Summary
A survey of resources about small groups at the beginning of the decade of the nineties led to a discovery: many books on small groups carried an instructional content and touched on groups as instrumental in delivery of that specific subject matter. How a leader was to function relative to a group was discussed as a matter of how to manage an instructional hour. The potential of groups for making connections and building community and serving others was largely unrecognized. What a group leader might do to pull together and maintain a group, or how a group leader might become acknowledged as part of a larger leadership strategy for service and outreach was simply unaddressed. From the insights developed in his complex and widely recommended "Prepare Your Church for the Future," best selling author Carl George here extracts the most basic, practical elements of how an individual leader can contribute to the well being of others and the overall organization. He interprets the role of a group leader in language that is easily understood and remembered: nine commitments leading to a partnership with professional church leaders. Pastors and church consultants consistently report that the people exposed to these nine keys are easy to work with. They readily grasp the reasonableness of the principles, which help them be trustworthy team players in this matter of shared ministry. From the forward, by Robert Coleman, Director of the Billy Graham Institute: "This book speaks to our need for practical leadership training. With profound simplicity, it describes how small groups grow through loving relationships as you build up one another in the faith. More importantly, you learn ways to prepare yourself for leadership in the group. The sequential steps show you how to bring others into the circle of love, and in the process, how to enlarge your outreach by multiplying disciple makers." This 2007 edition includes an updated Appendix, describing recent developments in the field of small group utilization in churches and showing how these developments increase the usefulness of this book.
About the Author
Carl George, an experienced pastor, and church growth consultant, served as long time director of the Charles E. Fuller Institute of Church Growth and Evangelism in Pasadena, California. While at the Institute, he directed the training of church consultants, pastors and staff members from over 100 denominations. His wide exposure to the challenges of congregational growth led to the invention of the metachurch system for analyzing congregations. By helping pastors visualize and overcome internal limitations to growth, many churches were able to break through the ceilings and plateaus that had hindered them. The principles he authored to guide small group ministry design and practice have been foundational in numerous influential churches. Recognized by his peers as consistently insightful and well ahead of his time, he has served as President of the American Society for Church Growth and seen several of his books translated and published in Europe, Asia and South America. He resides with his wife, Grace, in Taylors, SC.
