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Small Groups for the Rest of Us: How to Design Your Small Groups System to Reach the Fringes
Most churches in America struggle to have a significant percentage of their adult attendance in small groups. According to recent research done by Lifeway Research, only “33 percent of churchgoers attend classes or groups for adults (such as Sunday school, Bible study, small groups, or Adult Bible Fellowships) four or more times in a typical month. Fourteen percent attend two or three times a month.”
Life transformation happens best within the context of community, so if a church is going to be intentional about discipleship they have to develop on-ramps to small groups that reach people on the fringes and beyond. If we continue to offer small groups to the normal church attenders, a majority of the people who show up to church are never reached.
Pastors, church staff and small group leaders are trying to figure out how to make small groups work in their church and they don’t know how. Small Groups For The Rest Of Us gives them practical, proven strategies on moving people from the fringes into biblically based communities.
Life transformation happens best within the context of community, so if a church is going to be intentional about discipleship they have to develop on-ramps to small groups that reach people on the fringes and beyond. If we continue to offer small groups to the normal church attenders, a majority of the people who show up to church are never reached.
Pastors, church staff and small group leaders are trying to figure out how to make small groups work in their church and they don’t know how. Small Groups For The Rest Of Us gives them practical, proven strategies on moving people from the fringes into biblically based communities.
167 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 29, 2015
20 people are currently reading
41 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
September 5, 2022
I did not get very much out of this. There were a couple of practical suggestions I thought were good, but not applicable to the womens' groups I'm involved with. I would like to find a book by a woman on small groups for women.
November 14, 2019
Since we don't yet have small groups in our small congregation, I thought this book would be a good read to help us get going in that direction. There are some great points and ideas that I found but most of the book is based on a large multi-site ministry with a well established system of small groups. That is far from our congregation. I will stash this on the shelf for someday when our church has taken a huge leap or when I am serving elsewhere.
October 2, 2017
Practical insights from one of today's premier group builders.
January 9, 2018
Practical and succinct! The only thing that would help me more is to have more smaller church examples for implementation.
July 10, 2021
Practical concepts on how to structure small groups to focus on community and discipleship.
November 30, 2015
Surratt's book was good for a number of reasons. Primary among them for myself was that Surratt is a pastor at a multi-site church in a very transient community (Nashville). This made his text immediately more relateable than a number of others on the subject. Surratt's wisdom comes from a long career inside the SG world at 2 of the fastest growing churches in the country which translated to a very candid confession that small groups are never an easy problem to solve that have--even for the "pros"--taken multiple failed attempts to solve.
However, Surratt falls into the trap that many other authors have before him: he tends to write about what has been true for him as true for all. This is not always a bad thing, somethings are true across the board. But more often than not, a black-and-white approach is just poor writing, let alone leadership.
His last chapter, however, is good because he "fields" questions that come up in his discussions with small group leaders and hosts as well as other churches' small group directors.
Lastly, if you are looking for the book to read with regards to small group, this is not the place to start. The best place to start is with Joseph Myers, whom Surratt (and many others) are constantly referring to. Myers' work on the 4 spaces of our lives has become the groundwork for all the most recent small group systems. I believe it best to read him, gather insights from men like Surratt, and then develop a system that accomplishes what you need.
However, Surratt falls into the trap that many other authors have before him: he tends to write about what has been true for him as true for all. This is not always a bad thing, somethings are true across the board. But more often than not, a black-and-white approach is just poor writing, let alone leadership.
His last chapter, however, is good because he "fields" questions that come up in his discussions with small group leaders and hosts as well as other churches' small group directors.
Lastly, if you are looking for the book to read with regards to small group, this is not the place to start. The best place to start is with Joseph Myers, whom Surratt (and many others) are constantly referring to. Myers' work on the 4 spaces of our lives has become the groundwork for all the most recent small group systems. I believe it best to read him, gather insights from men like Surratt, and then develop a system that accomplishes what you need.
May 20, 2016
https://joemcfadden.org/2016/04/09/sm...
Today I completed another book on my reading list! As a groups pastor I always add in several books on researching ideas, strategies, suggestions on ways to continue to tweak small group systems. Over the years I have learned a lot from others in this area and continue to add modifications in where I can. There is no system that works completely all the time and the best small groups system in any church is custom-designed for it to meet the needs of why the system exists there.
In “Small Groups for the Rest of Us“, Chris Surratt does a good job taking this approach of someone who has also tweaked a system to fit the needs of the church it was in. I like that the book isn’t proposing just a new system but more or less some best practices per se that can be implemented and spliced into an existing system. Surratt does well in being honest about places where they struggled along the way and even where they may not have things completely figured out yet.
Today I completed another book on my reading list! As a groups pastor I always add in several books on researching ideas, strategies, suggestions on ways to continue to tweak small group systems. Over the years I have learned a lot from others in this area and continue to add modifications in where I can. There is no system that works completely all the time and the best small groups system in any church is custom-designed for it to meet the needs of why the system exists there.
In “Small Groups for the Rest of Us“, Chris Surratt does a good job taking this approach of someone who has also tweaked a system to fit the needs of the church it was in. I like that the book isn’t proposing just a new system but more or less some best practices per se that can be implemented and spliced into an existing system. Surratt does well in being honest about places where they struggled along the way and even where they may not have things completely figured out yet.
December 8, 2015
This was a great read to help me consider how to change up small groups. It answered some practical questions about doing small groups and was a place of encouragement to hear of other churches dealing with the same issues in their small groups. Definitely a great resource.
December 21, 2015
Lots of good current nuggets of thought in a loose collection. It's personal experience based so your mileage may vary -- particularly in Small Churches.
September 17, 2020
Very dry and elementary.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews