Earlier this year I shared in a post about the Importance of Small Groups, that connection through small groups is vitally important to our mental health.
Therefore, to coincide with the overall theme of Mental Health Awareness Week – Reconnect, I thought aspects of an article on SmallGroups.com was appropriate to repost here.
The thing is, small groups were important to Jesus and His disciples, and they should be important to you and I especially post Covid pandemic lockdowns as people start [Re]connecting socially.
In many settings the local church (Corps) needs to revisit their approach to small groups and ensure that they’re doing all they can in [Re]Connecting people to faith communities that they were once a part of pre-Covid.
Jon Noto* explores three connection methods that could work in your church:
Leaders Filling Their Groups
Jesus’ mission was not just to save the lost. His mission was to “seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10). And Jesus didn’t just tell stories about seeking lost sheep – He lived it!
While the common practice of His day was to avoid the sick and indigent, Jesus went right to them.
While most students sought out the most prominent teachers and pleaded to be their students, Jesus sought out his disciples. He found them and called them to follow him.
It can be powerful when small-group leaders actively ask God who might be their next group member and the benefits of groups filling themselves are threefold.
First, when leaders and groups take the task of finding new people seriously, it stretches them. When a leader asks God who the next member of their small group should be, they depend more on their faith and less on the church staff.
Second, your small groups have fantastic networks. Any group knows a multitude of people that might be open to an invite. When groups are tasked with filling themselves, they lean on networks to which the church does not have access.
Third, when a group leader invites people into their group personally, there’s a better chance of them sticking. When a group member invites a friend, there’s already relational equity, and there’s a higher chance of new people attending. Organic connections like this are fantastic.
There are some challenges with this method though. First, pushing a leader out of their comfort zone and into an invite-mindset requires frequent vision casting from leadership. Some group leaders will take it and run with it, but finding a leader who facilitates well and has an invite mindset is challenging.
Second, many of your leaders will need support and equipping to do this well. The more ownership and autonomy you give leaders, the more you need to train and develop them. This is not a bad thing, but it can present a challenge for churches with fewer resources earmarked for group life.
People Are Assigned to Groups
In the story of the prodigal son, the father does not seek out or go after his son. Instead, the father immediately received the son. People walk into our churches every single Sunday with needs just like the son. This approach shines in receiving people who come into the church looking to connect. It’s especially great for connecting people new to your church.
Churches who use this approach generally have a dedicated person who makes connections and makes sure they happen quickly.
A connection person can quickly connect them into a group that fits their geography, affinity, and stage of life.
The major benefit of an approach like this is control: You determine who gets new group members, how many, and when. You and your ministry team will need to determine how important this value is to you.
This leads to a second benefit. When a connection process exists, your team gets to see the development of your communities firsthand.
One of the challenges of assigning someone into a group is that it can feel mechanical. Even if you have the warmest person at church serving as your connection person, these assignments can feel a little forced. After all, you’re being sent to a group of strangers.
Additionally, this approach requires a smooth process. Connection people are warm and inviting, and they love relationship. However, they often hate paperwork. Does your church have the support to provide them so they can do what God has designed them to do? To do it well, you need a system of tracking and relationship management with both group leaders and prospective group members.
Another challenge is if a connection doesn’t work out, the person might attribute the mismatch to the church. Without fantastic follow up, this can lead to major challenges, and people may not want to try getting connected again in the future.
Combine Both Methods
As with anything in ministry there is always a middle ground. This does not mean that the middle ground is best for you. Sometimes if we try to do everything well, we end up sacrificing too much in all areas. That said, there are many ways to combine these strategies.
Some churches host connection events where leaders and prospective members can interact face-to-face. Other churches primarily depend on leaders to fill their own groups, but still allow new people to sign up online or through a form at church, then assign them to a group.
Regardless of how you integrate these models there are still benefits and drawbacks of bringing them together.
The Benefits: If your ministry is pretty new, you might not yet know if either model is “right” for you. Combining both models or running them at the same time can be a great way to see what works best for your staff, volunteers, and culture.
Combining both strategies enables you to be flexible and allows you to pivot quickly, it also means you can empower a variety of types of group leaders. For instance, if leaders love evangelism, they may enjoy filling the group with people they meet. Others who are more focused on shepherding can depend more heavily on the church assigning people into their group.
The Challenges: When you use every strategy, you can find yourself without any clear strategy. Clarity is key when we’re challenging people to step up in their faith.
When there’s two different connection strategies it can be confusing.
The combination of strategies can also put stress on our team. If you are in a context where you have a sizeable team, this is less of a burden. You can have different people who handle different things. If you have a smaller team, it may be unnecessarily burdensome.
Choosing Your Best Connection Strategy
There is no right choice for everyone, but there is a right choice for you. Any of these strategies can thrive and produce spiritual fruit – but not in every context. Each church is different and every small-group ministry exists in a series of larger cultures.
Trust God, lean into your team, and be intentional in choosing your approach to connecting people – and don’t be afraid to try something new if your current strategy isn’t working.
We’ll benefit from thinking deeply on this topic to determine which method will work best for each of us. Hopefully, this stirs up the right questions for you and your ministry team to answer together.
Blessings ’til next time 🙂
* Jon Noto, author of the article (How Should We Connect People into Small Groups) on SmallGroups.com, is a Community Life Pastor and licensed clinical counselor at Willow Creek Community Church’s North Shore campus.
Note: I have abridged the article in places
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