Biblical Foundations for Small Group Ministry: An Integrational Approach

by Gareth Weldon Icenogle

Small groups have had a major influence on the growth of the church in recent years. They are an important place for ministry, community and discipleship. Yet all too often small group programming has taken place apart from consideration of its biblical underpinnings. Gareth Icenogle thoroughly examines both Old and New Testaments for the basis of small group ministry. He considers the texts in new ways, providing heightened understanding of their implications for ministry in the context of small groups. Then he turns to the early church to study tradition and practice. In addition, he brings an integration of theological, sociological and educational principles to the biblical text. All through the book, practical applications of these principles offer guidance for setting up and running a biblically based small group ministry program. Those who are working or who hope to work with small groups will find this one-of-a-kind book invaluable.

Genres: Discipleship, Counselling, Christian

396 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[Frank Peters · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a dull book that is filled with excellent material. The writing style reminds me of sociology books that I looked at when at university, which were filled with words that didn’t say much of anything. This book unfortunately is similar. From my perspective the book is about 4x too long based on the useful material. This also meant for me that it was hard to retain the good parts, due to the extra material. As a result, it is very hard for me to recommend the book as written even if I could hope that the key parts of the book would be propagated into the Christian community.

The fundamental thesis of the book is that the church as described in the New Testament is based on small groups, and not on a large, structured corporate organisation. The author also describes what those gatherings should look like (in too much detail). He outlines how it is important to ensure that Jesus is the focal point of each group. This means that there should never be a leader who is in control. Rather only Jesus should be in control. Instead a good leader will point to Jesus while ensuring that every other member of the group is encouraged to contribute and is loved.

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are some strong and controversial statements in this book but it has given me some incredible things to wrestle with in the context of what the small group environment can be, and perhaps should be.

[Stephen Hiemstra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is wonderfully rich and helpful. Icenogle develops a theological reflection on the NT based on the presumption that Jesus changed the world not by writing a book, but by forming a small group. In doing so he patterned small groups after the original small group—the Trinity itself. This is a book that I suspect I will use time and time again.

[Hector]

very good book on biblical foundations of the small group