Activate: An Entirely New Approach to Small Groups [Paperback]

Nelson Searcy (Author), Kerrick Thomas (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2, 2008

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.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

If you are tired of being involved in a small group ministry that does not excite, fails to get people plugged in and takes a lot of energy to sustain but shows little results, then Activate is for you.  The strategies in Activate will help you remove many of the barriers and answer the questions in the way of life-changing small groups at your church, such as:
How do I get people excited about small groups?
How do I get 100% of my church involved in small groups?
How do I raise up and train enough small group leaders?
How long should a small group last?
How big should a small group be?
What does a successful small group structure look like?                                                       
How do I get small groups involved in ministry and evangelism?
With Activate, you will discover, and learn to implement, proven, strategic principles and strategies that will make small groups at your church successful!

About the Author

NELSON SEARCY and his wife Kelley founded The Journey Church of the City in New York in 2002. In a few short years, it has become a dynamic force that brings God’s message to over a thousand 20- and 30-somethings each week. Nelson trains church planters through his own seminars as well as through Saddleback Church training events. He is the publisher of the online resource Evangelism Online and prior to starting The Journey, he was the founding director of the Purpose Driven Community at Saddleback Church. Nelson is the coauthor with Kerrick Thomas of Launch: Starting a New Church from Scratch. KERRICK THOMAS is a teaching pastor at The Journey Church and regularly co-leads training events with Nelson Searcy. Prior to his move to New York to plant The Journey, he received a Masters of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Regal (June 2, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0830745661
• ISBN-13: 978-0830745661
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,109 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #16 in Books > Christian Books & Bibles > Ministry & Church Leadership > Ministry

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Practical Book on Small Groups Ministry, July 7, 2008

By 

Laurence T. Baxter "Step Up to the Call" (Indiana USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Activate: An Entirely New Approach to Small Groups (Paperback)

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).

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great model, but not without weaknesses, January 5, 2010

By 

Cody Busby (The Dirty Midwest) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Activate: An Entirely New Approach to Small Groups (Paperback)

These guys are experts at their model, and perhaps the greatest accomplishment of this book is that they make their model accessible and reproducible. Their approach to small groups is indeed novel in places and quite refreshing. For example, their discussion on covenants is valuable. I love that they give people relationships and responsibilities to help connect them to the church. Their discussion on enlistment techniques is great; perhaps worth the price of the book on its own.

Many of the other reviews have highlighted all that is great about the book, and I find much agreement there. However, there are a few areas of concern that should be pointed out. First, this is not an entirely new approach to small groups. For those of you from baptist backgrounds you may recognize the 12 week topic driven trimesters as something similar to discipleship training classes. This is not a bad thing. I find no fault with this set up. My perception is that the "entirely new" part of all this is in the details, not the model. We're a traditional midwestern church and have been using this model for fifteen years. Should have written a book.

Second, the book does not offer transitional advice for pastors of traditional churches. This is not necessarily a weakness, but the reader will need to find other volumes to aid in the transition process.

Third, Searcy and Thomas's model is not small groups in the...dare I say it..."tradtional" sense. Here is what I mean. Journey's small groups are curriculum driven, and (to use a distinction from Joseph Myers) these groups promote social relationships. Would you like to guess what we call a group that is heavy on curriculum and keeps relationships light? The answer is Sunday School. The current draw of small group ministry is their highly relational nature, curriculum being secondary, and their propensity to lead people into personal space, even intimate space (Myers again). The authors contend that small groups are not a place for intimate relationships, and they are right, only in relation to their model! Groups with a lifespan of only twelve weeks will never lend themselves to intimacy. While the authors work hard to keep their groups closed, the reality is that the groups are "relationally" open due to their short life spans. Again, there is nothing necessarily wrong with this. However, I take issue with their assertion that intimacy in groups is practically unattainable and unrealistic simply because their model is not designed for such. They do point out that intimacy is not something that can be forced or manufactured. I agree completely, but feel we must create environments that make it more likely to occur naturally.

Fourth, the authors do not speak to the place of children in small group life. This is a much needed discussion.

On the whole, I applaud Searcy and Thomas for their great work in reaching New York. God is blessing their church. It's exciting to see how the gospel is spreading through them. It makes me think that if the gospel can flourish in NYC surely it can flourish in the Bible belt. The book is definitely worth a read, but requires careful discernment for application.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars POWERFUL!-CAN'T REMEMBER THE LAST TIME A SMALL GROUPS BOOK LIKE THIS HAS COME OUT!, May 19, 2008

By 

E. Ramirez "Christ Is King" (Brooklyn, NY United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Activate: An Entirely New Approach to Small Groups (Paperback)

This is a powerful refreshing book on small groups. I have read it twice already and have it all highlighted with many new insights into my personal small groups theology. We have built our church on small groups here in NYC, and have read about every small group book there is.Many are pretty much the same.However, What makes this one different is that (1).It is in fact a radical paradigm shift!Many books I read are 80% things I agree on already. What makes this book better is that I actually learned a lot more than what I already agreed on. The idea of losing control is in istelf worth the book. (2).Nelson and kerrick are powerful practicioners in that they can articulate a plan of action in real steps and not only give you a "YOU NEED TO DO THIS" thesis. They actually give you a plan and a "Why", and PROOF that its worked. BOTTOM LINE: This is Simply one of the best books ever on small groups. Even if you dont agree on everything in this book, I promise you you will gain a lot from it. The price of the book is peanuts compared to the wealth of insight you will recieve. Thanks again guys, pastor Eddie Ramirez, Victory Outreach- Alcance Victoria Brooklyn, NY.