Planning Small Groups With Purpose

"Planning Small Groups With Purpose: A Field- Tested

Guide to Design and Grow Your Ministry"

Steve Gladen

This book might as well have been titled "Saddleback Church's Small Groups Business Model." I was eagerly awaiting this book after I requested it for review but was disappointed when it arrived and realized that it was written by Saddleback's small group director.

This book or workbook is pretty much Saddleback's model for small groups and the techniques they've been using for years that seems to have infiltrated all the mainstream churches across the country. I have not read the Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren but the author seems to mention it quite a bit and has heavily influenced this book.

While I agree that small groups need to have some organization, I do not like how this book makes small groups into business models. Instead of relying on the guidance of the Holy Spirit, they implement man's wisdom and techniques to produce growth. And manmade growth is no growth at all; this is what leads to full but empty churches and false converts. In other words, if you want to gather a crowd and want numbers (not a church, with genuine believers) then this book is for you.

As another reviewer said, we are better off with a small church that truly is saved vs a building crowded with people.

While the author seems to care about the state of the spiritual lives of the people, his reliance on manmade techniques says otherwise. The "purpose" they refer to are in growing numbers, not discipleship which is what small groups are supposed to be about.

I give this workbook 1/5 stars.

I received a copy of this book from Baker in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

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