Review of "Creating Community" (a book on doing small groups as a main part of your church)

I given this book 3.5 stars out of 5. I read this book at the recommendation of our pastor for the new and small church I attend.  For the vision of the church it definitely had a lot of practical advice that I believe our church will use some of it.  I especially like that the book deals a lot with keeping it simple.  There are easy guidelines to follow. If your church is considering small groups, which I personally believe every church should consider, then this book will be a good addition to your library, especially for those in ANY form of leadership in the church.

What I didn't like about the book:
1. I found it misleading that Andy is listed as the co-author, as he only wrote the introduction. The book is written by Bill Willits (he did a good job).
2. About 11 mentions of scripture, otherwise, not a strong scripture-based book. Some Biblical principles used, but that's about it.
3. A lot of comparisons to "corporate America" and successful business men, which I'm not a fan of as I believe the church is NOT to be compared or modeled as a corporation.
4. It is not a highly spiritual book, so it didn't change my spiritual life, but it did excite me about future community, which does effect our spiritual life.
5. This book is 10 year old, it is time they put out an updated and revised edition.  I would be very interested in a new revised edition.

I would recommend getting the book. You will surely get some great nuggets of truth and some great guidelines for small groups.  It's a short book, so it is a really small investment of your time.  If you even get one thing from this book that will help your church grow into a stronger spiritual community (through small groups), it will have been well worth your time.

God Given Resolutions as you enter the New Year!

“God Given Resolutions”
"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God,
they are the sons of God" - Romans 8:14

Many people make a New Year's Resolution to loss weight, exercise more, read the Bible more, pray more, etc.  Although these are good, when next year rolls around you know what, people will once again be making resolutions to loss weight, exercise more, read the Bible more, pray more, etc.  A lot of people will be making the same resolutions they did last year this year (and likely next year). Why? Because they didn’t keep it. 

Thus, comes the question of why didn’t they keep it?

I think the answer can be found primarily in three areas. 
We either are (1) not taking our resolution seriously, (2) are having a problem with a lack of discipline, (3) it may be that your resolution wasn’t a God given resolution - one led by the Spirit.

Though I’m not against New Year resolutions, I do believe God would prefer us to live in a “God Given Resolution.” By that I mean that we should resolve to live our best for God everyday. Don’t wait for the new year (Jan. 1st) to make changes, make them as soon as God speaks to your heart! As matter of fact, some of you may need to let go of YOUR NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION and pick up on GOD'S RESOLUTION for you, it might be quite different than YOUR NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION.

Also, as the year goes on, constantly be letting God work new changes in you, then when next January 1 rolls around, you will either have no new resolutions to make or you’ll have one that just happens to fall on January 1.

Good bye New Year's Resolutions, hello to God's Resolutions!