Planning Small Groups with Purpose: A Field-Tested Guide to Design and Grow Your Ministry

by Steve M. Gladen

Publisher:

Baker

, 2018

Overview

Small groups are a great way to promote the spiritual formation of church attendees. But leading them well can be hard work, especially if you don't have a plan. Planning Small Groups with Purpose helps you develop and implement a twelve- to eighteen-month strategic plan for your ministry in order to keep it healthy and growing. You'll answer twenty questions that help you

articulate your vision

understand the purpose of your ministry

connect members

grow numerically and spiritually

measure progress

develop leaders

create opportunities to serve

and much more

By the time you're done, you will have developed your own personalized planner for the next year to eighteen months so that you can feel prepared, confident, and purposeful about your small group ministry.

Developed at Saddleback Church, this completely customizable plan works for any church size, any denomination, and any church culture.

Key Features

• Works for any church size, any denomination, and any church culture
• Helps shed light on the unknown of small groups ministry and help to plan effectively and practically
• Contains twenty planning questions, along with suggested practical answers to help to develop a strategic plan

Contents

The Foundation

• Think Churchwide
• Lead as a Team
• Lead Effectively
• Lead with a Vision and Mission

The Home

• The Kitchen: Connecting People through Small Groups
• The Family Room: Growing People in Small Groups
• The Study: Investing in God's Kingdom through Small Groups
• The Front Door: Reaching Others through Small Groups
• The Dining Room: Sustaining Long-Term Success in Small Groups

Conclusion

• Putting It All Together

Praise for Planning Small Groups with Purpose

No single person or book has had more influence on my small group philosophy than Steve Gladen. This is a book that you and your team will return to over and over!

Chris Surratt, small group and discipleship specialist, LifeWay Christian Resources; author of Small Groups for the Rest of Us

If you've ever wanted to take a peek into how Saddleback plans for their successful small group ministry, this is your chance. Gladen sprinkles strategic questions throughout to help the small group point person think and plan for their own ministries based on their church culture. A really helpful resource!

my Jackson, associate publisher of SmallGroups.com

Small group leaders and those who support them are faced with a daunting task: how to find the wisdom to deal with problems that differ from group to group and leader to leader. What they wouldn't give to be at the elbow of a man who is in continual contact with hundreds of small group pastors as they bring their challenges and dilemmas to him! With this book, Steve Gladen, held by many to be the outstanding developer of small groups, invites you to see what he sees as group systems are put together and problems are resolved. For the beginner, he lays out a step-by-step approach. For the advanced leader, he gives a floor plan that allows immediate focusing on one or another aspect of a group's issues. No small group department should be without copies of this comprehensive and practical guide. This is the tool that can be shared with every level of leader in a small group system.

Carl George, author of Nine Keys to Effective Small Group Leadership

This book provides an exceptionally useful, encouraging, and challenging combination of wisdom, visionary perspective, and lots of practical planning tools. These can help to nourish and develop small group leaders and quality programs, producing healthy, spiritually balanced, vitally focused small groups that are critically important in the life and ministry of any congregation. A much-needed planning and implementation resource for the serious leader in small group ministry.

Rev. Dr. Roberta Hestenes, teaching pastor, Bayside Church, California; former Fuller Seminary faculty member and president of Eastern University

Do not just read this book. Work it. Implement, measure, assess. Question everything. Repeat. In Planning Small Groups with Purpose, Steve Gladen outlines a process for designing a group model and strategy that are uniquely fitted to your church. If you are just looking for easy answers, this is not the book for you. If you are looking for the right questions to lead you to the most relevant answers, then gather your team, open this book, and grab a pen. Planning Small Groups with Purpose isn't just a onetime read; it is a manual that will serve you for years to come.

Heather Zempel, discipleship pastor, National Community Church; author of Community Is Messy and Amazed and Confused

Product Details

• Title: Planning Small Groups with Purpose: A Field-Tested Guide to Design and Grow Your Ministry
• Author: Steve M. Gladen
• Publisher: Baker
• Print Publication Date: 2018
• Logos Release Date: 2022
• Pages: 234
• Era: era:contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
• Subjects: Church group work › Planning; Small groups › Planning
• ISBNs: 9781493414147, 9780801077890, 0801077893, 1493414143
• Resource ID: LLS:PLANSMALGRPPRPS
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-12-16T18:04:32Z

About Steve M. Gladen

Steve Gladen has been pastor of small groups at Saddleback Church since 1998. He oversees more than 3,500 adult small groups at Saddleback and loves seeing a big church become small through true community developed in group life. He is the coauthor of 250 Big Ideas for Purpose Driven Small Groups, Building Healthy Small Groups in Your Church, and Don’t Lead Alone.