Finding the Flow: A Guide for Leading Small Groups and Gatherings

Do small groups really work? If you've led or even been part of a small group, the experience can be frustrating. How do you juggle priorities and personalities? How can you tell what individuals want or need from the group? And how do you even get people to clear an hour in their schedule to show up? What's meant to bring life can become dry, stale and ineffective. Tara Miller and Jenn Peppers, experienced small-group facilitators and trainers, have observed and had the same questions and frustrations. But they've also experienced the power small groups have to help people heal, to allow individuals to wrestle with questions, to create a space where people know and are known by others, and to open people up to encounter God more deeply. So in these pages, Miller and Peppers passionately offer help and hope for your small group, so that you can encounter God in new and deeper ways together. Their honest, nonprogrammatic guide

• provides exercises and reflection questions throughout and at the end of each chapter to help you process the material and then actually work it into your group
• includes many real-life stories from the authors' wide-ranging experience with small groups
• points out common obstacles that keep leaders from being able to follow the Spirit effectively--and ways you can avoid or overcome them
• equips you with skills that will draw people toward Christ in authentic ways

As you read and reflect on the authors' practical and life-giving ideas, you'll learn to listen to God and others, guide groups through conflict, know yourself better, and create space for the Spirit to work during your group time. Developing these skills will prepare you to lead any small group, no matter what kind or setting. Finding the Flow overflows with fresh water so that you can be refreshed, encouraged and equipped to help others in small groups drink deeply of the riches of life in Christ as you encounter him together.