- Group membership ratios: What proportion of the church as a whole are we expecting to attend small groups on a regular basis? Do we think that everyone in our church ought to be in a small group if possible? If so, why?
Mathematical difficulties: Multiplication, addition and subtraction are always hard. How do we enable groups to multiply? Or is it better to start new groups than to divide existing groups? How do we enable existing groups to receive new members? What would happen if we transfer people between groups? How do we close down groups? How often is it healthy and helpful to reorganise all the groups?
Unclear pathways for joining a group: What is the process by which people join small groups? Who decides which group someone joins? Do we leave it to the leader(s) to decide who fits and who is unsuitable? Or is there is a system? How do I find out what groups are available if I am new? What kind of training do group members receive, to set expectations appropriately, and to understand the way that we do things around here (our culture)?
Identifying, training, supporting leaders of groups: How do we identify future leaders, and train new leaders for small groups? What do our ministry structures and systems require from group leaders? What are we asking God to give us, in the way of small group leaders, and what are we doing about the gap between what we ask and what he provides? What are our expectations for small group leaders? How long after becoming a Christian could someone serve as a small group leader? What character qualities are we seeking, and avoiding? How do we appoint leaders for small groups? How do we avoid favouritism? How do we retire group leaders? How do we remove them if that becomes necessary? How do we support them? How could we arrange for someone to visit the various small groups, to check on the health, and the consistency across the groups, to support leaders and identify any issues early? How do we communicate our responses to these questions, to group leaders and to group members?
Choosing content for groups: In many churches the small groups spend their time helping each other digest the implications and applications of the bible teaching they heard on Sunday. Other churches develop a pattern with a different focus for each week across a four week cycle. Other churches run separate content for groups midweek on top of the biblical series on Sundays. Who decides the content of the groups in our church? Why? How effectively does the content of the small groups reflect the purposes that we have chosen for our groups? Who decides when the groups meet, and for how long, and how the time is spent within the sessions?
An annual calendar for groups: Some churches encourage weekly meetings, others have home group meetings once a month for ten months of the year. Some churches suspend small groups and replace them with central groups for the summer. What is the vision for the ‘normal Christian life’ that feeds the annual rhythm for small groups? How and when do we share the vision that shapes the calendar?
Unsustainable expectations for pastoral care for group members: Some church members expect small group leaders to be the primary source of pastoral care for the group. Why do group members develop these expectations? What can group leaders do to establish biblical expectations for the relationships between group members, and between the group leaders and group members. How do we communicate our decisions in this area, to group leaders and group members?
A loss of purpose and identity: Most church groups, and group structures lose their sense of purpose over time. The names of the small groups sometimes reveal a lack of clarity about their purpose: a ‘home group’ clearly meets in someone’s home, but the title of the group says nothing about why the group meets, and nothing about what the group is designed to achieve; a ‘cluster meeting’ gathering different small groups together says nothing about why the groups are gathering.
Metaphorical muddles: It is surprisingly easy to lose sight of [1] what the church is in the Bible, and to lose sight of [2] what the Bible is according to the Bible, and to lose sight of [3] what sort of reading is involved in reading the Bible. A muddle in any of these areas makes it harder for our small groups to function well.
Three kinds of metaphorical muddle
- A lack of prayer:
Almost all church groups would be more valuable if they paid more attention to learning to pray, and gave more time to pray. The only recorded request from the disciples to Jesus, asking him to teach them something, is their request that he teach them to pray. His answer is the Lord’s Prayer. Teaching each other to pray is rarely a feature of our churches on Sundays or of our small groups.
Each small group could decide that their meeting will always include the Lord’s Prayer. A church could encourage all its groups to include the Lord’s Prayer in all their meetings.
Each small group could decide to ask the person in the group who has been a Christian for longest to say something about how God has taught them to pray over the years.
Or a church could record brief interviews with some of the senior saints about how they have learned to pray over the years, and what they would like to say to their younger selves. The interviews could be shared and discussed within the small groups, as part of a church wide project to teach each other to pray, led by those who are older who have been doing it for longer.