Looking for ways to get your small group started? Or perhaps your small group has grown deeper, and you would like help with going to the next level of intimacy? No matter how you are involved, this book provides much useful material for small-group leaders. And while the book is "just" a collection of ideas and activities, even examining the table of contents will give new small-group leaders the sense of a group's life cycle.

Editor Cindy Bunch breaks out small-group activities into categories that are helpful for the church: 'Community', 'Worship and Prayer', 'Study', and 'Outreach'. Recognizing the different stages of 'Community' and 'Outreach', she breaks these chapters up even further. Because the 'Community' chapter may be the most helpful for many, it is placed at the beginning of the book.

The chapter on 'Study' requires a careful reading. Particularly valuable for small-group leaders are Mike Shepherd’s "Application Questions for Bible Study" and Jim Nyquist and Jack Kuhatschek’s paragraph on discovering good Bible study discussion questions.

The appendices are as helpful in many ways as the rest of the book. They explore welcoming groups that sometimes aren’t welcomed well in the church—ethnic minorities and children—and provide a good start for serious discussion on being a welcoming small group.

This book would be helpful not only to lay leaders and pastors in the church, but also to anyone leading a small group or interested in small-group dynamics.