Creating Community: Five Keys to Building a Small Group Culture (North Point Resources) Hardcover – 31 December 2004

This is a well-done and practical resource for creating a church culture that supports growth in small groups. The principles here have helped NorthPoint grow to a church with a tremendous participation level in small groups. I read "7 Practices of an Effective Ministry" by two other NorthPoint staff, and there is some substantial overlap between the two books. This book starts with the author painting a Biblical picture of mankind's need for connectedness. It may seem like too much of what you already know if you have read other books on the topic of loneliness/community/connections, but it does effectively present the need that NorthPoint meets through their group environments. From here on, the book is extremely practical, focusing on different principles for "building a small group culture," as the subtitle says. It builds on learning done by organizations in the business world (need for clarity of the organization's goal, building an effective strategy) and refers to successes had and decisions made by the author's own church, so it is grounded in reality, i.e., what is working. It is presented in a way that doesn't say, "This is the only way to do things. Do it this way." - but in a way that allows you to take what lessons they have learned and implemented and put them in your own context. I think this is a great resource for church leaders, and if the principles were followed, as a whole we would probably be seeing a lot more success at both reaching unchurched people and developing churched people!

This is a wonderful book about creating a community, and not necessarily in church. It's so easy to just go to church and follow the motions without ever REALLY becoming connected. Creating a community inside the church is what God intended for us to do. In order to work together effectively, you need to know that you can rely on your church family and be able to trust and confide in them. It takes work; it's not something that just happens. This book leads you deeper on how to allow that to happen. My husband purchased this book when we were hosting small groups at our house and we had the best session that we'd ever had (and we hosted groups for SEVERAL sessions prior to this). People opened up and told their testimonies and it was because there are tips on how to break the ice and make it easier to open up. No one wants to open up and become vulnerable in a group of people they don't really know, but it's almost necessary. We highly recommend this book if you currently lead, are thinking about leading or are starting to put small groups together. It's not something that you will regret and it will help you grow in your faith and friendships more than you could ever imagine!https://www.amazon.com/dp/1590523962/ref=cm_cr_ryp_prd_ttl_sol_2

I love the work that Andy Stanley and Bill Willits are doing with small groups at North Point Community Church in suburban Atlanta. I purchased this book with huge expectations. Though I was slightly disappointed, there are a lot of gems to be found in this work.One initial complaint is the fact that Andy Stanley basically wrote an introduction to the book, and Bill Willits wrote the rest. I have no problem with that, as Willits is the small groups guru at their church. However, I think it's unfortunate that they felt the need to slap Stanley's name as a co-author, presumably for marketing purposes. In any case, this is Willits' book. And having heard him speak several times before, that's good enough for me. He may not have Stanley's name-recognition, but he is the small groups guy whom I respect the most.The book is basically the story of small groups at North Point, starting at the beginning and bringing us to their current organizational structure. It's a pleasant, easy read, and Willits makes no claims that this is the universal "How-to" book for small groups. He admits, thankfully, that certain things will transfer to other churches, while other choices are specific to their situation. It's an insightful caveat.Many of the ideas in this book are not new. The rationale for people's need for small groups is largely recycled material. If you want a more thorough "defense" of group life, read Donahue and Robinson's "Building a Church of Small Groups" or Frazee's "The Connecting Church."However, the next several sections were filled with accessible and applicable points, even if many can be found in other small groups resources. North Point is basically doing two things that are totally different from the mainstream of small groupdom. First, they have abandoned the meta-church model of coaches as an intermediate role between small group leaders and staff. It flies in the face of conventional small group strategy, but I love the explanation and result.The other thing that North Point does differently than most is to require closed groups (for 18 to 24 months, at which time groups are expected to multiply and welcome new folks). I am less compelled to pursue this approach, but again, Willits provides a clear explanation for why they do it.At the end of the day, this is a simple (not surprisingly, as simplicity is one of their key tenets) but helpful tool. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to get charged up about small groups and think through a few things differently than what is typically presented by most small group experts. I look forward to further work by Willits!!

I give this book 4 stars based more on what the book is not, rather than what it is. Largely because of the cover, back cover, etc., I expected this to be a very nuts-and-bolts dissection of how North Point -- and in turn, any church -- can put together, execute on, and flourish within a small group structure. I was disappointed in that regard; while there's a lot of practical information, there's never (in my opinion) a clear, front-to-back explanation of how North Point does small groups, A-to-Z. What made this book better than average, though, was the appendix set full of helpful forms and suggestions.The book is, however, a wonderful treatment of the motivation behind small groups, Scriptural support for the approach, and a wealth of information about how North Point handles their overall small group emphasis. As I said earlier, the only problem with any of this is the mismatch between the actual content and what I think most people are expecting the content to be.

Looking for a way to think about how to design your small group ministry? That might be the most helpful thing about  Creating Community: Five Keys to Building a Small Group Culture . Although it's a short book (190 pages), it contains some very important keys to building a small group culture in your church. Most important? North Point's fundamental bias is to be intentional about the what and the how of everything they do. This is a huge lesson for the rest of us...one not to be missed.Like the  Seven Practices of Effective Ministry , Creating Community takes you sequentially through the process of making some challenging decisions as you begin to develop a small group ministry. Learning to ask three questions can provide a good foundation: (1) What do we want people to become?, (2) What do we want people to do?, and (3) Where do want people to go? These questions are all about "clarifying the win" and "thinking steps not programs" (two keys to the Seven Practices).While  Creating Community  doesn't tackle how to take apart your existing program, it does a great job of providing a way of thinking about what a better approach might be. For all of us who are wrestling with systems that are less than effective, this is a good addition to the arsenal. At the same time, if you've got the tough work of taking apart a preexisting structure, you may want to consider John Kotter's  Leading Change  as a companion! Creating Community: Five Keys to Building a Small Group CultureSeven Practices of Effective MinistryCreating CommunityLeading Change