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| Activate: An Entirely New Approach to Small Groups | 
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (based on 7 reviews)
Sales Rank: 7495
Category: Book
Authors: Nelson Searcy, Kerrick Thomas
Publisher: Regal
Studio: Regal
Manufacturer: Regal
Label: Regal
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 192
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.6
ISBN: 0830745661
Dewey Decimal Number: 253.7
EAN: 9780830745661
ASIN: 0830745661
Publication Date: June 2, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Church leaders want to know how to make small groups work for their church communities, yet a quick look around shows that while small groups are all the rage, much of the time they create more problems than they solve. Nelson Searcy and Kerrick Thomas, founding pastors of The Journey Church in the heart of New York City, suggest that this failure is due to widely held beliefs about small groups that just aren?t true?and they aim to debunk the myths and set the record straight! Drawing from the startling success of small groups at The Journey Church (which has had over 100-percent participation in small groups for more than 4 years) Searcy and Thomas show how church leaders can implement a life-changing small-group ministry that gets the maximum number of people involved and solves many of the important (yet irritating) problems facing churches of all sizes.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
This Is a Complete System November 14, 2008
Looking for a soup-to-nuts primer on small group ministry? For most churches, Activate: An Entirely New Approach to Small Groups by Nelson Searcy and Kerrick Thomas will neatly fill that need. Unless yours is a large church (average adult attendance of more than 1,000), this will be a resource that will fill in a lot of blanks.
Covering the Journey Church methodology very thoroughly in 223 pages, Activate guides you from philosophy to implementation in a semester based approach. Is it an "entirely new approach to small groups?" No. Does that make it any less valuable? No again. Incorporating concepts from a variety of sources, the Journey approach is a neatly designed system that will work in most churches.
If you've attempted to construct a small group system the way you'd select food at a buffet, the wisdom of implementing a system will be immediately obvious. As the authors challenge in the introduction, "Read and digest this book. Grab a highlighter and work your way through the following pages. Make notes in the margin. Disagree with us, laugh at us or raise your eyebrows. We don't mind. Over the next 200 pages, we are going to show you a small group system that can consistently accomplish the goals we mention above."
I like the concrete, step-by-step approach of this book. If you're looking for a systematic approach, this is a good one.
 Solid ideas August 8, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I like the concepts in this book - semester based small group experiences, definite start and finish date, clear timelines for recruitment, leader development, content planning and promotion/sign-up months. They certainly make you think if you've only read a handful of Small-group books, and take on some assumptions that are incorrect about the how-to and why of small groups.
The only things I didn't like were the sometimes infomercial style of writing, a couple of places where they seemed to explain things that didn't need explaining but left off things that needed more expansion, and the belief that the concepts were an "entirely new approach" to small group ministry - unique would perhaps be a better word(agian infomercial wording).
All-in-all, I highly recommend this book to anyone thinking about small group ministry.
Best Book I Have Ever Read on Building Community (Small Groups) August 8, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is by far the best book I have ever read on building authentic and meaningful community in the church (and as a Pastor of 11 years - I have read a lot). After reading this book I bought four more copies for other people in my church to read.
This semester based system that Searcy and his staff has come up with makes complete sense and is something that any church no matter what the size could implement. Also what I like about this system is that it looks to take care of both the "attendees" and the leaders. Also, the focus on spiritual depth and being missional, makes the small group system very healthy.
I got the opportunity to spend a week at this church with Nelson Searcy for a Masters class and he is the real deal. If you are looking for something fresh in the area of small groups and a system that is simple and not overly complex, you need to check this book out.
Outstanding Practical Book on Small Groups Ministry July 7, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Searcy and Thomas have written an outstanding book on starting or developing a small groups program within the local church. The material presented demonstrates a depth of insight that only comes from experience - it's easy to see how Journey Church in New York City went from a handful of people to over 1100 in worship attendance and over 1200 people in almost 100 small groups in just a few years. The book is easy to read, very well organized, very practical, yet gives the important `why' behind each of the main ideas presented. (I would characterize his other book Fusion: Turning First-Time Guests into Fully-Engaged Members of Your Church in the same way.) The material is covered in several sections within two parts: the Activate Mindset, and the Activate System. The first half talks about several novel principles and shares some solid insight in sidebars and examples. The second half is really nuts-and-bolts on how to apply this approach not just as a set of disconnected ideas, but as a complete system that can be put in place. It doesn't tell the reader what needs to be covered or try to set an agenda for the groups, so there is still a lot of freedom for application and customization of the system to best match the needs of the church.
Part One: The Activate Mindset
* Rethinking Small Group Methodology
- Think Inside Out... Not Outside In
- Think Larger... Not Smaller
- Think Friendship... Not Intimacy
* Rethinking Small Group Structure
- Think Short-Term... Not Long-Term
- Think Promotion Months... Not Ongoing Sign-ups
- Think Church of small groups... Not with small groups
* Rethinking Small Group Strategy
- Think Easy... Not Hard
- Think Ahead... Not Behind
- Think Full Staff Participation... Not Staff Specialist
* Rethinking Small-Group Leadership
- Think Apprentice... Not Expert
- Think Decentralization... Not Staff Control
- Think Leader Multiplication... Not Group Multiplication
Part Two: The Activate System
* Focusing Your Groups (with 5 Focus steps)
* Forming Your Groups (with 3 Forming steps)
* Filling Your Groups (with 11 Fill factors)
* Facilitating Your Groups (with 5 Principles)
Some may be put off by the subtitle `An Entirely New Approach to Small Groups'. That type of marketing line seems to be best left for readers and reviewers to decide, but the material in the book is not as self-promotional as the title. I had previously read several books by Donahue and others stressing being a Church of Small Groups (not with). What I particularly liked about Activate was that several foundational principles were in common with these other books, while several aspects of the approach were quite different - and Searcy and Thomas discuss the reasons why. (For example, the approach to sign-ups and promotion is different in the Activate system, but with a good rationale.)
I would strongly recommend that pastors and/or those responsible for starting or growing a small groups ministry read `Activate' in addition to the excellent books from other successful practitioners in small group ministry (e.g. Bill Donahue and Andy Stanley, including Building a Church of Small Groups: A Place Where Nobody Stands Alone and Creating Community: Five Keys to Building a Small Group Culture).
This Book is AWESOME June 7, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book is awesome. The first chapter alone is worth it's weight in gold. I found myself having a continual "A-Ha" moment. It has been a complete paradigm sift for me and my staff. It's so obvious and yet almost exactly opposite of anything I had been taught before on Small Groups.
Our entire staff had been through Nelson's small group seminar and we totally revamped our small group ministry. We immediately went from dozens in small groups to Hundreds literally. The book goes into so much more detail and explanation than the seminar.
I would strongly encourage anyone who is serious about Small Groups to get this book. You will be glad you did
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