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Book Review

Randy Frazee, The Connecting Church (Zondervan Publishing House: Grand Rapids , MI , 2001), pp. 253.  

Reviewer: Joel Comiskey

The Connecting Church by Randy Frazee was well-written, refreshing, and gut-level challenging. One of his major themes, however, needs to be scrutinized (more later).

This is truly a ground-breaking book. Frazee, the senior pastor of a successful church in Texas , has grown to sixty-three life-giving small groups (at the time of printing in 2001). One thing I loved about this book was the author’s personal involvement in starting several neighborhood small groups that won many people to Jesus Christ. Frazee’s definition of a cell group is clear, concise, and balanced. It’s my understanding that all of his groups meet weekly and outside the church building. He uses the acronym SERVICE to describe the small groups in his church:  

S= spiritual formation. Personal goals of growth in Christ for each member of the group

E=evangelism. Pray for at least three households within their neighborhoods

R= reproduction. Each group is open to welcoming new people. There should be at least one leader in

training. Seek to reproduce another group once per year

V=volunteerism. Seek to promote the local church. Gather quarterly for a special service

I=International missions. Support one international mission’s project

C=care. Commitment to one another

E=extending compassion. Commitment to four on-site compassion projects per year

 I think the way he describes and defines a small group is a model for others to follow.    

Need for Community  

Like a heat seeking missile, Frazee hones in on the disease of American culture: lack of community due to isolationism and individuality.  He elegantly describes how the North American propensity toward eternal busyness mixed with rugged individualism has kept us from getting to know our neighbors.  

He even slices through the argument that small groups are the answer to community. He believes that many small groups fail to cure the isolationism disease because small group members have too many “outside” commitments and don’t naturally spend time together. He relates his own church’s previous journey into small groups that didn’t fulfill the community void.  I felt that Frazee’s superb critique of North American culture is worth the price of the book.  

Frazee’s Unique Argument that Community Comes through Neighborhood Small Groups

 Frazee’s main conviction throughout the book is that THE WAY to restore a true sense of community in North America is to retake our physical neighborhoods through geographically based small groups. He feels that ONLY geographically related home groups will fill the void of our isolated, individualistic culture.  Neighborhood small groups, according to Frazee, are the only types of groups that allow spontaneity, availability, and frequency of contact. Since you live in the same neighborhood, it’s natural to visit neighbors, eat meals with them, etc. He says that in all places where effective community takes place, the people live in close proximity to each other (132). Here are the principles to make neighborhood community happen:  ·

Once again, Frazee’s book inspired and convicted me of the need to get to know my neighbors, and I’ve been trying harder to do so ever since reading this book. But should we exclusively follow this philosophy?

Critique of the main argument 

Frazee’s main point is that only neighborhood groups restore true community. The exclusivity of his argument, in my opinion, is weak.

First, he seems to generalize examples to prove his point. In trying to justify why physical proximity is essential for true community, he uses examples of  an Israeli kibbutz, a military base, and a neighborhood gang. He then generalizes those examples to suggest that neighborhood small groups are the only ones that breed true community.

Second, he doesn’t provide solid examples of small group churches who have used this approach and experienced true community as a result. He admits, in fact, that his own church has only recently begun this journey, and that it’s too early to tell what the results will be.

Third, he seems to overlook the extensive research on oikos evangelism (developed primarily by Ralph Neighbour ) that promotes reaching close friends, relatives, and work associates regardless of where they live. In my own small group, for example, the non-Christians we’ve attracted have been invited by  core members who invited unsaved work associates and family members. Evangelizing close friends and relatives is at the core of oikos evangelism.

Fourth, it seems that the over-arching theme of this book is how to build community through small groups (this seems to be emphasized far more than multiplication and evangelism).  I’ve seen community spoil so many times that I’m leery of small groups that make this their primary emphasis.    Can We Do Both?  

I’m IN NO WAY saying that we shouldn’t invite neighbors or diligently reach  our neighbors. I AM SAYING that we shouldn’t limit ourselves to that source of evangelism. Many successful cell churches around the world have chosen to organize their small group ministry geographically. This form of organization is not new in the cell church world. Yet there are some pitfalls for organizing small group geographically  

Pitfalls of Organizing Geographically  

If geography defines who can attend a small group, there are not as many options for multiplying those same small groups. If the small group has to multiply in a specific geographically defined area, you have to raise up leaders and new members who live in that particular area (you can’t multiply outside geographical limitations) which limits who will lead the group and who will attend the new group. ·

I’ve already covered this limitation above. In Frazee’s strict geographical organization, a small group member would not be allowed to invite an usaved work associate, family member, or anyone else that lived outside of the neighborhood group (defined by blocks, zones, or districts). This seems very limiting.

Frazee seems to imply that it’s okay to invite Christians from other churches in the neighborhood to form part of the small group nucleus. If the core is made up of neighbors from other churches, however, it would be very difficult to plan a multiplication strategy. Cell churches rightfully require that new leaders pass through the church training track, submit to local church coaching, and become members of the local church. A person from another church could not do this..  Granted, Frazee became senior pastor of his church when it was already quite large (although it’s grown rapidly under his leadership), so perhaps the church could more easily organize existing members into neighborhood groups. This would not be the case, however, in most smaller churches or church plants.  

Does Physical Proximity Breed Community?  

I’m not convinced that physical proximity breeds community. I’ve been a missionary in Latin America since 1990 and returned in 2001 to be a missionary to North America. The people skills and sense of community among Ecuadorians far outweighs those of North Americans, in my opinion. While living in Ecuador these many years, however, I didn’t notice any special neighborhood involvement. Why? Because the close community of Ecuadorians is based on maintaining close family ties rather than neighborhood involvement. Thus my question: “Is our lack of community in North America primarily attributed to our lack of neighborhood involvement or is it more related to the family breakdown?”  I would tend to think that the latter plays a larger role in the overall problem.

SUMMARY  

Frazee’s book is worthy of our earnest attention. He skillfully pinpoints important reasons for the dearth of community, provides a first class definition of a cell group, and stirs the readers to make every effort to reach neighborhoods for Jesus.  I would simply disagree with his conclusions: true community only happens in geographically defined small groups (neighborhood home groups). While being stirred anew to reach our neighbors, let us not limit ourselves to geographically defined small groups. While the geographical model is a good one, it’s not by any means the only one. Instead of exclusively saying that neighborhood cell groups are THE way to go, I think it’s far wiser to take a BOTH/AND approach.  

 

*Comiskey's book Cell Church Solutions (2005) goes into detail about how to make cells work in the North American context.

 

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