Small groups are a great place to connect with others, but you may wonder, is this all there is? Is sitting in a living room, talking about a book or watching a video, the extent of what we can do together? Isn’t being a Christian community about something more?
Missional Small Groups will help you see beyond the borders of your small group and into the lives of those around you so that you can make a difference. It’s filled with practical suggestions for becoming intentionally involved with your community and bringing Jesus’ message and healing to a hurting world.
Scott’s work aims to restore movement, mission, and community transformation to the heart of group life—right where it belongs!
—Bill Donahue, conference speaker, author, and leadership consultant
Wow! This one volume is the new guide for understanding missional community, being a missional community, and creating missional communities. The practical steps and phases are the genius of this book. You will walk away revisiting your paradigm of missional groups as well as the knowledge necessary to be effective in leading one.
—Rick Howerton, director of evens and training, Serendipity, LifeWay
Scott Boren is a great thinker and passionate Christ follower. In Missional Small Groups, we see those two passions align in a compelling way to serve the church. Scott has written an important book to challenge and help us bring more meaning and purpose to our small groups . . . but not for the purpose you may think. Scott knows the goal of the church is to make not simply better groups but a better world. I am confident we will see both happen as a result of Missional Small Groups.
—Bill Willits, director of group life, North Point Community Church, Alpharetta, GA
Today, amidst an abundance of small groups literature, Missional Small Groups clearly stands out. Boren provides the reader with substantive biblical and theological frameworks for understanding the ‘rhythms of small groups.’ These frameworks are insightfully used to inform the lived practices of missional small groups around communing with God, relating to one another, and engaging the world. This is a must-read for anyone interested in living out small group life within the church for the sake of the world.
—Craig Van Gelder, professor of congregational mission, Luther Seminary
Using the concepts Scott Boren presents in this book as the foundation for training and coaching leaders, I am able to cast a greater vision for small groups, groups that go about life together in a way that brings God’s kingdom here on earth. The practice lessons he includes will help groups discover and experience what missional small groups are all about.
—Ruth Kelder, ministry developer, Christian Reformed Home Missions
Scott Boren has experienced and written about small groups for the last 20 years. In Missional Small Groups, he breaks new ground by focusing on hearing the voice of God when doing small group ministry and following God’s rhythm for the group, rather than the canned model of someone else. This book will stir your creative juices to do small group ministry in a new, dynamic way.
—Joel Comiskey, president, Joel Comiskey Group
This is an important book for lead pastors and staff pastors who see their small groups as far more than a key to member retention but don’t know how to walk the small group members into a much deeper expression where missional activities happen naturally. If you enjoyed Introducing the Missional Church yet finished the book puzzled by how to become more missional, Missional Small Groups will provide the practical handles, answers, and first steps you need. I found this book to be a refreshing, energetic read.
—Randall Neighbour, president, TOUCH Outreach Ministries
M. Scott Boren is one of the pastors at Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is a trainer, consultant, and author of The Relational Way: How Do We Get There From Here? He works with Allelon in developing training materials on the missional church.
