Leading Small Groups With Purpose by Steve Gladen

When Jesus wanted to change the world, he did not start with a political movement, a media campaign, a powerful army, or a global network. He started with a small group.

Take your small group from a gathering of nice folks who meet to pray, study the Bible, and support one another—all worthwhile and wonderful pursuits—to a body of believers with the power to be agents of the kingdom of God.

Steve Gladen pours his twenty-plus years of shepherding and shaping small groups into this one-of-a-kind toolbox, designed to equip you and your group for the kind of dynamic growth that can turn ordinary people into water-walking disciples of the living and breathing Word of God.

Nothing has the power to change us like authentic experiences with God, and I’ve seen this kind of transformation happen time and again as people do life together in small group communities. In this book, you’ll learn how to build the kinds of small groups that challenge one another to become Christ in this world, reaching out with his hands and arms to help those who are suffering, willing to walk with his feet wherever he might call you in order to bring his gospel of hope to the lost.

As pastor of more than 3,500 Saddleback Church small groups, Steve has mastered the principles he presents in these pages. You’ll discover through his trademark honesty and see-through, guy-next-door humor that even pastors have spiritual disasters, and that often if it weren’t for our spouses, we might all have had to turn in our Christian cards long ago. It’s what we learn along the way and how we apply God’s lessons that matter.

Steve Gladen and John Ortberg, Leading Small Groups with Purpose: Everything You Need to Lead a Healthy Group (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2012).