In Review: The Small Group Leader's Toolkit by Dave Earley


You know how good turkey, dressing, and pumpkin pie smells when you first walk into your mom's house on turkey day? Makes you feel good inside, doesn't it? I get that same warm feeling when I tear off the pallet wrap from a skid of a first-run book and breathe in the smell of fresh ink on paper. 

The smell of printer's ink represents the completion of a long, hard process: working with the author to shape the content for our ministry's audience; making countless editorial comments, recommendations, and changes; doing that all-important line edit (ensuring each paragraph flows from one to the next and that chapters are in the right order and such); proofing to find boo-boos such as poorly hyphenated words, misspelled words, clarify puzzling statements, and overall look and fit of the words on the printed page); and finally, creating a PDF that a printer can actually use for high resolution artwork (a lot harder than you might think).

Then comes the long wait. Weeks go by and one almost forgets the project is still in process. There are other authors to speak with and other books to edit and a January catalog to plan for and well, you know how it goes!

Late last week, we received our first printing of The Small Group Leader's Toolkit by Dave Earley. Because we only publish books we feel will truly help one's small group ministry move forward (vs. the many publishers who print anything that will make them another buck) we are always proud of each and every book as if it were our firstborn child. This book is no different.

The content is absolutely transformational, especially when the reader takes the time to work through the short worksheets at the end of each chapter. I was fortunate enough to read through the final manuscript no less than five times, and each round gave me new insight into what was missing from my leadership "toolkit." Dave Earley is an excellent communicator.

If you haven't ordered your copy of this book, click here and at the very least, download the sample and read through it. Then, buy a copy and review it for possible distribution to your small group leaders as a Christmas gift this year. It's easily the gift that gives back so much.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Randall... Dude, I wish I had known about your blog a long time ago. Please keep your friends in the loop. Appreciate all of the posts I've read thus far. Will be subscribing to your blog. Rick Howerton, Serendipity Guy

Randall Neighbour said...

Actually, Rick, I told you about my blog months ago. You were listening intently, weren't you? :)

Enjoy the fabric-free discussion about small group ministry right here at the Naked Truth!