Small group leadership books tend to blend together after a while. Cynical, I know, but I don’t think there’s much left to be said unless someone does some serious empirical work on the topic. Bill Donahue’s book, while not novel, covers the material as well as any other, packing its pages full of charts, lists, bullet points, and practical helps.

Leading Life-Changing Small Groups is a manual geared toward lay-leaders in a large congregation who lead small groups. The book covers a wide range of topics from setting small group mission/vision/values to the nuts and bolts of leading a small group ministry.

Special attention is given to the life-span of small groups—what happens when people first get together? What tensions will they face? How will people process planting a new group or even calling it quits? Planning with this sort of perspective from the start is wise.

The book comes with a companion teaching DVD and would serve as good small group leader training in a church.

Donahue, Bill. Leading Life-Changing Small Groups. 3rd edn., Zondervan, 2012.