Equipping Small Group Leaders to Implement an Effective Small Group Ministry at Christ Church of China

This project aims to train the first crop of small group leaders to implement an effective small group ministry at the Christ Church of China (CCC). The foundation of this training is to convey a clear vision of building authentic biblical community driven by the Lord's Great Commandment and Great Commission. The training course content stems from my life experiences as a follower and servant of Christ and my passion for the revitalization of the church whom Christ loved and for whom Christ gave His life (Eph 5:25).

In Chapter 1 I elaborate on the uniqueness of and the rationale for the project of implementing the small group leaders training course. In Chapter 2 I review the biblical, theological, historical, sociological, psychological, and ministerial foundations of small groups. After a detailed investigation of the contemporary small group movement, and the positive contributions, the pitfalls, and the challenges of small groups, I explain eight factors that make small groups effective and detail a ten session training course with a bilingual training manual. In Chapters 3 and 4 I provide a report on the implementation of the course as it was taught in the Coquitlam-CCC in July and August 2004.
Evaluation results of both the participants and the training course show that the objectives of the projected have been achieved. Due to time constraints, the outcome of the long-term effectiveness of the project cannot be assessed at this time. I will continue studying the development of the small group ministry in the CCC congregations.