Housegroups: the leader's survival guide
Editors Ian Coffey and Stephen Gaukroger
Crossway Books. 190 pages. £4.99
ISBN 1 85684 148 0
This book ranges over the many issues and problems which face the housegroup leader, with useful and not excessive illustration and anecdotes.
I thought that the chapters by Stephen Motyer ('Teaching the Bible in small groups') and Dave Cave ('Communicating truth to today-people') were excellent, offering a wealth of advice and suggestions, with a consistent awareness of the problems which surface in housegroups.
Two things nagged at me as I finished this book: the last chapter (a fantasy reconstruction of all the worst possible scenarios in a house-group) threatened to make a mockery of all that the authors had been saying of the need for these groups. I also wondered whether some authors didn't overdo the 'we must be vulnerable with each other' line. That said, this book goes a long way in overthrowing a 'coffee-Bible study-prayer-go' approach to housegroups, and opens up the exciting possibilities for effective spiritual work.
Housegroups is a book that makes you think, rather than doing it all for you. It will be a useful resource for many ministers and leaders as they think through the goals and practicalities of a vital ingredient in the life of the local church.
