Book Review appeared in CMA Cell Net, 1998

Nine Keys to Effective Small Group Leadership

Author: Carl F. George

Mansfield, PA: Kingdom Publishing, 1997, 216 pp.

Carl George is a proven expert on church consulting and small groups. Nine Keys to Effective Small Group Leadership highlights useful principles that apply to a variety of small groups. The lay out of this book is enjoyable (lots of call-out boxes) and the book flows nicely. Take, for example, the chapter titles: 

Key One: Connect with the Leadership Network of Your Church

Key Two: Recruit a Leader-in-Training

Key Three: Invite Newcomers to Your Group

Key Four: Prepare Yourself to Lead the Meeting

Key Five: Meet Together for One-Another Ministry

Key Six: Bring Your Group to Worship

Key Seven: Serve the Group and Others Beyond

Key Eight: Win the World as Jesus Would

Key Nine: Seek God’s Renewal as You Meet Him in Secret

It’s not hard to understand the contents of this book.

Most books highlight the recommendations of four to five well-know persons.  I counted 26 recommendations for this book! And yes, lots of practical wisdom for small group leadership permeates this book. I picked out a few points that captured my attention: 

1.      “The third objective [reproduce a new set of leaders so new groups can be formed] is approached haphazardly in most churches. In reality, perhaps the most strategic thing a church’s leadership can do is to help raise up another generation of leaders” (pp. 1-2).

2.      “The birthing of new groups is not based on group division so much as on leadership multiplication” (p. 58).

3.      “When you as leader focus on birthing, it’s hard to manage because you’re dealing with the entire group. Instead, focus on the leadership nucleus, and the role of the apprentice leader in particular. Birthing then becomes one of the consequences of handling the apprentice-development process well” (p. 67).

If you’re starting out in small group ministry, this book will give you foundational principles for small group leadership, but don’t expect a model for small group ministry.  This book is supposedly directed to everybody. All small groups are embraced.

It’s this fogginess about what actually constitutes a small group that is the greatest weakness of this book. His definition of a small group is: “a face-to-face meeting that is a sub-unit of the overall fellowship” (p. 11). In another place he says that “Any gathering of less than a dozen people is a small group” (p. 24). He goes on to define a cell group as a “a home Bible study or a Sunday School Class” (p. 23). According to George this book applies to: Deacon Boards, A.A. groups, Pulpit Committee, Prison Ministry Task Group, as well as to a home cell group (pp. 11-12).

If this book applies to all of the above groups, it’s hard to understand how Chapter 6 “Invite Newcomers to Your Group” applies to a Deacon Board, a Pulpit Committee, or even a Prison Ministry Task Group! Similar questions dogged my mind as I read this book.

For those of us who were enthralled with George’s Prepare Your Church for the Future this book is bland. It’ s important to keep in mind, however, that this book is directed to a North American culture that thrives on variety and lots of choices. To write to this multitude George offers small group principles that apply broadly to number of situations. 

If that’s what you need at this time, buy the book. If you’re looking for something more radical that might guide your future cell ministry, you’ll have to wait.