Bill Donahue

Acts of compassion have the potential to heal wounds, restore relationships, dispel hatred and curb violence. No-one person embodied God's compassion more than Jesus of Nazareth. His heart broke for the sick, the poor, the hungry, the outcast and the weary. And his heart is moved toward us as well. In our pain and grief, our confusion and suffering, Jesus meets us with healing grace and love. Are you ready to meet the Compassionate Healer?

Leaders do well to consult their predecessors - to seek ancient wisdom - for help in guiding people into the future. Authentic leaders recognize that they need the insights and counsel of others. We have in Jesus Christ an authentic leader, one who is truthful and honest about the past, connects to the present, and points his followers to a future that builds on both. His leadership is demanding and challenging, yet grace-filled and Spirit-led. He is a leader worth following, and his leadership is worth emulating.

Who is Jesus? Is he the blonde-haired, blue-eyed saviour of bad religious art? Or is he just another 'good thing', alongside Buddha and crystals? Or is he a fiction - the product of a bunch of first-century deluded fanatics? Bill Donahue has met the real-life dynamic Jesus who even in the twenty-first century can captivate us and transform our lives. And we can encounter him too. In forty short sections, ideal for daily reading, Donahue introduces us to Jesus as provocative teacher, sacred friend, truthful revealer, extreme forgiver, authentic leader, compassionate healer, relentless lover and supreme conqueror. With guidelines for Bible reading and prayer you will find that you too experience the living, breathing, Son of God.

Assessment and solution for seven common obstacles to building small groups. It’s one thing to start a small group ministry. It’s another to keep the groups in your church healthy and headed in the same direction. Whatever your church’s approach may be—whether it is a church with groups or of groups— sooner or later, as a leader, you’ll need to do some troubleshooting. That’s when the expert, to-the-point guidance in this book will prove its worth. The beauty of this book lies in its unique diagnostic process. It allows you to assess, diagnose, and correct seven common “deadly sins” that can drain the life from your church’s small group ministry. In The Seven Deadly Sins of Small Group Ministry, what would take you years to learn through trial and error is distilled into some of the most useful information you can find. Drawing on the knowledge they’ve gleaned from working inside Willow Creek Community Church, from consulting with hundreds of churches, and from conducting conferences and seminars worldwide, small group experts Bill Donahue and Russ Robinson furnish you with proven, real-life solutions to the toughest problems in your small group ministry. This is not theory—it is hands-on material you can read and apply today.

Six Ways to Improve Your Balance as a Group Leader Leading a successful small group is like walking a tightrope. You traverse a taut, exciting line, balancing the dynamic tensions characteristic of every group. Drawing from the concept of “polarity management,” Bill Donahue and Russ Robinson help you understand and deal with six dynamic areas every group leader must manage in order to create genuine, transforming small group community. Your group is in for unprecedented connection and growth when you harness the interplay between • Truth and Life • Care and Discipleship • Friendship and Accountability • Kindness and Confrontation • Task and People • Openness and Intimacy Effective, life-giving small groups learn how to embrace both ends of each continuum. Walking the Small Group Tightrope will strengthen your sense of balance, help you gain confidence as a leader, and show you how to release the untapped creative and relational energy in your group.

Jesus is Lord of the universe, and yet he desires our companionship. He is the one who can share our suffering, understand our weaknesses and always keep our trust. God made us to desire relationship and gave us his Son to fulfill our deepest needs. Come and meet Jesus, our friend.