Trekking Toward Wholeness

A Resource for Care Group Leaders

Book Details

Discerning Reader Editorial Review

Reviewed 09/01/2009 by Bob Kellemen.

Recommended. Professors, students, pastors, and committed lay small group leaders will all be equipped for the group journey by the seasoned guidance in this book.

Too often church-based small groups have taken on so much of the world’s self-orientation that it is hard to recognize what is distinctively Christian about them. Dr. Stephen Greggo, with the release of Trekking toward Wholeness, puts an abrupt stop to this intrusion of secular thinking into Christian group life. Writing with a theological foundation and a biblically relevant relational focus, Greggo, as the book’s subtitle suggests, provides a don’t-miss resource for care group leaders.

Using the biblical imagery of the spiritual life as a journey (a trek), Greggo guides small group leaders through the four core hallmarks of group spiritual direction:

*Vsion: Determining the groups purpose

*Caring: Meeting needs by managing community

*Affect/attachment: Nurturing intimacy in relationships

*Finding meaning: Union with God, fellowship with Christians, and service to the world

At each landmark on the journey, Greggo equips group leaders through biblical exegesis, historical narratives, relevant research, moving parables, group “visits,” and practical principles.

Trekking toward Wholeness sees Christian small groups as an essential component for stimulating spiritual growth, which Greggo defines as "wholeness." In his able, biblical hands, wholeness becomes not a self-orientation, but a God/other focus. Readers learn how to ignite relationships through "the Word in community"—as equipped small group leaders model and direct the entire group to speak the truth in love.

These leader-guided spiritual formation groups, as Greggo aptly explains, follow not only the biblical principle of true fellowship, but also the long church history tradition of small communities meeting together for spiritual growth through transparent relationships. Professors, students, pastors, and committed lay leaders will all be stretched by the seasoned guidance of Dr. Greggo. As a professor who teaches a seminary class in small groups, I know that Trekking toward Wholeness will be a required text for all my students.