Sticky Church (Leadership Network Innovation Series)

Loved it! Some favorite quotes:
"serve our people so well that they'll want to bring their friends, without needing to be asked to do so"

The sticky church paradigm is not primarily about church growth. It's about church health. It's not about hoarding people or refusing to release them to ministry and mission. It's simply about keeping them connected to the church long enough to fulfill the second half of the Great Commission: "Teaching them to obey all things I have commanded you." ( )

In this simple introduction to the philosophy and practice of sermon-based small groups, Osborne wants to help churches "close the back door" - as churches often fail to integrate visitors and new members into the life and ministry of the church. The Sticky Church (via sermon-based small groups) attempts to bond believers to what they need most: scripture and one another. Osborne presents a compelling vision. A- ( )

Now here's an interesting scenario. I read this entire book, thinking it was written by Andy Stanley, until literally the last page. At which moment I closed the book, turned to the front cover and went "wow". What a strange phenomena, for I was really under the influence of Stanley writing as I read; going from the perspective of other things I've read of his. Very bizarre. Yes one might thinking I'm a numskull for not taking in the author before I read, but it doesn't suprise me I did such a thing. I often cannot quote the title of a book or author for that matter, details frequently escape me. As an aside I do have to say my IPOD nano has helped me immensely in remembering song titles and musicians; no excuse there.

This book was prep work for a conference I'm going to next week. Here's the main point of the book. Just because a church is getting people into the doors, doesn't mean they're good at keeping them there. But here's the main stuff which interested me, the role of small groups in retaining people. The thing that struck me most was allowing small groups within the church to stay together. In the evangelical church for the past 13 years that I've experienced, theory has been for a group to form and then keep breaking off into additional groups. The idea is to make room for more people, to not grow inward, to apprentice and allow for new leaders. In the 13 years that Chad and I have attended our current church we have been in or lead at least 8 small groups. Kid you not, I counted! Doesn't that seem a little nuts. Truth is we've been adhering to the whole break off theory, which as you can see with 8 groups under our belt averages out to a little like 15 months per group. Now that's nutty.

The book makes a big deal about saying people need the opportunity to develop ongoing, deep, intimate relationships. Yet via america's current evangelical small group theory, actually patterned after a small group practice of a Chinese church, we are in essence allowing people just enough time to begin getting close and then asking them to separate and move on. The author, Mr. Osbourne then says people and leaders of these groups have not spoken up too loudly about their discontent because they don't want to be seen as against the leadership. A sentiment of which I whole heartedly agree. Chad and I have been in this very spot.

From our early days at our current church we have bemoaned this getting close with people then having to separate and move on to another group. And reality it's been difficult to maintain the connections with those original ties. So they're always being started and broken. The author actually had the audacity and I say this in jest, to suggest it would be allright for some groups to stay together for life. Now there's a novel idea, relationships that actually thread through a lifetime. Of course there is a rightful caveat, that a welcoming spirit is given for newcomers to which I agree.

All in all a good book, saying things publicly that I'm sure the body of the evangelical church has been feeling and expressing behind closed doors for years.

Great book! Practical insights on how small groups can integrate with congregational life. It offered great concepts that clarified my thinking on Christian small groups - people "Velcroed" to the Bible and to friends (42-46), like legos people having limited space for connecting (80), the funnel of what a group can do (152). ( )

A fantastic book describing the sermon-based small group method for maintaining and encouraging church members. The author uses his experiences at his church to provide lessons he has learned in developing such groups, training leaders, and avoiding various pitfalls.

The sermon-based small group concept allows for greater interest and relevancy of the sermon in the life of the believer along with the ability for the believer to be plugged into a group of fellow believers for maximum encouragement.

The book is worth examination by anyone who is interested in closing the proverbial back door of the church. ( )