Why use small groups?

For those who follow my blog, you know that I work with the small group ministry at my church. We call them Home TEAMs, but the name doesn't matter much. What is important is that people's lives are being changed. People are getting involved with other people in meaningful relationships and growing in their relationships with God as they work together. If your church is growing beyond the 60-100 size, you are probably starting to see that you no longer know everyone. There are two solutions. One is to not invite any more people to your church and thus keep it small so that you can continue to have great relationships with all the members. The other option is to be excited about the growth of the church and all the people's lives that are being changed by the Lord and at the same time create environments in which people can connect on a more personal level. There isn't one perfect model. In my own church, we have multiple types of small groups. Some are ladies only, some are men only, some are couples, some meet every week, some twice a month, some once a quarter, some are related to a theme like "the band" which plays music every Sunday for our worship service, some are classes like the one we currently have going which is a Marriage Enrichment class based on the movie and curriculum from Fireproof. All of these groups have different purposes, but all meet the need of helping people connect in a smaller group setting where they can build friendships and relationships with others. There are many other options, in a traditional church, there are Sunday school classes, or the choir. These can be excellent if opportunity is given for those relationships to be built. There is no need to suddenly stop what you are doing now, but you might look and see if there are opportunities to help people build meaningful relationships in your church to help combat the busy American lifestyle that doesn't lend itself well to having close friends.

Connections!

We all know by now that people come to church not just because the preacher does an incredible job of applying God's word to our lives or because the choir sings so well the angels are jealous or because the sanctuary is wonderful and pristine in its decorations or that it is a perfect doctrinal match for them. People come join with a church often because of the connections they make there. One of the reasons the landscape is dotted with small churches is because half the people in the church are related and the other half are their friends. The connections are there! In a church that is growing, you soon run into the obstacle of people coming in, loving the service yet still not coming back after a few weeks. They didn't get connected to those around them. So what is the quick fix? Get friendlier greeters and ushers? No, your greeters and ushers are most likely friendly enough. (If they aren't then you have other issues to deal with.) There isn't a quick fix. The long hard fix is to find ways to connect people with new believers who come into your church. There isn't one perfect way to do that. Some churches have great Sunday School programs! My church doesn't even have Sunday School, but our Home TEAM's are exploding! Please don't take that to mean that we have it all figured out...we still have a long way to go! I have a friend whose wife absolutely despises small groups/home groups...but they love singing in the choir at their church and have established life long friendships with those in the choir. We as humans have to fight against our habit forming nature to reach out to the new people who come through the doors of our churches to help them connect to others. If you are a pastor, mentor your church leaders to reach out rather than standing in a circle talking to each other on Sunday Mornings. Invite people over to your house for lunch or to go out to eat with you after church. Only by getting involved in people's lives outside of Sunday mornings will we be able to effectively reach them with the gospel and then keep them in a relationship that will help them connect to God and to each other. Have an awesome day!

Big Church/Small Church

If your church has less than thirty people, you can skip this blog and come back later. Many people like a “small church” because they feel like they get to know people better. One of the complaints about mid-size and large churches is that people feel they get lost in the numbers and don’t really create relationships. So, the challenge is to create the “small church” inside the “large church”. That is where all the small groups come in. Churches who get people plugged in to what they are doing find that those people don’t leave. It is a way of closing that back door. Small groups can be many things though, not just Bible study groups. Again, I will give a few suggestions, but then let your brain spin a little and see if you can add some.
1. Traditional Small Groups/Home Groups/Cell Groups/Sunday School
2. Accountability Groups
3. Worship team or Choir
4. Drama Group
5. Motorcycle Club
6. Prayer team
7. Church Decorating team
8. Ministry teams – puppet, music, street evangelism…
9. Creativity team – Art, Setting up the Pulpit area for each series the pastor is doing.
10. Event Coordination team – Sets up 4th of July, Septemberfest, Christmas activities etc.
Hopefully this scratched the surface for you and got you thinking about ways to plug people into small groups in your church so that they can build the relationships that smaller churches take for granted.