-4 recommendations per chapter (out of 17 chapters). It felt like I was watching a Saddleback promo video half of the time.

Finally, it seems that the author is a little self-obsessed and definitely Saddleback obsessed. Most of his stories and illustrations were about himself, even his “small group stories” from other group leaders almost always end with a note of praise for him. Unfortunately most stories felt written with false humility. He also seems to find great pride in being coworkers with ‘the’ Rick Warren and all of the material that Saddleback has published over the years. It’s fine to be proud of your work, but for being a pastor for so long he should know that Church doesn’t work as a ‘Saddleback-fits-all’ model.

What saved this book from being one star was a solid definition of small group success, chapters being divided into the paradigm of crawl, walk, run, and helpful advice for anticipating group conflicts in the final chapter.

[Calvin Bourgeois · Rating 5 out of 5]

After leading a Small Group for about three years, this book made me realize how much potential our group has to become more than what it has been. It is filled with many ideas for your group to come together, wether to serve the church or community or each other and structured in a way that gives ideas for younger groups and others for groups that have been together for a long time. I think everyone who leads a small group would benefit immensely from this read.

[Darlan Barbosa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dicas preciosas para todos que desejam liderar um pequeno grupo.

[Cade Adkison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great reminders and refreshers, tends to repeat itself a little, but all the repeats are great information

[Fr Scott Reilly :C · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book contains sound practical principles to create, develop and enrich small groups.

[Simon Risson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A reasonably easy book to read with great insights into local small groups. The tips are helpful throughout although found it to be repititive in some ways as author described the movements through various experiences.
Some great keys for people wanting to inject new life or begin new group ministries in the local church. Also comes with plenty of resources to look up directly from Saddleback website.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was helpful to me as I worked on a team at my church to completely rework our small group ministry. Also, Nik and I lead a small group at our house and it was personally helpful for that too (but certainly a bit overwhelming).

[Rich · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book. I can't say that I am taking much away from it but there is some good practical advise amid the acronyms.

[Scott Corwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very practical and useful for small group leaders. I especially like Steve's "crawl, walk, run" process of leading groups into deeper experiences of the disciple life in community.

[Joshua Stager · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent source book for leading a small group!

[Darlan Barbosa]

Dicas preciosas para quem deseja liderar um pequeno grupo com excelência.