Community: Taking Your Small Group Off Life Support
By: Brad House
“Community is an instrument of worship, a weapon against sin, and a tool for evangelism— all for the exaltation of Jesus.”
I simultaneously wanted to read this book and didn’t want to read this book.
I feel perplexed by small groups. I’ve been in a few that were fruitful and many that really weren’t. I keep finding myself asking— ‘How are small groups supposed to work?’
So I wanted to read this book to get the correct recipe for the perfect small groups! Because I know that’s how the world works… Silly me.
The reason I DIDN’T want to read this book was because I am pretty good at playing devil’s advocate and I worried I was going to find all the reasons why his suggestions weren’t going to work (which in some ways did happen). I was also worried I wasn’t ready to recalibrate my entire understanding of small groups.
This was the first small-group-specific book that I have read, so it would probably be good to read at least one other one before I go making confident statements about anything. The more I think about small groups and read and chat with other people and pastors about small groups, the more I have to accept that there is not just one right way to do them. A lot depends on the context of the church’s size and location and make-up.
Even though this book didn’t provide me with an exact recipe there were principles— or ingredients, if you will— that were helpful to think about how to include in any context.
Uh… Mars Hill?
So, this book was written by Brad House referencing his home church Mars Hill— at the time it was pastored by Mark Driscoll who wrote the foreword to this book. You may or may not have heard about the controversy at Mars Hill and the problematic things Driscoll did and said. I have not personally listened to The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill but it’s out there if you feel the need to. I tried to find where Brad House stood with all that, and wasn’t able to find much in my quick research.
I think it’s probably wise to not take everything from this book wholesale— I think there was a concern with Mars Hill’s preoccupation with numbers and growth and there is an element of that in this book.
But overall, I didn’t find anything in this book that felt problematic in the ways Mars Hill was problematic.
House’s ‘why’ for small groups is very gospel-oriented, wanting groups to be about living out the gospel together, confession, repentance, good works, and production of the fruit of the Spirit. His structuring of small groups is to make sure “every member is being cared for and is caring for others” by making sure leaders are being shepherded by other leaders, etc.
He says, “Most churches tend to measure their legacies by either numbers or effectiveness. However, building a healthy church requires both objective and subjective measurements… Our goal ought to be to build the largest and deepest churches we can. I want our legacy to be one of transformation and growth.”
I don’t know exactly how this played out in the reality of Mars Hill church, but I think it’s right to focus on both growth and depth.
A good book to read if you’re curious about how a church should use numbers would be Growth and Change by Andrew Heard.
The Main Points
The book is divided into three parts.
The first is Foundation which goes through the principal principles and theology of community and why we need it. I probably liked these chapters better than the others.
The second is Health Plan and is a redefining of community, looking at how to do it, strategies, and common pitfalls.
The third is Treatment and geared more to the practical steps to get where you want to go. These felt like the least helpful chapters to me.
“The first two sections were intended to stir up within you a holy dissatisfaction with the state of community. This [third] section aims at helping you advance toward life-giving community.”
One thing that stuck out to me about effective small groups was the idea of ‘ownership.’
“While leaders of the church may be passionate and driven toward the goals set out by their mission, they often face a congregation that is passive or even apathetic. The church lacks ownership… They won’t risk comfort, time, money, or self-interest for the mission to see Jesus glorified.”
He also talks about how agreement isn’t the same as ownership. Liking something isn’t the same as believing in something.
If members of a small group are not owning the purpose of small group then it’s just going to be another obligatory two hours on Wednesday night where we don’t really do much and feel like we’re wasting our time.
I think ownership is a big problem for a lot of churches/small groups that are struggling.
These three quotes resonated with me about what would help small groups— a bigger investment in recruiting, training, and supporting leaders and making sure the vision is easy to understand and participate in.
“When it comes to community group leader recruitment and development, a popular philosophy that propagates in the small group world is that anyone with a pulse can lead a community group… finding leaders is a consistent pain point…We build turnkey programs that require little from a leader except reading questions from a sheet of paper. This is another example of how we rob people of ownership. Expect little and you will get exactly what you expected.”
“Groups led by leaders who do not own the mission are at best social gatherings and at worst stagnant pools of pop therapy and gossip.”
“To inspire ownership, you must also cast a vision that is accessible… we must learn to communicate the vision and mission in clear terms that inspire and invite the entire church into participation.”
Another thing House focused on was the missional aspect of small groups. This word carries baggage for me and I don’t really like it, but the idea is that it should be gospel-oriented and focused on the worship of and pointing to Jesus.
“In the case of church, our goal is to produce disciples of Jesus who worship Him and exalt His name. If we aim at a product such as belonging as the purpose of community, we can achieve that goal without pointing to Jesus. When retaining people becomes our goal, we inadvertently communicate that our purpose is to grow the church rather than glorify God… when fellowship, care, or belonging becomes the focus of our communities, we elevate people and their needs over the kingdom.”
I think this one is a little trickier than ownership because I think a main purpose churches have for small group is to help big churches feel small and to provide people to ways of connecting and not getting lost in the congregation. And I think that’s a good thing. But I see what he means about the dangers of a group that’s too inward focused rather than desiring to see truth and peace shared with our communities.
I liked when he said: “belonging isn’t enough. We need to belong to Jesus… We need to be accepting of sinners in need of grace without being satisfied with belonging that does not lead to belief and life transformation.”
It may be easier to construct times that are just ‘fun’, but if lives aren’t being changed, that’s when the group feels pointless and stagnant. I, personally, don’t want to have a weekly standing meeting to go shoot the breeze. I want to belong to something life-changing and life-giving, not life-taking.
He spent some time talking about how to identify leaders that I thought was helpful. He looks for calling, competence, and character. Of all three, he recommends never taking a risk on a leader who is lacking in character. To him, competency, or lack of experience, is the easiest of the three to coach. He also offered some good advice and ideas for how to run training that actually feels worth it to leaders.
Questions
Even though I can get on board with principles like ownership and gospel-orientation, this book still left me with many questions about how this actually works.
He talked a lot about a small group impacting a neighborhood, about becoming a student of your neighborhood so you can identify the needs and the rhythms and the programs you can assist or participate in, etc. But I am struggling to picture what a neighborhood is and how that can be impacted by group members who don’t live next door to each other.
His definition of neighborhood was a region of multiple ‘neighborhoods’ in the way I understand the word. That feels like such a big geographical area which often has multiple schools or school districts and feels a little overwhelming to think about impacting.
I am also wondering how people would have time to frequently go to the community committee meetings and go looking for opportunities all the time.
Did House mean that role to be for the leaders? Sometimes I read books meant for pastors and leaders and forget to interpret their call to actions accordingly.
One of his points for a small group is to not make it event-based— one night a week for two hours, etc— but to provide more touch points throughout the week. Doing life together. Sitting together at church. Having a standing reservation at a restaurant every Friday night, etc.
My first question is: do none of these people have children?
My second question is: how can this be done in a small church? My church is small and if we tried to do so much with one particular small group, it would feel like we never had time to spend with anyone else. Even though that simplifies life when it comes to who to invite to things, in a small church it would inevitably feel kinda cliquey and we would miss doing things with our other friends on our few free nights.
I also think the ‘how’ of forming groups and deciding if and when they change is a tricky thing that he didn’t really discuss much. This has been one thing that keeps coming up for me that I would be interested to learn more about how pastors decide to do this.
If I was going to take what I learned from this book and go today to revamp the small groups at my church, I’m not sure I would know where to start or feel confident that I could employ his strategies and accomplish what he says they can do. That could largely be because I’m not a pastor or a leader in my church, but it’s also probably because many of his strategies don’t necessarily seem to translate to a small church or one in my particular context.
I think pastors of large churches like Mars Hill may find this more helpful and employable, but I couldn’t say.
Other Quotes
Here are some more quotes that I found helpful or interesting to think about.
“Discipleship is about trajectory. It is taking chaos and giving it direction… providing a means by which we begin to shepherd people in the direction of maturity… Discipleship classes and the like can only be considered booster shot within a greater strategy for discipleship. This is because discipleship is a lifelong pursuit. When developing a plan for discipleship within the church, it must be perpetual and built to accommodate the whole church… scalable and effective for the majority of the population of our church.”
“Churches with little group structure and organization will generally have little to no growth”
“Entropy- systems naturally become more disorganized apart from the input of energy”
“When Jethro encouraged Moses to appoint leaders, he did so in the context of teaching them in the ways of the Lord. He wasn’t advocating for managers to keep people in line. He was advocating for shepherds who knew the Word of God and could care for the sheep.”
“When span-of-care sags, leaders feel neglected and unappreciated. The entire structure is built on relational capital. If people feel neglected, the system goes bankrupt. Growth stalls because leaders do not feel motivated or equipped to replicate. Shepherding is reduced to management because there isn’t time to develop close relationships. This leaves room for all kinds of issues to arise in marriages, finances, health, and so on.”
“the idea is that vision has a shelf life of about thirty days. If you don’t remind people of what we are doing and why we are doing it every thirty days, then they are apt to forget both.”
Recommendation
This one is tricky to know how to recommend.
I appreciate Brad House’s passion in this book and his energy and willingness to change things up in order to actually disciple people into real life transformation.
“We cannot be content with a church full of sleeping soldiers. If we fail to rise up and declare the love of Christ, who will?”
If you’re on a mission to read up on small groups, sure, this book would be great to add to your research.
I think some of the more general principles discussed like ownership and being gospel-oriented, and training your leaders, etc, are great to consider, especially if you are a pastor or small group leader.
But if you’re just a layperson like me or are looking for just one book on small groups or one book with a straightfoward replication strategy across the board, I’m not sure this is the best one to read.
However, in truth, I think my desire to find just one right way to do them most likely colored my reception of his ideas and makes it hard for me to give a recommendation on the book as a whole because it wasn’t necessarily what I was expecting or hoping for. Take my opinion with a grain of salt!
Because I, myself, have only read this one book on small groups, I can’t currently recommend to you what the better book is, but I see from other reviews that many people think there are better options. And because I am still left with many questions and frustrated feelings, I would lean towards finding a different book.
After a brief search, I would point you to one of these as another perspective on leadership and small groups, though I haven’t read them personally: Lead by Paul David Tripp, Caring for One Another by Edward T. Welch, Growing Together by Melissa Kruger, or The Compelling Community by Mark Dever.
You know, at the very least, reading this book has given me things to think about and has spurred some good conversation with others. So I suppose, if you’re in the market for that, give it a shot!
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