Book Review

The Donahue/Robinson book I recently finished comes out of Willow Creek (most small group literature comes out of Willow). Willow began in the late '80's and really grew in the '90's as a seeker church--meaning it focus was almost entirely on growing and leading new folks to Christ. Small groups were a big part of that as each group was its own evangelistic engine feeding the larger church. As a particular small group invited new folks and grew, it would split and then both those groups would grow and then they would split--yielding geometric growth.



Church growth has its place. We are called to present the Gospel so that others would come to Christ; small groups can make this presentation easier. However, Willow itself recognized some years ago that their focus was so outward driven that they didn't provide enough spiritual food to folks within the church.



This touches upon my criticism of Building a Church of Small Groups. The authors seem to only recognize community in small groups. Aren't Sunday School classes [something Willow never seemed interested in] also community? They are Calvary. Aren't ministry teams also community? I can think of a few that include this as a function. Aren't choirs and ensembles and praise bands community? Certainly they can be.



There's an emphasis these days on intentional community--building community to build community. Isn't there value in unintentional community--having community built through normal occurrences, almost as a byproduct? The authors don't seem to recognize the community cookie unless it is shaped as their cookie cutter. I would argue that community can be found in many places; it's in those unlikely places and instances that we can find God's presence providing for us. I'm not advocating for an either/or approach but a both/and goal.